When he released Illmatic in 1994, Nas was immediately hailed as one of the great rappers in the 1990s. This praise led to high expectations, and Nas was never able to match Illmatic as he struggled for the next 7 years to identify himself.
After releasing his second album, It Was Written, in 1996, Nas trailed off for a few years, dropping a group album as "The Firm," with Nature, AZ, Foxy Brown and others. He also changed his nicknames from Nasty Nas, to Nas Escobar, to Nastradamus, before settling on Nas.
After I Am and Nastradamus were panned, and with Jay Z launching an all out assualt on Takeover in 2001 off of Jay's Blueprint CD, many, including Jay, thought Nas was finished.
Instead, Takeover seemed to snap Nas out of his years' long funk, and near the end of 2001, Nas retaliated with "Ether" off the album Stillmatic, which may be the best rap CD released in the last 2 years.
While many rap fans focused on "Ether" and the beef, the rest of Stillmatic is what made this CD a classic.
"One Mic" is one of the great rap songs of all time, and Nas also got creative on tracks like Rewind and Poison, while reestablishing himself as one of rap's great narrators with tracks like "2nd Childhood" and "The Flyest." Nas also provides social commentary with "Rule" and "My Country" while beefing with rappers Prodigy (of Mobb Deep), Nature, Cormega and Jay Z on "Destroy And Rebuild" (and in Jay's case, Ether).
The album received a 5 mic review in the Source, and was followed by The Lost Tapes and God's Son, both great albums in their own right.