While his 1996 sophomore effort It Was Written was well-received by critics, many considered his follow up releases I Am and Nastradamus-both released in 1999-to be ultimately lackluster relative to their precursors. Aside from the beef, Nas was also being heavily criticized for his work following his debut. It was Nas' fifth studio album and a nod to his classic 1994 debut Illmatic. Stillmatic the album was released on December 18, 2001. Thus, when it was time to release his album, Nas had a laundry list of things that needed to be addressed. It also became Hov's fourth consecutive album to reach number one on the Billboard 200 chart and its soulful production launched the careers of then-budding producers Just Blaze and Kanye West.

The album put up great numbers, selling 420,000 copies in its first week. The latter emcee was fresh off the release of his critically-acclaimed The Blueprint album, which was released on the very same date as the aforementioned attacks on the U.S. At this very same time, a brewing battle in the hip-hop world exploded after Queensbridge rapper Nasir “Nas” Jones released the scathing diss 'Ether,' aimed at Brooklyn's own Jay Z. In December 2001, America was at war with Afghanistan following the September 11th Terrorist attacks. But before the social media era, emcees had to pull out all the stops while engaged in battle, as their careers were often on the line. In modern times, hip-hop feuds are here today and gone tomorrow, much like everything else in this disposable world that we live in.

What's rap beef in 2016? Usually, it's nothing but memes, social media insults and maybe a diss track-if we're lucky. Happy 15th Anniversary to Nas’ fifth studio album Stillmatic, originally released December 18, 2001.

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