My destiny found me
It was clear why the struggle was so painful
Metamorphosis, this is what I changed to
And God, I'm so thankful

I think what I like about Nas is how dynamic his character has been throughout his career. His legendary debut album Illmatic received incredibly positive reviews for good reason. As a 21 year old his songs centered around what he observed in hometown Queensbridge, New York, and no one in the rap industry could portray life with such complex lyricism like he could. With obvious talent he rose to stardom pretty quickly, but his next two albums were received with mixed results. Everyone demanded another Illmatic, but always moving forward he continued to release music in his own direction. His fourth album Nastradamus was a complete tank and everyone HATED it. Critics cried out that he completely sold out and that his career was over. Jay-Z took the opportunity and shot down Nas in the song "Takeover" and declared himself the king of New York. With his future looking bleak, he released my personal favorite album Stillmatic. Don't get confused by the title though because this album is nothing like Illmatic. But instead of describing this album to you, I'll let the author do it himself. Like a true lyricist, he explains his album in one song better than I can in this entire post.

His evolution from street observer to over saturated superstar to his own personal enlightenment resulted in what I see in him now, a man with purpose. For that alone I have mucho respect for him.

Nas - One Mic