Nas has joined the rest of the rap world in celebrating the 20th anniversary of his sixth studio album God’s Son.
The Queensbridge MC commemorated the milestone on Tuesday (December 13) by sharing the album’s iconic cover art along with a message that simply read: “20! Still Making em’ Look,” a nod to the gritty lead single.
AD LOADING...
Nas’ longtime collaborator DJ Premier echoed this sentiment in the comments section, writing, “Indeed so,” while Busta Rhymes, Hit-Boy and Salaam Remi, who produced several songs on the album, also showed their support.
Jonathan Mannion, the veteran photographer who shot the album cover, also celebrated the milestone in an Instagram tribute of his own.
AD LOADING...
“NOW LET’S GET IT ALL IN PERSPECTIVE. 20 YEARS today, @nas delivered this masterful project, #GodsSon,” Mannion wrote. “I am honored to say that I was chosen to bring these visuals to life with this moment pictured standing as the exclamation point to our 2 day session in Miami.”
He continued: “Congrats to everyone celebrating NAS today, it’s a huge win for Hip Hop, and especially to contributors @salaamremi, @cfeldz, @officiallipgame and the whole team who supported his vision so beautifully. There are many powerful memories from this session that I look forward to one day sharing with the world.”
Released on December 13, 2002, God’s Son was partially inspired by Nas’ bitter feud with JAY-Z at the time and is considered one of his most personal works. The album debuted at No. 18 on the Billboard 200, selling 156,000 copies its first week, and has since been certified platinum.
Nas is still fresh off the release of his latest album, King’s Disease 3 with Hit-Boy, which debuted at No. 10 on the Billboard 200 after earning roughly 29,000 album-equivalent units in its first week.
AD LOADING...
It marked Esco’s 16th top 10 effort on the chart, equalling JAY-Z’s record. Nas first debuted in the top 10 in 1996 with his second album It Was Written, while Hov secured his first top 10 in 1997 with his own sophomore LP In My Lifetime, Vol. 1.
Nas and JAY-Z have come a long way from trading diss tracks like “Supa Ugly,” “Takeover,” “Ether” and “Last Real N-gga Alive” in the early ’00s. While they’ve long since reconciled, the Queens native recently told The Daily Show’s Trevor Noah that he believes Hov still takes a few casual shots at him whenever he can.
“When I released the tracklist for the [King’s Disease 3] album the other day, he released a picture with all his Grammys,” Nas said during the November interview. “Shout out to him.”
The pair most recently collaborated on DJ Khaled’s “Sorry Not Sorry” in 2021, which forced Nas to rewrite some bars.
AD LOADING...
“Alright, I’m just here tweaking lines and shit,” he told Hov over the phone. “I’m in here, curating, rewriting four bars here and there … Oh, no no no. I gotta come back! [Laughs] Yo bro, this is one. The queen at the end, the harmonies, that gave me chills … this is definitely one for the books.”
Revisit God’s Son below:
