Had this on a burned CD with "The Second Coming" in 2000/2001
It's probably in my top 5 Nas tracks, and it's my favorite era of Nas, as a song, and the actual time frame. Blending current raps with childhood memories, with echoes of his current life, and reflection on what those choices led him to, as well as those who weren't as lucky.
The whole sequence about catching the train downtown, that whole first verse, "for me to get dough, it's outta coke, weed, and blow, cuz high school was slow, and jewelry was hot", I really lived that as much as one can, not being from NYC.