By the age of 19 he was signed to Columbia Records, thanks to his cousin Q-Tip. He released his first album Illmatic in 1994, which became an instant classic. After that, he started getting into trouble with the law for reckless driving and assault in 1996, leading to the cancellation of his album It Was Written.
To make matters worse, Nas was also in debt in 1998 after paying the producers on It Was Written not to release it until he paid off their debt (he ended up using most of the money for his debt). To make matters worse again, The Lost Tapes came out in 2000 and received lukewarm reviews from critics and fans alike. Nas lost his label Columbia Records after being sued by them over unpaid royalties for Illmatic.
In 2001 he filed a lawsuit against Jay-Z and Damon Dash for $20 million over unpaid royalties from Illmatic, but lost the case. In 2002 he released God's Son a critically-panned hip-hop album that still managed to sell a respectable 250,000 copies despite being released on Def Jam Recordings that is owned by EMI Music Publishing Group. In 2003 he started working with producer Lenny Santiago on a new album called Street's Disciple, which never saw the light of day due to Santiago's conviction for drug trafficking.
In December 2005 Nas signed a deal with Def Jam Recordings' new parent company Universal Records and began recording new material at a studio in California while still performing live on stage at public appearances. The first song from this upcoming album was leaked onto the internet in 2006. That same year Nas bought a home in a gated community called Paradise Park in Beverly Hills, which raised some eyebrows among locals because it is located right next to an elementary school on Beverly Glen Boulevard that has been known as "Nas' neighborhood" due to him owning several homes around it (one of them is featured on MTV Cribs).
In 2007 Nas announced that he would be retiring from music after releasing his next album Untitled LP - Part 1: DiCapio Part 2: Farenheit 9/11 - Part 2: Heroin - Part 3: Terrence Malick . He also released