December 5, 2002 — Multi-platinum-selling rapper Nas has decided to move the release date of God's Son, his seventh album on Columbia Records, up to Friday, December 13, four days earlier than the original release date of Tuesday, December 17.

Internet piracy of the album's tracks has already begun and "burned" CD counterfeit copies of the record have already hit the streets. As a result, Nas has decided to break the music industry's standard Tuesday release practice and get God's Son into stores as soon as possible.

"God's Son is my most personal album and I poured my heart and spirit into it," said Nas. "It's important to me that the fans hear my album the way I intended. When you buy a bootleg or pirate a download off the net, you don't get the real thing. The sound sucks, the sequencing is wrong, you're probably missing some tracks, and you don't even get the artwork and CD bonuses."

God's Son -- Nas' first full-length album of new material since the December 2001 release of the platinum-selling Stillmatic -- features production from Eminem, Alicia Keys, Salaam Remi, and Alchemist.