Felt like an ending and a new beginning.
When he said "they thought I'd make another illmatic, but it's always forward I'm moving, never backwards stupid here's another classic", I was like damn, he pretty much shut down all the people who for years been asking for illmatic part 2, explained that this album, even though it's titled "stillmatic" is not gonna sound like illmatic, and then bragged that this is another classic before we have even heard it. When I heard that my mind instantly got ready for something different. And the very next bar he begins the narrative. This shyt was a whole different echelon