The album was released on December 22, 1998, by Def Jam Recordings and Ruff Ryders Entertainment, only seven months after his debut album, It's Dark and Hell Is Hot.

[8] In January 1999, the album was ousted from the top spot by Britney Spears' debut, ...Baby One More Time.

[10] DMX became the second artist to have two albums released in the same calendar year debut at number one on the Billboard 200.

The latter album to have done so was released posthumously by Tupac Shakur under the alias Makaveli (his first was All Eyez on Me, while the second was The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory).

[11] Credits adapted from the album's liner notes.