I remember that I AM was hot when i first copped it and after listening to it last night after readint this thread i can still say it was hot. It may not be a classic but its a very good album with a few filler tracks. And i wouldnt really call them filler more like experimental tracks that Nas tried.
Nas "I Am..." Is underrated
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the artist known az
Hail the victors
This was a solid album, I didn't know people hated this album.
MouseTeeth
All Star
Can someone fill me in on what songs were on the bootleg that were left off the album?
Ollie Boombayay
Rookie
I swear up until Jay-z dropped takeover no one regarded this as one of Nas' weaker albums. There's a lot of revisionist history going on here. As someone mentioned earlier this album was regarded as Nas' resurgence after the Firm album flopped and yes even after It Was Written which was much more heavily criticized on its initial release than I AM was. Nas was undoubtedly one of the top 5 biggest rappers at that time with the critical and commericial success of this album.
Its still one of his top 3 albums he's ever made to me.
Its still one of his top 3 albums he's ever made to me.
Jimmy ValenTime
A really good Lawyer
I recently bought the cd for Five dollars at B&N
I was surprised it didn't have pray and nature shines
I was surprised it didn't have pray and nature shines
TheProfessor
Pro
Album is overrated. Extremely uneven. And that Scarface song sounds rushed and throwaway. Waste of what could have been a great collabo.
I Am is underrated because the expectations were set too high, and there was no way Nas could live up to them (on the other hand, Stillmatic is a bit overrated because most people had buried Nas and weren't really expecting much)
Why were the expectations and anticipation so high?
1. It was Nas's first new album in almost three years
2. It was supposed to be a double album
3. It was his first album since going from Nasty Nas to Nas Escobar, and everyone wanted to see if he'd bring back his "Nasty Nas" style. After the backlash against It Was Written (and The Firm), people expected Nas to realize his missteps and take it back to the style purists loved.
4. "Nas Is Like" was incredible, and basically the perfect lead-in single for people expecting another Illmatic. It was so good, it really made people believe he was taking it back to Illmatic. (When the album arrived and nothing else came close to "Nas Is Like", it was anticlimactic)
5. The emergence of Jay-Z (and, to some extent, DMX) as huge stars made people eager to see if Nas could take back the spotlight
I can say personally that I probably never anticipated an album as much as I Am. When I first heard "Nas Is Like" on a January night while listening to 92.3 The Beat, it made me anticipate it THAT MUCH MORE.
Why were the expectations and anticipation so high?
1. It was Nas's first new album in almost three years
2. It was supposed to be a double album
3. It was his first album since going from Nasty Nas to Nas Escobar, and everyone wanted to see if he'd bring back his "Nasty Nas" style. After the backlash against It Was Written (and The Firm), people expected Nas to realize his missteps and take it back to the style purists loved.
4. "Nas Is Like" was incredible, and basically the perfect lead-in single for people expecting another Illmatic. It was so good, it really made people believe he was taking it back to Illmatic. (When the album arrived and nothing else came close to "Nas Is Like", it was anticlimactic)
5. The emergence of Jay-Z (and, to some extent, DMX) as huge stars made people eager to see if Nas could take back the spotlight
I can say personally that I probably never anticipated an album as much as I Am. When I first heard "Nas Is Like" on a January night while listening to 92.3 The Beat, it made me anticipate it THAT MUCH MORE.
For people who don't know, a few months before the release date, a bootleg of I Am started floating around. It featured 14 tracks. If I can remember correctly, they were:
1. Fetus
2. Poppa Was a Player
3. Dr. Knockboot
4. Small World
5. We Will Surivive
6. Money is My B----
7. Day Dreamin' Stay Schemin'
8. Sometimes I Wonder
9. Find Ya Wealth
10. Wanna Play
11. Drunk By Myself
12. Blaze a 50
13. Project Windows (it had a different, better beat than the version later included on Nastradamus)
14. The Hardest Thing to do is Stay Alive
Four of these songs were released on I Am, the remixed version of "Project Windows" appeared on Nastradamus, "Find Ya Wealth" appeared on the QB's Finest compilation, and a few others appeared on The Lost Tapes.
There were some other unreleased songs floating around at the time that weren't on the 14-song bootleg and didn't appear on I Am either. "You Gotta Love It" and "Amongst Kings" come to mind.
Everyone knew that the bootleg was not the final album, since other tracks (such as "Nas Is Like") were already confirmed to be on the official version of I Am
A lot of people took the whole "grass is greener on the other side" approach and acted like I Am would have been much better if it included the unreleased songs from the bootleg. I am sure a slightly better version than the final version could have been created from all the songs floating around. But the unreleased songs were a mixed bag too (if people are being honest), so I don't think the official version of I Am was somehow wildly inferior to what we could have gotten.
1. Fetus
2. Poppa Was a Player
3. Dr. Knockboot
4. Small World
5. We Will Surivive
6. Money is My B----
7. Day Dreamin' Stay Schemin'
8. Sometimes I Wonder
9. Find Ya Wealth
10. Wanna Play
11. Drunk By Myself
12. Blaze a 50
13. Project Windows (it had a different, better beat than the version later included on Nastradamus)
14. The Hardest Thing to do is Stay Alive
Four of these songs were released on I Am, the remixed version of "Project Windows" appeared on Nastradamus, "Find Ya Wealth" appeared on the QB's Finest compilation, and a few others appeared on The Lost Tapes.
There were some other unreleased songs floating around at the time that weren't on the 14-song bootleg and didn't appear on I Am either. "You Gotta Love It" and "Amongst Kings" come to mind.
Everyone knew that the bootleg was not the final album, since other tracks (such as "Nas Is Like") were already confirmed to be on the official version of I Am
A lot of people took the whole "grass is greener on the other side" approach and acted like I Am would have been much better if it included the unreleased songs from the bootleg. I am sure a slightly better version than the final version could have been created from all the songs floating around. But the unreleased songs were a mixed bag too (if people are being honest), so I don't think the official version of I Am was somehow wildly inferior to what we could have gotten.
Excellent album. Solid 4 Mics and one of Nas's most versatile albums as far as production
NY State Of Mind Part 2
Hate Me Now
Small World
We Will Survive
You Won't See Me Tonight
Big Things
Nas Is Like
Undying Love
No WAY that album is wack, it's a testament to how great expectations were for the I Am Double Album that I Am is considered inferior, it's only a little less good than IWW lyrically.
In 99 Nas was superstar. TWO platinum albums in one year and Jay-Z had the nerve to say Nas "wasn't mentioned at all" and dumb nikkas ran with that shyt. One of the stupidest myths in Hip Hop history
NY State Of Mind Part 2
Hate Me Now
Small World
We Will Survive
You Won't See Me Tonight
Big Things
Nas Is Like
Undying Love
No WAY that album is wack, it's a testament to how great expectations were for the I Am Double Album that I Am is considered inferior, it's only a little less good than IWW lyrically.
In 99 Nas was superstar. TWO platinum albums in one year and Jay-Z had the nerve to say Nas "wasn't mentioned at all" and dumb nikkas ran with that shyt. One of the stupidest myths in Hip Hop history
bigbadbossup2012
Biggest baddest boss
IWW,I AM,Stillmatic,lost tapes,life is good >>>> illmatic and yes I am is very underrated. listened a couple months ago and got reminded of how good it is.
You gotta have pretty poor taste if you ACTUALLY LISTEN to I Am and think it's less than 4 mics.
Oh, Dr. Knockboot is the shyt. Only on the internet it gets hate.
Oh, Dr. Knockboot is the shyt. Only on the internet it gets hate.
Big Mel
@bigboss
Has 5 good songs and only one great one.