Nas XXL article from 1999 around release of I am.
Nas, “The Biography” (Originally Published February 1999) - XXL
…The Autobiography was originally conceived as a two-CD set, a double dose of Nas for 1999. “I feel like you could waste songs with a double-album,” says Nas. Instead, disc two is scheduled for a late summer release. “I don’t wanna overdo it right now. I’m not sure, when I was 16, if I was able to buy a double-album and also buy whoever else my favorite artist was at the time.”
An overpriced double-CD of tracks including contributions of pilfered-loop cuts by the Track Masters would seem right up Nas Escobar’s alley. Escobar is not the Devil—don’t get it twisted—but after being commercially jerked over Illmatic, Nas has been much more amenable to play the game, so to speak. Fans who discovered Nasty Nas in 1991 didn’t expect future rhymes with Mary J. Blige, pop-targeted singles like “If I Ruled the World (Imagine That)” or the fukk-enlightenment metaphors of “Money Is My bytch.”
But that’s the conundrum of the underground. Because if Nas has sold out in any way, shape or form, at least the Firm will never suffer the anonymity of Main Source five years from now. “Mary J. Blige, to be on her single is a honor for me,” Nas reasons. “I don’t see the problem with that at all. Unfortunately, a lot of people did like my second album more than my first album, but a lot of them aren’t from the streets. I think those ones that liked Illmatic, they looked for the same on my next album. I couldn’t make the same album. I hate when a rapper rhymes with the same style, the same story. It shows me that he gon’ be gone tomorrow, basically. The ones that are from the streets respect It Was Written as a maturity level, as growth.”
Nas has reached the point where an MC like Canibus (the first since Nas to receive Rakim comparisons until his Can-I-Bus debut became a bust) can begin to consider him old school. And yet, lyrical connoisseurs who ingest rap stanzas like fine cuisine place Nas with Jay-Z and the late Notorious B.I.G. as top choice. This sort of thing puts Nas in an interesting position, when shameless shams like the Firm’s “Firm Biz” and “Hardcore” (which fully jack Teena Marie’s “Square Biz” and Cheryl Lynn’s “Encore”) can be blown out your mentals, gone and forgiven, with a taste of something like I Am…’s “Blaze a Fifty.”
Read More: Nas, “The Biography” (Originally Published February 1999) - XXL | Nas, “The Biography” (Originally Published February 1999) - XXL
Nas, “The Biography” (Originally Published February 1999) - XXL
…The Autobiography was originally conceived as a two-CD set, a double dose of Nas for 1999. “I feel like you could waste songs with a double-album,” says Nas. Instead, disc two is scheduled for a late summer release. “I don’t wanna overdo it right now. I’m not sure, when I was 16, if I was able to buy a double-album and also buy whoever else my favorite artist was at the time.”
An overpriced double-CD of tracks including contributions of pilfered-loop cuts by the Track Masters would seem right up Nas Escobar’s alley. Escobar is not the Devil—don’t get it twisted—but after being commercially jerked over Illmatic, Nas has been much more amenable to play the game, so to speak. Fans who discovered Nasty Nas in 1991 didn’t expect future rhymes with Mary J. Blige, pop-targeted singles like “If I Ruled the World (Imagine That)” or the fukk-enlightenment metaphors of “Money Is My bytch.”
But that’s the conundrum of the underground. Because if Nas has sold out in any way, shape or form, at least the Firm will never suffer the anonymity of Main Source five years from now. “Mary J. Blige, to be on her single is a honor for me,” Nas reasons. “I don’t see the problem with that at all. Unfortunately, a lot of people did like my second album more than my first album, but a lot of them aren’t from the streets. I think those ones that liked Illmatic, they looked for the same on my next album. I couldn’t make the same album. I hate when a rapper rhymes with the same style, the same story. It shows me that he gon’ be gone tomorrow, basically. The ones that are from the streets respect It Was Written as a maturity level, as growth.”
Nas has reached the point where an MC like Canibus (the first since Nas to receive Rakim comparisons until his Can-I-Bus debut became a bust) can begin to consider him old school. And yet, lyrical connoisseurs who ingest rap stanzas like fine cuisine place Nas with Jay-Z and the late Notorious B.I.G. as top choice. This sort of thing puts Nas in an interesting position, when shameless shams like the Firm’s “Firm Biz” and “Hardcore” (which fully jack Teena Marie’s “Square Biz” and Cheryl Lynn’s “Encore”) can be blown out your mentals, gone and forgiven, with a taste of something like I Am…’s “Blaze a Fifty.”
Read More: Nas, “The Biography” (Originally Published February 1999) - XXL | Nas, “The Biography” (Originally Published February 1999) - XXL
I never seen that interview, good looks! Interviews like this around that time are seemingly full of info.
