Nas - I Am... (Original Version, 29 Tracks)

[Alexander Wiggin]

Nastradamus is NO WORLD is arguably better than either SD or Hip Hop Is Dead. SD might have been overly ambitious but there’s still 12-13 great songs across the two discs that blow Nastradamus out the water and Hip Hop Is Dead is wayyyyyyyyy more focused lyrically and conceptually than Nastradamus

Personally as a all around I prefer sd and hhid too. but the 5 best songs of Nastradamus are though tho

Come get me
Project windows
Last words
Shoot em up
Life we choose

 

[re'up]

Ay, cut that shyt out

God Love Us is a classic. That shyt was for the streets

Mostly with Nastradamus, it's the lyrics that sometimes went too generic, or rushed from Nas, and the production was bland. God Love Us has one of those throwaay LES beats.

I would agree that the highs on Streets Disciple, for sure, are more focused and hard hitting than Nastradamus. HHID was a bad album to me, about the same level as Nastradamus, but I can think of three tracks, HHID is like a B-/C+ to me.

Money Over Bullshyt
You Can't Kill Me
Let There Be Life

that outshine most of Nastradamus, just based on the density, and sharpness of the lyrics.

 

[re'up]

Even Come and Get Me, Nas is kinda just going through the motions lyrically, on a kinda bland Primo beat. It has an energetic flow, but Nas was coasting. Compared to the intricacy and weirdness of something like Nazareth Savage, which I don't even really like that much, or You Can't Kill Me, where he paints pretty vivid pictures of parts of his life.

From late 1998 until 2001 Nas would be criticized for kind of bland verses, water down overproof thug shyt to quote AZ, it wasn't always fair, but if you study his verses from that time frame, you see where it comes from.

 

[Big Mark]

I'm fine with Nastradamus given the circumstances. he tried to get it out before 2000 to fit the concept and tons of his best stuff had leaked. It's understandable. I don't care what none of ya'll say, ain't nothing on SD or HHID lyrically stronger than Life We Chose.

 

[JustCKing]

it is tho because nastradamus became the poster child album to say nas sold out, nas pick bad beats and it's the worst effort from a big rapper. all that when you got yeah baby, can i bus, the doggfather, immobilarity, the infamy, uncontrolled substance...

to this day when you ask people what is nas worst album they go straight to nastradamus, when you can debate that it's better than street's disciple or even hhid and definitely better than nasir

look at this video

I disagree that Nas sold out with that album, but people only say that because of "You Owe Me". I never looked at that song as a sellout song. It's still Nas being Nas. The Ginuwine feature and the Timbaland production had people who wanted Nas in a box criticizing.

Overall, Nastradamus is a bad Nas album. Yes, it has bad beats. It's not the worst effort from an MC of his caliber, but still bad. And yes, people are going to rush to say Nastradamus is his worst album because in a lot of ways, it is. IMO, either disc of Street's Disciple has better songs than Nastradamus. Disc 1 and 2 separately >>>>> Nastradamus.

Disc 1:

Message To The Feds
Nazareth Savage
Sekou Story
Live Now
Rest of My Life
Just A Moment
Reason

Disc 2:

Suicide Bounce
Street's Disciple
U.B.R
Getting Married
No One Else On The Room

 

[HNIC973]

Nastradamus is better than both HHID& SD

 

[The Dust King]

Hip Hop Is Dead is wayyyyyyyyy more focused lyrically and conceptually than Nastradamus

look here see

 

[seemorecizzy]

Nastradamus wasn't a bad album at all
It was just all over the place and songs were either Really good, or complete trash lol middle ground

It's definitely better then street disciple
Probably even with hip hop dead

 

[Big Mark]

All I’m saying is that Life We Chose was better lyrically than everything in SD and HHID. Not taking anything away from the lyricism on those two projects. Life We Chose was just dope AF lyrically.

 

[Mike the Executioner]

Nastradamus is the only Nas album that I've never been in the mood to listen to. It has classic songs ("Project Windows," "Come Get Me," "You Owe Me"), but as a full body of work, it doesn't hold up. We all know why it doesn't hold up, but I can only judge the project as is.

Street's Disciple would have been a classic if it was just one album. If you trim the fat, you get a hard-hitting album with signs of maturity. It's Illmatic's baby and Life is Good's father.

HHID seems to be universally disliked. Even Nas himself hates the album and I'm wondering why. It might be Nas' most underrated album because nobody talks about it, and when they do, it's always negative. I'll say that Untitled was a better concept album, but HHID is full of gems ("Money over Bullshyt," "Carry on Tradition," "Black Republican," "Not Going Back," "Hold Down the Block," "Still Dreaming," "Let There Be Light," "Play on Playa," "Hustlers," "Can't Forget About You").

 

[JustCKing]

Nastradamus is the only Nas album that I've never been in the mood to listen to. It has classic songs ("Project Windows," "Come Get Me," "You Owe Me"), but as a full body of work, it doesn't hold up. We all know why it doesn't hold up, but I can only judge the project as is.

Street's Disciple would have been a classic if it was just one album. If you trim the fat, you get a hard-hitting album with signs of maturity. It's Illmatic's baby and Life is Good's father.

HHID seems to be universally disliked. Even Nas himself hates the album and I'm wondering why. It might be Nas' most underrated album because nobody talks about it, and when they do, it's always negative. I'll say that Untitled was a better concept album, but HHID is full of gems ("Money over Bullshyt," "Carry on Tradition," "Black Republican," "Not Going Back," "Hold Down the Block," "Still Dreaming," "Let There Be Light," "Play on Playa," "Hustlers," "Can't Forget About You").

Hip Hop Is Dead sounds like an album that Nas wanted to take more time to complete. That album was a heavy burden to carry considering the title. Reading interviews from that era, it seems like Nas had his own vision for what that album should've been and Def Jam had their own vision. What we got sounds like them meeting in the middle. Even reading those previews for HHID, it seems like changes were made between the preview and release. "Can't Forget About You" was described as more musical and there's lines quoted from the previews that aren't on the album. That was dope single. It had a Christmas feel to it and I think the album dropped a week before Christmas 2006. Would've been dope had that been the first single or the one leading up to the release. Nas wanted "Hustlers", which was then titled "QB True G" to be the single, which would've also been dope.

 

[Mike the Executioner]

Hip Hop Is Dead sounds like an album that Nas wanted to take more time to complete. That album was a heavy burden to carry considering the title. Reading interviews from that era, it seems like Nas had his own vision for what that album should've been and Def Jam had their own vision. What we got sounds like them meeting in the middle. Even reading those previews for HHID, it seems like changes were made between the preview and release. "Can't Forget About You" was described as more musical and there's lines quoted from the previews that aren't on the album. That was dope single. It had a Christmas feel to it and I think the album dropped a week before Christmas 2006. Would've been dope had that been the first single or the one leading up to the release. Nas wanted "Hustlers", which was then titled "QB True G" to be the single, which would've also been dope.

I could definitely see Nas hating the album because of Def Jam's interference, not because the actual songs are bad. I've said before that HHID doesn't have any essential, must-have Nas songs on it unlike previous albums, which is probably why it's underrated.

I know Nas shot a video for "Hustlers" and I saw it on YouTube, but I don't think it was ever officially released. There was also supposed to be a video for "Black Republican." "Hope" should have been a highlight, but they couldn't clear the sample. "Where Y'all At" was one of the earliest songs recorded, so Nas thought too much time had passed for it to make the cut. "Play on Playa" and "Not Going Back" were leftovers from Street's Disciple. At one point, the album was called Hip Hop is Dead.....The N. "The Scientist" was never finished and that's the only time I've heard of Nas working with Just Blaze. And that's not even going into the controversy the title caused.

Yeah, from that standpoint, I could definitely see Nas just wanting to forget about that album with all the work that went into it. I'm assuming there were a lot of last-minute changes because the album dropped in December and it was still being worked on in September.

 

[re'up]

Love Can't Forget About You, and back then, it was ok, but as a true adult, it's excellent Nas

Tonally, it's all over the place. The production is ok, but never really feels right for Nas, except in a few spots. He also seems all over the place, never sure which direction to go, or what position to take. It also has the heavy handed feel of major label albums post late 90's. Few Westcoast features, maybe one song for the ladies and kids, Will I Am appearance, Kanye appearance, (feels more like a Ye song than Nas)

it's not horrible by any means, but it is probably his weakest to me.

 

[re'up]

Nastradamus is easy for me to listen to, Streets Disciple is probably better, more creative, artistically challenging, he was really pushing himself on that. But, it's also a mess of an album to listen to, without breaking it way down. War is one I really like, but when I first heard it, I thought I downloaded the wrong album lol

Live Now, I really like that third Nas verse, and Suicide Bounce, Thiefs Theme is timeless Nas to me Message to the Feds, he's just losing it on those verses. It has some really high points, but taken as it was released, and even qualifying for my age now vs. then, it's top heavy, bloated, highly experimental. At the time, no one was doing music like that in the mainstream.

HHID sounds a lot more mainstream, probably due to Def Jam

 

[JustCKing]

I could definitely see Nas hating the album because of Def Jam's interference, not because the actual songs are bad. I've said before that HHID doesn't have any essential, must-have Nas songs on it unlike previous albums, which is probably why it's underrated.

I know Nas shot a video for "Hustlers" and I saw it on YouTube, but I don't think it was ever officially released. There was also supposed to be a video for "Black Republican." "Hope" should have been a highlight, but they couldn't clear the sample. "Where Y'all At" was one of the earliest songs recorded, so Nas thought too much time had passed for it to make the cut. "Play on Playa" and "Not Going Back" were leftovers from Street's Disciple. At one point, the album was called Hip Hop is Dead.....The N. "The Scientist" was never finished and that's the only time I've heard of Nas working with Just Blaze. And that's not even going into the controversy the title caused.

Yeah, from that standpoint, I could definitely see Nas just wanting to forget about that album with all the work that went into it. I'm assuming there were a lot of last-minute changes because the album dropped in December and it was still being worked on in September.

Even the tracklist changed. I remember Elliott Wilson saying the album was 10-12 songs. There was a leaked tracklist with a different album cover (blue skies instead of the black one on the retail). That tracklist had 14 songs. The retail has 16.