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

[Trace]

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.

that’s wild, never knew there were so many stages for hip hop is dead as well. I only remember the hook on hip hop is dead having it’s differences hearing it on the web vs radio back then. Good information.




As for I Am, I’ve had many different ways of listening to it and attempts at piecing it back together, at this point I’ve been using one of the two 30 song track lists as what I put in my music library

but honestly at this point I’ve come to terms with us not getting the “full conceptualized” double disc
version of this album, it might have even been abandoned entirely in the early stages. As others said, unless Nas himself puts it out or an official original fully fleshed out double track list surfaces, I’m considering it a semi-Detox situation.

Modern day I’m just listening to the original 13 track leak (track list is now on the album wiki page) that dropped back in 99, plus 6 other tracks I feel are essential to I Am in my playlists.

Add NY State of mind II after Fetus

and at the end after We Will Survive I put 5 songs so it looks like this

Fetus
NY State of Mind pt II
Small World
Money is my bytch
Project Windows
Poppa Was a Playa
Dr Knockboots
Day Dreamin Stay Schemin
Sometimes I Wonder
Hardest Thing To Do Is Stay Alive
Drunk By Myself
Wanna Play Rough
Blaze a 50
We Will Survive
Hate Me Now
You Won’t See Me Tonight
Undying Love
Afterlife / Amongst Kings
Nas Is Like


nothing flows together as well as the original 13 song track list that leaked, when adding those few songs to it, that completes the experience for me. All of those songs no debate were either intended for or on I Am at some point.

Songs like U Gotta Love It, Find Ya Wealth, Rise & Fall and My Worst Enemy I always suspected were not apart of I Am, but apart of other projects, mainly Death of Escobar.

 

[Brandon M.]

Nastradamus is a great album to me. 5/5


better than Nasir

better than Streets Disciple

those are the ONLY two nas albums that i probably listened to 3 times and was like nah man Nas why.

Im a Nas stan but i have to be truthful

 

[NoHalfWay]

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.

I love the beat on God Love Us, it’s simplistic but fits. Reminds me of some No Limit shyt. Lyrically I think it’s brilliant, the concept lands for me without him being his super technical self

But yeah Nastradamus got classics on it but its sequence is off and there’s some bullshyt songs.

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.

Yeah Nas smoked the first verse on Come Get Me and then he mailed in the other two.

To me that time frame was when Nas put out the most classic material in his career, but at the same time that bootlegging affected him. He put out a lot of filler too, and was very experimental and ambitious with trying new sounds/flows

Of course we all know lyrically Nas was most dialed in around the It Was Written period. Every verse from that era was crafted technically to a perfection. He’s been that type of lyricist his whole career, but he had it stuck on automatic back then

 

[Playaz Eyez]

look here see

Cot damn I hate that song lmao

 

[up in here]

Nastradamus is a better album than HHID.

It's a better overall album han SD but mostly because SD was an unfocused mix of random ass shyt. It's probably conceptually Nas weakest album.

Nastradamus is leagues better than Nasir.

 

[julesocean]

 

[nieman]

I picked up mine today. It says Columbia Records though, shedding some light on this

 

[Controversy]

I picked up mine today. It says Columbia Records though, shedding some light on this

What's the track listing and order?

 

[Pop123]

Nastradamus is a great album to me. 5/5


better than Nasir

better than Streets Disciple

those are the ONLY two nas albums that i probably listened to 3 times and was like nah man Nas why.

Im a Nas stan but i have to be truthful

Street's Disciple receives too much slander. Nas was going absolutely crazy on a lot of them records...a lot of them records are excellent.

Title track is FIRE
Nazareth Savage is FIRE
Sekou Story
American Way is fire besides Kelis lol
Theif's Theme
War
These are Our Heroes
Reason is NUTS, listen to the writing, smh.
Suicide Bounce
Remember the Times
UBR
Disciple

I'm probably forgetting a couple. All that shyt is fire, idk what yall are talking about lol. There is def trash on there...multiple joints (some like 3 in a row, lol, smh) but an album with so much fire can't be a wack album, nah.

Way better than Nastradamus imo

“Burners in bubble coats,
fukk a sermon from the neighborhood pope /
He sexin hoes, old fart
He bustin worms when he stroke /
Multicolored Pelle Pelle’s
Young stretch mark bellies /
Babies born in the cycle,
Future disciples..”

 

[Abstract83]

Street's Disciple receives too much slander. Nas was going absolutely crazy on a lot of them records...a lot of them records are excellent.

Disciple is FIRE
Nazareth Savage is FIRE
Sekou Story
American Way is fire besides Kelis lol
Theif's Theme
War
These are Our Heroes
Reason is NUTS, listen to the writing, smh.
Suicide Bounce
Remember the Times
UBR
Title track

I'm probably forgetting a couple. All that shyt is fire, idk what yall are talking about lol. There is def trash on there...multiple joints (some like 3 in a row, lol, smh) but an album with so much fire can't be a wack album, nah.

Way better than Nastradamus imo

SD is definitely a slept on album

 

[nieman]

What's the track listing and order?

 

[Izanami]

shyts seems like a money grab

 

[2ATMsYouSteppinOrWhat]

i’m debating on wether to buy mine or not cause i wanna buy all nas albums from 98-02 but not sure if i should get this one

 

[Sean7]

SD is definitely a slept on album

I agree on that, liked quite a few of those songs.

 

[Funcrusher]

Are Fetus and Project Windows the original versions? And the unreleased tracks properly mastered?
Doubt it will go on streaming so it doesn't matter that much I guess, but still.