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

[julesocean]

Nas actually wanted to push the date up and put the album out, when the leaks got crazy. Sony had lost a lot of bread by then, so they made him go back in and make all new sh*t. It was a rush job. He didn't want to, but with the label already losing so much money, that was bread Nas was going to have to recoup.

So recording the new songs for both the new version of the album at the same time he did the work for Nastradamus was the best way for him not to owe as much off the advance for the OG I Am.

I remember differently, that Columbia was okay with releasing the 2 disc version, ig because it was songs they had already paid to be recorded. And even with releasing the leaked songs as the second disc for Nastradamus later on, but Nas wanted to present unheard material and went back in the studio for a new set of songs. He was very upset at the leak. I think this was from an interview he did around the Lost Tapes release? But I could be wrong.

 

[Alexander Wiggin]

I don't think a 2 disc actually existed. Everyone that had it that I knew only had a 1 disc, and Hate Me Now wasn't on any of them.

Was it on tape or cd ?

 

[mobbinfms]

Not album, previously leaked on net.

So then you agree with me and @The Dust King that this is the first time they have seen an official release. That’s significant to me. This specific leak of I Am was the first and perhaps, along with Murda Muzik, the biggest leak in hip hop history. Getting this on vinyl, an official release at that, is amazing.

 

[julesocean]

So then you agree with me and @The Dust King that this is the first time they have seen an official release. That’s significant to me. This specific leak of I Am was the first and perhaps, along with Murda Muzik, the biggest leak in hip hop history. Getting this on vinyl, an official release at that, is amazing.

This is BARELY official though. You are paying for a fan made pressed onto vinyl with cover art. It is literally leaked tracks pulled off the internet along with tracks that were already released already on album. It was a record day store gimmick. I've compared it with all the leaks I have. Sony gave the co-sign that someone can comb through what's out there on the net and use it on a vinyl legally.

The argument was that people thought it was official as in we were getting CDQ quality of all those tracks.

EDIT: And if you ask Nas himself, I bet he has NO IDEA this ever came out. So if you want to count that as official rather than just a cool bootleg to own with an inaccurate tracklist.... I concede.

 

[julesocean]

A 2CD was never officially pressed.

 

[Barney Rubble]

I don't know what nikkas are listening to, but I'm listening on Sennheiser HD800s and these unreleased joints sound better than any version I've ever heard on the Internet. Nas' voice is much clearer and less compressed.

 

[Ziggiy]

This is BARELY official though. You are paying for a fan made pressed onto vinyl with cover art. It is literally leaked tracks pulled off the internet along with tracks that were already released already on album. It was a record day store gimmick. I've compared it with all the leaks I have. Sony gave the co-sign that someone can comb through what's out there on the net and use it on a vinyl legally.

The argument was that people thought it was official as in we were getting CDQ quality of all those tracks.

EDIT: And if you ask Nas himself, I bet he has NO IDEA this ever came out. So if you want to count that as official rather than just a cool bootleg to own with an inaccurate tracklist.... I concede.

I’m sure Nas knows. He’s going to get publishing and royalties off of this. I just doubt he cares as its not a Mass Appeal release.

 

[djfilthyrich]

This is BARELY official though. You are paying for a fan made pressed onto vinyl with cover art. It is literally leaked tracks pulled off the internet along with tracks that were already released already on album. It was a record day store gimmick. I've compared it with all the leaks I have. Sony gave the co-sign that someone can comb through what's out there on the net and use it on a vinyl legally.

The argument was that people thought it was official as in we were getting CDQ quality of all those tracks.

EDIT: And if you ask Nas himself, I bet he has NO IDEA this ever came out. So if you want to count that as official rather than just a cool bootleg to own with an inaccurate tracklist.... I concede.

no, the 3 unreleased tracks on this are CDQ, mastered versions. Not pulled from the net. The label already had the official versions in their vaults when they paid for the studio sessions. This is the first time they are available in this quality (I have the leaks and I bought the vinyl)

 

[Piff Perkins]

I'll always wish someone had convinced Nas and the powers that be to release the original tracks alongside the new ones. Getting Nas Is Like/Hate Me Now/etc alongside some of the better leaked tracks like Hardest Thing To Do Is Stay Alive/Day Dreaming Stay Schemin/etc would have made for a better album. Possibly a classic depending on which tracks would make the cut. Sales wise people were going to cop it regardless off the strength of the two singles anyway.

 

[Ziggiy]

I'll always wish someone had convinced Nas and the powers that be to release the original tracks alongside the new ones. Getting Nas Is Like/Hate Me Now/etc alongside some of the better leaked tracks like Hardest Thing To Do Is Stay Alive/Day Dreaming Stay Schemin/etc would have made for a better album. Possibly a classic depending on which tracks would make the cut. Sales wise people were going to cop it regardless off the strength of the two singles anyway.

That leak freaked EVERYONE out. I can understand in a sense because Illmatic was bootlegged to Hell too and with the spread of the internet and rise of Napster i’m sure Columbia and Nas were thinking it was a doomsday scenario.

Hindsight is 20/20 but i’n old enough to remember that even after 1999 there were years that a major artists album leak would literally fukk up the entire rollout. Lupe Fiasco for instance, and that was 2006. He had to go back and record brand new songs for Food & Liquor and it fukked up his momentum.

 

[Piff Perkins]

That leak freaked EVERYONE out. I can understand in a sense because Illmatic was bootlegged to Hell too and with the spread of the internet and rise of Napster i’m sure Columbia and Nas were thinking it was a doomsday scenario.

Hindsight is 20/20 but i’n old enough to remember that even after 1999 there were years that a major artists album leak would literally fukk up the entire rollout. Lupe Fiasco for instance, and that was 2006. He had to go back and record brand new songs for Food & Liquor and it fukked up his momentum.

You're right, back then someone would prob get fired for proposing my idea lol. Just a different era, but I still wish someone had been able to make the case and see the vision. I Am was one of the first big albums to be impacted by the online leaks too. Few months later there was a massive Madonna leak that caused her album to be delayed.

 

[Mike the Executioner]

So, "Nas is Like" was one of the last songs recorded? Interesting that it's arguably the best song on the album and it was made after the leak.

That makes me think that there's a possibility that the double album version of I Am... would have fallen short of expectations, and it could have ended up like Blueprint 2 or Street's Disciple. We've heard a lot of songs from that era, but for all we know, those songs were never supposed to be on the album. "Dr. Knockboot" was part of the bootleg, but "Nas is Like" wasn't. Best-case scenario is that I Am... ends up a genuine classic album, with maybe a few weak songs. But it's very likely that half the album would have been heat, and the other half would have been filler that lets you know the album was made in 1999. You'll have "Fetus" and "Drunk by Myself" sharing space with "I Want to Talk to You" and "Big Girl."

 

[Trace]

I honestly don’t even care about the double album at this point unless it’s Nas/labels officially reissuing it.

I’m more so concerned about identifying every track that’s available to us on the internet from that era in the best possible quality and debunking tracks that aren’t from that era and general misinformation.

For example, I’ve been seeing around as of late that Everything Is Real was recorded around the time of the I Am sessions and I never knew that, never seen it on any leak aside from the old Nas 2000 mixtape. I recently found a rip of that online without the fukked up pitch.


and funny enough I been taking the ‘98 leak and adding NYSOM II and putting that as track 2, then after We Will Survive at the end I just put Hate Me now, You Won’t See Me Tonight, Undying Love, Amongst Kings and Nas Is Like in that order. Complete experience in one full disc for me.

 

[mobbinfms]

So, "Nas is Like" was one of the last songs recorded? Interesting that it's arguably the best song on the album and it was made after the leak.

That makes me think that there's a possibility that the double album version of I Am... would have fallen short of expectations, and it could have ended up like Blueprint 2 or Street's Disciple. We've heard a lot of songs from that era, but for all we know, those songs were never supposed to be on the album. "Dr. Knockboot" was part of the bootleg, but "Nas is Like" wasn't. Best-case scenario is that I Am... ends up a genuine classic album, with maybe a few weak songs. But it's very likely that half the album would have been heat, and the other half would have been filler that lets you know the album was made in 1999. You'll have "Fetus" and "Drunk by Myself" sharing space with "I Want to Talk to You" and "Big Girl."

Nas is Like was out before the bootleg.

 

[Ziggiy]

So, "Nas is Like" was one of the last songs recorded? Interesting that it's arguably the best song on the album and it was made after the leak.

That makes me think that there's a possibility that the double album version of I Am... would have fallen short of expectations, and it could have ended up like Blueprint 2 or Street's Disciple. We've heard a lot of songs from that era, but for all we know, those songs were never supposed to be on the album. "Dr. Knockboot" was part of the bootleg, but "Nas is Like" wasn't. Best-case scenario is that I Am... ends up a genuine classic album, with maybe a few weak songs. But it's very likely that half the album would have been heat, and the other half would have been filler that lets you know the album was made in 1999. You'll have "Fetus" and "Drunk by Myself" sharing space with "I Want to Talk to You" and "Big Girl."

Nas is like was released before the leak.

And like i said earlier, we just simply do
NOT know what songs were going to make it because neither Nas or Steve Stoute knew exactly what was going to make it. I’m sure they had a rough idea because it was a concept album but nothing was set in stone.

So we can’t say whether it would be classic or disappointing. All we know is that Nas never got to execute his vision.