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

[nieman]

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.

Sony prob had someone on staff that wanted to orchestrate it, put it together, yes. It is a gimmick. They're riding Nas wave and putting out an album they have. It's still official. These are the OG tracks from the Sony vault, not some internet leaks. These are CDQ and mastered. They sound better than any of the versions I have, going back to '98.

It's not a bootleg album. It's not an official mixtape, like Guess Who's Back or Hustler/Rapper. Even if Nas doesn't know if it came out, it wouldn't negate this being official. Hell, it wouldn't be any different than a label putting out a redux album of an already released project from an artist no longer on the label. And half of the ish on streaming platforms weren't signed off on by the artist.

 

[En Sabah Nur]

It would be interesting to learn WHO leaked the tracks in '98

 

[Awesome Wells]

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.

Nah, we had lost millions in recording and production.

So due to the circumstance, the label chose to write that off as an "incidental", and then try to recapture the hype by just doing most of the album over. The label could get that back in taxes. But if they released the same album that was bootlegged, they wouldn't be able to. So they basically forced Nas to get back in and redo as much as he could, to repackage the joint, but in rushed fashion. Which is why the retail was so stale. A lot of that stuff was done within couple of weeks. On the clock.

 

[Mike the Executioner]

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.

Okay. "Nas is Like" has this polished sound to it, like it was the centerpiece of the album. It would have shocked me if it was made to compensate for the leak.

That was my point, though. Because Nas never finalized anything, we have no idea what I Am... would have sounded like as a double album. It could have went either way. For years, I figured it would be an automatic classic, but that's only because we've heard so many songs from that era. All Eyez on Me and Life After Death set the bar as high as possible, but because all we have is the idea of a double album and some bootlegs, we'll never know what we could have gotten. I'm also afraid it could have ended up a victim of its time in terms of production, since a lot of rappers preferred a specific sound in 1999 and Nas was a superstar back then. Label interference could have gotten in the way, issues with sample clearance, fights over the rollout/singles.........it's all a toss up in hindsight.

It reminds me of how people say Tha Carter III could have been a classic if it wasn't for the leaks, and honestly, I don't know if it would have been, either. Unlike Nas, Wayne's albums don't seem to follow a theme or vision, and he doesn't have any input on what songs make his albums. Plus, he records to a crazy degree, so whatever great songs came from those sessions could have been left off in favor of weaker songs. And it looks like that's exactly what happened considering some of the fan favorites that didn't make the cut ("I Feel Like Dying," "I'm Me," "Gossip") and some of the songs that did ("Phone Home," "p*ssy Monster").

 

[Awesome Wells]

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."

There was a promo, and when that got out, people were saying the OG was on par with Illmatic. I still have it. That's how crazy the OG version was. "I Want to Talk to You" and "Big Girl" weren't on there or recorded yet. The Source and XXL were calling Sony all day trying to get white labels, so they could review it because the buzz was getting out of hand. Everyone close to the project had a copy. So back then, this is when people started dubbing CD's. We all had it on CD. Probably a week after we got it, that's when the "Broscoe" bootleg hit the streets in NYC. For people in the city who remember that, it was everywhere.

Random people I knew were buying them for $5 off the street, and they all had that same "Broscoe" vocal tag on them. To this day, no one knows who that was or how he got the album. And he was never heard from again after that either. It was a wild time.

 

[Mike the Executioner]

Nah, we had lost millions in recording and production.

So due to the circumstance, the label chose to write that off as an "incidental", and then try to recapture the hype by just doing most of the album over. The label could get that back in taxes. but if they released the same album that was bootlegged, they wouldn't be able to. So they basically forced Nas to get back in and redo as much as he could, to repackage the joint, but in rushed fashion. Which is why the retail was so stale. A lot of that stuff was done within couple of weeks. On the clock.

I might have asked this a hundred times already, but do you know which songs were from the original sessions and which ones were brand new? I can take some good guesses, but I always wanted some insight from the source.

 

[Piff Perkins]

There was a promo, and when that got out, people were saying the OG was on par with Illmatic. I still have it. That's how crazy the OG version was. "I Want to Talk to You" and "Big Girl" weren't on there or recorded yet. The Source and XXL were calling Sony all day trying to get white labels, so they could review it because the buzz was getting out of hand. Everyone close to the project had a copy. So back then, this is when people started dubbing CD's. We all had it on CD. Probably a week after we got it, that's then the "Broscoe" bootleg hit the streets in NYC. For people in the city who remember that, it was everywhere.

Random people I knew were buying them for $5 off the street, and they all had that same "Broscoe" vocal tag on them. To this day, no one knows who that was or how he got the album. And he was never heard from again after that either. It was a wild time.

What tracks were on that OG promo that you had?

 

[Awesome Wells]

What tracks were on that OG promo that you had?

I might have asked this a hundred times already, but do you know which songs were from the original sessions and which ones were brand new? I can take some good guesses, but I always wanted some insight from the source.

It was only like 14-15 joints on that. Because you couldn't fit more than like 74+ mins on a disc back then, lol. Off top, I remember:

Drunk By Myself
Nas Is Like
Fetus
Do's and Don't's
My Worst Enemy
Blaze a 50
Wanna Play
Poppa Was a Player
U Gotta Love It
Amongst Kings
Project Windows
Money Is My B*tch
Small World

These are the ones I always remember because I lost my mind when I heard them for the first time. I remember people were playing "Blaze a 50" in cars and it started popping up on mixtapes and L.E.S. was pissed because he produced that and it was bootlegged and on the streets in no time, everywhere! So they had to kill the record for a minute, and then re-release it later. That hurt a lot of the producers on there and their pockets.

 

[InstantKlassik]

Will y’all shut up about the hypothetical track list?

 

[Trace]

It was only like 14-15 joints on that. Because you couldn't fit more than like 74+ mins on a disc back then, lol. Off top, I remember:

Drunk By Myself
Nas Is Like
Fetus
Do's and Don't's
My Worst Enemy
Blaze a 50
Wanna Play
Poppa Was a Player
U Gotta Love It
Amongst Kings
Project Windows
Money Is My B*tch
Small World

These are the ones I always remember because I lost my mind when I heard them for the first time. I remember people were playing "Blaze a 50" in cars and it started popping up on mixtapes and L.E.S. was pissed because he produced that and it was bootlegged and on the streets in no time, everywhere! So they had to kill the record for a minute, and then re-release it later. That hurt a lot of the producers on there and their pockets.

I never heard of this promo, do you have more info about it?

I just found this this morning:

Reddit - Dive into anything

www.reddit.com

That above has me questioning if My Worst Enemy was even a consideration for I Am, or rather for the QB Finest project because this seems to suggest that it was recorded after the retail I Am release.

I long thought Rise & Fall wasn’t on I Am either, but was for the D.O.E. Mixtape/album that didn’t drop in 2001. Someone on here said that they were responsible for leaking that in 01 as well.

I’d still like to know where Everything is Real and U Gotta Love It (the second one was recorded early on apparently but was just not used) fit into this puzzle.

 

[JulesMusic719]

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."

It was probably a crazy spectrum of a good and bad song making back in '99 due to labels being at a all time high pushing artists to make all kinda radio friendly/hot single songs...

 

[The Dust King]

I remember differently, that Columbia was okay with releasing the 2 disc version,

A 2CD was never officially pressed.

LOL breh you are embarassing

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.

nah breh SONY used a youtube downloader and burned them to cd

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.

everything primo did was for after the leak, everything is real is 94 or 95

It would be interesting to learn WHO leaked the tracks in '98

chill breh that aint ever happening lol

I never heard of this promo, do you have more info about it?

I just found this this morning:

Reddit - Dive into anything

www.reddit.com

That above has me questioning if My Worst Enemy was even a consideration for I Am, or rather for the QB Finest project because this seems to suggest that it was recorded after the retail I Am release.

I long thought Rise & Fall wasn’t on I Am either, but was for the D.O.E. Mixtape/album that didn’t drop in 2001. Someone on here said that they were responsible for leaking that in 01 as well.

I’d still like to know where Everything is Real and U Gotta Love It (the second one was recorded early on apparently but was just not used) fit into this puzzle.

@Awesome Wells timeline and memory are slightly off

worst enemy and rise and fall leaked AFTER nastradamus

i kno because im the one who leaked them

 

[The Dust King]

It was probably a crazy spectrum of a good and bad song making back in '99 due to labels being at a all time high pushing artists to make all kinda radio friendly/hot single songs...

I am spawned multiple albums but the initial leaks werent single friendly because the album was supposed to be a return to form

hate me now and nas is like was recorded to be singles

 

[ADP]

I am spawned multiple albums but the initial leaks werent single friendly because the album was supposed to be a return to form

hate me now and nas is like was recorded to be singles

only nas would need a return to form after an album like it was written

 

[The Dust King]

only nas would need a return to form after an album like it was written

i know LOL

At the time tho he was gettin a lotta hate and slack from fans and peers who complained he was too commercial too fast