he had so many book deals that never materialized, i linked them above
'slave to a page: the book of rhymes mastermind' was supposed to be his first autobiography (2002 era)
'story of sekou' (2004) was supposed to be a fictional short story that nas was going to write to continue 'sekou story' from street's disciple
'it ain't hard to tell' was a 2012 era autobiography
it was already mentioned here but artists when they write books (or even do interviews) lose their mystique, but the effort of drafting out an memoir privately can help Nas turn some of those pages into records, even if the book stays unreleased. people be digging thru these pages to see if there was any incriminating evidence on others like what happened with prodigy's book and the book would be less epic without the inclusion of some of these spicy details that isn't really supposed to be told out there like that. plus, he would have to smooth over the details on what happened with cormega, nature, quan, az, lake, nashawn, etc not blowing up outside of 50 cent...nas was already somewhat writing his autobiography with his tracks talking about 40-16, etc and he would probably have to limit his autobiography up to 1995 before things got messy in the record industry with those manufactured beefs to sell records and 'divide and conquer' corporate strategies of cornering the market to make mainstream rap sound less intellectual today
My personal theory is that Nas saw the negative feedback that Prodigy’s book got in the hood and he deaded his own. People forget that Prodigy book brought up a LOT of dirt and bad feelings including from Nas himself. Once P came home Nas and Mobb Deep were working together heavily so much that Prodigy was touting a Nas/Mobb Deep album and once the book dropped ALL that talk ceased and Nas said in an XXL interview he wasn’t feeling what Prodigy said in the book.
Now if Prodigy’s stories caused issues, IMAGINE what a Nas book would do to Queensbridge. I don’t think he wants to reopen past wounds, especially now that he’s cool with almost everybody in QB now