Nas - I Am... (April 6, 1999)

Nasir Jones continued chasing his Illmatic dreams with his third solo release, I Am... He had the respect from the backpackers and the love from the mainstream with his first two albums, and aimed to attract both audiences with a noble concept; a double album , originally titled I Am...The Autobiography, on which every track would serve as a personal glimpse into the life of a rapper from Queensbridge, a stereotype that every white hip hop fan from the suburbs would surely relate to.

The problem was that I Am...The Autobiography was among the first albums in hip hop history that was sabotaged by rampant Internet bootlegging before its release date. Someone (let's be honest, probably someone from within Columbia Records, his label at the time) leaked the second disc online, and fans snatched it up with a quickness usually reserved for Playstation 3 sellouts. Nas then scrapped the concept and decided on a single-disc release, cutting many tracks (some of which would turn up later on Nas's The Lost Tapes) and recording just enough new material to make I Am... look like a different animal altogether. We will never really know how Nas's original vision would have sounded, but since we're now stuck with an amended version, let's go ahead with that.

1. ALBUM INTRO
Nas's rap album intros leave a lot to be desired. The flashbacks to the first two albums are cool, but the creepy children chanting is very unnecessary. If I wanted creepy children, I'd watch a Japanese horror movie. Nas's brother Jungle fills in the role of the album's introductory hypeman.

2. NY STATE OF MIND PART 2
DJ Premier and Nas bring us a calculated attempt to appeal to Illmatic's fan base, with a sequel to arguably the best song off of that album. For anyone else, this song would probably be that next shit. For Nas, this song is extremely weak. But then again, I'm not usually a fan of artists revisiting old themes and expecting similar results.

3. HATE ME NOW (FEAT PUFF DADDY)
Puff Daddy appears in the video crucified and pitches a fit, demanding the scene be removed. MTV accidentally airs the uncut version. Puffy takes a champagne bottle to (Nas's manager) Steve Stoute's dome, and settles out of court. What people don't realize is that this song was not worth all of the controversy and hassle. People, it sounds like shit. Simple as that.

4. SMALL WORLD
People forget that Nas is a pretty good storyteller. This song reinforces that point, even though the beat is fairly simple.

5. FAVOR FOR A FAVOR (FEAT SCARFACE)
While the Trackmasters were the producers du jour for It Was Written, L.E.S. picks up their slack on I Am... Scarface is usually reliable, and is pretty decent here, but Nas sounds like he's trying too hard (especially on the chorus), and the beat sounds waaay too polished for the subject matter.

6. WE WILL SURVIVE
Nas pays tribute to 2Pac and The Notorious B.I.G., two artists that he had known beefs with during their respective lifetimes, over a beat which can only be described as sorry. He does bring up a good point, though, about hip hop being the only major genre of music in which the players aim to physically harm others in the same game. It's a shame.

7. GHETTO PRISONERS
Meh.

8. YOU WON'T SEE ME TONIGHT (FEAT AALIYAH)
I wrote in my review of It Was Written that Nas's collaborations with Dr. Dre were overrated. (In the comments, someone had mentioned The Firm's "Phone Tap". You got me, I forgot about that one.) Another overhyped collaborator of Nas would be Timbaland, who presents a boring-ass track that doesn't fit Nas at all. Aaliyah, R.I.P.

9. I WANT TO TALK TO YOU
But that doesn't mean that I want to listen to your words. Make a better song, Jones, and we'll talk then.

10. DR. KNOCKBOOTS
A Trackmasters-produced joke of a song, which is admittedly funny if you've never heard it before today. The song is beneath Nas, though, and that fact alone tears you up inside. At least, a little bit, anyway.

11. LIFE IS WHAT YOU MAKE IT (FEAT DMX)
Nas mentions on "We Will Survive" that his dreams include "making it big on the movie screen", so it makes sense that his album, released around the same time as his big screen debut Belly, would feature his co-star, DMX. The problem with this concept is that DMX is actually a pretty good (if one-noted) actor, whereas Nas couldn't act his way out of several paper bags in a rainstorm during monsoon season.

12. BIG THINGS
Double meh.

13. NAS IS LIKE
The first single. (That's right, kids; "Hate Me Now" was actually the second single.) DJ Premier and Nas deliver the goods on this album's best song, bar none.

14. K-I-S-S-I-N-G
And then he follows that up with this shit.

15. MONEY IS MY BITCH
Just from the title alone, you should be able to discern my opinion of this song.

16. UNDYING LOVE
The beat is decent. Sorry, but that's all I got.

FINAL THOUGHTS: I Am... was a commercial success, further cementing Nas's place in hip hop history. It does, however, sound pretty awful. This isn't entirely Nas's fault, though, since he didn't get to release the album he wanted. Should people who download music from the internet be held responsible for the album sucking so goddamn much? Un pequito. The bootleggers didn't actually make the music, though; Nasir Jones did.

BUY OR BURN? Sorry, Nas fans, but a burn of the "Best Tracks" is the only recommendation you'll get from me on this one. I Am... isn't really deserving of your time, nor your ears.

BEST TRACKS: "Nas Is Like"; "Small World"

(Disagree with the above review? Then leave me some comments below! Make your opinions known!)

-Max

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