Nas reaches both commercial and critical peak. But what would’ve happened if I Am… was never leaked and was released as Nas had originally intended? Here’s an alternate history of what I Am… ’s lasting legacy could have been. Now, at the 20th anniversary of the album’s release, listeners remember, regret, and rejoice over the polarizing project. The version of the project that hit record store shelves was a disjointed, unfocused 16 tracks featuring some of Nas’ strongest and weakest songs at that point in his career. Songs that would’ve been highlights on the project – “Poppa Was a Player ,” “ Fetus (Belly Button Window) ,” “ Drunk By Myself ” – were cut from the disc, while commercial attempts (“Hate Me Now” and “You Won’t See Me Tonight”) were added. But Nas and Columbia, his label at the time, opted to scrap the two-disc release and the overall concept. I Am… was originally going to be a double LP entitled I Am… The Autobiography, with the first disc following his journey from birth to death by suicide, and the second disc chronicling his afterlife.
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In February 1999, almost two full months ahead of the album’s original March 30th release date, 13 unreleased tracks from Nas’ forthcoming release were leaked online, prompting him to push the album back and reconfigure the track listing. After the video aired on TRL, with the scene of Puffy on the cross still in, he rushed to Stoute’s office and attacked him with a bottle of champagne.īut the most pivotal incident surrounding I Am… was the album’s leak, which led to its delay and a restructuring of the track list. The Bad Boy exec had requested that the scene of him hanging on a cross be removed. Less than two weeks after I Am ’s… release, Puff visited MTV’s Total Request Live to premiere the “Hate Me Now” video, directed by Hype Williams, which included a depiction of Nas and Puffy being crucified. And the LP’s highest performing single, “Hate Me Now”, was overshadowed by a conflict between collaborator Puff Daddy and Nas’ consultant at the time, Steve Stoute. Nas was almost suffocated during the photo shoot for the album cover, according to the photographer Danny Hastings. Overall, I Am … lacked the type of focus and cohesive sound that audiences grew to know and love on his first two LPs.įor what was considered a mediocre album, I Am… has quite a bit of mythology surrounding it. Knockboot ”) and uninspired album cuts that featured seemingly half-baked concepts and, for his caliber, subpar rapping (“Big Things,” “K-I-SS-I-N-G,” and “I Want to Talk To You”). II” ), critics have widely accepted it as one of his weaker releases, due to attempts at crossover hits (“Hate Me Now,” “ You Won’t See Me Tonight ,” and “ Dr. While it includes a couple of Nas’ classics (“Nas Is Like” and “ N.Y.
While the Queens MC once again found commercial success with I Am… - it sold 470,000 copies during its first week and became his second No. Twenty years ago, Nas released the most divisive LP in his catalog: I Am… By April 6, 1999, he had an underground classic ( Illmatic ) and a commercial breakthrough ( It Was Written ) under his belt. We reexamine the legendary rapper’s third studio album, I Am…, and detail an alternate history of what its legacy would be today.
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