If the original I Am had been released, if it ended with "Undying Love" and began with "Fetus (Belly Button Window)", well, I can't think of an album that would have that flawless of a start and finish other than maybe Ready to Die. The final song, "Undying Love", is another one of the best storytelling tracks I've heard. "Nas is Like" is the other DJ Premier cut and was the first single, awesome flute samples on the track, and as the first single, did a good job of letting the fans know Nas still had it (although maybe it was a little cruel - I think people thought this being the first single meant the album as a whole would be more underground-y).
"Small World" has amazing storytelling, and a dark beat by Carlos 6 July Broady and Nasheim Myrick, perfectly complimenting the feel and subject matter of the song. II", one of two DJ Premier songs, and possibly the best song on the album. The intro - so dark, clips of past Nas songs from "Live from the BBQ" on and perfectly segues into "NY State of Mind Pt. Problem was, MTV was accidentally sent the edit with Puffy on the cross and they premiered it on TRL.
There's a scene where Nas was being crucified, and one version of the video had Puff Daddy being crucified as well, but the final edit had only Nas being crucified because Puff decided it was against his Catholic faith. Also, there was the whole Puff Daddy attacking Nas' manager Steve Stout over the "Hate Me Now" video. It wasn't requested too often, but the "Hate Me Now" video got played pretty heavily on there. There also a 24/7 music video request channel called The Box, where I first saw the video for "Nas is Like". MTV, VH1, and BET still played music videos. Bill Clinton was president, Kosovo stuff was happening, and TLC's "No Scrubs" was the number one song in the country. I remember it was a Sunday in April of 1999, and I bought the tape at the Blockbuster Music in Lakeside Mall in Metairie, LA. I purchased I Am on audio tape a few weeks after it was released if I had to estimate a day, I'd guess April 18th or April 25th. But that's a blog post for a different day. I believe that was a possibility because some of the leaked songs are among the best songs Nas has made ("Poppa was a Player", "Blaze a 50", "Drunk by Myself", "Fetus") and in my opinion are some of the best storytelling raps I've ever heard. Massive bootlegging and the leaking of album tracks in MP3 format (this was a pretty new phenomenon in 1998) really pissed Nas off and he took tracks off the album, added new tracks, and decided to convert I Am to a single album.Īs someone who listened to many of these leaked songs (so conflicted), if the original I Am had been released, it may have been better than Illmatic. I Am was originally supposed to be a double-album magnum opus, but the changing times did not allow for that to happen. It was Nas third album after Illmatic (critically acclaimed but low sales) and It Was Written (critically average but sold pretty well).