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Thursday, November 25, 2010

NaS - "I Am...The Autobiography"

Most know the story about the faith Nas 3rd LP suffered - after a 13-track advance of the album had been given out to magazines and such for review purposes it got leaked to the internet and quickly spread worldwide via programs like Napster. This was probably one of the first albums that got leaked through mp3 technology, and needless to say Nas and his manager Steve Stoute wasn't exactly pleased and decided to scrap the original project and add new songs. The original concept of an audiobiography documenting Nasir all the way from his moms belly to growing up in the streets without his father, to hustling and getting a record contract and eventually depression and finally his suicide: only to be reborn again as a prophet. A very ambitious project that could only be pulled off by an MC of Nas caliber, but due to the leak the retail album that hit the shelfs was something totally else. While it had traces off the genius that once had been in songs like "New York State Of Mind Part II", "Undying Love" and "Small World" the original theme was gone. The Source rated the original album with 4.5 mics but the official original tracklist has never surfaced in it's entiritey. It is however known which tracks was recorded for it (there have been talks about it being a double disc but i'm not sure that was ever confirmed) and after years of dwelling on this subject and trying various tracklists and track orders i came up with the one i like the best - take a listen to this and i promise you that you won't be dissapointed, it follows the storyline perfectly and the concept is fully intact. If this album would have been released like this there's no doubt in my mind that people would have hailed "I Am... The Autobiography" as a classic. Enjoy!

01. "Fetus"
02. "Poppa Was A Player"
03. "Project Windows" (OG) (Ft. Ron Isley)
04. "New York State Of Mind Pt. II"
05. "Blaze A 50"
06. "Money is My Bitch"
07. "Day Dreaming, Stay Scheming"
08. "Small World"
09. "Find Ya Wealth"
10. "Dr. Knockboot's Do's & Dont's"
11. "Wanna Play Rough?!"
12. "Hardest Thing to do... (Stayin' Alive)"
13. "Drunk By Myself"
14. "Sometimes I Wonder" (Ft. Nature)
15. "NaS is Like"
16. "We Will Survive"
17. "Undying Love"
18. "After Life... (Outro)"
19. "Amongst Kings"

5 comments:

  1. Some songs are missing, such as:

    The Rise And Fall
    My Worst Enemy
    U Gotta Love It
    Pray (Feat. Bravehearts)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Some of those 4 tracks were after the I am sessions

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  2. Oh man! Late to the party here. Sorry to hear you lost your files. That is the worst nightmare I can imagine! Maybe someday these mixes will be back up!

    ReplyDelete