They should go ahead with Nipsey's vision and do a documentary on the making of I Am. Also in conjunction with the documentary, for the 25th Anniversary of the album release I Am deluxe edition in its original intended double album form.
I worked in a record store when that bootleg dropped. We played that tape all day every day. I had heard they changed up the album, but when I Am dropped I couldn't believe the tracks they left off. He already mentioned Belly Button Window, Poppa Was A Player, and Project Window (the original version before the sample wouldn't clear), but also Drunk By Myself, and if I'm not mistaken, I think Blaze A 50 and Find Ya Wealth was on there too... and they kept Dr. Knockboot? lol Not that Knockboot was no good, but it wasn't the work of art the rest were. The album was alright (relative to his first two), with some underrated cuts like Small World and Favor For A Favor, but the poetic soul, the magic of the bootleg, wasn't there through most of it (although Undying Love is a hell of a way to bring it back). Then you imagine if cuts like Rise and Fall and Amongst Kings came out of those sessions too. And now that Stout puts the vision of the album in this context, makes me wonder if the verses for Second Coming, which became Kids In The PJs and Street Glory off the QB Finest album, was also written for the original vision of I Am. What could this album have been? One of the greatest hip hop tragedies in the history of the medium; along with Inspectah Deck's original solo joint getting flooded in RZA's basement, and Sticky Fingaz never having a legit solo album (that hip hopera doesn't count).
Great insight and I definitely agree. Even though Lost Tapes would lose some of its shine, it would be dope af if Mass Appeal were to re-release 'I Am' in its original form. I think ppl would really get to understand just how special that album would have been.
Rise And Fall and Amongst Kings weren’t part of those sessions, those tracks were recorded after the fact and were originally gonna be released on Nastradamus. This was after the reworked I Am hit stores and he decided he’d follow up with Nastradamus. Same thing happened with that album too, tracks leaked, Nas discarded various songs and the official release ended up being mad weak.
It was engineers fault for letting it out. DJs were paying engineers to get reels to leak on mixtapes. DJ Clue use to do that. He also confessed about it a few years. He would get new songs from engineers and pay them. Now mind you, he never showed his face on mixtapes and artists was looking for him to kick his ass. Bootlegging was a serious thing back thing and it was getting out of control.
How you gonna bring up Hate Me Now to Steve Stout. My man started stuttering. I though he was gonna go into PTSD. Puff Traumatic Stress Disorder. lol I'm playing. Relax.
Yessir, The Lost Tapes was Nas’s way of helping us have official versions of some of the aborted I Am… material, while also including some leftovers from Stillmatic.
