Nas is one of the greatest rappers of all time. He’s my favorite rapper alive and he’s coming off an unbelievable run. In three years, Nas released a total of six albums with the assistance of Hit Boy. Nas hit the scene with the iconic Illmatic back in April of 1994. Illmatic has been called one of the greatest rap albums ever since its release. A little over two years later, he returned with his second album called It Was Written. Many have named It Was Written one of their favorite albums and I’ve put it slightly over Illmatic. In 1997, Nas teamed with AZ, Foxy Brown, and Nature to form the Firm. With assistance from Dr. Dre, we thought this would be one of the best group albums ever. It didn’t turn out that way and the group never released another album.
Nas still did tracks with AZ over the years, but never another Firm joint. They didn’t reunite on the King’s Disease from Nas on a track called Full Circle. In 1999, Nas reappeared to release his third album called I Am. During this time, bootlegging was a major issue and the I Am album suffered the affects of it. It originally was supposed to be a double album, but it was cut down to a single disc. Last year, its original version was released on vinyl for the first time. The first single from I Am was Nas is Like and it was produced by DJ Premier. For me, anytime Premier produces a track it gets extra attention from me. Nas is Like was praised because many people thought his last two albums were commercial. Hate Me Now was his second and final single from I Am.
Hate Me Now featured Diddy and the video was one of the more controversial ones. The video depicted Nas being crucified and it garnered a lot of negative views. In 2013, Complex named it the 8th best rap video from the 90s. Hate Me Now is a great track and one of my favorite Nas songs ever. While I Am was a good album, it’s nowhere near It Was Written nor Illmatic. Despite it not being one of my top 5 Nas albums, I Am is still a good one to have. Below you can peep at my top 5 tracks from the I Am album. After that, you can check out the track listing and stream link for I Am.
Top 5 Tracks: We Will Survive, Hate Me Now, Nas is Like, Favor for a Favor, and Life is What You Make It
I Am Track Listing
- Album Intro
- Y. State of Mind Pt. II
- Hate Me Now ft. Diddy
- Small World
- Favor for a Favor ft. Scarface
- We Will Survive
- Ghetto Prisoners
- You Won’t See Me Tonight ft. Aaliyah
- I Want to Talk to You
- Dr. Knockboot
- Life Is What You Make It ft. DMX
- Big Things
- Nas is Like
- K-I-SS-I-N-G
- Money is My Bitch
- Undying Love
What do you think about the I Am album? What’s your favorite track or tracks off I Am? Where do you rank this album amongst all the other Nas albums? Leave some feedback below or on my Instagram page.
