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I AM The Autobiography · Hip-Hop Now Podcast

0:02
Welcome to hip Hop Now pop fat ass. It be from the future.
0:09
You know what to do, show ass out of my lifetime, So disrespect
0:15
the leg black black hip hop can say this today escade right into the business.
0:23
What up, y'all? I'm your host Vegas and this It's hip Hop
0:26
Now podcast, a podcast specifically designed to keep you caught up on all things
0:32
hip hop, music and culture that happened throughout the week. First and foremost,
0:37
big shout out to the supporters, the producers, the patrons over at
0:42
patreon dot com slash hip Hop Now and if you would like to learn how
0:46
to become one of those folks and what you get for being one of those
0:50
folks, the link is in the description of this episode. Fifty years of
0:57
hip Hop It has been a very extraordinary, eye opening, I catching kind
1:06
of situation. Yeah, all of that from numerous shows headlined by some of
1:17
the greatest hip hop artists of all time, to numerous documentaries, a couple
1:23
of albums fantastic run from Nas and hit Boy continued on hundred three thousand put
1:33
out an album with flutes or whatever. But so much has happened just within
1:40
twenty twenty three and now probably one of the things that makes me feel like
1:47
twenty twenty three is a very special year for NAS. Nas has been at
1:57
the forefront of a lot of the initiatives for fifty years of hip hop like
2:04
he has a lot of the dope documentaries to kick off the fiftieth year,
2:10
like the documentaries on Showtime, like what you call it video music Box.
2:17
He put on the show or help put on the show at Yankee Stadium to
2:22
celebrate fifty years of hip hop. On hip Hop fifty, he has another
2:27
initiative called I think it's called the Paid in Full something where it's basically like
2:35
a fund to take care of legendary artists. I mentioned him and hit Boy.
2:40
He is now nominated for a Grammy for Kings Disease three, I think,
2:50
and on and on and on. NASA has been holding it down.
2:54
And if you've been watching this show, you know that there was an announce
3:00
another Nons announcement that was like music to our ears that his once unreleased I
3:07
Am the Biography album will be released on Record Store Day on vinyl. Now
3:16
whether that is exclusively vinyl, maybe the hard copy is only vinyl, and
3:22
then it's coming to streaming services at the same time. I don't know right
3:27
now, all I know is it's on vinyl by the time this airs,
3:31
maybe it's on streaming as well. But just to give you a little history
3:37
about this album that makes it so significant for hip hop heads, I think
3:44
what a lot of people who don't know don't understand, Like, well,
3:49
didn't he release an album called I Am? He did, but originally originally
3:54
back then, right ninety six ninety seven kind of area on that time,
4:03
the album that was was released illegally. It was leaked to the public every
4:12
That's how everybody got information. It was no internet back then, so they
4:15
was once it was released to the public, it was like, these are
4:19
a couple of the songs that will be out. Actually, I have the
4:23
cassette for the video. People watching right now, we're just gonna do that.
4:27
You've seen it on the cover, but this is the original bootleg cassette
4:36
that I picked up back then. Back then, you didn't have a lot
4:41
of information, right you just saw these things. You was like, yo,
4:44
what is that now? Mind you? I Am wasn't out yet,
4:48
and I'm looking at the back at the songs and I'm like, is this
4:51
real? Like because because nobody knew anything about this, like, how is
4:58
this out how is this out right? But it was back then. I
5:04
still have it, which is crazy, But the crazy, I guess the
5:11
craziest part about that is the fact that everybody had it. And it was
5:20
a hint that the album was going to be a double album. Now that
5:24
original didn't have enough songs for a double CD. Back there, double CD,
5:29
man, you were like twenty plus. I think that might have had
5:32
a good ten on it. Real quick, Let's see what was on the
5:38
original? No, there were fourteen fourteen joints on here? So what was
5:46
on the original? And I'm gonna give you the names too. We're gonna
5:48
open it up and give you the actual names. Now, this could have
5:54
been you know, crafty bootlegger who had some information and decided to use names.
6:00
But here we have it. Fetus belly. They put belly bottom,
6:06
but it's supposed to be belly button, Window, Small World Money is my
6:12
b project. Window. Papa was a player, Doctor Knot boot day Dream
6:16
and Stay Sometimes our wonder feature in nature, the hardest thing. Drunk by
6:23
myself, want to play Blazer fifty We will survive And NAS's like fourteen joints.
6:30
Now, that's an album, but as we came to find out,
6:34
there were other songs like New York State of Mind Too and Undying Love,
6:43
just a couple of joints that came out that were also on the IM and
6:47
also on Nostra Damis. So back then, my thoughts when I first heard
6:55
this bootleg was like, Yo, this joint crazy, like Project Window,
7:01
Blazer fifty Fetus. There was another skit too where I guess he was going
7:08
to Hell or something like that. The acting was pretty terrible, but it's
7:12
funny in hindsight. But it was just all these songs, man. That
7:16
was just made it so crazy that this was out like this, right,
7:21
that's fourteen songs from your upcoming double album. That's more. It was probably
7:27
more than half of what was supposed to be available to the public. And
7:32
over time with the release of IM the reworked version, because they didn't put
7:39
that version out because back then when stuff was leaked, it was it.
7:44
You was probably scrapping the majority of the album except for maybe one or two
7:47
songs. Then he released Nasha Damis the same year, which wasn't that great,
7:53
but Project Window was on that release, and then later he released the
8:00
Lost Tapes, which featured some of the songs that didn't make this album,
8:05
along with songs that didn't make like still Madic and I Think god Son and
8:11
most people consider Lost Tapes a classic, but most hip hop heads know back
8:18
then, if this would have released in not ninety six, I said ninety
8:24
six, it was written, came out in ninety six. If this would
8:26
have released ninety seven, ninety eight, let's say ninety eight, it would
8:31
have been a classic. I'm gonna tell you that right now. It would
8:35
have been a classic. But more importantly, it would have set Naza's career
8:39
on a different path. A lot of things changed or happened as a result
8:48
of the original I Am Project not being released versus what we got right,
8:54
So we'll get to that. But later on, I took what I knew
9:00
to be the majority of the songs that probably were supposed to be on I
9:05
Am the Biography, and I put them together for about nineteen tracks. Some
9:11
were like unreleased, probably wouldn't have made it on there, but Fetus,
9:15
Small World, Money's my b project, Windows, Papa was a player,
9:18
Doctor Knakbu daydreaming. Sometimes I wonder the hardest thing Drunk by Myself, Blazer
9:24
fifty, We Will Survive. Nasa is like there's a song called Nostra Domis
9:31
that's crazy and it's not the Nasty Nosa Still it's no, it's not that,
9:37
even though I like that bleak this in there, it's not that joint.
9:39
It's another joint called Nostradamus that I don't think anybody's heard except for everybody
9:46
who had the bootleg that was way better than the original. Find My Wealth
9:52
Yo, Find my Wealth yo. I love that record. You gotta love
9:58
it. Dre joint Rise and Fall, which is a tale of NAS's whole
10:03
career and New York state of mind, right and undying love just because it's
10:11
crazy and it belongs on that. But let's talk about the album real quick.
10:18
The reason why I say this album would have been a classic is because
10:22
you have to take your future thoughts and put them on hold for a time
10:28
back then right, Nas has already been crowned based off of his debut Illmatic
10:35
in ninety four. It was written was undoubtedly a great album for a lot
10:43
of reasons. The single is the single. There really isn't another record on
10:48
that album like the single. If I ruled the world right, and it
10:52
was NASA's the closest Nas could come to making a radio which was weird because
11:01
the Fujis were hot on some hip hop stuff, so Lauren can't make it
11:07
commercial and the beat was from Houdini, and what's more hip hop than Houdini?
11:13
So I always thought it was weird for people to feel like, now,
11:18
why he making this when a lot of what that record was was hip
11:24
hop. It wasn't R and B beats, it wasn't an R and B
11:28
singer, It was hip hop. And this is the guy who you have
11:35
at this time who also has these features going. He also has the Firm.
11:39
That's the joint out, That's the joint in between that I forgot about.
11:43
He also has the Firm album, which is a flop because of the
11:46
mafioso stuff being too much and some choices of beats in that situation, it
11:52
just didn't work out. Mixtape side, he had the foulness, he had
11:56
Firm freestyles, he had street Dreaming, Street Dreams remix just Nas. Nas
12:07
was really doing a lot like he had a lot of cachet as an artist,
12:11
and in between his next solo, he was building a masterpiece. And
12:18
when I say masterpiece, I mean it masterpiece from beginning to end. When
12:24
you listen to the bootleg or the unreleased I Am the biography, one thing
12:30
becomes clear, the word biography fetus, which opens up the track, is
12:39
nas telling the story of his own birth. Now some of you may say,
12:45
I thought he shot his way out his mom dukes. It's a metaphor
12:48
or similar or whatever you want to say, But no one does that.
12:52
Okay, how do you get the gun? All right? But he's telling
12:56
the story of everything that was happening outside of the womb and trying to give
13:07
you his thoughts as a kid or a fetus inside his mother and really was
13:13
dope is you know? You could just look at you know, whatever your
13:18
mom's or your parents told you about when they found out they were pregnant with
13:22
you, when you know what was happening while his mother was pregnant with him,
13:30
all these different things, you know what I'm saying. The naming and
13:33
all that, it's one of the most perfect and greatest introductions to an album
13:39
ever. It is. It's just because it sets the tone for what you're
13:46
gonna hear, right, and then you have all these different records that kind
13:50
of keep that theme going, right, that some in some ways reflect Nas,
13:58
whether they're true stores or their stories. That's the thing about this album,
14:03
there's a lot of storytelling. I don't know if we have another and
14:09
maybe I'm not thinking about it, but I don't know if we have another
14:13
NAS album when he told as many stories, nonfiction and fiction. Right,
14:20
records like small World, right, Like you know the concept of that,
14:26
right, it's a small world. You read it yourself, like that speaks
14:33
to the theme. But also, Poppa was a player, right. He
14:35
talks more in depth about his father, and at this point in time,
14:39
Remember, we knew that as father, his father played on life to be,
14:48
but we didn't know NAS's father in this way, like we came to
14:54
know him when they performed together and they did a song together. But that's
14:58
everything after this R So you're learning about his pops, what Papa was a
15:03
player. Project window. Again, Na's doing what he does best, being
15:09
descriptive and poetic about the things that surrounds his life as a kid growing up
15:16
in the projects. Other songs, sometimes I wonder talking about you know,
15:20
the people who you lose in life and life in general, featuring nature and
15:26
nature's versus dope again. Another thing, Drunk by Myself, Right, it's
15:31
another I think NAS has shown this kind of writing and storytelling again in recent
15:41
years on some of these hip boy projects. But back then, Drunk by
15:46
Myself was just really something that was relatable to some people, right, like
15:52
life is stressing you out, Life is stressing you out, and you're trying
15:56
to figure it out, and your drive by yourself. You're a little nebriated
16:02
or you're a lot, you're a lot or debrated, right, and you
16:07
know all kinds of thoughts goes through your head. Something a type of song
16:11
that Eminem kind of made famous in the late nineties and two thousands with some
16:17
of his crazy stories, but his NAS taking a crack at it himself.
16:21
Blazer fifty just crazy beat storytelling. You know, probably Naz's version of Somebody
16:33
Got to Die or you know what I'm saying or in words bleed, you
16:38
know, like one of them records where it's just a straight up story that's
16:42
ill, I got a story to tell. Like it's like all of those
16:48
wrapped up into one. So it's really a dope record. We will Survive
16:52
again. It's the Night Shift. That's what it called the Night Shift with
17:00
the dedication to Marvin Gaye and all of that. On the Nice Shift.
17:04
You know I'm talking about maybe you know, maybe not old enough, but
17:07
it was Naz's version of that, you know, speaking to Big directly,
17:12
speaking to jay Z directly, and you claim to be New York's king.
17:18
It ain't about that. Naza's like was on head Nostra Damis, It's kind
17:26
of like there was fetus and Nostra Domus is more like the end. That's
17:33
what it kind of sounds like. You know, it has that finale type
17:37
sound. I'm telling y'all if you haven't heard it, very dope record.
17:41
Find your wealth again. This is like the kid from the project Window is
17:45
now outside. Lastly, because I'm not going to go through every song kind
17:49
of did. But lastly the Rise and Fall, which is really dope because
17:53
it is the autobiography, right, it's the autobiography of Nas. It's a
18:02
direct look into how his rap career came about and the struggles to get on
18:11
and the things that happened to that point and trying to maintain it. When
18:17
I heard it, I was like, this is excellent. Mainly because as
18:23
a hip hop fan, as a NAS fan, we knew all the things
18:26
that he went through. But it's nothing like hearing it from the horse's mouth,
18:32
right. Hearing it directly from Nas is what made it dope. Now,
18:37
this is the thing what I am the autobiography and why I say,
18:44
if I'm going to review and rate it as is, I would call it
18:49
a classic because some of this music is synonymous with NAS's career and it was
18:56
never really released the way it was supposed to to be. It bes as
19:03
is As a double album, I rank it right up there with Life After
19:11
Death and All Eyes on Me as some of the best double albums and hip
19:17
hop ever. Now now As would eventually go on to do a double album,
19:22
but it doesn't even come close to what this album is. This album
19:27
is thoughtful, it's poetic, it's boom back. Sure, there's a couple
19:33
of songs on here that like doctor Knockpoo Like, I just don't like it.
19:40
It's just real cheesy. Now you owe me? Was actually hot that
19:42
that could have that could have been on there as far as I'm or a
19:48
bonus or something. But again, songs like that kind of would throw off
19:52
the rhythm, But you're talking about an album that would have came out at
19:56
the height of the Shiny Shiny suit. Ever, he would have had to
20:03
do something. I think you owe Me was one thing that he was able
20:07
to do that kind of fit in that pocket. But again, that should
20:11
have been more like bonus Deluxe or you know whatever extras. When you think
20:18
about the time like this dropping in like ninety eight ninety nine, with the
20:25
inclusion of New York State of Mind Part two and Undying Love and records like
20:30
that, I think a lot would have changed. Like earlier, I was
20:37
talking about the trajectory of Knaves and how this album getting bootlegged at the time
20:44
it did and having to be released in a totally different form. Not only
20:48
did a double album release, it was two albums released within the same year,
20:52
with a lot of new songs that couldn't hold a candle to half the
20:57
records on here. And as a result, most people felt like NAS was
21:03
starting to fall off because of Nostra Domis. It was sort of like Illmatic
21:08
was heir to most people. Then it was written and brought it down the
21:12
tad bit just a little bit. I don't believe that, but that's how
21:17
people felt back then. Then the Firm album brought it down another peg,
21:22
and then I Am came out and was but we know why because it was
21:26
bootleg and all them philosongs. Then Nashira Domas took it into the tubes,
21:33
and it was around that time that most people felt like, Yo, this
21:36
album just isn't good. And also it was like the I guess gave jay
21:44
Z the energy around that time to go ahead and disc Noize, because by
21:48
that time most people felt like he was on his way out. You know,
21:52
when your music is declining, that's usually the thing. But then you
21:59
got you got Still Madic. You gotta comeback from NAS. And you know,
22:06
his career has been a roller coaster ride based off of the high expectations
22:11
of his releases, and it kind of continued to do that as he went
22:17
on, right, you know, Still Madic. Everybody loved it. Everybody
22:18
loved God's Son. And then he released an actual double album and no and
22:22
so on and so forth. And I have a tear list of NAS albums
22:27
where I rank him. I'll link that at the end of this episode.
22:33
But it's what's dope about it happening that way, is that it's more relatable
22:44
when he comes back right, when he has the comeback albums right still,
22:49
Madic was a comeback album. Life Is Good was sort of like a comeback
22:55
album, coming off the untitled album and a couple of other shaky releases that
22:59
were like, yeah, I don't know, did na see a joint?
23:03
Put him back in the dumps, and then the hip Boy Run just ended
23:10
the roller coaster ride. It's made NAS's career not only rewarding for himself but
23:15
for his fans and hip hop heads, whereas before, we don't know what
23:22
would have happened. Right, he could have had three dope albums and then
23:27
never really had a good one after that, or maybe he doesn't put out
23:32
any duds as a result. It's a very very interesting time in hip hop.
23:40
If the album is available via streaming, if you're able to get it
23:44
on record or CD or whatever way, once they released it officially and hoping
23:52
the track listing is mostly intact, that they don't leave any of the things
23:59
that made this joint really dope off, and they release it as if it
24:03
was released back then, I think people will instantly see what we mean when
24:08
we say that was a classic, that would have happened for Nas, There's
24:14
no doubt about it. That would have been a classic to most people.
24:17
I'm just glad hip hop has reached a point in time where we can get
24:22
these albums, and I hope this opens the door for other record labels to
24:27
say, you know this album that we put on the shelf, let's put
24:33
it out. There's a mystique around it. People have wanted to hear it
24:38
for years. I mean they've done this with other germs of music. Hip
24:42
hop was just never mature enough as far as age goes, to get this
24:49
kind of stuff, and to have Nas lead the way by saying, Yo,
24:55
this album was crazy and there was a whole thing behind it. Now,
24:59
he didn't mention I think on his album Magic three that Nipsey wanted to
25:07
do like a documentary about this album. I think this album deserves a documentary
25:17
because it's and hip hop heads who heard it y'all know, y'all already know,
25:25
but I'm talking about the people who come by and just don't know.
25:29
Right. Sure, it's online, it's on YouTube, you could listen to
25:32
it or whatever, but understanding the context in which this album would have dropped,
25:37
right, it would have changed a lot about what we know about not
25:44
today. I don't think you get still manic. I just don't, because
25:48
still Manic is a result of people thinking he fell off right a rat beef
25:56
with jay Z based upon the fact, based upon a couple of things,
25:59
but upon the fact or started by jay Z with the takeover verse and just
26:07
kind of really feeling like, yo, you ain't it no more? That
26:11
wouldn't have been the conversation. He wouldn't have said that back then. And
26:17
the culture attention shifts right because jay Z was on fire, I Am the
26:26
biography drops. Well, it's more competition for what jay Z does. But
26:32
while jay Z's on fire and rising, NASA's declining, and you know,
26:37
a little back and forth and there you have it. So you probably don't
26:40
get ether. You probably don't get half of these things that we know now.
26:45
I'm just happy that again we got to see Naza's career through this point
26:52
and now we get to vicial release of an album that we should have got
27:00
back then. Anyway, what do you think about I AM the biography?
27:06
Have you heard it? Did you hear it back in the days? Are
27:07
you happy is out? Are you gonna get the Vinyl streaming, just gonna
27:12
stick with the bootleg. Whatever you're gonna do, Tell me what you think.
27:17
Tell me if you think things would have changed for Nas. Do you
27:22
think things would have been different for jay Z and his rise? The whole
27:26
King of New York thing. Leave your comments in a comments section below.
27:32
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28:03
y'all. I'm not a critic, even though I just teach the travel I'm
28:07
a fan.