I Am...The Autobiography [PA]

Performer: Nas
Artist: Puff Daddy; Aaliyah; Scarface; DMX
Distributor: Sony Music Distribution (

Notes: Personnel includes: Nas, Puff Daddy, Aaliyah, Scarface, DMX. Producers include: DJ Premier, Pretty Boy, Nashiem Myrick, L.E.S., Grease. Engineers include: Eddie Sancho, Kevin Crouse, Steve Souder. I AM was nominated for the 2000 Grammy Award for Best Rap Album. The original street poet is back. The third chapter in Nas' book of scriptures comes at a time when hip-hop starves for what made the rapper famous: intelligent, realistic songs with a hardcore street edge. I AM combines the underground feel of ILLMATIC with the commercial appeal of IT WAS WRITTEN. Fortunately for Nas, the production matches up to his superior lyrical skills, making for yet another hip-hop classic. Nas keeps the guest appearances to a memorable minimum (DMX, Scarface, etc.) allowing listeners to focus on his own unmatchable talent. And with producers like the critically acclaimed DJ Premier providing the background for the above average "Nas Is Like" and hitmaker Puff Daddy working the boards for the hype-igniting "Hate Me Now," Nas proves that his contribution to hip-hop far surpasses that of many MCs.

Rolling Stone (4/29/99, p.66) - 1/2 Stars (out of 5) - "...jumping from the virtues of getting heave, seven figure lifestyles and busting guns to existentialism and back again, all in seconds..." Entertainment Weekly (4/2/99, p.91) - "...With the right choreography and costumes, I AM... could easily be marketed as rap's answer to RENT. And Nas may touch on enough universal themes--sex, death, inequity, jealousy, retribution--to convince high-falutin critics that his vision is worthy of serious analysis..." - Rating: B Muzik (5/99, p.81) - 4 Stars (out of 5) - "...a schizophrenic tour de force....there's something for everyone..." CMJ (4/26/99, p.3) - "...suggests [Nas] has a firm grip on both his past and his present....[positions] him as a curiously contradictory figure in a world of one-sided rhyme heads..." The Source (2/00, p.95) - Included in The Source's "Top 10 Albums of the Year [1999]." The Source (4/99, p.195) - 4.5 Mics (out of 5) - "...A cursory listen...will uncover traces of the lyricist we used to call nasty....And as further proof that reports of his demise may have been premature, the one man who has come to embody hip-hop's adoration of all things material declares Esco's continued existence..." NME (Magazine) (4/3/99, p.40) - "...This, after all, is what makes this autobiography far phatter than the average 25-year-olds."

With charged poetic lyrics spit in an almost impossibly smooth flow, Nas turned the rap world on its ear in 1994 when the Queens MC unleashed the instantly immortal ILLMATIC. The immaculate record contained few frills, no skits, no celebrity cameos, just the rapper's deceptively complex rhymes, words that lounged in the listener's psyche for days after, layered over beats by some of the best producers of the day. While the following years would find Nas hard-pressed to live up to his supernova debut, he quietly released solid records. In 2001, his spirit revived by a beef with Jay-Z (they would reunite on stage years later), he released the acerbic STILLMATIC, which was followed by a string of critically praised records, but no shortage of controversy.

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