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Boom Moment In Hip-Hop
On this date in 1999, Nas dropped his third studio album titled simply I Am… The album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, selling more than 470,000 copies in the first week. Some rap critics felt as though the album didn’t live up to the hype coming off his debut masterpiece Illmatic and equally impressive follow up It Was Written, the album still ended up going double platinum.
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The album garnered the hits “Nas Is Like…” and “Hate Me Now” featuring Puff Daddy, and featured Puffy, Aaliyah, Scarface, and DMX, with most of the production credits from DJ Premier and longtime collaborator L.E.S.
A lot of people are unaware, but the album was meant to be an episodic biography of the rappers life, and was slated to be a 2 part double disc release, with the second called The Autobiography. However, most of the material meant for that album was leaked online early, and the album was eventually scrapped, and has yet to be officially released. Nas continues to this day to be one of the most talked about and lyrical artists in the game, and I know a lot of Nas fans still anticipate new Nasir albums. And his longevity shows when your able to tour the country 20 years later off of your first album studio album!
