During my senior year at UNCG, I was anticipating NAS new album that would follow It Was Written. The rumor at the time was Esco's intentions of dropping a double CD called I Am Nastradamus. Of course I can't confirm this rumor but a dude sold me a CD with 20 songs on it several months after I AM was released (April 1999) and before Nastradamus (November 1999) was released. Summer 1999 I had already graduated and I was on campus visiting a friend when dude gave me the bootleg.
The bootleg had "Blaze A 50", "Project Windows", "Drunk By Myself", "Fetus", "Purple", "Hardest Thing To Do Is Stay Alive", "Papa Was A Player" (Produced by a young Kanye West), "Amongst Kings", "Sometimes I Wonder" and a few other tracks. Mind you, none of these songs were on I Am except "Hate Me Now". I was puzzled and couldn't believe how amazing they were. During that time, I also heard more NAS songs on Napster. Napster was the first streaming website I remember where you could get music from. The game would never be the same.
Fast forward to winter 1999 and me leaving the record store with Nastradamus, slightly disappointed. The album had a few gems and an alternate version of "Project Windows" but the album wasn't as good as I Am or the Nastradamus Bootleg which was a classic to me. The picture attached to this blog is the original CD I got from dude over 17 years ago. I still play it in 2017 along with NAS The Lost Tapes. The Lost Tapes was released in 2002 and contained a few of the songs from the I AM and Nastradamus sessions according to some insiders.
When the Nas vs Jay-Z battle was steaming up, Jay-Z and some fans stated that Nas fell off at one point. I always laughed because I remember the 30 or so great songs NAS recorded after It Was Written and before Stillmatic. Nas was lyrically tight as ever but it appears bootlegging potentially stopped a double CD that could rival Biggies Life After Death and Tupac's All Eyes On Me. I mean, I truly believe NAS had something special on his hands that ended up getting broken up. We will never know but it's good conversation and speculation.
Peace
Below is an example of the type of tracks from the bootleg I have. I didn't name this one above.
NAS - "Wanna Play Rough"...
This heat definitely should have been released on an LP! Classic theme with the smooth Storytelling Picture painting of a Lyrical Street Picasso!!
Yep, or at least a Lost Tapes 2. He has a lot of work man...
In 2019 Nas should re-release these songs mastered and how he intended it to be back in '99 for like a 20th anniversary. Shit I'd buy it
Yeah and maybe wasn't even gonna be a double LP. Only Nas know really. Damn somebody gotta talk to him about this for real
Death of Esobar was a rumor CD title because I think he was considering using that for the album after I AM. There are a lot of rumors around NAS Double LP..
I think on some versions The Rise and Fall could be titled "Death of Escobar"
Yeah that og project windows is special. And I been tryna make my own mix of it with amongst kings at the start of the 2nd side and "the rise and fall" being the final track
Yep, I saw a few close to that one as well. Mine has about 22-23 songs. Trust me man, it was going to be crazy. A lot of those songs are on my bootleg. Fetus is track #1 on mine and Among Kings is the final track I believe. The original Project Window on mine is much better than Nastradamus version.
To me the tracklist order they're saying looks off to me but it looks like the songs are pretty accurate
I saw this genius thread about the actual album it was apparently supposed to be idk if u seen this yet
https://genius.com/discussions/18556-What-if-nas-3rd-album-came-out-as-the-original-double-disc-cd-he-intended-it-to-be
No doubt, I remember it being insane. Also had the following tracks:
- Day Dreamin, Stay Scheamin - Sometimes I Wonder - Hardest Thing is to Stay Alive (One of my favorite NAS songs) - Wanna Play (Rough?) - Fetus (Belly Button Window)
Yeah thanks appreciate it if u could find that, just tryna picture that tracklist order u know
Thanks for reading a responding. I will find that for you. Yeah, it was classic. I have the CD in my garage somewhere....lol
I gotta hear that original "Purple" track for real. I heard the other unreleased songs on there like "U Gotta Love It", " The Rise and Fall" , "My Worst Enemy" and "Day Dreamin, Stay Schemin" but I wanna hear this bootleg so bad and true if Nas stuck with the idea and still released after the bootleg got out then he would definitely be seen more legendary than he already is to the mainstream no doubt and his whole discog thru the 90s would've been above everything everyone else was doing. But yeah let me know the tracklist order on that bootleg if you can my g