The two albums that Nas would change if he could: “It was personal stuff”
After the release of King’s Disease alongside Hit-Boy, Queensbridge legend Nas had somewhat of a comeback and began to enter the mainstream again. Not only did he start to enter the mainstream, but he began to get more recognition from the establishment, with the project earning him an award at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards.
Although Nas’ 1994 debut project Illmatic is considered as a classic and was inducted into the Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry in 2021, there are some albums that Nas wishes that he could change, and, in retrospect, he sees some issues.
During an interview with i-D alongside fellow rappers Lil Baby, A$AP Ferg and Young Thug, the Stillmatic creator spoke about some of the albums he would change. Opening up to the interviewer, Nas spoke about his two 1999 albums, I Am… and Nastradamus.
When asked if there was any album of his he totally hates, Nas responded, “No, but if I decided to challenge myself to do it, I would probably change some things on I Am…and I would change some things probably on Nastradamus. I don’t even know what’s on those albums. I could probably only remember two songs for each album.”
I Am… undeniably had a problematic rollout. In February 1999, over two months before the album’s release, which was set to be in March, 13 tracks were leaked, meaning he had to push back the release, and reconfigure the tracklist, cutting some classic tracks in the process.
Nastradamus was only released seven months after I Am… but it was lambasted by hip-hop and music critics across the board. The former debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, while the latter only reached number seven. As such, it was seen as a failure.
Speaking about Nastradamus, Nas explained, “On that album, there’s a couple of songs that have a certain sound to it that doesn’t sound like anything else I’ve done. And it was a gray area in my life and that album represents that gray area. It was personal stuff that I’d rather not elaborate on. But I have nothing against that album.” He added, “The Nostradamus thing was about the end of the world being the year 2000, so my record would be dropping right toward the end of the world.”
The ‘Ether’ writer admitted that after Illmatic, he had a big cloud over his head as people thought it was a fluke, stating, “After my first record, they were like, ‘You can’t do it again. He can’t do this. He can’t do that. He’s not as big as this one. He’s not as big as that one. He’ll never be around again. He’s too grimy. He’s too street. He has a bad following. People around him start trouble.'”
He continued to explain the meaning behind the track ‘Hate Me Now’, adding, “I had a bad rep, so I blew that away with the second album. So now they mad at that and found a different reason to be mad at me. So ‘Hate Me Now’ was the appropriate record at the time.” Still, Nas’ King’s Disease and Magic album series have proved highly successful, and he proved over two decades after his debut album that he is a threat lyrically.