Hip-hop is never again likely to see the return of Nasty Nas, underground savior, but his studio-thug alter ego, Nas Escobar, seems headed for semi-retirement too. He'll still kick game about "Big Things" and how "Money Is My Bitch", but some of I Am…The Autobiography is fused with a righteous passion that rises above trite talk of guns and glamour. For example, on "I Want to Talk to You," Nas chides America's politicians for "dissin' us, discriminating different faces/ Taxpayers pay for jails for black and Latino faces."
Beyond just rhetoric though, Nas reasserts himself as one of the most brilliant and evocative poets hip-hop has ever known. Digging past predictably lifeless filler like "Life Is What You Make It" and "Dr. Knockboot" you'll find "New York State of Mind Pt. II" swimming in an amazing litany of illustrative lines: "Broken glass in the hallway/ Bloodstained floors/ Neighbors look at every bag/ You bring through your doors." Equally powerful are "Small World," a thug's tale of mixed morality; the stunningly stark "Undying Love"; and his outstanding single "Nas Is Like," which crackles with energy from DJ Premier's kinetic track and Nas' high-caliber boasts. When it comes to painting stories, Nas works with a verbal brush as vast as the NYC skyline and as intimate as a curl of weed smoke.
Unfortunately, Nas' team of producers provides a thoroughly bland canvas of beats for Nas to spray verses over. Hip-hop can't all be about DJ Premier tracks that appeal to the subway heads, nor should it be all about overcooked pop beats by L.E.S. and the Trackmasterz. The current flavor of the month seems to be in sampling symphonic strings, but the effect is more mellow than dramatic, especially on syrupy tracks like "Big Things," "Favor for a Favor," and "Hate Me Now."
In the end though, Nas almost single-handedly redeems I Am…'s weaker points with "We Will Survive." Despite taking its hook from a maudlin Kenny Loggins song, Nas pens one of the greatest eulogies to Biggie and Tupac ever written, using his third set of verses to muse on life, death, and the pursuit of happiness through hip-hop. Profoundly and penetratingly powerful, "We Will Survive" is a stunning reminder of Nas' mastery of the world through words: "To my deceased gods wishin' I could bring you back/ But life is a dream and ya'll taught me that."
— Oliver Wang (Wall Of Sound)
ike the tale of Lucifer's fall told in reverse, Queensbridge's prodigal son Nas has been demonized for fleeing the musty underground and flying upwards to seek the pearly glow of platinum sales plaques. His 1994's album Illmatic made him a hip-hop hero while his 1996 follow-up, It Was Written made him a commercial star. On his new 1999 album, I Am…The Autobiography, Nas tries to reclaim both titles without contradiction.