| | Full Review | Ratings (537) |
Give your Rating |
| 0.0 | sean | February 2nd 18 |
You are??
3 Bumps | Bump |
| 3.5 great | Tjatkinson1998 | November 10th 22 |
Was kind of surprised to see the fairly average score for this project. It?s a slight step down on It Was Written, but I feel like for those who thought the prior album was too commercial this goes back to the roots. Sure there are some duds like Hate Me Now and Ghetto Prisoners and the choruses on tracks like Favor for a Favor kinda suck, but this is still a very enjoyable listen. Nas Is Like is a top tier Nas song and tracks like We Sill Survive and I Want to Talk to You see Nas approach newer topics in a creative way like the death of rappers and the state of the world. Nas is also sounding good and the production for the most part is pretty great stuff. Maybe not as consistently great as what came before, but a very good release. Score: 7.5/10 Highlights: Nas Is Like, I Want to Talk to You, Life Is What You Make It, N.Y. State of Mind, Pt. II, Small World. Least Faves: Hate Me Now, Ghetto Prisoners, Money Is My Bitch.
Bump |
| 2.0 poor | MusicMang | February 4th 19 |
mediocre song after mediocre make for a painful experience which I don't desire to go back to. Nas
barely even engages in most ways, frustrating the 3 tracks which are good. (NaS is Like, We Will
Survive and Undying Live). Production has not aged well.
Bump |
| 3.0 good | Alabaster Jones | April 24th 16 |
I Am... is a hard album to pin down. It's definitely got a lot of variety, but none of these things really translate into a discernible identity. It's definitely got some extremely high-quality Nas songs, but others that aren't very good at all. This flailing inconsistency seen in the quality of the tracks only further prove the notion that the album is searching for an identity and never truly finds one even after an hour of music. The production is pretty shoddy, but can be very good in spots ("Small World", "Nas Is Like", "Undying Love"). Nas' lyrics are pretty good, even excellent on tracks like "N.Y. State Of Mind Pt. II" and "We Will Survive". That said, the hooks here are definitely the low point of the album, with many of them being either unbearably corny or just obnoxious in general. It's a shame some really swell material would've been on this thing had it not been for excessive leaks, but I suppose Nas did the best with what he had, and the result was a decent, if very inconsistent outing.
Bump |
| 3.0 good | TheManMachine | January 12th 16 |
Kicks things off with a lump-up of thus-far Greatest Hits snippets and tedious holier-than-thou scurrilities ("fuck all y'all faggot motherfuckers" -- what a moment to oust the beat) and an old guard-part II/remix of a Hit they forgot ("NY State of Mind"), closes shop with theatrical lovers-tiff butchery and a track called "Money is My Bitch". Toss in some Puffy-orchestrated determination-through-pomposity and Nas -- er sorry, "Dr. Knockwood" -- as a sexual lecturer, and all in all the pre-mercantile virtue of debut Illmatic seems rosier and more remote than ever. Disappointingly abhorrent and inflated as this can be, his proficient flows-n-wordplay remain irrefutable, and unless he's pulling my chain, deep down he still cares dammit: obligatory-at-the-time 2pac+Biggie paean is heartfelt and ruminative, desire to interrogate societal ringleaders seems burning+bonafide with incisive reasoning to boot. And serving as a paragon of vividly detailed yarns is that aforementioned theatrical butchery, "Undying Love" -- which with the aid of sound-fx, brings nightmarish rancor frighteningly close to reality.
Bump |
| 0.0 | SmileNerd | August 5th 15 |
Instrumentation isn't nearly as powerful, jazzy, and relaxing as it once was. Lyricism is nothing to write home about.
Bump |
| 2.0 poor | mistakenformagic | January 24th 13 |
Was disappointed when the rest of the album wasn't as much like "Nas Is Like" and more like the mediocre style that was big in Rap at that time.
Bump |
| 3.5 great | Zeuzo | April 20th 24 |
| 1.5 very poor | JuriHan | September 22nd 23 |
| 2.5 average | EminJaY | January 13th 23 |
| 2.5 average | Nights | November 22nd 22 |
| 3.0 good | Jeejee | December 28th 21 |
| 4.0 excellent | Nicksput | November 10th 21 |
| 3.0 good | random | October 18th 21 |
| 3.0 good | Merv | August 18th 21 |
| 5.0 classic | Rinami | July 12th 21 |
| 2.5 average | Mac | April 20th 21 |
| 2.0 poor | Harlz | February 23rd 21 |
| 3.5 great | Weyo | December 29th 20 |
| 2.5 average | Lassie | December 10th 20 |
| 3.0 good | Ronike | October 14th 20 |
| 3.0 good | Peter | August 22nd 20 |
| 2.5 average | remi | April 29th 20 |
| 3.5 great | Ziopsis | December 18th 19 |
| 2.5 average | xgausez | October 21st 19 |
| 3.5 great | Yeagyu | August 22nd 19 |
| 1.5 very poor | crab | January 5th 19 |
| 1.5 very poor | Meridiu5 | December 27th 18 |
| 1.0 awful | vidence | December 11th 18 |
| 1.5 very poor | Zorg | November 19th 18 |
| 3.5 great | Fony | August 13th 18 |
| 2.0 poor | Wolfe | June 23rd 18 |
| 1.0 awful | Juanpa | June 15th 18 |
| 2.5 average | bbgames | February 1st 18 |
| 2.0 poor | Loch | January 20th 18 |
| 2.5 average | YeeHaw | July 11th 17 |
| 1.5 very poor | PaabL | April 19th 17 |
| 1.5 very poor | Luisito | February 7th 17 |
| 3.0 good | tellah | December 5th 16 |
| 3.0 good | EJinHD | November 14th 16 |
| 3.0 good | xxm | July 15th 16 |
| 3.0 good | Shamus248 CONTRIBUTOR | April 18th 16 |
| 3.5 great | jsounnd | November 24th 15 |
| 2.0 poor | Rabseye | September 24th 15 |
| 2.0 poor | Fozzie | August 13th 15 |
| 3.0 good | Loge | January 31st 15 |
| 3.0 good | "Tab" | January 22nd 15 |
| 2.5 average | Sithese | December 31st 14 |
| 2.5 average | slaps | December 16th 14 |
| 3.0 good | meto | November 26th 14 |
| 4.5 superb | Megabar | October 24th 14 |
| 3.0 good | JSJC | June 30th 14 |
| 3.0 good | pxdash | March 24th 14 |
| 3.5 great | Kef | March 14th 14 |
| 3.5 great | akimbo | December 16th 13 |
| 3.0 good | cmilli | September 4th 13 |
| 3.0 good | tlhk | August 31st 13 |
| 4.0 excellent | amp112 | July 19th 13 |
| 2.5 average | KILL | June 1st 13 |
| 1.0 awful | Viales | April 30th 13 |
| 2.0 poor | kb36 | January 22nd 13 |
| 3.5 great | Dask | December 5th 12 |
| 4.0 excellent | Blinga5 | November 7th 12 |
| 3.5 great | muzak | October 14th 12 |
| 2.5 average | cuki92 | September 21st 12 |
| 2.0 poor | Khailen | September 11th 12 |
| 1.5 very poor | JThack4 | June 25th 12 |
| 3.0 good | elry2k | April 27th 12 |
| 3.0 good | Jekub | March 31st 12 |
| 3.0 good | Opaque | February 24th 12 |
| 2.5 average | Undead | February 4th 12 |
| 4.0 excellent | Sleaper | December 4th 11 |
| 3.5 great | jg777 | October 22nd 11 |
| 3.0 good | Cadda | October 3rd 11 |
| 2.5 average | Dummit | October 3rd 11 |
| 3.5 great | Dvase1 | September 6th 11 |
| 1.5 very poor | freakout | September 2nd 11 |
| 4.0 excellent | tribszn | August 17th 11 |
| 2.5 average | Skoj | August 11th 11 |
| 3.5 great | Totes | July 21st 11 |
| 2.0 poor | Phaze | July 14th 11 |
| 1.5 very poor | telex | June 27th 11 |
| 4.0 excellent | FearUs | April 22nd 11 |
| 3.0 good | gwh45 | March 21st 11 |
| 3.5 great | mfp | March 1st 11 |
| 3.0 good | jmh886 | January 28th 11 |
| 4.5 superb | Stb | January 23rd 11 |
| 3.5 great | Manic_ | December 24th 10 |
| 1.5 very poor | Centre | October 22nd 10 |
| 2.5 average | IAJP | August 14th 10 |
| 3.5 great | A28 | August 8th 10 |
| 2.5 average | Smevin | July 10th 10 |
| 2.5 average | HeavyB | April 30th 10 |
| 2.0 poor | qwe3 | February 8th 10 |
| 3.0 good | IRAI | December 13th 09 |
| 2.5 average | Mach | May 30th 09 |
| 3.5 great | ratcfc | December 16th 08 |
| 2.5 average | gafel | September 26th 08 |
| 2.5 average | Pointro | September 13th 08 |
| 3.0 good | midas | March 21st 08 |
| 2.0 poor | C.O.A. | February 16th 08 |
| 3.0 good | GDRTY5 | January 18th 08 |
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