Leading up to the release of God's Son, the second new Nas album in less than a year, Ill Will dropped a collection of "lost recordings" -- basically, tracks recorded for I Am and Stillmatic that just didn't make it.
Though the liners are stretching it in parts ("these songs are famous for never having been officially released"), they definitely got it right when they said, "No cameos.
No hype.
No bullsh*t." From a few listens, it's clear most of these weren't bumped because they were low-quality; "Doo Rags," "No Idea's Original," and "Black Zombie" stand up to anything Nas has recorded since the original Illmatic.
In fact, they have more in common with his early recordings; there's more of a back-in-the-day, wasn't-it-all-so-simple-then sound to "Doo Rags" and "Poppa Was a Playa," two tracks that definitely wouldn't have fit on the raging Stillmatic.
That's certainly no reason not to pick up this one, not just for Nas fans but for hip-hop fans who want to hear some great rhyming with no added features.
| Title/Composers | Performer | Listen | Time | Size | Size | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Doo RagsM. Bell, Nas | Nas | Play | 04:03 | 9 MB | 25 MB |
| 2 | My WayNas | Nas | Play | 03:55 | 8 MB | 25 MB |
| 3 | U Gotta Love ItL. David Lewis, Nas, Cam Wilson, R. Wilson | Nas | Play | 03:18 | 7 MB | 20 MB |
| 4 | No Idea's OriginalNas, B. White | Nas | Play | 03:04 | 7 MB | 20 MB |
| 5 | Blaze a 50S. Barnes, Nas, J. Olivier | Nas | Play | 02:49 | 6 MB | 18 MB |
| 6 | Everybody's CrazyNas, D. Stinson | Nas | Play | 03:35 | 8 MB | 26 MB |
| 7 | PurpleNas | Nas | Play | 03:39 | 8 MB | 21 MB |
| 8 | Drunk by MyselfNas, A. West | Nas | Play | 04:03 | 9 MB | 27 MB |
| 9 | Black ZombieNas | Nas | Play | 03:35 | 8 MB | 24 MB |
| 10 | Poppa Was a PlayaNas | Nas | Play | 03:49 | 8 MB | 26 MB |
| 11 | FetusNas | Nas | Play | 03:20 | 7 MB | 21 MB |
| 12 | Nothing Last Forever | Nas | Play | 03:52 | 8 MB | 27 MB |
| 43 mins | 98 MB | |||||
| 43 mins | 284 MB | |||||
| Artist | Job | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Deric "D-Dot" Angelettie | Producer |
| 2 | Pablo Arraya | Assistant Engineer, Mixing Assistant |
| 3 | S. Barnes | Composer |
| 4 | M. Bell | Composer |
| 5 | Kevin Crouse | Engineer, Mixing |
| 6 | Bryan Golder | Engineer |
| 7 | Ken "Duro" Ifill | Engineer |
| 8 | L. David Lewis | Composer |
| 9 | Nikki Martin | Coordination |
| 10 | Jonathan Merritt | Assistant Engineer, Mixing Assistant |
| 11 | Nas | Composer, Executive Producer, Primary Artist |
| 12 | Lenny "Linen" Nicholson | A&R |
| 13 | Jake Ninan | Assistant Engineer |
| 14 | J. Olivier | Composer |
| 15 | Paul Gregory | Assistant Engineer |
| 16 | Rockwilder | Producer |
| 17 | John Shrive | Engineer |
| 18 | D. Stinson | Composer |
| 19 | Grayson Sumby | Assistant Engineer, Mixing Assistant |
| 20 | Richard Travali | Mixing |
| 21 | A. West | Composer |
| 22 | Al West | Producer |
| 23 | B. White | Composer |
| 24 | Cam Wilson | Composer |
| 25 | R. Wilson | Composer |
| Quality | Format | Encoding | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | MP3 | 320kps 44.1kHz | MP3 is an audio coding format which uses a form of lossy data compression. The highest bitrate of this format is 320kbps (kbit/s). MP3 Digital audio takes less amount of space (up to 90% reduction in size) and the quality is not as good as the original one. |
| CD Quality | FLAC | 16bit 44.1kHz | FLAC is an audio coding format which uses lossless compression. Digital audio in FLAC format has a smaller size and retains the same quality of the original Compact Disc (CD). |