The Lost Tapes compiles previously unreleased tracks that Nas recorded during 1998 to 2001 in the sessions for both his 1999 album I Am... and Stillmatic.[3][4] Several songs from the sessions for the former album, including "Blaze a 50", "Drunk by Myself", and "Poppa Was a Playa",[5] were bootlegged prior to its release and leaked to the Internet through MP3 technology,[6] which led to their exclusion from I Am....[7] Most of the compiled songs first became available as bootlegs on underground mixtapes before being selected and mastered for The Lost Tapes.[3]
Nas The Lost Tapes Full Album Zip
"Black Zombie" is an impassioned, self-reflective critique of problems afflicting the African-American community, including prejudice ("You believe when they say we ain't shit, we can't grow / All we are is dope dealers and gangstas and hoes"), economic insolvency ("What do we own? The skin on our backs / We rent and we ask for reparations, then they hit us with tax"), and dependency ("I'ma Colombia record slave / So get paid / Control your own destiny, you are a genius / Don't let it happen to you like it did to me, I was a black zombie").[27] Its socially conscious lyrics deride media stereotypes of African Americans, inequality in the educational system, and black-on-black violence.[21] According to writer Dax-Devlon Ross, the song foreshadowed the themes and "world view" of Nas' subsequent albums.[27] "Poppa Was a Playa" features uncredited co-production by Kanye West,[28] and discusses Nas' complicated relationship with his father, jazz musician Olu Dara, addressing his lusty, itinerant lifestyle throughout Nas' youth.[29] Gabriel Alvarez of Complex calls it an "honest dedication to his old man: a jazz player, a rolling stone" and writes of the song, "The love is there despite the man's faults. Nas crafts a full picture of the past, looking at the infidelity and fights from both parents' perspectives."[30] 2ff7e9595c
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