HOT RAP: To most pop fans, Nas’...

HOT RAP: To most pop fans, Nas’ debut album came out of nowhere to enter the pop charts at a robust No. 12.

Who had ever heard of this 20-year-old from Long Island?

Obviously, a lot of rap fans had heard of him--and that’s what Columbia Records was counting on for the collection to make a big splash.

There had been a buzz growing around the rapper--at least in the Northeast--since 1990 when he rapped on a single, “Live at the BBQ,” that attracted lots of attention on the underground rap circuit. But the breakthrough for Nas was his track “Half Time” on last summer’s “Zebrahead” soundtrack.

To capitalize on the interest, Columbia planned to rush the album out in March, but it got pushed back a month even though reviews started appearing in various rap publications around the original scheduled release date.

The fact that rap fans were reading something they couldn’t buy proved to be an unintended sales booster.

“All the positive stories in the rap press--like the incredible review in the Source magazine--really had people revved up,” says Columbia spokesman Miguel Baguer.

Bootleg tapes, concentrated in New York, also helped spread the word.

“A lot of kids had two to six tracks of the album long before it came out,” Baguer says. “People would come up to him a month before it came out and tell him they loved this song or that song. The number of tapes out there may have been in the thousands.

“Some executives were nervous about the bootlegs because they were scared we’d lose a whole bunch of sales. When you’re a debut artist, however, bootlegging can get your name out there a little faster--if your stuff is really good.”

Now, though, the label is faced with rebuilding: The album dropped to No. 28 in its second week.