Pac's first two albums were duds.
Thug Life was a group album, Pac obviously stole the show. That being said, being generous, its a 3.5 mic album.
Those last three albums though
What a run.
Nothing Pac did is a GOAT contender album...nothing as good as Illmatic for example...or a number of GOAT contender albums. But not many rappers/groups had 3 albums back to back that are all certified classics like that
Pac's posthumous shyt you are better off not even bringing up
All in all...Nas discography > Pac discography.
Even just Nas' first five albums against Pac's five albums...I'd take Nas.
Thug Life is a 2Pac album with a reoccuring supporting cast. Furthermore we can go track for track on that and it'll be beyond evident that you're largely basing your rating on old paradigms.
We can go track for track on all 10 songs and perhaps you might want to bring in another album of equal length that you consider a classic and we'll see how that plays out, might I suggest
Illmatic 
Furthermore, we are going to have issue here with our statement that nothing Tupac did is a GOAT contender album
even the general consensus would include 3 of those albums as GOAT candidates - and the only reason Thug Life isn't included in that discussion is because it was critically overlooked for being released as a group album - in actuality compare
Illmatic to
Thug Life: Volume 1 - song for song, I'll wait
At this point you should be done listening to both albums, now doesn't that put it into perspective as to where these albums rank - Tupac's has an enduring sound while Illmatic sounds like it's from a time and place. Song for song, good luck with the mental gymnastics to uphold your generic status quo "GOAT album". Thug Life is classic, song for song it's essential listening and each song stands on it's own - the songs of Illmatic are more of a package deal where the project is acclaimed as a whole. Just about any song on Thug Life is essential listening and could be placed in the upcoming biopic, none of the songs would be out of place on a collection of his greatest work and the album as a whole lot aged better - once again, despite the
NY-publication-derived status quo sheep opinion you have a hard time comparing these albums favorably - even with the track listings being about the same size - song for song, I implore you to give it a go
With Tupac's catalog you're more likely to have a legitimate argument on what his greatest album is, case closed
from a personal perspective,
Me Against the World . . can you name me an album with a personal theme that is better? Anything more introspective?
All Eyez on Me is as ambitious as a project can be. It is a blockbuster magnum-opus album. The album you can comfortably choose if you could only bring one album when you're sent to a deserted island
The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory from a critical perspective is the greatest thing hip-hop has to offer
All 4 of the aforementioned albums surpass anything in Nas's catalog by a significant margin - to keep it real
Illmatic is arguably competitive with the
Thug Life album - each of the three other albums significantly pass it in stature alone. The Illmatic is a great album but it's status comes from status quo and traditionalism that is derivedfrom bias New York publications
Tupac's work overall largely transcends the genre. His discography is the greatest thing hip-hop has to offer, it is the crowning achievement of our culture and is something that we can point to when discussing the merits of hip-hop songwriting and the respect of our art form
This takes precedence over your perceived "lyricism" . . Songwriting. To not understand this is a terrible detriment to our culture and undermines the realization of our art form as an artistic craft
And to make matters more conclusive, Nas his lived 20 years beyond Tupac and not only is there still a discussion . . but he hasn't come close to surpassing him.
Quite simply, there isn't a credible argument that puts Nas over Tupac . .
And he had over 20 years to create that separation
#WallyWisdom
