Greatness
This man wasn’t on the Top 50 list.
Best lyricist ever? Check (arguably)
Grammy winning artist? Check
Sold a lot of records? Check
Acclaimed? Check
Great bodies of work? Check
Not Top 50 ever…Jim Jones surely agrees. He didn’t make nigs wanna be smart or skateboard or learn martial arts like him, etc and he wasn’t a sex symbol…that’s all that matters.
He in my top 2 behind Nas from a logical/non-biased standpoint (logically, his style can be too....dense for a casual listener, which can alienate said listener)
but at this point, he my personal GOAT. Lupe pre-Food and Liquor is possibly the GREATEST MC to ever live. The only thing your list is missing is "Albums with themes/tell stories". And SOME folks actually use this for a benchmark as far as "classic" albums go.
How many ultra high level MCs actually dropping albums like The Cool? DROGAS Waves? Hell, Tetsuo and Youth than can be played forward AND backwards and tell a different story? (certain more popular artists did this to a far lesser degree afterwards and the public knobslobbed them for it)
Pharaoh Height shyts on a lotta rappers whole careers, and that's a mixtape he dropped out of boredom.
Lu been on a totally different level since 2005.