I agree Rory mopped the floor with them but I think Mecca made a great point towards the end. The "bad beats" argument gets mixed up with the "sell out" argument in a way NO other rapper deals with. I get why boom bap stans don't like Trackmasters but you cannot possibly tell me The Message is a bad beat. We can play that shyt for most rap fans from multiple eras and they'll say it's fire. Only beat that's meh on IWW is Nas Is Coming which is one of many weak Dre beats from that era but it's not "bad." The intro and hook are what kills that song more than anything.
I Am has a couple meh beats but it's largely a product of that era. Super cheesy keyboard shyt, synths etc. Why does Nas geq%t killed for that but Jay doesn't? Every noteworthy rapper aawas rapping over corny synths in 1999, hence Swizz and Manny Fresh running shyt.
To me the questionable beat shyt doesn't become a problem until AFTER 2002, especially in comparison to what Jay was rapping over at the same time. Listening to SD and Black Album back to back, beat wise, is wild.
Yes the bad beat thing was really a problem during the SD hhid and untitled era. And that's only because at that time ny rappers didn't really know how to sound since the south took over.
Rory also made a great point about how a song don't become a great song just because of the instrumental. The performance of the Mc also make the song.
For example, memory lane is a legendary song. Scientifik the rapper made a song with the same beat 2 years earlier and the song was just ok. Nas made it what it was.
And A LOT of rappers passed on great beats before. Nore talked about it often. Sometimes just because you hear a great beat don't mean you have the vision to make a great song with it
When young people listen to jay and Nas discography they praise nad' music more because his beats while less trendy are way more timeless. Jay beats were great for the time they were recorded but tend to age more badly. Except for the blueprint because that's soul sample and soul sample sound dope no matter what time you listen to them