Similar to Mobb Deep and The Fugees, this doesn't really count.
Not necessarily. It's more about how the general public perceives you.You got to have multiple duds for it to be a comeback. Nas had an average album with Nastradamus. Imagine if Cormega or AZ has dropped that same exact album, it would be fine. And was still in that phase where nikkas was made he couldn’t make another illmatic
I don’t even know about Mariah because it was the Glitter movie that bombed and then the TRL appearance with the ice cream that made her look crazy. Her music was doing fine, she had hits with Cam and Jay at that time. All she did was focus exclusively on that instead of other stuff and she was back on top.
Aftermath was a compilation. He was telling the truth when he said his last album was the Chronic.
Mama Said Knock You Out might be the answer here. LL had no motion.
The answer is Stillmatic
The world thought Nas fell off
Nas placements on mixtapes used to be at the front end...by early to mid 01, his records were sandwiched in the middle of mixtapes
Rocafella buried Stillmatic Freestyle
It took nearly 5 months to release Ether after Summer Jam...the industry moved on and crowned Jigga as their king
If Stillmatic flopped, Nas career was essentially over
Nas was already preparing for life after rap prior to Stillmatic
Stillmatic is my GOAT rap album bc of what it represents...rebirth, renewal, coming back from adversity against all odds
That's what makes it not a comeback. Thoughts and ifs are not reality.
He certainly wasn't coming back from a sales point...maybe from perception (for which there is no unbiased metric)