Without Illmatic and Ether, where does Nas rank in your best MCs list?

JuvenileHell

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i dont think he'd be my GOAT anymore :ehh:

my top 5 would go from nas, big, ghostface, prodigy, styles p

to

big, ghostface, prodigy, nas, styles

I could respect this. Illmatic is def what puts Nas over the top for GOAT status. Though I think that IWW could secure Nas' GOAT status as well, that album finally get it's just due now. And it has Take It In Blood.
 

Piff Perkins

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Wouldn't be top 5 but this is a weird argument. Why is Nas punished for just so happening to release one of (if not THE) best rap albums of all time? The rest of his catalog is solid. Some great shyt (IWW, Lost Tapes, Life Is Good), some bad shyt (Nastradamus, SD), and some stuff in between. Without Illmatic you'd still be able to call him one of the most inventive and dope rappers ever. Would he be in my top 5? Nah. But end of the day he released Illmatic and should be applauded for that shyt, FOREVER.
 

JustCKing

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He'd still be elite IMO.

That said, Illmatic has applied the type of pressure to Nas's career that is inescapable. This decade has seen Nas kind of succumb to that pressure. He won't even speak much at all on anuthing concerning new music, but has spent the better part of the last four years promoting Illmatic, which is nearly a quarter century old. Yes, I understand its significant, but we rarely get stories behind his other albums. Nas is one of the greatest, if not greatest writers in Hip Hop, but none of his other music, no matter how great, gets shine because the spotlight always seems to be on Illmatic. Now more than ever.
 

rbksNgirbauds

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Which one of yall logged into ya alt account to get this point across :russ:

Says a lot about the individual, stand on ya square my G :francis:

















































But says even more about this forum that a nikka would even have to go to such drastic measures to have a controversial convo about Nas
full
 

Flywin Lannister

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I'd put him in the mid to bottom 200's at least. I'm sorry but most of his influence is with his first album. No rapper is saying they were influenced by Oochie Wally or Nastradamus. Only time I hear nikkas rocking Nas joints outside of the internet is when they're listening to Illmatic.

Stillmatic was above average though not gonna front. And God's Son was alright. But it's still not enough to rank him higher. There's just too many better MCs with greater amount of material that aged better.
People would still fukk with him and to many people he'd still be their favorite.Why: he's a unique artist and when he starts rapping and your first intro to him would've been Stillmatic, you know he's the real deal. We can argue about beat selection on later albums, but based on earlier albums and Ether - he'd be a top dog in the list of MC's. Illmatic is a classic so that put him in that 'top 5' list for many people and some see him as the goat just based on that album.
 
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who killin it?

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None of these new school rappers have albums better than IWW.
So Nas is top 10 based on that fact.
 

MostHatedBox

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Nas without the best hip hop album and diss track of all time is still top 10 :umad:
 
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