>I'd like to see the albums that are better lyrically.
>

not just FTL, but I'd put Rakim's first three over IWW, there was just too much innovation and reinvention of lyrical technique over the course of all three of them to ignore them
there's others I'd name before it as well, like Kool Keith on Critical Beatdown, Kool G. Rap on Wanted: Dead or Alive (which is an obvious influence on IWW) or KRS on KRS-One
but IWW is significant in that Nas didn't reinvent the wheel lyrically, but instead took material that had been used time and time again and added another dimension to it by finding ways to make what was usually above-it-all material and made it seem personal
that's why I think Illmatic is a better album but IWW is his best emcee performance, even if I didn't get drawn in to all his stories


>And I'm not opposed to there being an album that's better but
>it seems as though you're saying Nas isn't really as close to
>whoever you feel is the best.

not in the slightest
but I've said before Nas wasn't my problem with IWW, sure there's some questionable song choices there but he delivered the goods on each verse-I don't think that much is disputable