1994 is Illmatic, all the illustrative street shit we loved Nas for

1995 is Raekwon & Mobb Deep, hardcore violent rap

1996 is Reasonable Doubt, Jay Z instantly upped the ante having a slick wit and a sharp tongue. he would go on to outwork Nas dropping an album every year for 8 years straight

1996 is also It Was Written where Nas becomes a star with cheesy radio hits

The War Report (Capone & Noreaga) ran 1997, jiggy rap has no place if you arent signed to Bad Boy


then DMX happened in 1998, the biggest name in rap until Eminem in 2000, he represented the streets globally

meanwhile Nas dropped two albums of trash in 1999 and he was irrelevant until damn near 2002

in the end he's dropped far more trash than high quality material