Rakim or KRS?

It makes no sense to me.

Rakim essentially fell off by not rapping. KRS fell off after, like, 8 or 9 consecutive good and successful albums.

Nas never *really* fell off only because of hype machine bullshit and lowered standards that didn't exist when Rakim, KRS, Kane, LL and them were building the house for Nas to inherit.

That doesn't even mention artists like Biggie (with much smaller output) and Jay-Z (with much bigger output) that have so much greater impact. Even artists like Common came up at the same time and have had a higher quality output than Nas. Then you have artists like Q-Tip/ATCQ who have discographies that have about 5X as many hits, 4X as many good albums, and are just better in every way.

I don't get it. He doesn't have the music to back up his Top 5 / GOAT hype. It's all about "Illmatic." There's nothing else.

He'll retire with a really good greatest hits album. So will De La Soul, Mobb Deep, UGK, Too Short, E-40, Naughty By Nature, Scarface/Geto Boys, Ice Cube/NWA, EPMD, Snoop Dogg, Gang Starr, and Busta Rhymes.

As a matter of fact.... almost all of those Greatest Hits albums would be better than Nas's Greatest Hits album. What would be on Nas's Greatest Hits album if "Illmatic" had been shelved?

Shit. Even artists like Rick Ross and T.I. and 50 Cent have dropped albums in the past several years that are lightyears better than any single album that Nas has dropped since 1996. And they've had far more hits.

Nas gets a severely weighted grade because of Illmatic.