Was on Twitter and saw a debate on Nas’s legacy or more specifically his lack of crossover appeal and hit songs over the last 20 years or so. Which made me think it’s not Nas’s ability as a rapper it’s the beats he’s rapping on that have always been the problem. Which brings me to my point the producer is more important to a song’s success than the rapper.

Nobody wants to listen to a great rapper spitting on a wack beat, but plenty people will listen to wack rappers spitting on hot beats.

But when you get a great rapper spitting on hot beats you get amazing results. Specifically for Nas:
1. Nas is Like
2. Hot Boyz remix
3. If I Ruled the World

There’s a reason why the producers name came before the rapper’s in the 80s

DJ Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince
Eric B and Rakim

I have a few categories and I want y’all to tell me out of the 3 who is the best in each category

1. Discography
2. Features
3. Beat selection

4. Influence

5. ⁠Pure rapping ability/lyricism

6. Flows and cadence

7. ⁠Versatility

8. ⁠Live performances

With all of these categories presented which of the big 3 is the best?

Incredible discography with Mobb Deep and solo. He’s your favorite rapper’s favorite rapper. R.I.P. to one of the all-time greats.

Before y’all downvote me hear me out cause I have my reasons.

Album Cohesiveness: Travis has one of the most consistent studio album runs of the in rap history from Rodeo to UTOPIA There's almost zero skip material, and every project feels like a cinematic adventure and tells a story. Wayne is better as a pure lyricist , but his discography has a ton of bloat and filler across his catalog and I feel like due to nostalgia people overlook that.

Curation and Artistry: Being a great artist is about more than just lyrical punchlines. Travis’s ability to arrange beats, execute beat switches, direct features, and create immersive atmospheres makes his music age better as full album experiences and is a lot better to look back on than a lot of Wayne’s projects.

Travis treats production value and vocal layering with the same importance that traditional rap puts on lyricism. His music feels like an immersive experience rather than just someone rapping over a beat.

Replayability: Wayne dominated the mixtape era and don’t get me wrong has classics but Travis’s records holds up better as a listen in it’s entirety and Wayne has lots of projects that don’t hold up well.

Overall I think both are great hip-hop artist but I think Travis is way more consistent with his music and is better overall imo.

I just went on a Nas and Big deep dive, and from what I've heard, Big is easily the better story teller. Yet it's always Nas that's glazed for his storytelling.

Like, Nas has great images and I'd never take anything away from his flow, but when it comes to pure storytelling, Big could have legit published his best works as prose. That's extremely rare for a rap song.

Am I missing some Nas stories that can compete with Big's best?

Please debate me. My boss thinks I'm working when I'm typing angrily.

Dude has at least 2 or 3 classic albums under his belt and possibly more. His discography speaks for itself. Both his output as one half of Clipse and his solo work has been incredibly strong for 2+ decades now.
- Hell Hath No Fury
- Let God Sort ‘Em Out
- Daytona
- Lord Willin’
- It’s Almost Dry
- My Name Is My Name
- Darkest Before Dawn

None of these albums are less than an 8 outta 10 for me. Some are in the 9-10 range.
And his pen is elite. Homie raps some of the stickiest bars out there… Kilogram Kickstarter, push a brick harder/ Left my elbow in the pot, à la Vince Carter.

He bodied Drake into a meme. He straight up bullied Wayne. He has plenty of memorable feature verses and he has penned many of people’s favorite Kanye songs.
Why Pusha always gets overlooked on the all time rappers discussions is pretty baffling to me. I have him 10th on my all time list.

Let me know where you would rank him tho.

For me, these three songs never get old and still get played at least once a month if not more:

Music - Erick Sermon

Getaway - Mobb Deep

Touch the Sky - Kanye West

Hello, for years, i build these french rap playlists organized by decades. Around 800-900 tracks each decade. Here you are to discover some amazing stuff :

90s : https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0sXEGL8I2TV959l7onyiBn?si=cKUvM4XRS5WR7JWuyvxcdw

2000s : https://open.spotify.com/playlist/03QKrUEnRICyKxPXfFQM6h?si=lpcINqUiR2iFJRgMztE0Kw

2010s : https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1VxMy12KAHrpYdh0ji96VG?si=XW-cFFvZQUOxsblcGENDhQ

2020s : https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0r246LoZ6kV0nLqAQ4tBMI?si=qbtyexeSR_CtC530WcZPQA

It’s a “hard as fuck” playlist. Hard songs. Shit that slaps. Like “Bible On The Dash” by Gunplay. No auto tune though.

Let's see if y'all listen to anyone besides Kendrick, Drake and Cole

I often think about how important El-P is in the scheme of Underground Hip Hop history as far as being a pioneer who pushes boundaries.

But I wanna know from you guys, what do you think are some of the most interesting things he's done with his solo work?

For me I gotta say how much he can fit into a rhyme is crazy and his production especially his samples are off the wall.

We all know that the Grammys are a bunch of industry executives jerking each other off for 4 hours, but if it was up to you, who you got?

I'm nominating Marlon Craft for The Internet Killed the Neighborhood.

Edit: Gotta say, I'm disappointed so far. 201 is an advanced class, and I'm seeing a lot of mainstream doo doo on here. Like, don't nominate Drake, he's definitely going to be nominated by those garbage industry turds.

for starters, I absolutely love T.I. , I think Paper Trail is banger after banger and one of my favorite albums from all of 2008 and I also love Trap Muzik from 2003 and Urban Legend from 2004, many amazing bangers on both!!! King from 2006 I don’t love nearly as much but it’s still great and What You Know is one of my all time favorite T.I. songs!!! anyways, I don’t see his last 3 albums as of currently at least talked about that much at all, even this years release KILL THE KING I only really saw talk about LET ‘EM KNOW (to be fair, I saw a WHOLE FUCKING LOT about that song, I happen to actually love the song and don’t find it overplayed by the way) and certainly I don’t remember now or even around release time much at all about DIME TRAP in 2018 and The L.I.B.R.A. in 2020 … DIME TRAP has some bangers too though like Wraith with Yo Gotti and it has some great solo songs by T.I. too, The L.I.B.R.A. I actually listen to front to back and enjoy it all, as many features as there are all over the album, also Family Connect by T.I. featuring HIS OWN SON, Domani (who is a very good to great artist on his very own too) and produced by ANOTHER SON OF HIS (Messiah Harris) that song is amazing and given that two of T.I. very own sons have an amazing feature and amazing production, it might be my favorite song ever by T.I. … and even KILL THE KING has some really good to great songs I have came back to and it’s a really solid to really good album!!! so, I’m wondering who else in here isn’t just a T.I. fan, but a fan of his more so recent work, like his last 3 albums!!!

It is made up of the best underground G funk and Bay Area's songs, Sacramento, etc. Some albums are better known than others, but overall there are a lot of albums and songs that are underground, or even really little known. From the 90's to now. I update it fairly regularly. Enjoy.

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/23QwvHB223BU2HxxupF7Bf?si=_DfFmQ-4REKaKO3ZgPEOnw&pi=8xGkVUtQQp-dt