Takeover Magazine 1st issue april 15th 2016 | Page 21

5. Nas
Before Nas’ debut album, 1994’s seminal Illmatic, early hype had
critics and fans calling him the second coming -- of Rakim, not Jesus,
but still. 20 years later, Illmatic is widely seen as the best hip-hop
album ever, a flawless blend of vivid street poetry and dream-team
producers -- and sets like Stillmatic and It Was Written are excellent
in their own right. Even Nas’ B-sides compilation,The Lost Tapes, is
better than most MCs’ albums. Need more proof Nas belongs here? He
defeated none other than Jay Z in the best rap war of all time, with
perhaps the most scathing diss track of all time, “Ether.”

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