So who won?....

[mookie2001]

my buddy timvp, dropping his first sciences in years

[JamStone]

You see, that's precisely why it upset me more that Nas punked out than whenever Jay did. Jay from jumpstreet was never ashamed or abashed when it came to trying different styles even if it might be lame. He was always more about flow and how it sounded than substance. He bit Biggie. He bit Nas. He bit Pac. He bit Jaz-O. He was consumed with being able to flow in every imaginable style there was. He wasn't dubbed as the lyrical genius Nas was when Nas first came out. Nas was the street poet. He came with "NY State of Mind" and "Memory Lane" and "I Gave You Power" and "Black Girl Lost." that didn't just sound good, but said something, not only told a story, but gave a message. And for him to commercialize his to straight crap like "You Owe Me" and "Hate Me Now" and "Made You Look" just hurt me as a hip hop fan more than anything Jay-Z, who was always doing different styles, had the club hits, the commercial joints from jump. When Jay would put out a wack song, I'd be like, ok, well that's what he does sometimes. You listen to "Illmatic" and "It Was Written," even the radio singles were crazy good. How do you go from dropping like Mobb Deep to putting out joints Nelly would drop? That's my crack on Nas. Others will have a different opinion. That's fine. It pissed me off way more with Nas because of what he did in his first two albums.

[mookie2001]

ice cubes sucks now that doesnt mean one track on amerikkkas most wanted doesnt bukkake every champange rhyme jay z has ever said

thats the nature of music, do you think i listen to b-reals new ot Qtips latest?

please

[baseline bum]

Anything hot Nas put out after "It Was Written" is negated by him putting out that song "You Owe Me" with Ginuine. As if "Hate Me Now" wasn't bad enough, that Ginuine joint made him a complete in my eyes. That was the type of that emcees like Jeru and Black Star and Common and underground artists and real hip hop fans were fed up with the direction of hip hop, and to have it come from one of the greats like Nas. I lost total respect for him. Jay-Z put out commercial too, but I don't know, Nas to me completely fell off the cliff and then tried to be a commercial pop rapper when he saw hip hop moving towards the bling era. He tried to redeem himself with Stillmatic, but it wasn't enough to make me feel like he punked out. Again, not to say that Jay didn't have his share of lame commercial , but for some reason, it hurt me more to see Nas do it.

I completely disagree with you on It Was Written; I thought that was a horrible follow-up. "The Message" was the only track I really liked off it. I remember buying that album the day it came out and hoping that it could be half of Illmatic, and being extremely disappointed the second I popped the tape in. The way he tried to act like a mafioso on that album was horrible (especially on Affirmative Action). I hated his commercial and "Hate Me Now" was pathetic, but Illmatic and Stillmatic were classic enough to make me love Nas even if he sells completely out and goes R & B.

[baseline bum]

If we are going to go down that road, then Jay negated his whole career before it really began when he came up rapping like the Fu-Schnickens and then bit Nas style after that gimmick didn't work.



Biting Nas' style and plagiarizing Biggie by the ton is exponentially lamer than Nas cashing in with some weak pop ish.

lol jay-z

Damn. That's almost as comical as Ice Cube starting off biting the Beastie Boys style.

[DieMrBond]

Admittedly I'm not exactly in the 'hip-hop' demographic, but for putting the discography on shuffle - you get more good songs from Jay-Z. Black Album and the Blueprint series have some great tracks on it. Although, illmatic is a pretty landmark album...

The Nas tracks that come up seem to be more vulgar rhymes... but when he's on, hes impressive. I will admit, i'm not the biggest fan of the 'hardcore es and hoes hip-hop', (Pussy Killz, for example) - but I do enjoy all the classics of the genre...

Just my white-guy-from-suburban-Australia 2cents.