Thinking of putting my opinion forward on some of the biggest artists in raps discographies, thought I'd start with arguably the most impressive discography in the genre with my favourite artist of all time, we'll see if there's much interest and if there is I'll make it a regular thing when I get time

1) Illmatic

Top 3: NY State of Mind, The World is Yours, It Ain’t Hard to Tell
Worst Song: NA

The quintessential rap album, the album all others are judged against. Not a single wasted moment and the definition of a 10/10 album. No other album transports you as vividly to a time and place as Illmatic, every track is a moment and this is regarded as the album that changed the face of the rap game when it dropped.

2) It Was Written

Top 3: The Message, I Gave you Power, If I Ruled the World
Worst Song: Black Girl Lost

Not as revered as Illmatic when it dropped but in retrospect as good as a follow up to the greatest rap album of all time could be, almost a mafioso concept album that introduced the Escobar character and introduced Nas to a more mainstream audience.

3) The Lost Tapes

Top 3: Doo Rags, Poppa Was a Player, Foetus
Worst Song: NA

The tracks Nas wasn’t allowed to drop when he had the idea of I am being a double album. If it had dropped as intended I am would be a classic double album and nastradamus probably wouldn’t have existed. Instead we got this epic tape which is essential Nas material and surprisingly cohesive.

4) Stillmatic

Top 3: Ether, Rewind, One Mic
Worst Song: *Braveheart Party

The “comeback album” after the I Am double album got f***ed up and Nas was perceived to have released two sub par albums by his standards. Surprisingly mixed reviews when it dropped although it got the coveted 5 mics from the source and coined the phrases ethered and renegaded, both used to this day! It has been looked back at favourably in retrospect and is considered a classic by most. Anyone who doesn’t have this as an absolute classic though needs to revisit it ASAP. The only bad track was soon removed to leave a damn near flawless body of work.

5) Life is Good

Top 3: Loco-Motive, Stay, Trust
Worst Song: Summer on Smash

One of the pioneer albums of “grown man rap” Nas’ divorce album has Nas rapping in impeccable form the only real missteps being the occasionally clunky sequencing and a certain swizz beats produced track that had no business being on the tracklist.

6) Magic

Top 3: Meet Joe Black, Ugly, Dedicated
Worst Song: NA

Nas’ late career run has been great, but where most focus on the KD series the real prize is the album that came between the last two in the trilogy, released on Christmas Eve this is the present every Illmatic fan has been waiting for, Nas going back to the basics and releasing a concise 9 (musical) track album that really takes it back to the basics whilst staying true to his modern day persona.

7) Kings Disease 3

Top 3: Ghetto Reporter, Thun, Once a Man Twice a Child
Worst Song: On Fire

The position of this album in my list is far from set in stone due to it being so recent but as it stands this is where’d I’d place it. The lack of features really help this album for me and Nas easily makes up for it by switching flows and styles. It’s almost as if the first two KD albums were him getting (his voice and flow) back in shape to take back his crown. Here Nas sounds reinvigorated and like a version of himself from a couple of decades ago. Few can argue against Nas being the GOAT at this point.

8) God's Son

Top 3: Get Down, Made you Look, Dance
Worst Song: Zone Out

Don’t get it twisted, the positioning of this album is far from a slight, merely just a reflection of exactly how strong Nas discography actually is! Probably the most personal of his albums and with the exception of zone out an album I can listen to front to back. Far more debatable than Nas’ other classics but a classic for me none the less.

9) Untitled

Top 3: Queens get the Money, You can’t stop us now, Testify
Worst song: Sly Fox

In 2008 I didn’t like this album very much! And up until a couple of years ago this may have been around third to last place. However in the last couple of years I feel like this album has aged like fine wine. Sure it could’ve been executed a little better and with an artist like Nas getting more political we may have been expecting slightly more, but it really does hold up well going back to it and in retrospect there really wasn’t much to complain about.

10) Kings Disease 2

Top 3: The Pressure, Store Run, Nas is Good
Worst Song: Brunch on Sundays

I have this one over the original by a paper thin margin, just because I think the highs are higher and he stepped up his rapping from KD1. Having said that some of the features are questionable and brunch on Sundays is maybe the worst song on a KD. Still a very good album but it’s not held up quite as well for me over the last year since it dropped.

11) Kings Disease

Top 3: Kings Disease, Blue Benz, The Cure
Worst Song: Til the War is Won

Defiantly the more cohesive out of the first two KD’s and the easier album to listen to front to back. I do feel it dips a little in the middle through and looking back, Nas voice and flow (while it seemed fine at the time) still had some ring rust to work off! The fact this is at number 11 really demonstrates just how strong Nas’ discography actually is because this is still a great album!

12) I Am...

Top 3: Nas is Like, Undying Love, NY State of Mind 2
Worst Song: Dr Knockboot

What could have been… seen as most to be his first misstep, and while not perfect this does have a couple of Nas greatest ever songs on it (Nas is Like, Undying Love) Some of the production does sound dated (more so than any other album not called Nastradamus in his catalog) and there are a couple of just plain bad songs on here (Dr Knockboot, Kissing). It’s a shame when you take into account how strong this album could’ve been without label politics and leaks and with the lost tape songs enhancing the tracklist but in all far from a bad album.

13) Nasir

Top 3: Adam and Eve, White Label, Simple Things
Worst Song: Not for Radio

This album is so over hated! Sure a short concise album with the greatest rapper of all time and a producer of Kanye’s caliber should be an out and out classic comparable to Illmatic and this defiantly is not that. But is it bad? Considering how this was thrown together in a matter of days with Nas recording his verses in a makeshift car studio without ever being in the same room as Kanye there are some great moments. Adam and Eve is the undoubted highlight here but aside from the opener and the overly long build up to “everything”almost everything else on here is very good in my opinion and what’s more the short film that accompanies it really does help it feel so much more cinematic.

14) Street's Disciple

Top 3: A Message to the Fed’s, Bridging the Gap, Theifs Theme
Worst Song: Me & You

This album is far too long and has way too much filler, but while it may not be considered a classic double album, it could’ve easily been a very strong single album. I probably have 12 songs on this I listen to on a fairly regular basis, I’m glad the album exists but I do agree it’s nowhere near his strongest body of work as a whole.

15) Hip Hop is Dead

Top 3: Money over Bullshit, Hip Hop is Dead, Still Dreaming
Worst Song: Who Killed it

Who killed it is a strong contender for the worst Nas track of all time and the lead single was a recycled track from his previous album. This isn’t vintage Nas especially when he’s coming out the gate with an album title that’s designed to get everyones attention. One of my least listened to Nas albums but it does have some highlights even through the long awaited Nas and Jay collaboration could’ve been a lot better.

16) Nastradamus

Top 3: Project Window, Come get me, Shoot em up
Worst Song: Big Girl

The general consensus when it comes to the worst Nas album. This album was thrown together quickly following leaks of the tracks from the I Am sessions. Supposed to be compiled from the I Am sessions before they leaked Nas pushed back the release date from October to November and recorded new tracks instead. Coupled with two of Nas’ most commercial attempts at singles which failed to hit and made little sense when you take into have Nas was perceived at the time this album was doomed to failure. Even so this isn’t without its highlights the most prominent of which being the Ron Isley assisted Project Windows.

17) The Lost Tapes 2

Top 3: No Bad Energy, Tanasia, Highly Favoured
Worst Song: Royalty

For me this may well be the most disappointing album of all time. The first was such a perfect album and an out and out classic that demonstrated even when Nas wasn’t releasing his best material he was still recording it! And with this covering the Untitled and Life is good eras I had high expectations. They were not met, even the good tracks still aren’t top tier Nas tracks and it couldn’t understand it until until a “Nas insider” released information recently regarding this and Nasir. Turns out the fumbling of Nasir didn’t allow Nas out if his Def Jam contract and they required one more album before his contract could be voided. Nas in response took some of his worst unreleased songs and lumped them together to appease Def jam so he could get out of his contract and drop music on his own label. Even though I can understand his logic I really wish he hadn’t labelled it as a lost tapes album since it doesn’t deserve do be mentioned in the same breath as the original!

I just wanna say very real for Illmatic at 1

Im not feeling the revisionist It Was Written>Illmatic take

Good rank op id have to think of mine

hiphop is dead too low tbh. my top5 fav nas

People are actually saying that? Tf lol

great thread @op appreciate an actual thread with effort + thought put into it

The Untitled album didnt have the perfect execution but is still a good album with an awesome concept

In vein of an album like Like Water For Chocolate and pre cursor to an album like TPAB just not quite as good imo due to some production choices

when i personally listened through Nas discog, besides roughly Stillmatic and say It Was Written, i was massively disappointed by the rest of his work

sd >>>>>>> nasir

appreciate u 4 putting ur opinion out there

i agree with most of this list

Would love to see you do more of these @op

Really enjoyed this thread

It's mostly people who have played out illmatic to the point where IWW sounds more fresh to them. That's it

Makes sense

God Son to low

Nasir deserves to be much lower

this could go for any other album but illmatic is literally the greatest rap album of all time

Nobody might be my favorite Kings Disease song tbh

Literally

I actually love that album like I said in the write up and in time it may end up higher than magic and KD 3 for me (when you take decency bias into account), but my top 5 is pretty cemented

wait a second i just realized u put my fav song from sd as the worst song

i love this song so f***ing much

Lmao I like the sentiment of the song but the execution

haha i understand

i feel like sekou story & live now are by far the worst songs.. why he ever decided 2 rap as a female will always perplex me

Dope thread, OP. I appreciate the write up and quick reviews of each album.

On another note, I can't believe that you rank Nasir ahead of Street's Disciple and Hip Hop is Dead lol. Those two albums blow Nasir out of the f***ing atmosphere. To each their own, I guess.

Illmatic
It Was Written
The Lost Tapes
Stillmatic
Life is Good
God’s Son
I Am
Hip Hop is Dead
Kings Disease II
Kings Disease
Nastradamus
The Lost Tapes 2
Untitlted
Nasir
Kings Disease 3
Magic
Street’s Disciple (disc 1)

I am over hip hop is dead? They should be switched

For me the hardest 3 to rank were Magic, KD 3 and Gods Son. They could’ve been in any order in all honesty and the fact that two of them are so new makes it hard to decide if they are actually better than god son or if it’s just bias because they’re so new

Yep that s*** is terrible

I actually like mostly every song on nasir tbh, maybe it’s just me. It’s far from his best but it’s got a lot more to like than not imo. If SD was a single album it would easily be in the top half of the discog though. HHID not so much