Halftime is perfect

They are not fans

Nas fans appreciate his entire output

People who act like Illmatic is his only good album are Nas haters

(That poster you quoted is a teenage s***poster btw)

But it's the best. My favorite Nas albums are Untitled and Distant Relatives but none are close to Illmatic.

Can't believe nas lost the rhyme book for illmatic and had to use what he committed to memory and improvise for the actual album

Memory Lane imo has the most incredible lyrics on the album

The Lost Tapes comes very very close, in some ways it's even better (more personal and intimate), it has songs and verses that are on the same level as Illmatic

2nd verse on this:

This entire song (every verse is better than the one that preceded it):

And so on

Some girls get too emotional, fanatic extremist
Compulsive, with malice incentives, the foulest of b****es
Hunger my riches, her childish wishes
Be suspicious of those sleeping with fishes, them hoes
Conspicuous and it shows, tricking this dough
Kicking this flow, slip and you fold
So when your click roll, I let my clips go
N-s on opposite poles
I got that confident soul, for those locked in a hole
Inhumane, living hostile opposed
To living on the street, proper from my top to my toes
Aeropostale my clothes, Vernon n-s in suburbans with liquor
Preposterous foes, finicky foul n-s
See n-s and blacks, there goes a loud difference
Coke sniffing, tapping 13 year old chickens
You can't be a kingpin when you snitching
Regardless, we still make you a target
We shoot you in jail, chrome objects
Hit you in your own projects, it's street-onomics
This rhyme is edited, credited through ebonics
Miserable cats, hunger paining
Get off your ass, stop complaining
My crew be in Montego Bay margariting, marinating
While you home, waiting your arraignment
This thug life you claimed it, I make millions from entertainment
Now back in the hood, certain cats, they wanna kill me
They ice grill me, but on the low, n-s feel me
You gotta love it, you gotta love it

Lost Tapes comes very close. I have a hard time labeling it an official album for some reason but I agree

These hot-headed youngsters always get into trouble
Reactin' before thinkin', they easily irritated
And murder's premeditated, it's a fact that we sinkin'
When we should be climbin', in a nutshell, it's just jail
D*** sales, liquor and diamonds, n-s rewindin'
Instead of movin' forward to blow up, so what's the science?
People shoutin', police pushin' the crowd
And on the ground's a young soldier with meat hangin' out him
Am I hallucinatin' off the hazin'?
Or did I just see a n- shoot another n-'s face in?
It's a ugly nation, cops circle the block with mug shots
Photograph pictures of suspect faces
It's usually two or three n-s who innocent
But if they lock the wrong ones up, then someone'll snitch
A divide-and-fall strategy, they aren't fair
I dig in my bag of weed that's covered with orange hair
This Color Purple'll make Whoopi give me the p****
And Celie, Oprah and Danny Glover gots to feel me
This is how I escape the madness
Too much of anything'll hurt you, so my state of mind's all purple

fake

Another song that's Illmatic tier lyrically.. also one of the best conceptual/storytelling tracks in hip hop, possibly the best Nas has written

Memory lane

Crazy how neither person in your avy made an album better than a 6/10

It Was Written another just absolute gem.

Life’s a b****
Represent
Ny state of mind
“Straight out the f***ing dungeons of rap, where fake niggas don’t make it back, Ayo I don’t know how to start this s*** man”

It Was Written close to on par with Illmatic

Don’t really like this song tbh, affirmative action >>>>

I literally came out my moms womb saying this now everybody agrees smfh

A bad one at that

94-96 nas might have been the best peak in any rapper's career

Please shut the f*** up

Illmatic is the best rap album of all time. No other rap album can top it. I SAID WHAT THE F*** I SAID B****

nas topped that album with it was written

Life's A B****...whew...that sax