Complex decided to ask Nas what his top 25 all time albums were. With his own debut album llmatic, released in 1994 being picked as one of the greatest hip hop albums, and his new album Life Is Good due to be released, Complex wanted to know albums he would put in the top of his list.
Nas named Marvin Gaye’s Here, My Dear and MC Shan’s Down By Law. Naming Jay Z’s Reasonable Doubt as one 
of his top picks he also explained that as Hov was about to release his debut album, he could tell he was akin to Notorious B.I.G and himself, and he was sticking around.
“I seen this kid Jay, I already knew he was nice. I’m watching him come into the game and he delivered a lyrical album, a street album, and he grabbed his spot,” he recalled. “A lot of people couldn’t do that. A lot of people that were putting out albums around the time Reasonable Doubt dropped are no longer around. He staked his claim. He showed everyone he was nice with his lyrics, he was nice with it. He came in the tradition of the New York streets, the way I did, the way Biggie did. He came in that way and he’s been holding it down ever since. If you listen to Reasonable Doubt, he made it happen.”
He also spoke on Boogie Down Productions 1987 debut Criminal Minded and KRS One.
“The artists today are spoiled and they want to go from nobody to the best who ever did it. It’s foolishness,” he explained. “Criminal Minded, KRS-One was the streets coming after the empire of rap, the Juice Crew, without the major backing that the Juice Crew had. You know this takes a lot for me to say [that] because The Juice Crew was founded in my projects, but I gotta keep it real and give credit where credit is due. When KRS-One made the classic Criminal Minded—he didn’t need Warner Brothers, he didn’t need MCA records. He did it with an independent label. That’s why I say people show study him because here you are coming out with a classic album on an independent label, so did MC Shan. Cold Chillin’ was not a major label when Shan put out Down By Law. Artists today don’t see that entrepreneurship, they don’t live it. They claim to be the streets yet they’re looking for superstar record deals.”
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