Yes, yes, ya’ll I’m back for the eighth week. In this edition of Jonny Boy Speaks I want to give a big shout out to Nas for absolutely killin’ it with Untitled. This album has been getting serious burn in the whip and the house and it’s truly an amazing effort by Nasty Nas. I probably should have shouted it out sooner but it was the type of album that grew on me. Whenever you get some good music it turns in to a whole cycle of what you’re going to be listening to.

For example, I’ve been listening to Untitled a lot which made me want to listen to some older Nas stuff which got me thinking about Jay-Z so Reasonable Doubt finds it’s way into the deck which makes me want to listen to 'Renegade' which leads to me listening to Eminem until all hours of the night. And finally it brought me to the age-old question, who is really the greatest MC of all time?

If you’re a hip-hop geek like me, this question can really be a tough one especially when you’re listening to classic albums and hearing verses that weren’t just shoved down your throat by your local radio station. During this process all kinds of names popped up in my head like Big Daddy Kane, Rakim, Biggie, LL Cool J, etc. but at the end of the day I was left with three names in my head. Those three names were Nas, Jay-Z, and Eminem. To me, these three dudes have done the most amazing shit on wax. This still leaves the question open though, who is the best? It’s hard to say as all three are so different so all three satisfy a different musical needs but I’m not trying to be diplomatic here. I’m trying to decide who’s the best.

Let’s take all their first albums, which are Illmatic, Reasonable Doubt, and The Slim Shady LP respectively. All three were groundbreaking. All three changed hip-hop. Let’s check the specs. While rap was always riddled with stories of the street life Jay-Z took it to another level ushering in the Cristal and platinum and everything. It was more than that though as Jay was an insane lyricist.

The Slim Shady LP was truly like nothing we had ever heard. Easily the most graphic and disturbing lyrics ever spit on a rap CD this thing flipped the game on its ass and had everybody trying to sound like Marshall Mathers. Em single handedly made lyricism a priority again in hip-hop. And of course there was Illmatic, the hip-hop album of hip-hop albums, and 9 tracks of pure MC’ing with some of the dopest beats ever to grace a disc.

Nas was instantly regarded the greatest MC as soon as this album dropped. It truly changed the way hip-hop was done and if forced to choose one out of the three I would have to say that Illmatic was the best. I’m not going to talk about every album but it’s a must that we talk about the second. The second album could be the most important album an artist ever releases. Not only are they facing the sophomore jinx but this is the set up for the third album.

If the second album is hot you’re going to get a third and probably a fourth, which makes you a career MC as opposed to a statistic. On Jay’s side we have In My Lifetime Volume 1. It is most definitely a respectable album and it had some hits but it wasn’t really Jay-Z. Puff was heavily involved and he brought the hits no doubt but it felt nothing like Reasonable Doubt, which is what the fans really wanted. Overall a decent album, just not great.

Nas released It Was Written as his second effort and while he also received the commercial treatment by becoming more visible and doing certain types of songs, it is arguably a classic. 'If I Ruled The World', 'The Message', 'Take It Blood', and 'Street Dreams' make it worth listening too and that’s just four tracks.

This was truly an amazing and underrated album. Em hit us with the Marshall Mathers LP as his second joint and damn was this is a serious album or what? Em was already a crazy MC and on this album he got even better. Every single track on this album is hot and Em does things lyrically that make you wonder if the man is human.

Nothing about this album on paper would have made you think it was as amazing as it was but the product itself was just unbelievable. Out of the three sophomore albums I would have to go with Marshall’s. Now let’s take the rest of their careers into consideration.

Jay went on to release his biggest seller to date right after this in Hard Knock Life with 5 mil sold. He then hit us with The Dynasty, which was hot for a compilation and introduced us to Beans and Freeway. After that we got The Blueprint which was classic and Blueprint 2 which is hotter than most give it credit for. Jay then dropped the Black Album on us, which was his retirement album and is damn near flawless. He came out of retirement and released Kingdom Come, which was kind of cool, and American Gangster, which you either love with all your heart or just completely hate.

The Blueprint 3 is currently underway from what people are saying. If it’s true then I’m looking forward to it. After It Was Written, Nas released two questionable but not as bad as people make them out to be albums in I Am and Nastradamus. We all know what went down with Jay-Z so no need to rehash all that.

We ended up getting Stillmatic, which was amazing, and an absolute classic. We got God’s Son, which was also amazing. We got Street’s Disciple, which was cool but didn’t need to be a double disc and Untitled, which is definitely an incredible album.

After the Marshall Mathers LP, Em decided to smash the game and made an undeniable classic in the Eminem Show. After that we got Encore which was a good album but fell a little short of Em’s usual caliber of music. The last we heard from him was a greatest hits album called Curtain Call. Come back Em! The game needs you! Really, at the end of comparing and contrasting, these dudes are all too amazing for me to even pick one but I’d like to know what all the readers out there think. Who’s the greatest MC of all time? Jay? Em? Nas? You tell me.