Nas has been called the second coming of Rakim

The argument

With the release of the critically acclaimed album, Illmatic, rap enthusiasts hailed Nas as the second coming of Rakim. This was not only because of his skill but also due to the tone of Illmatic. The greatest hip-hop album of all time had much in common with 80's old school rap, despite its release in 1994. Nas made an old school rap album in the golden age of hip-hop. He captured lighting in a bottle--he made a golden-age album that was better than anything the God of rap had ever made in the old school rap era. For this reason, he is clearly the best rapper of all time.

Premises

Counter-arguments

While Nas was able to accomplish a great deal with the release of Illmatic--including being dubbed the second coming of Rakim--this does not make him the greatest rapper of all time. Rather, it demonstrates that he was able to improve on the groundwork that Rakim had already painstakingly laid. Nas should have instead focused more on creating his own voice.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P1] A nickname is a reception, not a ranking. Being hailed as the second coming of an earlier artist records enthusiasm at the moment of release and, read literally, places Nas within someone else's lineage — which is why the counter takes the phrase as praise for building on Rakim rather than for surpassing him. [Rejecting P2] "Surpassed anything the God of rap himself produced" is asserted, and it weighs one album against a career. "Captured lightning in a bottle" then concedes the point against the position, since a singular unrepeatable moment is a claim about one record rather than about the body of work on which a best-of-all-time judgement normally rests. [Rejecting C] The conclusion moves from one album's reception in 1994 to the top of an entire form. Even accepting Illmatic's stature, the premises say nothing about the three decades of work since, nor about the other artists the title would have to be argued against.