I'm gonna replace like with "GOAT". For Nas, from what I read and hear from people since I don't listen to Nas that much at all, he's considered the GOAT firstly because of his first 2-3 albums and The Lost Tapes alone, secondly because he's a very good lyricist. There's no mistaking that at all. His longevity is another reason, as in he's been in the mainstream for over 20 years and shows no signs of stopping, his last album in 2012 was great.
Illmatic, even though it's just one album, which is an argument that I hear from people who don't think Nas should be considered as the GOAT, did so much, more than I can say here and more than I actually know.
The only thing that I can't attribute to MF DOOM is Nas's beef with Jay Z and how it singlehandley influenced Hip-Hop beef ever sense. They're both similar rappers, but I'm actually surprised at how much DOOM is not mentioned as a GOAT, even though I don't think he is, but he definitely has some criteria that would make someone calling him GOAT not look unreasonable.
He's been in the game since the late 80s, he's switched his style up a few times, Zev Love X and Operation Doomsday DOOM are not exactly the same. Operation Doomsday DOOM and Madvillain DOOM aren't the same. He's got just enough of that unorthodox flow, weirdness, detached mentality from society, he's got the deep voice, unusual monotony, obscure cartoon and show references, weird beats, goofiness, consistency, intelligence and wit, he undeniably has more than two classic albums under his belt, no one has really replicated the guy I mean his style is really hard to replicate. He's collaborated with some great people, I'm actually surprised he hasn't been on a track with Nas at this point.
Nas and DOOM are both New York rappers who have been doing it well for quite awhile and are both similar in the sense that they are considered lyricists who can be a bit monotone, MF DOOM a lot more so.
The argument I do understand however is that if you can't get past the way MF DOOM raps you probably won't like many of his projects which kind of knocks him out of the GOAT conversation because his rapping style is not really accessible as someone like Jay Z.
