...fine let me explain,
1. No one mainstream and a few underground heads even know who Big L is, I could go through Harlem today and find at least ten people who wouldnt know who Big L is.
2.LL has had one of the best careers of any rapper, ever. He had two phenomonal battles and there are only a handful of rappers who could drop a greatest hits album and actually have to keep out a good bunch of classic songs like LL's All World. Lastly everyone nowadays classifies him as an "R&B" rapper when in reality it was just his natural evolution as an emcee.
3.The same Big L arguement goes here for Rakim though he is an incredible emcee the majority of heads today dont even know who he is and those who do know couldnt name a single album. You are NOT a hip hop head if you dont know about Rakim.
4.E-40 has skill but a lot of people dont listen to him because like twista his style is kinda fast and his vibe is kinda off the wall. His delivery is sickening and he consistantly drops strong albums, no one knows about him and again those who do dont aknowledge that he is even good, i've heard too many times that E-40 is quote "wack".
5.And lastly Nas. Im sure this has happened to every Nas fan out there, mention his name attatched to the statement "he is good" and critisism and side looks are what you meet. I've many times named Nas in my top 3 and too many people ignorant to TRUE hip hop tell me Nas either is lucky to be top 10 or is not even top 10. Same cats with 50 Cent somewhere in there, Rakim not there at all and Eminem most likely in the top spot. We can all complain about the state of hip hop but it truly is affecting what people listen too and its sad that Rakim could fall as low 50 on someones top 50 all time list because "He's not on the radio".

jjust my 2 cents, 1luv.