I broke it into 'yes', 'almost', and 'not'. Jus off the top...

Yes:
Big
Jay
Rakim
Ludacris
CunninLynguists
Ghostface
Eminem (sadly... im not a big fan, but they all have hella commercial success, and what makes Em a shoe-in from me is he IS lyrically gifted, and displays it on all of the albums... and yes I am including his first album 'Infinite')
Gangstarr
Talib Kweli
Tribe called quest
The Roots

almost:
Fabolous
DL Incognito (3rd album is droppin end of summer, and he's instantly in the 'yes' column)
DMX (his first three were all classics to me, but the newest 2 are 'meh')
Lil Wayne (his first album was a hood classic... in the south, and ONLY in the south. Since then, he's caught on to what EVERYone likes, and he's making ill music lately)
2Pac
Common (what the heck happened with Electric Circus)
Little Brother (only 2 main distributed albums)
Wu-tang
Mobb Deep (and im sure they'll drop to the 'not' column after their G-Unit debut)
LL Cool J (ok, he had a few weak drops, but 7-8 out of 11 damn albums ain't bad LOL)

not:
Nas (he had 2 SLEEPER albums people... c'mon now)
Beanie Sigel (haha - thats laughable)
Obie Trice (haha... nope)
Outkast (they were ILL for 3, maaaybe 4 albums... then wtf)
D12 (my God people... give ya head a shake... just cause a rapper dies, dont automatically make his shit legendary...)

word.

1

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