Nas
Debut Smash: Illmatic

Lightning struck on a cloudless, sunny day and it was in the form of Nasir Jones unleashing what is unarguably the greatest debut album of all time in hip hop. That 1993 CD was volcanic in its devastatingly innovative street poetry and molten lava hot production. We don’t blame Nas for never scaling that mountain again, though It Was Written is quality, because few artists ever have or will. Hey, even Mike could not duplicate Thriller.