I accept that criticism of Nas' music. Only thing I'd like to point out is that no rapper stays on topic in his verse. It's just not something that one expects from rap music and we as fans have let rappers get away with that.
i have all of nas' albums and most of his cd and vinyl singles on my computer. i hoard like that with every artist. so obviously i think nas is good enough for a listen, and the odd nas song is in my personal classics list, but considering the amount of material and years in the game i feel like he's overrated.
and furtherer, i felt that this song epitomized why i some times dislike nas as a lyricist, and like i said the beat sounds too kanye-ish for me. again, i thought bittersweet poetry was a corny but nice track, i think can't tell me nothing is an alright track. but kanye's branch in hiphop is not a "subgenre" i'm crazy about.