its not listener fatigue..its just the streets got gayer...they fell for that Ja Rule bullshyt..50 Cent eventually was doing "Best Friend" and NY never really chose Jay Z over DMX outright. He sold big with like Slippin coming out the week before.
Irv had ja firing on all cylinders for a bit...
Ja had some legit bangers that dmx would have sounded ill on...
Jay z is a rare cat to stay on top all these years , dmx had a decent run , I think him going off doing movies sorta sidetracked him but the main thing is his personal problems from his addiction issues to his legal issues with the law aswell ...... 50 was the biggest rapper in the world at one point same as Wayne but it don’t last long .....that’s why I laugh wen people say pac or big would be still on top and I say hell no ... there’s no way them 2 would have stayed on top from the mid-90s up til now ....snoop has only stayed relevant due to other ventures etc same with puffy music wise both fell off years ago ... jay truly is a rare one 
 Fell off too. When he dropped blueprint 3 it was all downhill from there.