it’s funny. I find the albums of Nas’ that hip hop heads aren’t fans of get better ratings from critics. As you say SD and HHID were fairly well praised by critics while Stillmatic was seen as average but hip hop heads loved it.
to me SD and HHID are solid albums but only have a handful of tracks I go back to now. While Stillmatic, Life Is Good, Untitled and God’s Son aged better.
Of all Nas’ albums since I got into hip hop heavy in 2001 HHID and Nasir the ones which disappointed me the most. HHID good but with that title I hoped for something more. Nasir I don’t think you can blame Nas beyond saying he shouldn’t have done a rushed project