Lord Coal
The Carbon Knight
'Last Real Nigga Alive' was on God's Son (2002), so, considering Ghost and Rae have been in Hip-hop since the early nineties, and still haven't retired, it's perfectly safe to say that, yes, they were still at the time Nas made the song.
My argument as far as that song goes isn't that he's saying he's the best as, like Deathblow said, pretty much every rapper has claimed to be the best at some point. No, my argument is that he's bigging up Rae and Ghost one minute, then saying he's the 'last real nigga alive' the next, thereby insinuating that Ghost and Rae are fake. Not the sort of thing you expect to hear someone say about people they've just claimed to be friends with.
As for the crackheads, obviously it's not Butlins. Obviously the junkies are so hooked they'll keep coming back for more, but 'beating junkies in the head with baseball bats' isn't a good idea as there's a strong possibility of killing them, thereby, assuming they're his customers, reducing the size of his consumer base and, ultimately, profits.
Also, while Nas was obviously not catering to every crackhead in New York (That's a lot of junkies), that raises another point. Nas has, on several occasions, compared himself to Escobar. Obviously he's not the only cat to have tried the trick of making himself out to be more than he is, it's just the he does it that grates. When Biggie came up with these stories of being a big-time gangsta, drug-dealer whatever, well, it's hard to explain, but it was just always obvious he was telling a story, whereas with Nas, I dunno how to say it really, but he just seems like a real conceited bastard.
Now don't get me wrong, there's a lot of Nas' work that I respect, and I don't disagree that he has some talent but, frankly, he just gets on my **** a bit. Maybe my comment that he only has the one flow was a little misguided. I've been listening to Biggie quite a lot lately, and there's no way the two can compare. BIG was a genuine legend. Here's the difference: Nas is very good, Biggie was excellent.