Gotta disagree on part of this. People seem to think the only lyricists are people that try to get into deep meanings or something like that. People constantly bring up J cole and guys like him as "lyricists".
ODB has plenty of dope *** lines. Lots of great lyrics in his song. Some of the best lyricists of all time weren't these soft *** "deep" rappers like Cole. Pun, L, Jada, Fab, Cassidy, most of the Wu, etc. are some of the GOATs and none of them were "deep" or "woke" rappers.
Even now Gucci Mane, Boosie, Tee Grizzley, 21 savage all have just as good if not better lyrics than guys like Cole, but they aren't considered "lyricists" because your average rap fan now can't associate with what they are speaking on.