Songwriters make good money when a song hits it big. However, few of them would be able to perform what they write. What you are suggesting is that anyone who sings should write their own stuff. Great art often comes from collaborative efforts, and when you say anyone could have done what Nas did, you're flat out wrong. You're basically saying singers are interchangeable and all covers are the same and there is no originality anywhere.

Dolly Parton wrote I Will Always Love You and her version is magnificent. But Whitney took it to a whole new level. When asked if she was jealous that Whitney's version did so much better, Dolly said, "Hey, the checks keep coming, I couldn't be happier."

Perhaps you miss the old days of the American Songbook where guys like Rodgers and Hammerstein cranked out hit after hit and you rarely knew the singers. But in the end, if every singer had to write their own songs, we would have never heard of a guy like Frank Sinatra.