Does anyone ever comply with these "As listeners we must band together" things? I couldn't care less. I like the lo-fi sound myself and put on some Nujabes while in the kitchen. It's a good time.
But whether any specific artist gets to play or not doesn't concern me that much. I've found that single artists rarely preserve the feel so much as ones in a genre.
He's the modern GOAT of that genre for sure - but Nujabes' productions literally pay homage to the sounds of the SP1200, MPC60, etc that really made early hip-hop what it was in the early 90s. If we are to think of who is the GOAT of this genre we need to think more like Pete Rock, DJ Premier, RZA, etc
But whether any specific artist gets to play or not doesn't concern me that much. I've found that single artists rarely preserve the feel so much as ones in a genre.