Maybe before his awful album that was relapse, and his terrible sell out that was Recovery.

Actually, before that I thought he was a really good songwriter. He had pushy songs that were fnny and almost felt 'punkish' because of how they pushed the envelope. And he had refective songs about his life that were written well, and songs about media and government and war.

Generally they were really well written too, and conveyed a point. And then he also had some pretty childish and 'butthurt' songs.
But anything before relapse I'd say was good as a whole.

I actually thought Relapse and Recovery were rather good, but you are right about shady losing his magic slightly. His best song is "Run Rabbit Run".