The Wu-Tang Clan architect tells Complex in a new interview he believes Kendrick and Drake can shake hands down the line like Jay-Z and Nas did for their era in due time ... and he goes on to analyze their rap war from an athletic angle.

"First of all, Kendrick is the natural lyricist, and Drake is a trained lyricist," RZA explained. "You could train a fighter and he could be good, then you got those natural fighters who also then go through training. So that's a different chamber there. And while Drake got bars forever, Kendrick's bars' potency was stronger."

Drake quipped he's a "war general, seasoned in preparation" on his "The Heart Pt. 6" final diss to Kendrick ... but RZA disagrees and thinks Drake's OVO team set him up for failure.

"So the battle bar-for-bar was something that was just not good advising on Drake's camp in the sense of just getting in that fight without really taking some more training for that," RZA continued. "When Kendrick wrote the letter to his son or his daughter and to his [mother], Kendrick is going to come like that."

Drake's hip hop elders have been applying tough love all year ... remember, Mos Def said his songs were more in sync with shopping than with the pillars of classic rap.

RZA acknowledges Drake helped propel hip hop culture with his melodies and raised a generation on his own, and nobody can take that legacy away!!!

In the case of New York's hip hop music legacy -- RZA's not so sure the 5 boroughs have any juice left to shift the culture. 🤷🏾‍♂️

He admits loving GloRilla and the female rap movement as a whole ... but says NYC hip hop lost its originality a while back.

He doesn't even rank any of his top hip hop years past the mid-'90s!!!

RZA says he doesn't have to worry about his Wu-Tang Clan dropping the ball, because any crew member will be the other's crutches if one is having a lousy day on stage ... something Ghostface Killah, Inspectah Deck and Cappadonna recently backed up with TMZ Hip Hop.