Where were you in 96?? IWW was the number one album for 4 straight weeks off of one single ft Lauryn Hill. The beef wit Jay was definitely huge but lets not act like 01 was the year when he blew up.
Actually at the time Street Dreams Was a much bigger hit than If i ruled the world. Street...
He's got three equally great but flawed albums none of which are classic. People have elevated MMLP to classic status because it was his biggest album and he's considered one of the goats and all of the Goat's have at least one.