Yes, Illmatic indeed sparked impact. In spring of 1994, the entire hip hop dominance belonged to the west coast, most notably Death Row Records. And even before then, hip hop at the time was more about style and flow than lyricism and poetry. So when Nas was introduced, most of the critics automatically fell in love because of the kind of lyricism that they never heard from any other emcee at that time. However, it took the nation to full grasp because of the conditioned state of west coast influence. This was exactly why Biggie's debut made such a commercial splash, whereas Nas was such a slow burner. Biggie's production, sound, and overall style was significantly west coast influenced. Inspite of the critical acclaim out the gate, Nas' impact came through word of mouth and people actually redevelopment their rhyme schemes, develop more focus on lyrics, and got more people than any other emcee aside from Rakim to inspire to be a rapper themselves. There is a REASON why Illmatic is still herald today. It's the one album that touched people who came from that era the most. It's that one album that defined an era. Not Snoop's album, not Biggie's album, not even Wu's album. If that's not true, then why are we even having a dicussion about it today when it is apparent that it cause an impact. We can all agree it wasn't an immediate impact, but it was indeed the pinnicle LP that change a course in hip hop history.