If you

to clearly remember when dare iz came out, shyt was huge and Red was the man and everywhere..so one could make that argument. I also want to understand the difference in reaction to big and nas debuts and how different it was to Red long term.
i was sayin' "really" in reference to you sayin' you never see muddy waters gettin' mentioned when with me it's the opposite. most people i know always reference that album as their favrorite and redman's best
oh i remember clearly
big had puffy to help smooth out his image and all. puff played a major role in big's image and sellin' him in a more commercial way. for example, "the one more chance" remix helped in a major way. biggie would've been a lot like redman (respected among his peers but strictly a gold record sellin' artist) had he not had puff's help with smoothin' his music and image out
redman ain't been one to make his image anythin' other just bein' a street brother with a sense of humor from jersey. raw, grimy and funny street rhymes is his lane
it was just always understand that nas was just great. nas is really unlike any other mc. like he won't never really the club makin' type brother although he's tried years later a couple of times but that's not his lane. with illmatic, nas was just like this young but wise street brother who was in the hood but had this way of already lookin' from the outside at things. nas was and is ahead of his time