and rap fans fell for it.

I mean, this wasn't the argument until Miss Jackson came out. The way I see it is when they hit the pop market Dre's flamboyance was a big part of their success. He stands out. Big Boi looked like a rapper, and Dre looked like someone out of Parliament. You notice him more. MTV/Pop market got a hold of them and it looked like they were damn near on their way to the Gwen Stefani/No Doubt treatment. The problem is they were always just about equal MCs and very complimentary. I can't say that there's a point in their career when one of them consistently had the better verses in their tracks. It's just that when you see the nigga in jeans standing next to the cat in the pink feathery space suit, of course you're going to notice the guy in the pink feathery space suit. It just makes sense. As an MC Dre is mad flamboyant too. He just does shit that Big Boi doesn't. But there's a lot of shit Big Boi does that Dre just doesn't too.

Generally when people talk about Dre being the much better MC, I assume they're people who didn't really listen to OutKast, or aren't huge hip hop fans who didn't get into them until Miss Jackson came out.