and it's a shame that he doesn't. He's definitely under appreciated and should get the same level of respect as Nas or Biggie.

I just think it's super interesting to discuss why he doesn't have a certified classic album (IDK wasn't Tical initially considered one of the Wu classics or did I imagine that?)

My theory is that he was limited initially by being in the Wu while at the same time being bolstered by it. The first album was a RZA album featuring Method Man, but then when he had more control he didn't deliver.

He was the first to get a Wu solo and I think RZA learned from his mistakes, which allowed him to come stronger with the other 4 (Ghost, Rae, GZA and arguably ODB). I think Tical suffers by being a little too short, not having as many Wu members on it (it's really just Rae, RZA and Deck), and not having the Razor Sharp remix of All I Need on it. It also has a remix of M.E.T.H.O.D. Man which could have really just been a B-side.

You can see him trying to course correct really blatantly on his second album by having a million cuts and skits (28 tracks!) and being all over the place thematically. By having regular Wu/RZA type cuts on there and then the more mainstream stuff like the Trackmasters produced break up song with D'Angelo and... (Actually this album doesn't sound that commercial to me today, but I remember feeling it was very commercial when I first heard it. But that was another era...)

He definitely attempted to follow the Biggie and Nas formula and didn't produce a classic. (But personally I think this album is very similar to It Was Written: All over the place production-wise, a bunch of great songs, a bunch of filler, a couple skippable tracks, and some obvious cross over attempts.)

He's got an Erick Sermon beat, a Havoc beat, a Prince Paul/Chris Rock skit and Trackmasters besides Wu producers. Maybe he didn't go far enough and get more outside help from Premo, Pete Rock or some others. And, I think he messed up again by not having barely any Wu members on this one again. The track with all the Wu features, Spazzola is the worst beat on the album (produced by Deck).

I don't know. This album was a huge success initially without really standing the test of time. There are easily 8 excellent songs on this looking at it right now though. To me, I would take Method Man every single time as I think Illmatic is a little bit overrated (and nothing after that comes close to it) and I'm not that into Biggie (who only put out two albums.