In reply to BEYSTAN_ SINCE 1997.

She became iconic because of the quality of the album, how it changed the music industry with the claim and grammy nominations and also the achievement for a black female artist at that time and the style of music. For me Lauryn is iconic because the body of work is a classic and still stands the test of time all of these years on and she is still able to book and command a stage on her one album.
I think the same is said for Tupac and Biggie and Also Alliyah for the vision and the music they put out compared to their peers at the time