Also, your list is as pop-centric as humanly possible
The not being able to choose between Celine Dion and Tupac for the 90's while also accusing everyone of having tastes that were too white was pretty great.
One was a massive pop star and the other was, possibly the biggest rap star of the decade. I spent that entire decade living in two mid-sized Kansas cities. You couldn't turn the radio on in the 90's without hearing Celine. Even before Titanic and the Falling Into You albums she was the queen of one huge hit per album, we were learning Celine songs in French class in 1992.
I didn't really listen to Tupac until I got to Manhattan but I don't think there was one single time that I went out that i didn't hear at least one Tupac song. IMO he was much bigger than Biggie, Snoop, and Dre. I preferred Snoop but I think pac was the bigger star. That being said my wife grew up in upstate New York and she didn't know Tupac at all. She knew all of the Bad Boy guys and Wutang. I didn't know anything about wutang until Chappelle's Show, although I did know ODB.
Because Pac didn't differentiate himself enough from other rap stars of the decade I probably should have picked Celine but rap in the 90s should have been represented because of the overall cultural influence. Same could be said for Nirvana but I didn't want to pick a group that was a shooting star, but for only 2 years. But they were the unquestioned kings of 90s alternative which, like rap, was highly culturally significant.