As much as I LOVE the "digging in the crates"-philosophy of early 90's NYC Hip-Hop, it had a tendency to get too smooth or lounge-jazzy after a while (compare "Midnight Marauders" to "Low end theory", compare "Main Ingredient" to "Mecca...", compare Large Professor's initially unreleased "the LP" to "Breaking Atoms"). I think RZA gave NYC a kick in the ass with the grit and shit, I LOVE the ruggedness of the early Wu-tang stuff...