First three albums, De La was super creative and slightly snobbish. They would occasionally poke fun at what other artists were doing, but it never came across as heavy handed. They always kept it witty, light and somewhat codified. All of a sudden they started caring too much about what everyone else was doing. Instead of drawing up an innovative offensive scheme as per usual, they decided that they had to focus on playing defense. If you take "Stakes Is High" (the song) off the album, then it's honestly a little on the boring side. I bumped the album when it came out because I was very anti-mainstream rap at the time, but in the end it isn't a particularly good representation of De La Soul's legacy.