(2003 if you count the general release instead) if not all time.

I actually got this one in the mail late in '02, still living down South (my last "winter" there), and Median's verse hit home like shit.

I was still firmly in my "if you have ONE verse I really like, I'll buy your CD" stage and Phonte's hilarious "White Girls Like Caitlin/Trick Daddy at Poetry Night" verse was what made me cop the CD on sight.

it's such a nostalgic listen, worth sitting through end to end if anyone is really wondering what the hubub was about. Finally, we had some rappers from the Carolinas that reminded me of what cats that *I* knew and was around were really about. Sure you might have been reminded of Tribe, or Pete & CL, but IMO them dudes were straight original with it.

the release of this album also coincided with when I posted (on my old alias) rather heavily here.

To 2012 ears this might sound quaint, and if I'm honest it might have done the same in 2002. But that's what really put it over the top. Thinking of the albums that I internalized that year I think that the "DIY"-ness of the album is what really made it go. 9th had a very "professional" approach to beats, and both Pooh and Phonte were a lil different from what I was used to from rappers at the time.