i liked a few joints off it
the rest? filler and underwhelming
my reaction that i remember to it:
i had the casette
so after that first side
the 2nd side was downhill
and not really worth listening
that second side sounded southed all out and i wasn't feelin' it
especially for a new york mc at the time

anonymous will come in and say az was a pioneer for usin' southern producers
but that shit was wack and just an example of az tryin' to cater to outside of new york markets...crossover, instead of makin' them crossover to him by givin' up that gritty grimey new york sound.
that was why i feel the album was wack.

cuz it didn't stick to the ethos of illmatic, that hard slice of new york life
instead the shit came across the first few songs on side one with that feel, then it tapered off into some corny filler southern shit

and outside of the pete rock and buckwild those songs weren't really repeaters. they were cool a few listens but they weren't engaging to keep me listenin' over and over for az and his "technical mastery" of wordplay or whatever shit anonymous is tryin' to sell about how good az really is