He started to sound a little clumsy and not exactly effortless but he was never really a smooth flowing guy IMO, even the early BDP albums-I don't think he was comparable flow-wise with BDK or Rakim but he compensated with other things. Also, his voice in the 90¨'s got more and more gravelly and less "pleasant". Still, it's KRS who had an incredibly ability to just sound like he *owned* the mic and I dug the beats as well...