Just listening to it... for the first time in probably about 5 months...
I overplayed this shit so much from the age of 10 I thought his first 3 had kinda lost their sting to me, since I just know the shit soooooooooo INSIDE-OUT and played so many times...
But WOW. This is just SO fucking good. And the contrast is especially highlighted after listening to his recent shit so much lately, it's so clear and definitive... there's such a coherent style that feels cemented in the music and his raps, top-to-fucking-bottom.
This shit is classic as fuck. And, 13 years on... his lyrics and flows here still sound better than anything I've heard since. His humour is complex, biting, socio-political... all of his first three are a holy trinity of hip-hop, but man, this is his masterpiece.
The fucking balance of rhyme schemes, concepts, humour, the ideas themselves, messages, atmosphere, production, melody, the hooks... it's near-pitch-perfect.