This not my cup of tea. Well, the sound is good, but the music is too repetitive. After a couple of songs, it simply annoyed me.
This hits hard. The flow is insane, even as a non-native speaker I can hear how well the lyrics are crafted, the background music is really good, with jazzy bits and is less annoying that the "blips" and "wheeez" of his older brothers from NYC.
New York hip hop has a very distinct sound, compared to the stuff being created on the West Coast at this time. This has a languid feel, almost jazz like in places, but we are definitely in the heart of New York for this. The lyrics hit hard, obviously from growing up in some very tough projects, but there are lighter tracks too with songs about chilling out with friends. Influential but probably not one I would listen to regularly.