Weird. This felt more dated to me than several of the other hip hop records we've listened to that are technically older than this. Not sure why that is - maybe that high pitch synth thing? The lyrics? Both? And why is it that there's such a need in hip hop to make these records so damn long? Get off my lawn, please. Anyway, what I really want to write about is how this album completely transformed my suburban southern high school upon release. I mean, it was insane. Between this and Snoop's first record there was this, seemingly overnight, shift where about 80% of the whitest of white dudes at my school somehow convinced themselves they were gangstas. The clothes. Cars. Posture. Interest in marijuana. All of it completely changed. And then I remember going to Myrtle Beach and seeing some white kid who couldn't have been older than 12 rocking a Philly's blunt tee. Shit was out of hand. Funny, too, how so often grunge and alternative music gets thrown out there as the defining cultural moment of the 90s, when really - that bit only lasted like three years. By '94, everybody who was popular had moved on to West Coast rap and the alternative radio stations were playing Seven Mary Three and Sponge. And, look, I'd rather listen to the Chronic than Seven Mary Three, so it's hard to even blame folks.