I remember hearing this when it came out and not being quite as enamored with it as critics were, but I really liked Lupe's last couple of albums, so I was excited to revisit it. It's very reminiscent of Kanye West's early albums -- the College Dropout and Late Registration most notably -- but with notably better lyrics. Lupe actually got his big break appearing on Kanye's "Touch the Sky". Overall, I think it's really good -- one of the more sophisticated mainstream rap albums of the 00s -- but it does suffer from being way too long. You could cut like 40 minutes and there's probably a 5 star album in here somewhere. There is some cool stuff here though -- really like "Kick, Push", "I Gotcha", and "Daydreamin'". Going with a light 4 stars.