Da Inna Sound, Y'all) philosophy on their brilliant and weird debut, Three Feet High and Rising (making them the first—and probably only—hip-hop act to appropriate a Johnny Cash song for their album title). Robert Christgau wrote: "After almost four years, Posdnuos and company emerge from the ether like the long-lost friends they are.

Dave's input was no less outspoken: "I'm sick of bitches shakin' asses / I'm sick of talkin' about blunts / Sick of Versace glasses / Sick of slang / Sick of half-ass awards shows / Sick of name brand clothes. I look back on people like that and think about how they had that moment of clarity, where they looked around them and at things decaying in their society–whether it’s music or life, that’s where “Stakes is High” was at.The streaming version of the album divides "The Bizness" into two tracks, "The Bizness" and "Yunonstop". I think that the energy we put into that song was similar to that of what Marvin Gaye put into “What’s Going On.

All the tracks are as original from what I can hear, no edits which is too common with Hip Hop reissues. Like other De La Soul albums, Stakes Is High has a running theme, which in this case is the group's concern about the state of rap, as well as the state of hip hop culture and how it is regarded in general. Stakes Is High helped introduce rapper Mos Def to a wider audience, on the track "Big Brother Beat".was a relentless attack on what De La saw as a decline, not only in hip hop music, but also in hip hop culture. Great to see so many other reviewers echoing what I'm feeling about this record - its absolute quality! Dilla was excited because here we are at this point in time where Dilla had already been seasoned in the game doing different things in the name of The Ummah, working with different artists but hadn’t did a De La Soul record. Here, they're no longer so self-conscious and it's easy to remember why you liked them enough in the first place to stick with them through the hard times.