No idea, I was a huge fan as a youngin' from 2000 (When The Smoke Clears album) on
What people tend to overlook is how Paul, Juice and Scarecrow especially were MASSIVE hiphop fans (and music fans in general, as evidenced in their sampling). From LL Cool J to PE to Geto Boys to Slick Rick and so on
very good Lord Infamous interview from 2009