I didnt know about the sample issues til now, but it seems like the label had their hand in this too much, like they wanted him to commercialize his tracks which made a lot of them sound cliche or safe like everyone's saying.
Notice how the first 2 tracks are very much like songs from R4/4eva. Then at the end of track 2 he has a skit where he lands in the "mainstream," immediately followed by several severely poppy songs. Like he purposely mainstream-ed his songs, that's just the vibe I get when listening.