Listening to this album was a first for me. I really enjoyed how personal and deep the album was. Her lyrics about her life experiences with love, career and her family were all well executed. Her singing is really good too. She really was the first to open up the genre to the mainstream world without flaunting her feminine charms, but sharing her stories of childhood and heartbreak. Top 3 songs for me would have to be To Zion, Final Hour & Lost Ones. I also think the title track was a nice way to close out the album.
Regarding her impact on mainstream hip-hop, you really would'nt be able to tell by listening to the album alone until you did some slight research. She was nominated for 10 grammys and won 5 of them and this album remained on the Billboard 200 for a record long 80 weeks (Adele would go and break this following her debut album 21). Even though I will never understand the true impact Ms. Hill had on hip-hop within itself, but she did have "that thing," and it shined oh, so brightly.