"Paid in Full" was released during what became known as the golden age hip hop era. In "The Rolling Stone Album Guide" (2004), Sasha Frere-Jones called it "one of hip-hop's perfect records", while Alex Ogg considered it to be the duo's magnum opus in his book "The Men Behind Def Jam". Rakim's rapping on the album set a blueprint for future rappers and helped secure East Coast hip hop's reputation for innovative lyrical technique. Author William Cobb stated in "To the Break of Dawn" that his rapping had "stepped outside" of the preceding era of old school hip hop and that while the vocabulary and lyrical dexterity of newer rappers had improved, it was "nowhere near what Rakim introduced to the genre". "The New York Times" Dimitri Ehrlich, who described the album as "an artistic and commercial benchmark", credited Rakim for helping "give birth to a musical genre" and leading "a quiet musical revolution, introducing a soft-spoken rapping style". Allmusic's Steve Huey declared "Paid in Full" one of hip-hop's most influential albums and "essential listening" for those interested in the genre's "basic musical foundations". MTV ranked it at number one in "The Greatest Hip-Hop Albums of All Time", stating it raised the standards of hip-hop "both sonically and poetically" and described it as "captivating, profound, innovative and instantly influential". The album is broken down track-by-track by Rakim in Brian Coleman's book "Check the Technique".