"Stakes Is High" dealt with many topics, including the state of hiphop, the commercialization of the hip-hop culture and criticism towards gangsta rap. This would cause great contempt with the late gangsta rapper 2Pac who would later retaliate on the song "Against All Odds" from his posthumous 1996 album "" (as well as the unreleased song "Watch Ya Mouth" recorded during the same sessions). Naughty By Nature also took serious offense to the record, creating a feud that only died down after about a decade and a half after "Stakes Is High" was released.