"People’s Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm" has been recognized for widening hip-hop's vocabulary, as well as instrumentation and samples within hip-hop music. It has also been recognized for influencing a wide range of acclaimed hip-hop and R&B artists, including Common, D'Angelo, Digable Planets, Erykah Badu, Fugees, J Dilla, Kendrick Lamar, Mos Def, Outkast and Kanye West. Pharrell Williams stated "I listened to "Bonita" everyday. I'd never heard anything like that in my life. That's where I changed". On another occasion, Williams explained that "People's Instinctive Travels" "caused a turning point in my life, which made me see that music was art."