Hip-hop journalist Harry Allen called the album a big turning point in hip-hop where you didn’t have to be "tough". A Tribe Called Quest member Ali Shaheed Muhammad further elaborated that "LL Cool J, Big Daddy Kane, KRS-One, N.W.A, even Public Enemy, had a tough guy image. It was this bravado at the time that all the hip-hop artists had. "People’s Instinctive Travels" wasn’t any of that. We weren’t trying to be tough guys. It was about having fun, being lighthearted, being witty, being poetic. Just being good with one another. That’s what we presented. Just be. Just exist. Be comfortable in your own skin. "People’s Instinctive Travels" was about celebrating you, whoever you are".