Cassidy is confident that his entry into the world of commercial hip hop motivated his peers to step up their game. Although his loyal following was well aware of his lyrical prowess from the battle rap scene, the Philly-bred lyricist seemed like an overnight sensation when his debut single “Hotel” dropped in 2003.

But by the time he followed up with undeniable bangers such as “I’m a Hustla,” “My Drink N My 2 Step,” and “B-Boy Stance,” there was no denying that he was carving out a lane for himself. All the while, he was also setting a trend with his witty punchlines and gritty delivery.

“I think ever since I came out, I just changed the trajectory of how s**t was going,” said Cassidy about his era of influencing the rap game in the early 2000s. The Split Personality artist is among the recent guests to appear on “The Bootleg Kev Podcast.” As he recalled the making of “6 Minutes,” featuring Lil Wayne and Fabolous, he detailed how his approach to music was the catalyst for other emcees to test the wave of upping their one-liners. “Like, I made it more competitive, made you had to be more lyrical, made you have to have more punchlines and lyrics and piece up more syllables just to sound like you were spittin’,” he said.

Cassidy went on to say that prior to him, “You ain’t have nothing else to compare it to. But when you can listen to me doing it like this, if you supposed to be lyrical, you gotta be doing it to a certain level.” He continued, “So around that time I came out, you started to see a lot of people change. More punchlines, piecing up more syllables, changing up they flow — not tryna be exactly like me but knowing that you had to go in that direction to be successful at the time.”

Peep the interview clip below.