Yen Lo, Khigh Dhiegh's character from the 1962 political and psychological thriller The Manchurian Candidate by John Frankenheimer.

Samuel Diamond of Tiny Mix Tapes gave it maximum score saying that the album is "a work of art that feels fully realized on every level, from the Bigavelian harmonization of each seamlessly stacked Ka ad lib to the mix-mastery of each precisely-pitched Preservation sample".

[9] Critic Tom Hull said "rapper Ka and producer Preservation styled this concept album after the notorious Chinese doctor-hypnotist in The Manchurian Candidate, which also provides occasional snatches of dialog.

[10] Nathan Stevens of Spectrum Culture said that the album "builds the same world of anxiety, paranoia and treacherous twists as The Manchurian" and is "anti-pop-rap, meant to make listeners profoundly uncomfortable".

[6] Winston Cook-Wilson of Pitchfork said that the album "doesn't retrace the plot of the film or the book that inspired it, but instead engages with its themes, playing off of soundbytes interspersed between songs".

Richards of Spin stated that "This is an album about fear, death and strategic miscarriage in buckshot-logged East Brooklyn, where the carrot of job security is no incentive to hold out hope".