[1][2] The album features guest appearances from Cam'ron, NymLo, Joey Badass, Ab-Soul, Kobe, CJ Fly, Wiz Khalifa, Currensy, Ty Dolla Sign, Bluntsmoker, J. Ivy and BJ the Chicago Kid.

"[3] He also spoke about how the album cover was inspired by Nas in the film Belly, saying: "Well, I’ve always like that picture.

[8] Nate Patrin of Pitchfork Media gave the album a 6.2 out of 10, saying "Without a sustained attention-getting creativity, the themes of Dream.ZONE.Achieve largely blur together in a haze of aimless defiance and frustration.

You've heard tracks like "City of Dreams" (NYC-repping anti-swag call to realness), "9eleven" (neighborhood as war zone), and "Jigga Flow" (pick any Reasonable Doubt deep cut) before—and DZA hasn't come around to finding a way to make these popular, often relatable, and frankly well-worn themes uniquely his own.

Considering how often the spotlight swings to personality-rich guests like Ab-Soul ("Hearses"), Wiz Khalifa & Curren$y ("Legends in the Making"), and BJ the Chicago Kid ("Robin Givens"), the contrast gets pretty stark.

"[9] Adam Finley of PopMatters gave the album a five out of ten, saying "It’s paint-by-numbers Harlem rap from the Jim Jones era, and frankly, in 2014 there’s just too much going on in hip hop for this to carry much sway, leaving Dream.Zone.Achieve a too-long-by-half 80-minute course in hard-nosed Harlem rap with plenty of good beats but without a distinct voice to guide it.

Smoke’s style is nostalgic without sounding corny, confident and hungry without losing its sense of humor.

He could have benefited from having the album broken up into seven-track EPs and released over the course of two-three months, but we’re forced to aimlessly sift our own way through D.Z.A.