No they werent. When it first dropped folks gave it a quick listen and said the Neptunes went too far with the futuristic beats. Then folks kept listening and the album came around on people.
It was definitely really hyped up. It got a XXL rating a good 3-4 weeks before it actually dropped, and then I remember a sampler dropped and people were really hyped off of joints like Ride Around Shinin, Momma I'm Sorry, and Keys Open Doors.
A big thing I liked about HHNF was that Pusha really started to change his voice a little bit so that he and malice sounded pretty different. If you listen to the Intro on Lord Willin they basically sound the same, and they did on most of that album. A big Clipse can hear little differences, but Pusha started sounding different on the Re-Up Gang tapes, but this was really the first actual album where people heard it.