Moore and Martinez felt that MCA was not supportive of their album. Moore told Billboard in 2002 that MCA "weren't very supportive of what we were trying to do", and that the label attempted to cut off funding for the recording of their follow-up to The Once and Future. In a 2004 interview with AllHipHop, Martinez reflected that when label executives heard the album, "we could tell that we weren’t gona put the kind of representation and support we were gona need behind it, 'cause they were like 'this is nice'. […] So MCA was like what kind of record is this, it’s not exactly regular, where are we gonna categorize it, etcetera." As they believed the label would not promote the album properly, they decided to spend their marketing budget on promoting Black Lily, a music event focused on promoting independent artists. The event started in New York before moving to Philadelphia, with later Black Lily events taking place in London.
