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A few random thoughts:
For a start, Public Enemy took rap from being all about 'sucker mc's' and all to being political. At the time music was very rarely about anything other then boy/girl.
This LP was very much a breakthrough for them, so there is the impact factor of that. It's also structurally different - all those short pieces in between the full songs, a change from their first LP. The tracks themselves were also more inventive stylistically - if you listen to the first LP, 'Yo! Bumrush The Show' you'll see how they had moved on.
Their intelligence was a big factor in rap gaining respect as a musical art form. And of course, the lyrical, vocal and visual duality of the serious Chuck D alongside the more lighthearted FLava Flav was a true innovation.
It was very much Public Enemy, around this time, who started to branch out in their appeal to white kids who had been listening to metal and indie.
Also, they could legitimately be considered as a musical force rather than merely a rap force as they were able to write an LP of very strong and distinctive songs.
As a side note, I was always much more imnpressed with the follow up to this one, 'Fear of a Black Planet'. Side one (that shows my age!) of 'Fear of a Black planet' is 30 or so minutes of absolutely intense non-stop brilliance.
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