Distancing himself from the dangers of the streets, Joseph "Fat Joe" Cartagena aka Don Cartagena finds a new path through hip-hop, emerging from the secret chambers of the genre with the group DITC and managing to release two successful albums in the space of few years, attracting the attention of the circuit.
The youngster managed to make a name for himself by releasing a string of catchy hit singles that found positive reception in the underground scene, including "Flow Joe", "The Shit Is Real", "Success", and "Envy", he appears on tracks with Brand Nubian and KRS-One, and is featured on the hit remix of LL Cool J's "I Shot Ya", in which Fat Joe joined Keith Murray, Foxy Brown and Prodigy on a blistering track. During the recording of his second LP, Fat Joe discoreved Big Pun, leading actor in this album.
After realizing that his label, Relativity, wasn't adequately promoting his material, Fat Joe left the label and began looking for a new record deal. Approaching Bad Boy, the Bronx rapper wanted to start his own label, Terror Squad Entertainment, but president Puff Daddy denied him this, so he chose Atlantic instead. Around this time, the unknown Detroit rapper Eminem sent Fat Joe a demo tape asking him to sign with his label, Terror Squad Ent., but Don Cartagena repeatedly turned him down.
After helping Big Pun to realize his debut album "Capital Punishment", Fat Joe publishes his third studio album. In the DITC only Lord Finesse has the same number of disks. The production is handled by Mack 10, LES, Dame Grease, Marley Marl, Richard Frierson, Baby Paul, Ski, Buckwild, JAO, Ghetto Professionals, The Beatnuts, Spunk Biggs, Armageddon, Rashad Smith and Kurt Gowdy. The guests are Big Punisher, Prospect, Armageddon, Puff Daddy, Jadakiss, Nas, Raekwon, Charli Baltimore, Cuban Link, Triple Seis, Noreaga, Terror Squad, Krayzie Bone and Layzie Bone.
What is surprising is the constant presence of Pun on this record. It's almost a Big Punisher album featuring Fat Joe. Five years ago he was "da Gangsta", today he's "the Don", passing through... I don't know, a sort of middle ground? In "Jealous One's Envy" we've themes addressed in both albums — more or less the same: gangsterism and braggadocio lyrics — but above all, the mood of the record is explained by the skits that Joe decides to include in his sophomore: both "King of New York" and "The Godfather", the gangsta and the mafioso together. It might seem the same thing to a person who doesn't care or to the passive listener, but isn't like that, to make an easy and immediate comparison, it's like saying that Stringer Bell and Avon Barksdale act in the same way.
There has [been] an evolution in Joe's rap persona that took him from the street to the crime buildings, or at least so it seems, so the author wants to suggest. Nevertheless, Fat Joe contradicts himself in the first seconds of his new album with an introductory opening skit in which Don Joe can leave the court after bribing the jury and being found not guilty among the protests of the onlookers. Found himself besieged by zealous journalists outside the same building — we're in the Bronx — waiting for him to the interview, to the questions posed to him, Joe decides not to make any offer that cannot be refused like a respectable businessman would, indeed he orders Flex to shoot the journalist, order immediately executed and then proclaims himself «Don of Rap» in the next seconds over a robust boom bap invented by L.E.S.
After that short intro produced by Mack 10, we are catapulted into one of the two songs Joe chose without guests (I remember: out of 15, really a few), "The Crack Attack": Prodigy resonates from his untouchable classic "Shook Ones, Pt. II", two verses well delivered with smoothness, such good rhyme patterns. They almost don't seem to be his. And in fact, they aren't. Props to Big Pun that wrote 95% of this whole album. Good scratches by DJ Clark Kent in this track produced by the aforementioned LES.
Big Punisher comes physically in the next track, "Triplets", over a very gloomy beat invented by Dame Grease and he delivers a very smooth verse with a flow that you can appreciate rarely. Here Fat Joe cannot escape the confrontation with Pun in one of his albums: eight bars each, then two, then four each, closes the hook; it's simply devastating on this braggadocio. Prospect, a member of Terror Squad, reserves sixteen bars that add nothing, but it doesn't matter 'cos Pun values the song.
In heavy, apathetic, claustrophobic production of Marley Marl, Armageddon helps Joe in weak moments, before Puff screams the intro in the title track producer by Richard "Younglord" Frierson of Puff Daddy's The Hitmen. Baby Paul at the beat and Big Pun locked up on the hook are not a great combination in "My World", especially if Fat Joe doesn't put any energy into it, this sixth choice anticipates the best song on the record: "John Blaze".
"John[ny] Blaze" is perhaps one of the best collaborations of all time in hip hop. We have Ski Beatz in production for this braggadocio joint, Nas (1st), Pun (2nd), Jada (3rd) and Rae (4th), closes Joe (5th). DJ Ski soundscape is a banger, dark jazzy boom bap, sample from Mandrill's "Dirty Ole Man", lively production, bass that stays in background, dusted percussions, uptempo drum, shrill horns, guitar played by G Flowers, viola played by Martha Mooke, scratches by DJ Spinbad. It starts Nas with a honest stanza, Pun picks up the mic on the fly and sets it on fire. He kills the track, when the hook arrives (simple, functional) it's already too late:
"My crew puff lye, anyone testing Pun must die
Just give me one try, now you know you done fucked up, right?
Hah, you ain't got no wins in mi casa
¿Qué te pasa? You ain't even in my clasa
I hate an actor that plays a rapper
I'm Terror Squad beta kappa, everybody's favorite rapper
Grand imperial, college material, insane criminal
The same nigga who known to blow out your brain mineral
I reign subliminal inside your visual
Try to supply your physical with my spiritual side of this lyrical
I'll appear in your dreams, like Freddy do, no kidding you
Even if I stuttered, I would still sh-sh-shit on you
Soon as I chitter chatter, your shit'll shatter
I'm the kid out of Bronx that'll stomp you to death like it didn't matter
I'm even better than before, iller metaphors
Killers bet it all on Pun, 'cause one verse dead 'em all"
Then Jadakiss and Raekwon with solid verses to simply see the death of the cut. In order not to disfigure in front of the power and the lyrical fluidity of the verse of Big Pun, Nas changes it, improving the flow compared to his original verse and dropping an excellent verse, albeit lower than that of Pun. The Firm, Terror Squad, The LOX and Wu-Tang Clan in the same track produced by Ski, all at their best.
The next piece, "Walk on By", has the difficult task of retaining that quality. Kid Capri opens the Buckwild cut in the Puff mode, Fat Joe drops two hardcore verses leaving the latter to Charli Baltimore among the hook sing by Tony Sunshine (uncredited). The guitar is played by Barry Salters, the keyabords are played by Dinky Bingham. Follow one of the few not-so-good beat by Premier, skeletal music, Joe rattles off hardcore. "Bet Ya Man Can't (Triz)" winks to the West Coast w/ his essential production work of JAO, Cuban Link starts with an excellent regular verse, it deserves his props 'cos he's the best here almost reached by eight Pun molotov-bars. There's also Triple Seis along with Joe in this Terror Squad joint.
Police sirens for the intro of Noreaga spot: skeletal, amazing dark beat realized by The Beatnuts & Ghetto Pros. before "The Hidden Hand", another gem in this third effort of Flow Joe. The latest three cuts are on the same level, with a nice personal solo by Armageddon, a ballad produced by The Hitmen's Rashad Smith w/ half Bone Thugs and "Terror Squadians", where Cuban Link really tries to "killin every track I'm on", here his the best 'til Pun appears), a couple bars to Triple Seis, finally Big Pun, flow and delivery clearly superior to everyone, "the best and the champion, that means I'm far beyond".
"The Hidden Hand" boasts a timeless boom bap by Spunk, ethereal, perfect, Fat Joe's the first and here we see the writing of his typical rhymes pattern AA-BBBB-CCCC-DD:
"Yo, I was a wild adolescent, blessed with the foul essence
Messin' around with the wrong crowd, I learned my lesson
Stressin' all the things that I have not
I pray to God I get my Uncle out the crack spot
I hear mad shots, homicide come and play Matlock
But never crack the case cause the defendant's a bad cop
You feel me fam? The devil's got a plan
That's why Farrakhan formed the Million Man up in Washington
The Hidden Hand even planned this man
Have me goin' hand to hand, killin' my own clan
But now I understand and see the big picture
Fuck cryin' about the struggle, I teach you how to get richer"
Cuban Link goes so smoothly that his verse is to remember, in rhythm perfect with the beat, clean, shiny, Big Pun for the third verse, doesn't want to disfigure the others, but goes too much more fluid, velvet, unstoppable. Extraordinary bridge on the first bars of the verse of Triple Seis, also in light version for this delivery, Armageddon on the fifth verse, but here it seems that the best are already gone, the beat drags it like current in the river, Armageddon is on the bed of this river and lets itself be transported without force and aimless. Prospect, another bridge as before, delivery more determined than Armageddon, but lower than the previous ones.
Released by Terror Squad Production, Mystic Entertainment Group and Atlantic's sub-label Big Beat Records, distributed by Atlantic, the album gains a noteworthy commercial response, selling half a million physical copies in two months, obtaining the gold certification by RIAA, and peaking #7 in the Billboard 200 and #2 among rap efforts, only behind Lauryn Hill's debut. Also appreciated by critics, Fat Joe third album is in some ways his best.
Highlights: "John Blaze", "The Hidden Hand", "Terror Squadians".
Rating: 7.5/10.
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