Fat Joe — Loyalty

Fifth studio album by Bronx rapper Fat Joe. The duo Cool & Dre produces half the disk, the other rhythms are credited to DITC beatmaker Buckwild, The Alchemist, Tyrone Fyffe, Chink Santana, Irv Gotti, Precision, Armageddon, Ron Browz and Teflon. Terror Squad is represented here by Tony Sunshine, Remy Ma, Prospect and Armageddon, while the other guests are Baby, Scarface, Ronda Blackwell, Lamajic, and Ginuwine.

Cool & Dre cover half of the production and this is good for the musical cohesion of the product. Some songs pass the test and can be safely defined as the high points of this essay ("Take a Look at My Life", "Born in the Ghetto", "Gangsta", "Shit Is Real Pt. III"), the rest is grim mediocrity with tomato.

There are some standard boom baps, some hardcore Joe lines, some semblance of Latin influence, Tony Sunshine's hooks impressions of R. Kelly, Irv Gotti's bouncing synth ("Turn Me On"), the [skippable] sexual track for the club produced by Precision with Ginuwine ("Crush Tonight"), Cool & Dre's ballad hit attempts just around anywhere (the simplistic light beat of "All I Need" gets closer than most), and loyalty, loyalty everywhere.

Loyalty to whom? To The Sellout. The initial (TS, Terror Squad) are prominently displayed at the end of silver chain around the author's neck as he's pressured by police detectives. Joe betrayed the traditional hip hop, he mixed the hardcore rap with the dance to make both of them unrecognizable, he disowned Seis and Cuban Link, he searched for the plate, he found the plate, it wasn't enough. He brings what could once be called his Terror Squad on the title track, but after Pun's departure calling it still that loses its meaning: Armageddon, Prospect and Remy Ma on a Cool & Dre beat, poor and hardcore rhythm, the verses don't impress by flow, delivery or energy.

In the end, after fourteen tracks, Joe tries to get back to the roots, when he has still pulled out something good from his albums; he focuses on the nostalgia of the fans and puts out a "Shit Is Real 3". After the Beatnutz, after Premier, after Buckwild, this time Teflon ends up to the keyboard – yes Teflon, that one of [MOP's] "Ante Up" remix: splendid light and sad beat, tributes to Biggie, tributes to Pun. At least two of those three ["Shit Is Real" tracks] are classics in Fat Joe's discography, this one sits next to them.

"Born in the Ghetto" is a hidden gem in this forgotten CD in Don Joe's vast catalog. Cool & Dre steal from The Firm (Nas, AZ, Foxy Brown & Nature) and in particular the track "La Familia" not included in the supergroup infamous LP. They don't even change it, because the Trackmasterz rhythm is perfect. Awesome hook sing by Lamajic, reminiscent of Johnny P in the tearful "Smile" by Scarface & 2Pac, two hardcore Joe verses, perhaps the best song on the disc.

"Loyalty" isn't too different from "J.O.S.E.", Joe insists on grabbing the largest possible audience by crossing between the gangsta and the club, the result is musically better but commercially the certification does not arrive. The CD's more "personal" than usual, if you want, the guests are almost all in the core of the "renewed" Terror Squad with Tony Sunshine to lord it by singing the hooks while the only "foreign" guests are Birdman, Scarface and Ginuwine.

Released by Terror Squad Production and Atlantic, the album is welcomed by mixed reviews from specialized critics, and fails to capitalize on the commercial momentum secured by the previous two albums, without managing to enter the top ten among hip-hop records, partly due to poorly received singles like the track with Ginuwine ("Crush Tonight") and a Terror Squad posse in an attempt to once again launch his boys into the music industry ("All I Need"). The song "Take a Look At My Life" is inserted in video game "Def Jam: Fight for NY" (2004), which featured Fat Joe as a playable character.

In summary, the record could interest radio / mainstream rap fans, not necessary for the others, 6/10.