Separated from Atlantic Records, Fat Joe changes his manager and starts to work on his new LP, signing a deal with Imperial Records, division of Caroline Records, sub-label of Virgin Records. The production is realized by Streetrunner, Grind Music, DJ Khaled, The Runners, Nu Jerzey Devil, and Scott Storch. The guests are Lil Wayne, H-Mob and The Game.
After the insufficient commercial response of his previous album, Fat Joe continues to aim for another platinum record, this time as an indie artist and returning to push hard on gangster and braggadocio themes. It's a dark LP, composed by grey rhythms. Joe steals the flow style from Lil Wayne and drops some curious stuff with that style: this phenomenon is clear in "No Drama". LV's the MVP here, with three excellent beats out of three.
"Damn" have a heavy, gloomy, perfect boom bap with that classic sample of "Excursion with Complications" by Bo Hansson. LV realized a good jazzy rhythm for "Jealousy" and an annoying one for "Hard Not to Kill". Even DJ Khaled did a pretty nice work ("The Profit": tight, but not heavy as usual; "Story to Tell": among his best beats in this period), but Joe's isn't with him to kill these rhythms.
The same speech can be done with the half beat guessed by Storch ("Think About It") and that one from Streetrunner ("Bendicion Mami"). In this project Fat Joe delivers flat, mushy, his flow may seem good, but it's just the appearance. The central part is the weakest of the record, with rhythms and hooks poor, trivial, weak, poorly recited, the songs are easily avoidable.
Fat Joe's unique standard-bearer when it comes to aiming for hits for his albums, Scott Storch is the producer of "Make It Rain". Cartagena wants to make a southern hip-hop tracks for strip clubs, Storch has the task to found an appropriate rhythm and initially opposes the realization of the piece. Once completed, Irv Gotti suggests the author contact Lil Wayne to do the chorus. The result is another banger for the club in the Bronx rapper's vast discography, it peaks #2 among rap singles, gains platinum certification in USA and Canada, and brings the emcee back to the Grammys after "What's Luv?", nominated for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group.
The success of the piece with Lil Wayne, that leads to a remix in 2007 with R. Kelly, T.I., Weezy, Birdman, Rick Ross and Ace Mac, drags the albums in the charts, reaching the second place among rap records thanks to 60.000 physical copies in the first week (over 200.000 after one year in US). Released by Terror Squad Entertainment, the album received a mixed reception from most specialized critics, who accused him of excessively following trends, of having taken up too much space in the tracklist (despite the album, in fact, being his...), of having written some of the least inspired lyrics of his career and of having delivered them in a pretty bland and monotonous way. Not recommended, 5/10.
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