In 1998, Big Pun debuts with a platinum album welcomed with critical acclaim. Then, he's guest in the albums of Showbiz & AG, Onyx, Delinquent Habits, Lord Tariq & Peter Gunz, Fat Joe, Noreaga, Mack 10, Pete Rock, Kid Capri, DJ Clue?, Krayzie Bone, Ruff Ryders, Naughty by Nature, Jennifer Lopez, Heavy D, everyone wants him. Is the main emcee of Terror Squad first LP, released in 1999: produced by the group himself, DITC and The Hitmen, the tape gains positive reviews by professional critics, but sales are below expectations. In 2000 his second album is scheduled to be released, however, Big Pun died at the age of 28.
In the following April, the LP is published. The production is realized by The Hitmen (Younglord, Jay Garfield and Sean Cane), Knobody, Just Blaze, Minnesota, Mahogany, KNS, Guy Boogie, The Infinite Arkatechz, Ogee, DJ Shok, LES, Al West and Buckwild. The guests are Terror Squad members Cuban Link, Prospect, and Fat Joe, the future members of the group Remi Martin and Tony Sunshine, along with Opera Steve, Donell Jones, MOP, Sunkiss, and Drag-On.
Isn't only a false step, it's a step into the void. Big Pun came from a semi-classic and here it dives into something that doesn't really belong to him. The hardcore's there and is still excellent, but unfortunately the album focuses more on the R&B crossover and on the club, going to look for that segment of the audience that Punisher wanted to get. Unlike the previous one, the album falls in too many commercial errors. The production struggles between hardcore and mainstream tracks for the club and the crossovers: Just Blaze doesn't convince and falls into electro-Latin ("Wrong Ones"), Sean C steals from the Neptunes ("100%"), Younglord drops some accessible beats ("It's so Hard", "We Don't Care"), while Buckwild is among the best with a decent beat ("Nigga Shit").
Guests are often not up to scratch and find it hard to get noticed: except for Prospect (pretty well in "Off Wit His Head"), the other guests aren't necessary with their soul-R&B hooks and mediocre verses, the major guest Tony Sunshine's quite out of place in all his appearances, Remy Ma aka Remi Martin, discovered by Big Pun himself, refreshes the album ("Ms. Martin"), closes Fat Joe on a disgustingly bouncy boom bap, Terror Squad average track. The lyrics are really average, dirty, seasoned with useless and improper hooks, Big Punisher remains lyrically solid and from this point of view it's, more or less, at the height of his debut — in fact it works rather well on the hardcore tracks — but music and the rest don't help him this time. It's basically a filler album.
"Off Wit His Head" is among the highs of the record: great dark and tense boom bap provided by Just Blaze, Prospect runs at his best on this production, then Pun returns to kill the cut. "New York Giants" has boom bap hardcore to welcome M.O.P. "My Turn" presents a LES masterpiece that brings the saddest and bleakest beat, New York boom bap, Pun runs smoothly, fast on this soulful production, great finale of the album even if it's not the end. "Watch Those" has a solid rhythm by Knobody in one of the rare solos (4 out 14 real tracks) of Punisher.
Released by Terror Squad Production, Columbia Records, Loud Records, Steve Rifkind Company, Epic Records and distributed by Sony Music, the album sold 179,000 physical copies in its first week, peaking #3 on the Billboard 200, first among rap records, and obtaining the gold by RIAA. Music critics don't dare to question the quality of the product. Discreet effort, but a generous step back from the extraordinary debut of a few years earlier.
Rating: 6.5/10.
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