The death of Christopher Rios aka Big Pun was a watershed moment for the careers of practically all the artists around him, his friends, and especially the kids who had launched their careers in the music industry thanks to him.
Big Pun put his friend Cuban Link in the charts four times on four singles as a guest, collaborating with him on tracks from Beanuts ("Off the Books", 1997, the debut for Cuban Link), Veronica ("Someone to Hold"), DJ Honda ("On the Mic") and Fat Joe ("Bet Ya Man Can't [Triz]"). Punisher put also his friend Triple Seis in the charts with Fat Joe's track "Bet Ya Man Can't (Triz)", and he manages to send into the charts even Terror Squad's member Tony Sunshine with the posthumous single "100%" from his second LP.
In 1999, the rap group Terror Squad was one of the freshest forces in the game, acclaimed by critics and audiences alike. They moved units and had enough elements to last in the game, but the group was poorly matched and held together solely by Big Punisher, who was the leader alongside Fat Joe. In the same year, Terror Squad realizes a track with Kool G Rap, "Escape from NY", produced by V.I.C. of the Beatnuts. The joint is realized for the group Ghetto Pros., a trio formed by V.I.C. himself, JuJu of the Beatnuts and Mike Heron, while the members of the Terror Squad in that song are Prospect, Armageddon and Triple Seis. V.I.C. is contacted by the producer of the movie "The Boiler Room" (2000), that presents a hip-hop soundtrack with songs from Rakim, De La Soul, Lords of the Underground, Beanie Sigel, The Notorious B.I.G., Pharoahe Monch, O.C., Group Home, A Tribe Called Quest, Brand Nubian, Slick Rick and 50 Cent. The producer wants that song of Terror Squad.
Of course, everyone's happy to have their own piece in a film that's sure to be a box office hit, starring Vin Diesel and Ben Affleck, and indeed the movie gets good response at the box office. Everyone's happy, except Fat Joe: the producer can only write a check after the film's release in almost six months; Fat Joe wants the money now. The deal falls through, obviously, because Joey Crakk runs everything in the Terror Squad and is the only one with decision-making power. This choice pisses everyone off, especially Triple Seis, who is one of the main rapper in the piece and also performs the hook.
After Big Pun death, Triple Seis decides to leave the Terror Squad. Fat Joe clashes with Cuban Link and excludes him from the group, so Cuban Link and Triple Seis, the friends Big Pun had taken off the streets and put in the recording studios, are out of Terror Squad. Both of their music career ended shortly thereafter. Things aren't going any better for the guys who stayed in the group, because after their second album, Fat Joe quit Terror Squad, which also brought the careers of the other guys to a screeching halt, as they struggled to build a presence in the underground scene and to create a single official album to release. The only exception is Remy Ma, rapper discovered by Big Pun, who later runs into legal problems.
While Cuban Link already has practically an album ready to come out with Atlantic which is postponed indefinitely because he has to go through Fat Joe's label, Triple Seis has no LPs or singles to his name. The rapper records a single featuring AG of DITC and Headcrack, produced by Reef and released by Fat Beats. Fat Joe still has the power to block the track and instead allows it to be released after being contacted by the owner of Fat Beats. Also blacklisted by Joey Crakk like Cuban Link, Triple Seis struggles to find a decent contract, but is pissed off enough to record a track with DJ Revolution and M-Boogie, "New York, New York", a not-so-veiled vibrant diss track towards Fat Joe, released in 2001 by Ill Boogie Records. Around 2003, Triple Seis already has the album ready to be released and goes looking for a label, dealing with Madd Records and publishing his debut studio album.
The music is handled by Dre Most, Rob Maya, Hell Raisin, Psycho Les, Cochise, SElf Mills, Evil Twins, Rich Kid, Reef, Evil Twins, Antonio and Just Blaze. The guests are Cuban Link, Big Pun, Veronica, The Beatnuts, Ice-T, Mashonda and the label-mate 24K.
The disk is opened by "Harsh Reality": solid bass line, pleasant samples, scarce hi-hats, skeletal uptempo drum, the beginning of Big Pun's verse from his hit "You Ain't a Killer" is used here as chorus, then Triple Seis completes the introductory song. Punisher is credited as guest here. The rhythm of Dre Most works while the rapper signs this struggle track. "Krazy" is destined to the clubs. The funky musical carpet designed by Rob Maya is a club banger: radio-mainstream rhythm, dance drum, dance bass, sample from Madonna's "La Isla Bonita", Veronica sings the hook for this party track. "Scared Money" sees Hell Raisin behind the keys, his rhythm is awful, cheap. Triple Seis seems to be addressing Fat Joe in this piece, the beat chosen is so bad that it never supports him. The joint is realized along the fellow rapper T.U.D., that worked previously with the former Terror Squad emcee in the track "Roll Till We Bankrupt", b-side of "Some Shit" released by Fat Beats in 2000.
The fourth pick boasts The Beanuts and Cuban Link as guests in "Drinks Up". Oriental rhythm invented by Psycho Les, dusty drum, rough bass, weak samples. It sounds more like a Neptunes generic beat. The guys carve a song focused on money, women, materialism and good life. Cochise invents a tearful soundscape for "Love Put Me", sampling The Isley Brothers' "Love Put Me on the Corner" and making it chipmunk, piano keys in loop, roaring bass line, dusty drum, solid strings, Triple Seis finds himself reflecting on personal issues with this sentimental piece. The beatmaker Self Mills pulls out a radio-friendly rhythm in the song for girls "La Shortie", rightly considered to be one of the worst tracks of this product due to its nature blatantly commercial.
Scarse and sparse hi-hats welcomes the rapper in "Hustler", produced by Evil Twins. The budget is at minimum, and you can tell from five dollar beats like this one: weak drum, awful sounds, Evil Twins are also guest on this record, uncredited along with Cuban Link. The song is supposed to be against Fat Joe, who Triple Seis had already told to stop rapping three years earlier in his debut solo single, but from the lyrics you couldn't really tell it's against Joe. The title track has a rhythm provided by Rich Kid that samples a classic, that I can't find now. I found it after a couple of tries, is Raekwon's "North Star", the final track from his classic debut album. So, the sample is Barry White's "Mellow Mood (Pt. 1)". Splendid choice, sparse hi-hats, poor drum, Triple Seis offers a sad cut that is the very symbol of the album: undecided, uncertain, shaky, yet it has enough potential to be successful, like an excellent sample — although already used ten years before Chef Raekwon — which, however, is marred by random and low-quality elements, ultimately failing to be properly exploited.
Cochise comes back behind the keyboards in "Take That", pale drum, rough violins, rough samples, this track also fails in its objective, whatever that may be. Over a beat realized by Rob "Reef" Tewlow, the ex Terror Squad rapper is joined by Trigger tha Gambler and Ice-T. Bouncy production, hard drum, chaotic sounds, the guests both surpass the main rapper on his album. Evil Twins are producers and guests even in "Be About It": uptempo poor drum, robust bass line, tense strings, the rhythm works, Triple Seis spits along with Cuban Link, the Full-A-Clips rappers keep it gangsta, in another track towards Joey Crakk, then Evil Twins closes with some verses in back and forth.
"Pray for Me" is produced by Antonio, Triple Seis realizes a rare track in two stanzas (instead of three) over a cheap music, wack sounds, scarse drum, weak bass line, nothing works here. Rob "Reef" Tewlow is the beatmaker of the next track, "Godfather", that boasts a sample from Nino Rota for the soundtrack of that cult movie. There's potential for a decent track here too, but Triple Seis fails to capitalize on this sample, peppered with tired, cheap drums, and creates a half-thug track that goes nowhere and only disappoints. The CD is closed by Just Blaze that remixes "Skully": radio-friendly production, bouncy rhythm, scarse heavy drums, 24K and Mashonda join Triple Seis. The song is a track created by 24K released by Madd Records.
The disk is also known as "Time'll Tell". Three years after leaving Terror Squad, with zero guest appearances on other rap albums, the Triple Seis name has cooled and been forgotten by fans. Having stuck to the Terror Squad formula for his solo LP, with this effort, Triple Seis suffers from poor and inconsistent production, partly due to the large number of amateur beatmakers he chose, uninspired, weak lyrics with little variety in themes, and a rapping performance that is fragmented, stuttering, and nibbled, as if some lines were missing. What really hurts the entire album, besides the dense choruses and the decision to structure most of the songs around three long verses that almost never say anything, are Triple Seis' numerous attempts to infiltrate the club scene with some dedicated bangers that fall flat and soft, often due to poor music. It's a huge shame because, as is often the case with Cuban Link's solo albums, the guy shows glimpses of talent on a few tracks, but he can't maintain the quality of his music and lyrics for a full hour.
Rating: 5/10.
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