At the end of the millennium is released the first album in studio by the group leaded by Fat Joe and Big Pun, Terror Squad. The music is handled by The Hitmen production team, along with The Alchemist, JuJu Gigante (of The Beatnuts), Infinite Arkatechz, VIC, DJ Noodles, Don "AP" Sellers, LA' Smouve, Dirtman and Armageddon. The guests are Buju Banton, Keith Nut and The Bleach Brothers.
Crazy intro by Pun over a dark, tense, underground NY beat provided by the Hitmen's Ron "Amen Ra" Lawrence for a posse track with almost the entire paddock, but what you wanna do after what Punisher did at the beginning? His verse alone is just classic, pure gold. The next one is "Pass the Glock", performed by the same rappers of the previous cut plus Armageddon and Fat Joe. Gloomy jazzy boom bap invented by another beatmaker of the Hitmen production team, Yogi. Triple Seis & Cuban Link are at the same [low] level, Prospect sounds better, almost brilliant, before the smooth verse dropped by Armageddon on this desert in production, based on simplistic bass lines and guitar licks.
This cut is closed by Big Pun with a dope flow, smoothness, more slow compared to all the others, he can afford to go slow in order to better emphasize his ability at the mic and the ability in the control of the breath dropping a fire verse. Joe finds himself ready, immediately attacks the beat to keep the wake of the verse that Pun has just pulls out few seconds before but the difference's abysmal, even he must be thank him, Joe's doing quite well, otherwise the difference with the rest of the team here would have been much more marked.
''99 Live" is a good piece, the only "solo track" that really works: amazing boom bap with salsa that returns back, Prospect flows silky, great technique, listenable flow helped by the production realized by The Alchemist. It follow, "What'cha Gon Do?", Big Punisher solo. On a well-made hardcore and salsa boom bap provided by JuJu, this formula here works too, Christopher Rios delivers heavily hardcore, dope with one of his best known and most successful career lyrics. Even the hook sounds worthy, even though Big Pun wasn't a good singer. It's one of the best cuts in the history of this group, a classic.
The fifth choice is another good posse track that presents a sliced boom bap created by Jurgnaut and Mike "Trauma" D of Infinite Arkatechz, Pun dominates on a song with Armageddon & Cuban Link; functional weak hook, decent deliveries by the other two, but compared to those of Pun fade both. Then, there's the weak part of the album, composed mostly of solo songs that don't work and are quite similar to each other.
The boom bap created by VIC seems to work for Triple Seis solo "War", the rapper goes strong and confident, but the music doesn't sound well after several spins. Fat Joe showcase should be one of the strong point of the whole effort, also because behind the keys there's The Alchemist: robust production, flickering drum, bass that remains in background, sad piano keys in loop, Joe goes hardcore with energy but without impress, even the hook doesn't work properly.
The eight track "As the World Turns" is a rare case in which there aren't both Joe & Pun: the piece shows the others TS members and is a pretty amazing cut. Cuban Link, Prospect & Triple Seis delivered good hardcore raw verses, with a tearful functional hook killed by Tony Sunshine. Prospect seems the best here, dropping one of his best verses in career over a production credited to DJ Noodles.
After a solo self-produced by Armageddon ("Gimme Dat"), "Feelin' This" is similar to previous cut with Big Pun (also there Joe decides to spare himself the easy humiliation of being paved by his friend): boom bap salsa hardcore invented by Armageddon, the same artist spits a verse spectacularly smooth and pure, hardcore, and Prospect approaches his verse well and launches in pursuit of a fast and technical beat, which snakes, it slips away slippery, uncatchable, elusive, he tries to hypnotize him with a bewildered, dystopian, fast, alternative delivery. It's up to Big Punisher the latter verse, he removes all the contenders maintaining a compound flow, slower than those ones of his fellas, severe, fair, heavy, never excessive, almost spoken. This is one of the last track with Rios.
Look how and how much the album suffers without him in the second part. Nothing really works in six of the eight last songs. Don "AP" Sellers is credited for the beat of "All Around the World", the solo piece realized by Cuban Link: the rhythm is salsa, doesn't really works, while the rapper spits fast perhaps forcibly trying to quickly create its own fan niche. Solo shots like this one deserve a mention, not honorable, but necessary: the listening of this songs turn to be passive quickly, without none apparent reason.
After this Cuban Link solo the reason comes out: on the [umpteenth] hardcore salsa beat — Terror Squad only made solo cuts with these hardcore salsa boom bap — its highlighting the same problems as the other solos. While Cuban Link is distinguishable, with a well-designed flow and a distinct delivery, you miss the other team members and someone who kills the beat (even here, as in other case, someone can do it).
"Tell Me What U Want" is a clear example of the lack of solidity of the album in the moments when Rios moves away from the mic: there is the only hook poorly execute by Tony Sunshine in this LP, collides with a production not too apt by Younglord of the Hitmen, simplistic, poor, weak, cheap, too close to a ballad that seems just country-rap, Armageddon & Cuban Link tryna maintain a decent level of rapping, while Fat Joe delivers slow, calm, half hardcore. The former DITC dropped a second verse finally hardcore and weirdly too fluent, as if he had dusted off Flow Joe.
Fat Joe & Big Pun find themselves together with Buju Banton for "Rudeboy Salute": tense production handled by Buckwild, still hardcore, still salsa, Buju Banton angrily attacks reggae to the beat, Pun increases calmly, terrain left to Don Cartagena that delivers hardcore, quicker than usual, more technical than usual, smooth as he never was... there's something wrong, it's all too obvious that the verse's drop isn't written by him.
It all sounds like of being yet another masterpiece of Pun in ghostwriting. Buju Banton's fit on the reggae hook, then he attacks hardcore for a sharp line on this beat, he creates a contrast that's almost difficult to describe, certainly interesting to listen to and almost unique in the genre. It doesn't necessarily sound fit but it's not even totally unfit on this rhythm, he adapts with time, delivering another raw hook, aided by Pun who starts quietly for the third verse in which he stabs the song and... Jay-Z. Among the strongest and most interesting cut on the entire disc. This is the last track featuring Big Pun.
"My Kinda Girls" doesn't ask too much, honest Cuban Link ballad ft. Tony Sunshine. Keith Nut brings back some necessary freshness into the LP in "Payin' Dues", produced and featuring Armageddon, before Joe closes the album: his posse track with Triple Seis & The Bleach Bros. sounds weak and out of context, there's something here that doesn't work between the simple disturbing beat by Dirtman and the hook.
I want to point out something that's at least interesting and curious, in hindsight: take a look at the cover. From left to right: Prospect, Fat Joe, Big Punisher, Triple Seis, Cuban Link & Armageddon, shovels in hand bury the Terror Squad complete with a tombstone on a gloomy day, dark, with lighthing bolting over their heads. The curious thing, if we eant to be creepy, is that lightning seems to go in the direction of Prospect, Joe and Armageddon, meaming they exclude the other three that will no longer be in the group five years later (Pun due to natural causes and the other two due to the death of their friend and to the conflifcts with Joe). That's unreal. The choice of title would deserve a separate paragraph. The guys appear to lack any imagination and not only they choose the most generic title possible, it's also the same as the supergroup The Firm created by Nas a few years earlier.
Released by Terror Squad Production, Mystic Entertainment Group, Big Beat Records (Atlantic sub-label) and Atlantic Records, distributed by Warner Music, the disk is welcomed positively by critics and fans, peaking #4 among rap records in the charts. Cuban Link is the main emcee appearing in seven tracks (out of 16), in front of Armageddon (6), Big Pun (6), Fat Joe (5), Prospect (5), Triple Seis (5) and Tony Sunshine (3). Group leaded by Fat Joe and Big Pun, Terror Squad offers brutally intense gangsta rap themes with salsa. Pun's monstrous here, the whole effort is constantly and heavily driven by him, without the Bronx MC the album seems to be trudging a lot, however there are promising youngsters, Prospect and Cuban Link, whose talent's widely shown here. Hardcore or ballad productions, hardcore deliveries, average lyrics, overall, is a solid LP. Recommended to hardcore hip hop fans in general. It's not a must-listen, but there are some Pun's dope lines that are always enjoyable.
Related listen: "Don Cartagena", "Capital Punishment".
Rating: 7/10.
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