Almost two decades in the game along with ten solo albums released, and Joey Crack still represents the true essence of East Coast hardcore New York Hip-Hop to the fullest; and the Terror Squad leader keeps that same intensity on his newest record, The Darkside Vol. 1.
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Keeping to his roots, he stays in the realm of names like Just Blaze, Cool & Dre, DJ Premier, Streetrunner, and Scram Jones to keep your head nodding instead of dancing. Features come by the way of artists like Trey Songz, Clipse, Cam’ron, Busta Rhymes, Young Jeezy and Too $hort.
Joey gets things underway with an untitled intro where he lyrically goes in, as Scram Jones handles his end of the bargain. Cool & Dre then take care of Fat Joe’s needs on the flawless ‘Valley Of Death.’
On ‘I Am Crack,’ (prod. by Just Blaze) Joe turns himself into crack cocaine, and rhymes about the desperate measures people go through in order to obtain him, use him, and sell him. The drug theme continues on ‘Kilo’ with Cam’ron and the Clipse sharing their drug distribution tactics alongside Fat Joe.
Even though the theme of The Darkside is for Joe to be a little darker, (obviously) a true veteran like him knows the importance of that all-mighty commercial single, and Trey Songz assists Joey with that on ‘If It Ain’t About Money.’ Fat Joe then furthers the commercialism by inviting R. Kelly onto the descriptive memory lane tale of ‘How Did We Get Here.’
Other songs that help to shed light on The Darkside are offerings like ‘Heavenly Father’ (feat. Lil Wayne) where he breaks down the rocky relationship between him and Big Pun’s widow, ‘No Problems,’ and ‘Rappers Are In Danger.’
When an artist has so many years invested, you can usually tell when their best days are behind them. But in the case of Fat Joe, his best days still seem to be ahead of him.
Filled with raw lyricism and hard beats to complement his improved delivery, Joey Crack shows that he’s far from done in this game, as he takes you on a trip to the dark side for you to witness it.
