By Ahmad Awadallah
Fat Joe is far from the hottest rapper in the game, but he’s definitely one of the most talked about emcees due to his massive weight loss. The guy has made an elephant-sized footprint on the game over 20 years with his unique flow and larger than life frame earning unquestioned legendary status. The biggest problem with that legacy has been his marked inconsistency. His last album, The Darkside Vol.1, was his best album since Jealous Ones Still Envy (J.O.S.E.). However its follow-up mixtape, The Darkside Vol.2, fails to live up to its predecessor. Even though Joe still demonstrates that he can still spit a barrage of lyrical spears, the tape fails to bring anything avant-garde to the game due to its stagnate content.
The 10-track tape takes off with a vengeance with the song “Welcome to the Darkside” featuring fellow Bronx rapper and the hottest youngin in the game, French Montana. Over the epic and dramatic production, both emcees make the Bronx proud with their slick wordplay and impeccable flows. “Dopeman” features Jadakiss and Dre (of Cool & Dre) and is extremely annoying with Dre yelling on the hook and disorganized, organ-based production. Kiss and Joe come correct, but Dre does way too much damage to the track with a corny hook where he sadly rhymes, “Gold pres/rolling in Bugatti/ I got that Ringo Starr/I’m slanging Paul McCartney.” Who appoints Dre for a track to spit and not produce?
One of the better songs on the tape is “So Fly,” featuring the smooth sounds of Arland. It serves as a great intermission from the pounding beats and sloppy hooks. Mark Henry laces the suave production and both artists ride the beat flawlessly, but the repetitive content starts to irk and irritate. The mixtape slowly declines from there. Master-emcee Raekwon could have alleviated the decay, but on the record “Pushing Keys” he yells for 2 minutes. Mark Henry keeps the soulful production coming, but cocaine-cocked bars and war stories really stifle the production’s true quality. Joe sparks some interest with a subliminal shot a love-struck Wiz Khalifa when spits, “I got a bald head b-tch/think she Amber Rose/I just f-ck her/I don’t propose.”
The mixtape deserves some burn, but it will certainly be forgotten after a month. It would have been refreshing to see Joe borrow the hottest instrumentals in the game and shatter them instead of rhyming over average original production. The mixtape still proves Joe can still flow and that his dark side is still alive, but he fails to demonstrate his imagination. Luckily he lost all that weight, because truthfully, the mixtape would have been overlooked based on its own merit.
out of 5
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