Produced by Ruff Ryders chief soundboy Swizz Beatz, "One More Road To Cross" has the accursed, burdened heft of Blacks Sabbath and Flag-a perfect fit for DMX's stoic description of a carefully planned liquor store heist that goes bloodily wrong. But the music ( tres Swans, actually) makes it sound like a treadmill grind.Īs superthugs go, DMX is the most interesting, because he doesn't glamorize the gangsta lifestyle.
Lyrically, “Do It Again” revels in the playa's nightly cycle of clubbing, drinking, pulling, and taking the ho home: "6-AM I be digging her out/6-15 I be kicking her out". But where Gira’s vision was a Beckett-style dehumanized hell of domination/submission, Jay-Z and Juvenile make like they actually enjoy living like this. Like the Swans circa Greed, the lyrics-an interminable catalogue of boasts, threats and flaunted wealth-offer an X-Ray view of capitalism’s primary drives of will-to-power, alpha-male display and ravenous appetite. Street rap like Jay-Z’s is unpretty in another sense. Not for nothing does the track start with the warning: “it’s about to get real ugly in here”. Take Jay-Z's single "Do It Again": Rockwilder's production as harsh and mechanistic as a track by Jeff Mills, just a melody-free spasm of sub-bass, a nagging blurt of computer-in-distress bleeps, and an asymmetrical loop of punishing kicks and snares. These new platinum-selling monsters by Ruff Ryders’ DMX, Cash Money’s Juvenile, and Jay-Z (don of his own dynasty, Roc-A-Fella) completely shred the tired critical line: major label = formula and indie (aka “undieground”) = inventive. Similarly, the directness of Tupac has proved far more influential than any Wu-Tang clansman’s virtuoso encryption skillz. Yo, reality check: a bitter pill to swallow, but the truth is that Nineties rap was shaped not by 3 Feet High or Fear of A Black Planet (twin totems of the critic-cherished “lost golden age of 1988-91), but by NWA’s Efil4zaggin and Notorious BIG’s Ready To Die. Predictably, last year’s critics polls endorsed such “lost causes” as the Roots and Prince Paul/Handsome Boy Modelling School, and overlooked huge-selling records by DMX and Eve, Lil Wayne and Hot Boys, despite the fact that the two labels/clans to which these artists are affiliated (Ruff Ryders and Cash Money) are at the forefront of a creative upsurge in hardcore rap.
It’s particularly problematic with rap, a megabuck entertainment industry these days, but still motored by the cruel fluctuations of popular desire, aka “the streets”. At a certain point, though, doggedly insisting “this should be pop, not that chart crap” gets counterproductive, blinding you to vital things going on in the world of the stuff that sells. Life and Times of S.CarterĬritics love lost causes. See More Your browser does not support the audio element. The rowdy lead single, "Wild Out," is an obvious reworking of Jay-Z's "Jigga My Nigga," but it was a hit on rap radio. While the LOX as a unit do not offer much in terms of topical dexterity, Jadakiss is one the industry's most underappreciated lyricists, which he clearly reiterates on his solo cut "Blood Pressure." Ruff Ryders in-house producer Swizz Beatz handles most of the production duties, and although his syncopated production can become repetitious, DJ Premier ("Recognize") and Timbaland ("Ryde or Die Bitch," featuring Eve and Drag-On) provide some much-needed diversity with their signature sounds. Not only because Puffy's glossy sound openly clashed with the group's thug mentality, but the change of scenery also furnished Jadakiss, Sheek, and Styles with an opportunity to assert their own identity. The LOX's highly publicized and drawn-out defection from Puffy's Bad Boy Records to DMX's Ruff Ryder camp was imperative.
#The lox we are the streets download#
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