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Loyalty
opens with Fat Joe discarding the lifestyle of “watering lawns
and walking dogs.” With Loyalty, Fat Joe is staying
loyal to the streets of The Bronx, where he is from – where
KRS-One, his homeboy is from, where Hip-Hop was born, where
his past criminal opportunities live to give avenues of
survival for foolish ones.
“I’m from
the Bronx N***as know they hear the heat clap”, proclaims Joe
at the outset of his fourth release, Loyalty. The same
Don Cartagena who put Big Pun on in a real way, is back to
enforce his bravado and gangsterism on clowns and
perpetrators…the only problem is from the outset on “Bust At
You” featuring Baby, Scarface and Tony Sunshine, they’re doing
too much. Real is real, but all of these O.G.s on this track
are beyond ‘busting at you’ or me or him and her. C’mon, mayn
with this concept. Is Fat Joe really trying to jeopardize his
life, because too many know that some fools will bust? The
concept is played to the side, especially with the obvious
effort that he is giving to maintain ‘street credibility’.
Fat Joe is beyond this drama. However, he keeps it ‘gangsta’
on his anthem-like “Prove Something”, describing why he would
make songs like “Bust At You”, because as Carlito thought to
himself and Jay-Z rewrote “the streets is watching.”
Fat Joe
flips the script with an latin-piano driven track on the
partyesque “TS Piece” as he, Remy and Tony Sunshine kick the
willie bobo about that rope around his thick neck and how the
ladies gravitate to the big…extra big…Mackin’ MC. Ginuwine
adds his flare and sex appeal on the lead single “Crush
Tonight” where Joe describes a chica, probably your girl, as
having “a body like Mallory / natural born killa.” Watch out
now! On the slow grindin’ “Gangsta”, Joe takes a theme from
the 1992 classic film, Deep Cover and kills the track
literally with tales of grit and grind, threatening to “pimp
hoes on some Goldie s**t.” The most positive role model for
kids?…Naw, but Fat Joe is definitely a good story-teller and
is no doubt essin’ on his chest with much of the thuggery
showcased on Loyalty.
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“All I
Need” is a dedication to the “ladies in” Joe’s life as he
begins flowing, “What you think gangstas don’t cry / get hurt
by lies / times you embarrass me, I swallow my pride.” Joe
professes that all he needs is [her] and the
turn-your-head-when-I-do-wrong type of girl who will stick by
a thug during the thick and thin…jobless type thin. A
contradiction? No, but a reflection of the mixed emotions he
experiences in the hood and Joe balances his emotions with
frequent displays of his love for his people. Still,
throughout Loyalty, his affixation for the game cannot
help but rear its ugly head, just waiting to create drama,
mayhem and death – lyrically (I hope).
Fat Joe
reminisces over the good times as a youngster on “Life Goes
On” as he tells a tale of the girl he met when they were ‘16
or 17’ and she “was having [his] seed.” It is these tales of
clear affection, mixed with tales of machismo and street
business that had unsuspecting critics calling Tupac a
hypocrite. However, as someone who can relate to the hustle
and bustle of life, I can say that Joe has lived a life of
poverty, crime and grind that is hard to break away from
completely. It is just this collage of positive and negative
experiences that allow artists like Joe to spit wisdom and get
into equally powerful gangsta shhh…. Classic story telling
from Fat Joe. Nothing phony, but the direction that Joe is
rapping about is the same thing that can snatch away his gold
and platinum plaques. Joe closes with the anthem driven “We
Run This Sh*t” and the solemn “Sh*t Is Real Pt. III” where he
invites the lord into his life to balance the grace with the
materialism – every current day MC and hustler’s dilemma. The
content or the image? He raps, “The place I’m from / MTV
don’t wanna film / cuzz a simple dice game’ll get a muthaf***a
killed.” No doubt.
Fat Joe
digs deep on this album and illustrates hood tales of a
surviving OG. He balances his street tales with sexy tracks
that keep the ladies bouncin’ and the DJs popular. It is
evolution, and apparently Joe still has enough stories from
the hood to fill an album effectively and give ridahs
something to ride to and thinkers something to contemplate.
Just like the title of his album, Joe has remained loyal to
his way of life and way of thinking. Lyrical Loyalty.
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