Fat Joe - Me Myself And I (Explicit Retail - 2006)

1. Pendemic
2. Damn
3. The Profit - Featuring Lil Wayne
4. No Drama (Clap & Revolve)
5. Breathe and Stop Featuring The Game
6. She's My Momma
7. Make It Rain Featuring Lil Wayne
8. Jealousy
9. Think About It
10. Hard Not To Kill
11. Bendicion Mami
12. Story To Tell

Fat Joe has traveled an interesting road in his career. A Hip-Hop veteran that’s seen the rise and fall of fellow MC’s. He’s experience the death of his close friend and Hip-Hop legend Big Pun, part of the infamous D.I.T.C. Crew ("Diggin' in the Crates"), with Showbiz and A.G., Buckwild, O.C., Diamond D, Big L and Lord Finesse. Recently he has been caught into a devastating feud with New York’s very own Bad Guy, 50 Cent. After a lackluster performance with last years ‘All Or Nothing’, Crack is back. Now rolling with Virgin Records rather than Atlantic, Fat Joe is offering a new album that he feels will put him back on track.

Rounding up some top notch production, the Don Cartegena returns to his roots offering a more gutter Joe than the pop-friendly guy we’ve seen lately. On the Streertrunner produced “Pendemic”. Crack just spits raw for three minutes, no hooks, over the chopped sample speaking his mind “must I be an backpacker or Black Eyed Pea/ or spit consciousness just to win a Grammy... the soul of Big Pun is flowin’ through me/ Yeah Biggie Smalls is rollin’ with me/ I’m way over your head, you lack creativity.” Even getting into it a little about the perceptions that people have about rappers gangster images - “heard he sell crack on the block, caught a body/ listen to his raps, he calls himself John Gotti/ officer, officer please don’t be bias/ don’t you know all of us rappers are liars/ we like to exaggerate, dream and imaginate/ sensationalize bringing packs across state/”.

The LV produced “Damn” finds the more aggressive Joe coming to life -“the penalty is death/ and I’m inflecting the torture/ the best of the best couldn’t f*ck with the boogie down Bronxter”. On “No Drama (Click & Revolve)” Joe’s at his best with the swagger. The Runners reusing the successful method they had with Rick Ross “Hustlin” take the same beat but screw it up to give Fat Joe. Crack does not disappoint as he evokes his old school ways when he rhymes - “you bring the drama, then the drama leads to choppas/ Choppas lead to sprayin’/ then somebody needs a doctor now”. The Game comes to play when they link up over the banging Nu Jerzey Devil’s sampled “Breathe & Stop”. Rumored to be the next single, Game just lends his voice on the hook, which reminds you of Shynes’ “Bad Boyz”. Joe does his thing here even taking a small shot at his nemesis 50 Cent.

The album isn’t all pure fire, there’s a track or two that were meh. After dropping the charts blazing, video heavy rotation “Make It Rain”. Joe and Weezy F. Baby decided to try to rekindle the magic on DJ Khaled’s “The Profit”. It seems Wayne handed in a half ass decent verse, the song is one of those that can grown on you but with first listen your not going crazy over. Then there’s “She’s My Mamma” where he spits about a lady friend he gets down with and has doing the damn thing, if you know what I mean. Joe does redeem himself with a sick slick flow on “Jealousy” putting it down something fierce. “I’m feeling like Christ at the Tabernacle, stones is thrown at me....still I throw rocks at tanks/ the poor people’s champ/ go against glocks with shanks.”

This may actually be the album fans have been waiting for since he dropped ‘Jealous Ones Envy’. A raw gutter street Joe, with hits that aren’t popish but can still get it popping. The 12 song album idea might have been a great idea for Joe, now it seems he’s more focus than ever. A highlight has to be “Story To Tell” where Crack spits on young hustlers stories and more. “Nah I ain’t a rapper, motherf*ck rap/ they snitched on Kim, how lame is that?/ this game ain’t sh!t but snakes and rats, fighting each other for loose change and scraps” or “money power respect, ya’ll heard the Lox’s/ half these ni**as in Hip-Hop deserve to get rocked/ think we need another motherf*cking Biggie and Pac/ so you motherf*ckers can have another million man march”. Joey’s back, with that crack point blank period. A definite album to cop. Love him or hate him you can’t deny he’s feeling reborn, and all I can say is go ahead and flow Joe.