Fat Joe – Me, Myself & I
Terror Squad Entertainment (release date: 11/14/2006)
Rap
One of these days”¦ and I hope it’s really, really soon”¦ someone needs to explain the phenomenon of Fat Joe to me.
Over the last several weeks, the Bronx-born rapper has been all over the radio in an attempt to drum up some love for his seventh solo album. His long-term relationship with Atlantic Records came to an end earlier this year, so Joe went independent this time around.
In interviews, Joe credits this direction with helping him get back to the more grimy sound that he was putting out early in his career. Still, while acts like Diddy get criticized for building their careers on the foundation of fatter, more talented (dead) friends, Joey Crack gets a pass.
No disrespect intended, but let’s be honest: if we accept that Diddy ate off of Biggie, then Fat Joe has similarly cut open the Taun-Taun belly of Big Pun, crawled inside and stayed warm for years. Don’t believe me? Then, why is “Twinz (Deep Cover ’98)” everyone’s favorite “Fat Joe track”?
While you ponder that, we’ll commence with the review.
Me, Myself & I clocks in at less than 50 minutes with only 12 tracks. At this point, that’s probably not a bad thing as Joe simply doesn’t have enough to say to warrant any more mic time.
He opens up with “Pendemic” that plays like a state-of-society address. It’s got a jagged, uneven beat that starts with Joe telling us how great he is, before it lumbers into a lecture on all the bad things out there: corrupt cops, the war in Iraq, starvation in Africa and Hurricane Katrina. And, I’m sure Joe is kept up at night, in between pints of Ben & Jerry’s “Chunky Monkey”, worrying about these things.
And, please… stop this Lil’ Wayne craze, already. He appears on two tracks, the drug-driven “The Profit” and the first single, “Make It Rain”. The latter is your standard Scott Storch approach on the beats and couldn’t be more mediocre if it tried. Meanwhile, Weezie lends nothing but his usual unintelligible lyricism on the former. I thought he hired a ghost-writer? Dude obviously got the week off, here.
Continuing the disappointing cameo trend, Fat Joe employs The Game for a guest spot on “Breathe and Stop”. Nu Jersey Devil lays down a minimalist beat with a hint of Bob Marley-infused island rhythm, but Game’s mailing it in and only appears on the hook.
Still, Fat Joe manages to pull things together towards the end of the album. “Jealousy” is full of the standard “me against the haters” material, but Joe kicks up his flow a notch on one of the few head-nodders here. The production catches up with Joe’s delivery on the solid “Story to Tell” as DJ Khaled’s production is almost majestic.
Unfortunately, for Fat Joe, the drug-dealing themes and subject matter are incessantly repetitive, to the point that an emotionally cloying track like “Bendicion Mami” sounds ridiculously out of place. Coke and crack might be what Joe knows best, but his stories aren’t nearly as interesting as he thinks.
Rating:
