1 - My Ni**az skit
2 - Bring Your Whole Crew
3 - Pac Man skit
4 - Aint No Way
5 - We Don't Give A Fu**
6 - Keep Your S**t The Hardest
7 - Coming From
feat. Mary J. Blige
8 - Its All Good
9 - The Omen
feat. Marilyn Manson
10 - Slippin
11 - No Love 4 Me
feat. Swizz Beatz & Drag-On
12 - Doggz 4 Life
13 - Blackout
feat. Jay-Z & The LOX
14 - Flesh of My Flesh, Blood of My Blood
15 - Heat
16 - Ready to Meet Him
What do you say about a brotha who has the name of a dog tattoed on
his back, close to three million records sold of a debut album, and the
hottest sound and image on the street? You'd call that man DMX. "One
Love Boomer" the tat reads, shoulder to shoulder, It's Dark And Hell Is
Hot is the first effort still in Billboard's top twenty, and kids around the
world are growling, barking, rhyming in short bursts of ruff ghetto
energy, anything to imitate an artist they would have no problem calling
hero.
And now he has a new album. For an unprepared public, this game
started less than a year ago when a deep-throated, bandana-wearing
brotha started spittin? hot sh*t on cuts like LL Cool J"s "4,3,2,1" and Mic
Geronimo's "Usual Suspects". Then came two unforgettable verses:
the first on Mase's "24 Hrs. To Live"; the second on The Lox's anthem
"Money, Power, Respect", a sixteen bar ball of fire that DMX said he
wrote "a couple of years ago". It was the perfect artistic set-up for a
game that was coming out of Puff Daddy"s self-proclaimed "Hammer
era" into a harder, more broken-bottle, strife laden world where heart,
credibility, strength, and attitude meant just as much as brightest suit or
the hottest girl. Heads were ready for tales of real life, stories of struggle
and survival, pain and the ability to get by, the kind of urban tales DMX
had always thrived at. "I think society is finally ready to deal with reality",
DMX said last February, a few days before his first album was to drop,
"so for that reason I ain't got no choice but to blow up!" And blow up he
did. Worldwide. "Get At Me Dog" was the song that did it, a spit-fire
piece of uncompromising aggression that became the universal
anthem of hood life, months before labelmate Jay-Z called anybody's
life hard knock.
But while everyone couldn't get
enough of DMX's call and response,
couldn?t stop listening to the
head-nod energy of "Stop Being
Greedy", couldn't stop "F*ckin' Wit'
D," or thinking about the introspective
good vs. evil battle of "Damien", this
hardest-working-thug-in-show
business was working. Working on a new book of verse and rhyme that
would give his people what they wanted. More X. Flesh Of My Flesh,
Blood Of My Blood is more DMX. More dogs. More rhymes. More
tales to tell. More barks and growls, more h*s and b*tches, more
ni**as and neighborhoods. More beats. And more love. Much more
love. Who else but DMX would bathe in a tub of blood and call it an
album shoot? Who else but DMX would stare out, naked and ready to
blast the world, with his hands in prayer? And yeah, Damien is back,
The Lox is back, Jay-Z is back. But now there are some new kids,
because Ruff Ryders -- DMX's Ruff Ryders -- is the hottest crew in the
world.
Take one listen to the intro, "My Ni**as", the first of ten tracks the
young beat phenomenon called Swizz will produce, and you?ll get an
early feeling, that for DMX, this rap sh*t ain't no game. "Just 'cause I
love my ni**as / I shed blood for my ni**as!" Two minutes later you'll
hear some horrified strings and the wail of a brotha ready to bring it on.
"Bring Your Whole Crew" will provide the first memorable lines of a 70+
minute album. "I got blood on my hands and there's no remorse / I got
blood on my d*ck 'cause I f*cked a corpse", X spits while giving you a
drive-by tour of the mind of one of the most energized and manic artists
this game has ever seen. "Ain't No Way", then finds the Dark Man
taking a page out of the book of the great B.I.G., and
ghetto-harmonizing on a hook laced with some of Swizz?s robotic
horns. "I love it, I love it", he says on the fade-out, right before the Lox
kill it on the Yonkers posse cut "We Don't Give A F*ck".
"I want Flesh Of My Flesh to be like
my connection to the community," he
says. "I want to say what's on my
peoples' minds, soak up all their
pain. I've learned that when I take it all
in, I can make one brothas pain be
understood by the world". Well, heads
are gonna understand something
after they hear coming-of-age tale called "Coming From", featuring
none other than Ms. Mary J. Blige. "My journey's been a rough one / I'm
not sure when it began / But the way it's lookin' / I kinda know when it's
gonna end". Created by PK, another young producer-phenom in the
Ruff Ryders camp, "Coming From" is a beautiful piece of ghetto blues.
It's all in there: stuttered drum lines and staccato piano notes,
heart-exposed lyrics with a mournful chorus, all combining in a classic
message of learning and upliftment that could only come from the mind
of a first-rate urban poet. And DMX says what he feels. Always.
His real name is Earl Simmons, and as a child he spent his days and
nights alone, wandering the streets of the School Street Projects of
Yonkers, NY by himself. Despite having five sisters, Earl says he had a
very lonely childhood, a painful reality that led to an inner strength, a
strong introspective side, and an undying bond for dogs. Real dogs.
His two pit bulls (Bandit and Bobbi) go with him everywhere including
the recording studio and his Boomer tattoo is a dedication to his
best dog-friend that was run-over by a car. If you meet DMX, and listen
to his rhymes, you hear the same person. He talks as he rhymes, with
the same rhythm, cadence, and strength of feeling that has made him
so captivating for thousands of fans and friends across the globe. You
can hear Earl on the mellowed-out "Slippin'." Laid over a melodic
Grover Washington, Jr. sample, "Slippin" is the spoken thought of a
man who has contemplated a life with little opportunity, a life with more
than one rock-bottom, but a life that's nothing but his own. And don't
get it twisted, there will be no excuses. "To live is to suffer, but to
survive, well, that's to find meaning in the suffering."
"If you think this reality is positive then you're wrong," he says, "because
there are not too many communities in the hood. There's just a bunch of
individuals. But all that matters to me is if ni**as know I'm speaking for
them - because I am them. See, I'm just starting to realize that I'm good
you know, and realize the power I have." To influence others? "Naw,
I've always been able to influence others," he laughs, "it's just that now I
know I may have done some bad things, but I'm not a bad person." At
least not the one Marilyn Manson is trying to bring to the dark side on
the eerie "Damien" sequel called "The Omen".
"The Omen" with a beats-per-minute slower than a dying heartbeat,
continues the dialogue between our hero and the Grim Reaper over a
simple drum and snare. Marilyn Manson brings his psychedelic
alternative growl to the track and fuels this joint. And who
knows how it's gonna play out with an artist who has often said he's
made a deal with the devil and covered his album booklet in the blood
of a pig?
Back in the day, DMX had a single deal with
Columbia Records. It resulted in nothing more than
a white label single called "Born Loser". Now that
same brotha has put out two full-length albums in
less than a year under the Ruff Ryders/Def Jam
banner, and the days of being ignored are an
eternity away. It's Dark & Hell Is Hot is fast on its
way to triple platinum status and may go down as
the most impressive rap debut ever. But Flesh Of
My Flesh's "No Love 4 Me" will probably say it
best. It's here that Swizz spreads some Japanese
string plucks over a kinetic club-ready beat and
lets the Dark Man fly. As he also does on the
guitar-heavy title cut: "Flesh of my flesh, blood of my blood / All my
ni**as get down like what?!?" The ruff and ready Dark Man asks us,
no doubt without the need for any real answers. And it's the perfect
anthem for another year of ill stage shows.
See, the hardest thug heads have been known to shed tears in the
dark corners of DMX's from-the-heart shows, all attention is on stage,
and all crowd beefs are squashed by the visceral power of the man on
stage. "If you turn away, you might miss something, dog," he says.
"It's better to have someone being drunk and listening to your sh*t,"
DMX says, "as opposed to being drunk and going out blasting
because he can't take it no more. You got your point across yo, but you
also got life."
DMX is more than a rapper, he's an entertainer and a leader who
understands the power and influence he has been blessed with. An
album with a "Prayer" is no accident for DMX, it's designed to be the
emotional climax of a trip through the subconscious of a young black
male. In opening himself up, DMX believes he can save the souls of
those he cares most about. And for that, he's a unique individual. Just
listen to "Ready To Meet Him", the final song of Flesh Of My Flesh. It's
a profound pre-millennial spiritual that will rank the Dark Man with some
of the game's more infamous soul searchers. KRS-One and Chuck D
have been there. The great Rakim has been there. 2Pac and Big had
the spot on lock. Now DMX enters that rarefied place.
"Lord you left me stranded, and I don't know why / Told me to live my
life, and now I'm ready to die
Ready to fly / I cry but I shed no tears / You told me you would dead
those fears / It's been years
Snakes still coming at me / Just missing / Sometimes I think all you do
with me is just listen /
I thought that I was special / That's what you told me
Hold me / Stop acting like you don't know me"
You know Dark Man X, and if you don't, now you know. Millions
already do.
---DefJam.com
DefJam.com