


The music may be the majority of my problem with. However, the subject of this write-up successfully caused me to flash back to what hip hop was about in the mid-to-late-1990s, an era that DMX was one of the rulers of, thanks to his gruff flow and endless energy, and a wave of goodwill washed over me. And the majority of the beats on here aren't conducive to enjoyment of any type. "Party Up (Up In Here)" is still a pretty good song, but the rest of this project has nowhere near the level of crossover appeal that would have been required for those sales to not have been trumped up by the Def Jam marketing department.

And Then There Was X deserved to move over five million copies. THE LAST WORD: First off, there's no way. But the song as a whole? Kind of dull and aimless, although Nokio's beat is harder than the track itself deserves.
#Dmx and then there was x album free
(Tellingly, the radio edit is titled "What They Want", in an effort to get the female audience to not notice that DMX and Sisqo are rapping and singing, respectively, about bitches.) Earl's ode to trying to figure out what a bitch wants, what a bitch needs, and whatever makes a bitch happy to set them free features the now-infamous second verse, where our host runs down a list of nearly fifty different women (or, rather, "bitches") in lieu of actual lyrical content: it is by far the most insane thing DMX has ever recorded, because it's so fucking silly. And Then There Was X's third single features then-popular R&B singer (and labelmate) Sisqo, who had just tasted solo success with his ubiquitous "Thong Song" after being a part of the quartet Dru Hill (whose founder, Nokio, actually produces this track), in a bold and obvious attempt to get radio programmers to pay attention to DMX. Killer Trackz beat wasn't strong enough to carry the subject Anyway, X sounded alright, if not fully committed to No sense one doesn't buy a DMX album to not hear their hero rhyme With short breaths and sound effects representing what he hearsĪround him, rather than having our host actually tell the listener
#Dmx and then there was x album professional
Heard of a professional killer shouting shit like that out loud.Ĭome to think of it, who has ever heard of a professional killerĭiscuss his process at all? This shit would have been moreĪppropriate as an instrumental, with Earl occasionally chiming in Pop!” to mimic the sound of his weapon of choice, and I've never Which is fine andĪll, aside from the hook, on which Earl shouts, “Pop! Pop! Pop! Ridiculous ways without you ever seeing it coming. Many stealth tactics he would utilize to kill the listener in many Takes on the guise of an awfully chatty hitman, explaining all of the I have a feeling I was right, but I'm trying to go into this with an open mind, so. Oooh, foreshadowing!) was the correct one. There's also some talking to God, some tales of hustling, and, oh, what is probably the biggest hit of X's entire career, "Party Up (Up In Here)", a song that is almost certainly playing on some radio station's hip hop flashback hour as we speak.Īs I haven't listened to a DMX album in its entirety for nearly five years, and have never actually listened to this project at all (I'm familiar with the singles, but that's the extent of it), I'm curious to find out whether my decision to stop giving a shit about DMX (which I apparently alluded to back in 2008. Dogs, specifically the sounds of them barking, play a large role, as does producer Swizz Beatz, whose presence had been increasing exponentially on both DMX and other Ruff Ryders projects after he kept churning out radio hits. And Then There Was X, although the subject matter and the guest list seems awfully familiar. Seriously, can you picture someone like A$AP Rocky or 2 Chainz moving five million copies of any of their albums? It's almost as though DMX's fans had never heard of Napster in the late 1990s or something.Īfter unleashing his first two solo albums in 1998, Earl took his time in crafting. It was accompanied by three hit singles and a heavy promotional push from Def Jam Records, which caused it to eventually move over five million units, which is virtually unheard of in today's climate. And Then There Was X was released one year after his sophomore project, Flesh Of My Flesh, Blood Of My Blood, and continues in his tradition of naming his albums in the most pretentious way possible. And Then There Was X, which was released around the same time that I stopped really giving a shit about the guy's career. I really have to get on these artists and their back catalogs if I ever wish to see the light of day with my self-imposed project, so I may as well start with X's third solo album. The last time I wrote about Earl "DMX" Simmons was back in November of 2008.
