DMX returns with is 7th album, and almost 4 years since his last. With all his legal troubles he has been quiet on mic over the last few years, and it's nice to see him come back just as strong as always. This is his shortest album, at only 11 songs and around 35 minutes long. Guests are on 7 of the 11 songs, and mostly are just recycled verses from them artists' albums from the past year or so that were released under the Siccness label. Of the 11 songs, you get 2 near classics, 7 are good, and 2 of them are ok. I'd give one of his albums 5 stars (1998's debut: "It's Dark and Hell Is Hot") and one 4 stars (2003's "Grand Champ", the rest I'd say are 4.5 or border 4/4.5 so this one fits in with mostly all his other albums in its quality. Production is nice as well. Pat Gallo does 6 songs, Batkave does 4, and Main event West does 1. Has more upbeat/harder tracks than his other albums, as he usually has a few deeper, more personal songs scattered through his albums, but not on this one. A nice album to have for his fans after a long break.
#2 - 9.5 (great upbeat track)
#3 - 8.5 (f/ JR Writer & Hell Rell -- good beat)
#4 - 9.5 (f/ Rampage -- another nice upbeat track)
#5 - 9 (nice beat)
#6 - 9 (f/ Mobb Deep -- nice beat)
#7 - 8.5 (f/ G-Dep & Loon)
#8 - 7 (f/ Hell Rell)
#9 - 8
#10 - 7.5 (f/ AZ)
#11 - 8 (f/ Keith Murray)
#12 - 9
Earl Simmons -- b. 12/18/70 -- b. Baltimore, MD moved to Yonkers, NY
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Not bad. I understand it's a mixtape and not a full-length release per se. But, for what it's worth I'm glad I downloaded it. I like the beats and rhymes. I hope he gets back on track and kicks out some more stuff.
I thought dmx past 3 albums have been just alright but this mixtape is his best since "...And than there was X". I give it a 4.5 and hopefully his "walk with me now" & "fly with me later" albums will be good like this is.
