Provided you can stomach the Will Smith version of Cassius Clay proclaiming "The champ is here!" about every 30 seconds (Jada's cackle could've been kept in check a little more, too), you should find that it's actually superior to this fine record.
For further proof, listeners looking to go deeper are strongly advised to seek out The Champ Is Here, a teaser mix presented by Big Mike and Green Lantern.
No matter the number of bright moments, you can't help but feel that Jadakiss has his best days ahead of him. These issues aside, Jadakiss makes good on his promise to become a rounded lyricist and receives some valuable help in the form of tight production work from a handful of pros - surprisingly enough, Swizz Beatz's work on "Real Hip Hop" tops anything that producer did for Cassidy's debut, and the Red Spyda-manned title track (bizarrely tucked near the end) is Jadakiss' most vicious track yet. This, along with a particularly ill-suited "soft and smooth track for the ladies" featuring a carted-in Mariah Carey as well as a too-familiar-sounding Scott Storch production, is thankfully the only outright blights on an otherwise satisfactory showing. The most startling thing about Kiss of Death is that Jadakiss dumped a bunch of Neptunes productions and kept only "Hot Sauce to Go," one of the record's poorest tracks. Ruff Ryders brought the hood back in the late nineties and early thousands, and brought it back with pride.Purchase and download this album in a wide variety of formats depending on your needs. While Ruff Ryders, as a label, isn’t around anymore, the legacy of the label shows the incredible talent of the artists and the behind the scenes team. The result was a triple platinum bomb that exploded onto the masses and brought the dark and cold streets back to a mainstream, worldwide appeal.Ĭonsidered a classic among many, X’s debut has definitely stood the test of time. Not one to stay on just that first firestarter, he dropped the classic “Ruff Ryders Anthem” and the hood-dude-loves-around-the-way-girl ode “How’s It Going Down”, to show just how mean his star power was about to become. Garnering a sick buzz with appearances on LL’s “5,4,3,2,1” and his underground cut “Born Loser”, DMX first presented us with the adrenaline-fueled and grimy “Get At Me Dog” – which set the stage for one of the most different, but incredible debuts to close out the nineties, It’s Dark & Hell Is Hot. The album that put Ruff Ryders on the map massively.
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