This is on point with how I feel regarding this record. Fresh off of hearing Exodus, the album feels very thrown together and over produced. DMX sounds like he's been reduced to a featured artist on his own album for 2/3rds of it. He closes almost every song featuring guest rappers (including the opening track), many of whom sound out of place on a DMX album. Though it levels out a bit towards the end.Quote:
Originally Posted by David Daniel Davis
Letter To My Son also sounds unfinished, and has me questioning whether or not he intended for that song to be heard by the public. X hasn't been known to mask his feelings, but some of what he says is pretty cold and harsh. I can only imagine how this could affect his eldest son, especially considering his father has now passed on, with the inability to reconcile, and the chorus is literally saying "Call your father..." This left me feeling unsettled.
The closing prayer is also repurposed from 1998's "It's Dark and Hell is Hot", though I understand the significance of it correlating with his passing in the closing reference.
The four takeaways from Exodus for me are: Bath Salts, Hold Me Down, Walking in the Rain, and Prayer. All solid tracks, that most closely resemble DMX conceived songs, with the latter literally being so. I'm also feeling X's verse and the beat for Hood Blues.
Ultimately, it seems like Def Jam is milking all the X material they can, in order to turn a profit off numerous posthumous DMX albums. Thus is the exploitive greed of the industry. We saw the same thing happen with the passing of Sean Price and his posthumous records.
This is the strongest cut that resonates with me the most. #LongLiveX.
