Fat Joe - Don Cartagena

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01. Courtroom Intro
02. The Crack Attack
03. Triplets (ft. Big Pun & Prospect)
04. Find Out
05. Don Cartagena
06. My World (ft. Big Pun)
07. John Blaze (ft. Nas, Big Pun, Jadakiss & Raekwon)
08. Walk on By (ft. Charlie Baltimore)
09. Dat Gangsta Shit
10. Bet Ya Man Can't (ft. Terror Squad)
11. Misery Needs Company (ft. Noreaga)
12. The Hidden Hand (ft. Terror Squad)
13. My Prerogative (ft. Armageddon)
14. Good Times (ft. Bone Thugs)
15. Terror Squadians (ft. Terror Squad)

[claaa7]

this album represents the point of Fat Joe's career where he started taking the first steps to commercial success. but it's not at all as obvious as on later albums, this one is actually quite nice - besides 2-3 radio friendly songs the LP has it's fair share of hardcore bangers; DJ Premier laces typical heat on "Dat Gangsta Shit", L.E.S. drops one of his illest beats on "The Crack Attack", the Beatnuts collabo "Misery Needs Company", etc.. that Fat Joe even brought in Marley Marl for the INSANE "Find Out" shows that he still was paying respect to his roots. Big Pun is all over the place, outshining Joe everywhere and Armageddon has a ill solo called "My Prerogative" - then add Raekwon, Nas and Jadakiss to a Ski production and you know it's gonna be "John Blazin"...

with that being said the album still feel unfocused cuz of 2 reasons; as so many before him Joe tries to balance cheesy R&B-rap with hardcore hip-hop and as usual it fails (besides Notorious B.I.G. almost no one else has managed to balance it). lucky enough a large part of the album is leaning towards vintage hip-hop but then again 13 producers are used for 13 tracks which make it feel more like a compilation of songs (or an album made in 2008).

Overall: 7.5/10

[CharlesJones]

I didn't like Don Cartagena. He had a few songs on there i liked but this is the album that he changed and started doing mainstream songs and that's why i stopped liking him.