It’s been some time since rapper DMX made an appearance on “The
\nDaily Vault” – the last time was for his excellent third album
\n…And Then There Was X<\/i>. Shortly after that review, I had
\nthe good fortune of landing DMX’s first two albums in an eBay
\nauction, hoping that what I had heard on the most recent work was
\nthe continuation of a streak of excellence.<\/p>\n
Well, close. DMX’s debut release,
\nFlesh Of My Flesh Blood Of My Blood<\/i> has a lot of the promise
\nthat would manifest itself into what we have today, but this work
\nis a little clouded and unsure of just where DMX wanted to take
\nthings.<\/p>\n
Make no mistake, DMX shows early on that he had the chops to be
\na contender for the gangsta rap throne vacated when Tupac Shakur
\nwas tragically gunned down, both in songwriting and in rap
\ndelivery. What is also intriguing about DMX is that he is one of
\nthe few rappers who dares to actually do some singing, mostly in
\nthe choruses. It is almost like he is injecting a little bit of
\nr&b into the mix, and is a wonderful change of pace.<\/p>\n
\nFlesh Of My Flesh Blood Of My Blood<\/i> isn’t quite the
\nfirecracker that you would expect. Tracks like “Bring Your Whole
\nCrew,” “Ain’t No Way” and “Keep Your Shit The Hardest” are
\nimpressive, showing DMX’s plentiful rap skills. What is also
\nintriguing is his constant battle between good and evil,
\nillustrated in songs about trying to break a deal with the devil
\n(“The Omen”) and pleading with God for a chance to redeem himself
\n(“Ready To Meet Him”).<\/p>\n
Yet there is still some growth that DMX needed to do musically.
\nSome of the interludes (and not all are listed) get a bit tiring,
\nincluding the mother pleading for the life of her son and the gang
\nhits. A good portion of the second half of the album doesn’t really
\ncontain DMX’s strongest material; tracks like “Blackout” and “Dogs
\nFor Life” fail to live up to their full potential. And do my ears
\ndeceive me, but is there actual bleeping going on in “Slippin'”?
\nWhy bother blocking out the words on an album that already has the
\nParental Advisory sticker – or was it that DMX was hoping this was
\na track that would get radio play?<\/p>\n
\nFlesh Of My Flesh Blood Of My Blood<\/i> still is an intriguing
\nalbum, and shows that DMX was well on his way to becoming one of
\ntoday’s most exciting rappers. And while this album shows that he
\nwas still making the journey, he had learned many of his lessons
\nwell.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25437,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6234],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-36643","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-dmx","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36643"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36643\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36643"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36643"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}