With Southern crunk dominating hip hop, Jadakiss represents a dying breed of great East Coast lyricists. His sophomore salvo, Kiss of Death, places him as a contender for the title of King of New York, unwilling to go down without a fight. A swarm of A-list producers--the Neptunes, Kanye West, Swizz Beatz--contribute to Death, switching up their trademark sounds to Jada's benefit. West drops galloping kicks (sans vocals) for "Gettin' It In," while Swizz gets fish-grease funky with the blaxploitation groove of "Real Hip Hop." Guests Snoop Dogg and Anthony Hamilton join with LOX cohorts Sheek and Styles on an assortment of street cuts. Also, West Coast hook master Nate Dogg assists Jada on the G-funked lead single, "Time's Up." The hypnotic "By Your Side" and love-themed "You Make Me Wanna" show that Jada has more to offer than body counts and gun talk. On the impressive "Air It Out," Jada spits, "All I got is my balls and my vocals / And the only security I roll with is my social." He has more than that. With Kiss of Death, Jada's well on his way to achieving hip hop immortality. - Vibe Magazine (July, 2004). If we're keeping it a buck, Kiss of Death fell short of classic status, but it definitely had a handful of solid joints. Vibe Magazine gave it 4 of 5 stars, which might've been a bit of a stretch, but I can also see their logic at the time. The marriage of commercial rap and underground hip-hop isn't easy, but with a career stretching as long and as consistent as Jadakiss has had, an elusive classic album may be the only thing he hasn't achieved in an industry where he's widely considered one of the greatest MCs to ever do it. So, revisit it today, and find out why Jadakiss is as hard as it gets... on his sophomore album, Kiss of Death...
A copy of the album review in Vibe Magazine and more is below...
