Fat Joe:
All or Nothing

Release Date: 13 June 2005

Reviewed By: Usman Sajjad

1. Intro

2. Does Anybody Know

3. Safe To Say

4. So Much More

5. My Fofo

6. Rock My Body

7. Listen Baby

8. Get It Poppin'

9. Temptation PT.1

10. Temptation PT.2

11. Everybody Get Up

12. I Can Do U

13. So Hot

14. Lean Back - ft, Eminem

15. Beat Novacane

16. Hold You Down

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‘Joey Crack’, ‘Joey Da Don’ or simply Fat Joe is the name of the man behind 2004’s unofficial summer hit ‘Lean Back’ along with his cohorts Terror Squad. However, releasing an album following the success of a banging record produced mediocre sales for the Terror Squad and their album ‘True Story’. Joe was a victim of this same déjà vu effect on his ‘Loyalty’ album which performed poorly, despite strong singles such as ‘All I Need’, which was released a couple of years ago.

The new album, ‘All Or Nothing’, is supposed to be Fat Joe’s best work to date, according to the Bronx native, and features R. Kelly, Nelly, Eminem, Ma$e, Jennifer Lopez, Remy Martin and Swizz Beatz’ wife and protégée, Mashonda. The sparkling album also features production from an impressive roster of Scott Storch, the name behind many hits and of course the 2004 anthem ‘Lean Back’, Swizz Beatz (Memphis Bleek’s ‘Like That’), Cool and Dre (The Game’s ‘Hate It Or Love It’), Just Blaze, and DJ Khaled.

The album opens with ‘Intro’, a straight forward track which sees Joe rapping about how the 10 years have seen him stay in the game with his style still hot as ever. The first release of the album, ‘So Much More’, with Cool and Dre behind the beat, sees Joey Crack build up another club filler and radio friendly hit, even adopting the same ‘singing’ style on the hook of the track found on 2Pac’s ‘Temptations’. However, trying to emulate this success with ‘Get it Poppin’ falls too short. With even rap’s biggest cross over star Nelly and rap’s biggest producer at the moment, Scott Storch, on the track, the record proves to be less catchy.

Switching personas quickly, Joe comes hard on the fresh Just Blaze produced ‘Incredible’, using excellent scratching techniques and Chuck D’s line "Once again it’s the incredible" on the hook, from Public Enemy’s hit ‘Bring The Noise’. The Bronx rapper also addresses the beef between him and the G-Unit General 50 Cent, on ‘My Fofo’ (previously ‘F*ck 50’ on the mixtape circuit), in which Fat Joe shows the same aggression 50 showed on his debut album ‘Get Rich or Die Trying’, where 50 dissed Ja Rule on ‘Back Down’ in 2003. On the Cool and Dre produced record, the big man addresses all aspects from the sudden insults 50 aimed at Joe, to the VIBE Awards fracas, to not even seeing 50 in a club: “Let’s take it back to the VIBE Awards/When that n*gga disrespected and snuffed your boss/A minute ago all I heard was G-G-Unit, 50 n*ggas ran and didn’t even do sh*t”.

However, on ‘Roc Ya Body’ and ‘I Can Do U’, Fat Joe doesn’t put much effort into trying to create the “mack” image, showing a loss in direction. Chi-Town’s finest, R. Kelly, accompanies Joey Crack on ‘So Hot’, creating the slower version of R. Kelly’s ‘Fiesta’ with the Caribbean feel, showing how most things R. Kelly touches turns into success.

Even though attempts have clearly been made to create the next ‘Lean Back’ anthem, there is nothing better than a remix, coming in the form of Crunk. Ma$e, Remy Martin and fellow white rapper Eminem join Fat Joe on the remix to ‘Lean Back’, a more gritty, but still club viable version with high energy input from the ‘King of Crunk’ Lil’ Jon.

With the album not being his best and not topping his ultimate classic release ‘J.O.S.E’, Bronx’s finest still shows slight consistency over these 10 years of his presence in the rap game. However, ‘All Or Nothing’ is an album with little direction and pathway to be labeled as a classic. Next time, Joey must ensure that he has an album’s worth of material which can easily top hits such as ‘What’s Luv’ and others, if he is to have his name sit in the ‘King of New York’ title alongside Nas, Biggie and Jay-Z.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5

Top 3 Tracks:
13) So Hot feat. R. Kelly
5) My Fofo
4) So Much More

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