Fat Joe – The Darkside Vol. 2 [MIXTAPE]

Fat Joe, who is no longer very fat, follows up The Darkside, Vol. 1, the album, with The Darkside, Vol. 2, the mixtape, releasing the free-for-all product just as Halloween was creeping in.

As is typical of a Fat Joe release, general consensus seems divided, judging on comments on various message boards where the mixtape was posted, and a quick personal listen. The Hype-produced “Dopeman” was a decent analogy of the overall vibe of the album, a few hot beats and an occasional decent verse from the Bronx journeyman help the project retain listenability. A couple of features, including Jadakiss and Raewkon also help.

That being said, Fat Joe surely isn’t breaking any new ground lyrically, and while we noted a few surprisingly strong songs on The Darkside Vol. 1, there are fewer pleasant surprises on this second edition. Verses on “Welcome to the Darkside,” and smack of a desperate attempt to stay relevant, and keep talking about “big money, big estates, big cars, big cribs, bad bitches,” instead of utilizing his veteran status to bring something less cliche to the game.

It’s not that his style and content isn’t in line with the grittier side of New York-styled hip hop, it’s just Fat Joe may not realize how many people don’t really take his standard “I’m-still-in-the-streets” heavy drug/violence/bitches/ballin’ talk seriously anymore. What’s working for Rick Ross these days, isn’t really going to work for Fat Joe, these days, and The Darkside, Vol. 2 sounds like an effort to continue to claim that space, that falls a bit short.

There are a couple standouts though, “Pushing Keys,” featuring an inexplicably ranting-not-rhyming Raekwon, does induce a bit of twisty-face headnodding, but efforts like this are far and few in-between on this effort.

You can download Fat Joe – The Darkside Vol. 2 as a sponsored mixtape download on DatPiff.com.