producer: ty fyffe, dat nigga rep, irv gotti, lil rob, dl, da mizza, mr fingaz

guests: dmx, bj, shady, dave bing, ronnie bumps, lil mo, jay-z, memphis bleek, busta rhymes

24. Somebody's Gonna Die Tonight feat. Dave Bing & Lil Mo

Irv Gotti had success with pushing Ja Rule to the masses. Not only did he put this kid on the "Can I Get A..." track with Ja˙-Z, geared with Tupac bandana, a stomach reminiscing of some over cooked waffles, Ja was destined to be successful. And hated. And then the album came out and even the biggest cynic couldn't say much, but give a surprised nod in his direction. But that was Ja's accomplishment. His heartfeltness and honesty saved the album. And everything that prevented that his album sucked is missing here. Now the keyboards reign supreme and the thugness has taken over everything that gave Ja's album some respectful humanity. And by the way, this album clocks in with astonishing 79 minutes. Many of those should have never happened. And to complete this full out swing: the Murderers name is a bunch of crap too.

"It's that gangsta shit, right here nigga. It's that shit y'all niggas can't get with. Fuck all y'all industry clown ass niggas. Y'all can't get with this shit right here? This is murda nigga, this shit ain't for you. This if for them niggas in the street. Them niggas living that everyday fucking life. This shit is for them. This shit ain't for y'all industry ass niggas. Y'all niggas can eat a dick all fucking day nigga. Y'all can't get with this. It's the I.N.C. nigga". Well, we love you too. This is continuing for another minute on the "Intro". And this pretty much sums everything up. But once someone ('sup Ian?) very clever asked me: why can't you enjoy hip hop with violent content, while you still watch movies that just about have the same content? Point taken. And so I will review this with that thought in mind.

Aight, "Murderers" is kinda nice, beatwise. Done by Ty Fyffe and Irv Gotti is doing what the South has been doing for a while now (i.e. Mike Dean, etc.). Ja Rule, Black Child and Tah Murdah trade rhymes, or lines about what things they could do to your ass if you are not acting right, and how hard and angry these guys can get. Ja gives this some relevance with his above the rest lyrics. After this cut, there's "Dem Niggaz", produced by Irv Gotti and JB, and again the beat is aight. Lyrically on the same tip as the track before, while Ja this time also shows his ugly side. "We Don't Give A Fuck" then takes the energy of a Ruff Ryder track and combines it with some old English Royalty horn, or better, the Rocky theme. This tries to get the clubs rowdy, but falls short to do that. Now Ja drops the line " I don't wanna be Wyclef, I'm trying to build this treasure". Anybody? It's also remarkable to hear him, cause compared to the rest, he does sound like a seasoned veteran. "Shit Gets Ugly" is much more a club track than the one before. The Lil' Rob and Irv Gotti contribution is actually tight, and the chorus works in a big way. Get me the instrumental to this.

Vita and Ja team up for "We Murderers Baby". The beat is weak and Vita is desperately trying to not sound like Foxy, to catch a flow, any flow or identity, and ends up sounding like a very good looking model that can't rhyme to save her live. More of that can be heard on her solo cut "Vita, Vita, Vita" and the extraordinary wack hook gives this an even worse feel. And on the skit that snuggles in between these two cuts, she tries to act (at least with her voice), and straight up fails. However, on "Vita, Vita, Vita", she rhymes "I spit it sick like Lupus / each bar making it hard for you to dupe this / and the truth is I'm nothing nice" this is too easy to take outta context, so let's just mention a moment of almost lyrical shine "if you hearing that hot shit / then you know that I spitted / and bitches you shitted on / then you know that I shitted". Ghostwriter?

Well, this review is getting too long, so let's go through the rest faster. It's pretty much the same anyways. Ja Rule picks up the shattered pieces after Vita with his solo cut "How Many Wanna Die". "We Getting High Tonight", Black Child's solo cut is some straight up South vibe rip off. DMX provides a solo track: "Tales Of The Darkside". He once again shows that some of these Murderers cats are plain amateurs and Irv and Rob don't hesitate to put his rhymes over one of the more advanced beats too. Tah Murder's "Get It Right" is a fast forward cut, "We Different" a keyboard hassle, "Rebels Symphony" is kinda tight though. "Black Or White" is actually very interesting too. Dope beat for Black Child to flow over. "If You Were My Bitch" is horrible. That singing is the worst. Another South and West rip off can be heard on "Crime Scene", "Somebody's Gonna Ride Tonight" is a weak attempt to get the ladies to like this album too and finally "Holla Holla" gets a remix, with Ja˙-Z, Vita, Ja Rule, Tah Murdah, Memphis Bleek, Black Child and Busta Rhymes dropping some lines.

We probably shouldn't be surprised, but an album full of the same content is just too much violent threatening, killing, talking about how much money these cats have (initially only earning it with this money though), how hard they are, and you know the rest. And so this is taking one donkey and beating it to death. While Irv still provides us with some have to appeal pop tracks, and some really dope beats, the emcees are successful in having us hate the thug rhymes even more. Sure, they are probably good at what they are doing, but can what they are doing even be considered good? I mean, all them dope and violent movies probably also have a good script, good dialogs, good cinematography effects, stuff like that. Well, this album only has Ja Rule and the producers.