Posted: Sunday – October 11, 2009

[rating=3]
Jealous Ones Still Envy, which was released on October 6, is Fat Joe’s ninth solo effort and sequel to the rapper’s solo platinum album, 2001’s Jealous Ones Still Envy.

The album has already suffered several delays due to promotion issues with the label, but the hopes are that unlike his most recent releases, Me, Myself & I and The Elephant In The Room, this CD will take some of the shine off of Joey’s ongoing feud with 50 Cent and the persistent rumors regarding his finances. Instead of switching up his formula, Joe looks to perfect his usual blend of “radio-friendly” tracks and street anthems.

The album starts out with Winding On Me, a track garnished with a feature from Lil Wayne, but unfortunately also features Ron Browz, and is filled to the brim with Auto-tune. The production is too slow to be a dance track and sounds similar to all the Browz-inspired tracks that preceded it. Joey picks things up though with Joey Don’t Do It featuring DJ Infamous, who did an enviable job with a Jimmy Hendrix sample on the production. The best song the album has to offer and also the last song on the album is Music featuring Cherlise, where Joe reflects on how his past contributions to the rap game have been generally ignored by the masses. The songs that immediately precede that song, Ice Cream featuring Raekwon and Ta, and Okay Okay, which are both helmed by The Inkredibles, and Blackout a Swizz Beatz production featuring Rob Cash, are all worth a listen, but a repeat won’t be necessary.

The lead single, One featuring Akon is predictable and falls without notice into the same pool as all the other love-inspired songs featuring pop singers. Both Aloha featuring Pleasure P & Rico Love and Put You In The Game featuring T-Pain & Oz may have been better minus Joey. The intent of Porn Star featuring Lil Kim is obvious, but the song is simply horrible from the Jim Jonsin beat that aside from being uninspired is also missing a tempo to an off balance Lil Kim, to the lyrics that Fat Joe cut and pasted from every other stripper pole/sex song.

After hearing certain tracks that can only be described as dated, you can’t help but think that maybe if he had released the Jealous Ones Still Envy 2 as intended on April 7th, or at least before D.O.A. it may have been met with a better reception. Joey seems to be at his best when he is on a song solo, unfortunately that only happens on 3 out of the 12 songs. With an all-star lineup of features and production from some of the best, this album at its peak is only luke-warm, meant to be picked at for the best it offers, which ironically are the songs that won’t get airplay and then cast off to the shelf where it will be forgotten.

Source: Yoraps