Kiss of Death

Better With Weed
by: tom reiter

The best way to describe Jadakiss' style would be as a hybrid-rapper of P Diddy and 50 Cent. Gangsta where he needs to be, smooth playa in between. One look of the A-List of artists featured on Kiss of Death confirms this. For street cred Jadakiss enlists Styles P., Sheek, and Eminem. For the ladies, he's got Snoop, Nate Dogg, Mariah Carey, and Pharrell.

Most of the tracks that don't have featured artists end up following the formula for most rap albums, rappin' about one's power, viiolence, weed, bling, and sex. Of course Jadakiss tweeks it to fit his style, making a more fun type of gangsta. "What You So Mad At??", "Shoot Outs", and "Kiss of Death" are on this end of the spectrum.

"Shine", "U Make Me Wanna" and "Hot Sauce" swings things over to the other side, infusing funk into a P Diddy-esque party flow. On "Why" Jadakiss questions the current state of the world, mosty the issues that affect the urban society.

When an album contains the same subject as most of its competition, it limits what can be judged to beats, loops, and flow, and how they add up against the rest of the field. This where Jadakiss does stand out quite well. The first few listens didn't register a very good impression of Kiss of Death, but after a little more one-on-one its finer points become much more apparent. 21-Sep-2004 7:25 PM