Wednesday, May 30, 2018

Happy 20th: Don Cartagena



What's happening folks?! This next twentieth anniversary salute goes to an album that helped define this Puerto Rockin's career. Going off the momentum of his best friend and labelmate's historic platinum run, this album helped him and his crew, Terror Squad, hit yet another new level.  Practically from top to bottom, this was a smash, and it was the official beginning of this plus-pound emcee's crossover success.  This is our salute to Fat Joe and his third album, Don Cartagena.

We first heard Fat Joe as Fat Joe Da Gangsta, part of the legendary D.I.T.C. ( Diggin' In The Crates crew for those not in the know).  His debut album, Represent, was almost solely produced by Diamond, with production appearances by Showbiz as well.  It was modestly received and acclaimed, even with the rugged cuts "Flow Joe" and "The Shit Is Real".  With a very in-your-face delivery and unfiltered, raw lyricism, Joe was on the radar of underground heads.  It was his next album, Jealous Ones Envy, that more people started to pay attention to him.  Eventually going gold, this album was a bit more polished around the edges, as evidenced by bangers like "Success", the Raekwon-assisted "Respect Mine", and the lead single "Envy", which was his attempt at a crossover hit.  Definitely a step up from his debut, you could tell there was a whole lot more promise in the Bronx native.

With the emergence and glass ceiling smashing of his homeboy Big Pun and his simply incredible debut album (read: classic), Capital Punishment, Joe wanted to keep that energy going with his own third album, Don Cartagena.  Definitely aiming to blend more radio and club bangers with the street appeal that had been garnering his steady following, this was his make or break album, and it worked and hit on all cylinders.  This was likely the album Joe was meant to make, as the debut title track single featured a shit-talking P-Diddy on the hook and showed that he was officially back and better than ever.  Once the album dropped, and the opening track "Crack Attack" hit, we knew this would be perhaps his best work yet.  The album literally got better the more tracks you heard.  Very much like his compadre Pun, he had cuts for the club ("Bet Ya Man Can't" featuring a slick Pun and an infectious verse from TS member Triple Seis, the Charli Baltimore-assisted "Walk On By") and the streets with venomous cuts like the dark "Hidden Hand", "Misery Needs Company", the sick "Find Out", and the Premo-powered "Dat Gangsta Shit".

This wasn't a flawless album, however, as "Walk On By" wasn't the hit it may have been aiming for and the Bone Thugs N Harmony-assisted "Good Times" was good-natured and definitely meant well, but with the hard, grimy face you tend to make listening to the majority of the album, it seemed out of place.  Overall, this album was Joe's most cohesive and complete piece of work and officially made him a mainstream star.  While other albums such as J.O.S.E. ( his first platinum album), All Or Nothing, The Darkside Vols. 1, 2 and 3, Loyalty, and Me, Myself, & I all cemented Joe's name into the commercially accessible area and brought him worldwide fans, Don Cartagena has to be considered his first official smash album that prompted his string of highly accessible efforts.  Not to mention, it can be very much argued that Don Cartagena may his best work overall ever.  We'll leave that up to you.  Happy twentieth anniversary to Joe's Don Cartagena.

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