The Great Depression [PA] by DMX (CD, Oct-2001, Def Jam USA)

Until now. Thug rapper DMX, once called the successor to Tupac for his shockingly detailed, cinematic stories of life on the streets, traveled to Arizona midway through 2001 and set about recording the boldest CD of his career, a disc that traded in his traditional storytelling and crime rhymes for raps about loss and life's more traditional struggles. Heavily influenced by the death of his mother, the disc is appropriately called The Great Depression.


Despite everything, I can't reccomend X's latest. Too much of the CD is lazy beats and lazier lyrics, and by and large, the kind of music people usually buy DMX for is absent from this disc. It's a grand experiment for an artist who's got potential, but for the time being, that's all he is.