Record Author(s): Fat Joe
	Record Title: don Cartagena
	Record Producer(s): Mack 10, L.E.S., Dame Grease, Marley Marl, Richard "Younglord" Frierson, Baby Paul, Ski, Buckwild, DJ Premier, JAO, Ghetto Pros, The Beatnuts, Spunk Bigga, Armageddon, Rashad Smith, Kurt Gowdy
	Executive Producer(s): Fat Joe, "Big" Greg Angelides, Craig Kallman, Rob "Reef" Tewlow
	Release Date: September 1, 1998

Here's all you need to know about Fat Joe: he's Puerto Rican/Cuban, he's from the Bronx, and he's a big man - both figuratively and literally. While Heavy D chose the moniker of "the overweight lover", this Bronx bomber named himself "Joe Da Fat Gangsta", which led to more than a few snickers during Joe's early career.

It's no harsh criticism to suggest that Joe's first two albums, Represent (1993) and Jealous Ones Envy (1995) were underwhelming affairs of played out gangsta fairytales, sloppy rhymes and lackluster beats. Yet Fat Joe surprises you with Don Cartagena, breathing new life into a career that had look exhausted of potential. Instead, Joe sounds like he's taken a 12-step program on slanguistics, improving his flow to the point where he almost sounds as good as his protoge Big Pun (another overweight/Latino MC curiously enough). Likewise, his beats have never sounded fresher, with producers like Marley Marl, DJ Premier, The Beatnuts, and Buckwild keeping the groove going.

Of course, with a title like Don Cartagena, Fat Joe is still up to his old gangsta ways, only now he's upgraded from being a two-bit hustler on the street to calling the shots from his mafioso backroom. Conceptually, Fat Joe is still kicking down the same dope he's always been dealing, but if it's any conciliation, at least the quality is better. The Crack Attack (which starts the album) already lets you know where he's coming from, but the piano track flows pleasantly and your jaw drops when Fat Joe starts slapping syllables together with newfound skill such as "federals listening to my conversations/taping all the songs I'm making/staking down every ounce of my congregation." Woo hah, Joe's got you all in check!

When he's not letting his life in the crack game get to his head too far, Fat Joe actually turns in some better-than-average braggadocio. Best example - Dat Gangsta Shit is another pristine Premier production where cascading electronic sounds collide with some serious funk riffs. Likewise, Marley Marl comes out of hiding to produce Find Out, the album's first single, mixing in Middle Eastern-influenced strings over a simple drum track while Fat Joe spits rhymes like "MCs be acting/I think somebody need to slap them/run up and attack them."

The powerhouse posse cut is John Blaze - an overused honorific, but the top notch squad of Nas, Big Pun, Jadakiss and Wu Tang's Raekwon live up to the billing as they bring line after line of hard-hitting lyricism that never seems to let up.

However, Don Cartagena dishes out some misogyny with its bravado, especially on the patently offensive Bet Ya Man Can't (Triz) which is a Freudian sexual fantasy gone wrong. No one accused Fat Joe of having good gender politics, but this one left a bad taste in my mouth.

The most contradictory song has to go to Good Times though. After spending a good hour or so talking about crack sales and cracked skulls, Fat Joe tries to toss you an obligatory "let's all be positive and come together" track - as if we didn't notice he was talking about "killin' niggas" on the previous 13 tracks. Fat Joe is hardly the only MC to indulge in contradictions, but this was so glaring, it practically slaps you in the face.

Can Fat Joe carry his own weight? Apparently so with his improved delivery and tigher production help yet Don Cartagena is - at best - a fairly good album in an otherwise limited genre of pseudo-reality rap with pretensions to wanting to rock it for the underground heads as well. He doesn't quite make it, but that doesn't mean the attempt wasn't fun at times.

Courtroom Intro
The Crack Attack
Triplets	w/ Big Punisher, Prospect
Find Out	w/ Armageddon
Don Cartagena	w/ Puff Daddy
My World	w/ Big Punisher
John Blaze	w/ Nas, Big Punisher, Jadakiss & Raekwon
Walk On By	w/ Charli Baltimore
Dat Gangsta Shit
Bet Ya Man Can't (Triz)	w/ Big Punisher, Cuban Link, Triple Seis
Misery Needs Company	w/ Noreaga
The Hidden Hand	w/ The Terror Squad
My Prerogative	w/ Armageddon
Good Times	w/ Layzie Bone & Krayzie Bone
Terror Squadians	w/ The Terror Squad

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