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Whether it works or not depends on whether you're in the love him or the hate him camp, but no compromise is just what his fans signed up for in the first place. The Darkside, Vol. 1 is a mean beast of an album that will surely make Joe's army re-enlist for Vol. 2.
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His inspiration trails off slightly toward the end, but at least half of these tracks will delight purists.
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While the pull of the charts is hard to resist, the tracks with Primo and Just Blaze show he knows where his heart truly is, while the rest of the album tries and either fails or succeeds at pulling him away from the grime, grease and grit of the street corner.
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The Bronx native's tenth LP is consumed by legacy: his lengthy career, his harrowing life, and his craft.
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Joe is one of the last remaining beasts from the East, and as he demonstrates on the DJ Premier ringer "I'm Gone" and "At Last Supremacy" with Busta, he sounds better in his back yard than he does in trying to appease pedestrians with unnecessary Wayne and Jeezy cameos.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 8 out of 8
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Mixed: 0 out of 8
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Negative: 0 out of 8
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Jan 27, 2011
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Aug 31, 2010