The album’s bright spots - “One More Road to Cross,” the cautionary tale “Here We Go Again” and the requisite God song, “Angel” and the accompanying “Prayer” entry - all work well. When an MC is able to create those types of connections, he doesn’t have to try tap into something that’s really not their in his artistry. He also showed his emotional and spiritual sides to himself that naturally appealed to both men and women. Women loved X not because he catered to them, but because he didn’t cater to them. The problem came when they went to the well one too many times for “Good Girls, Bad Guys,” a song that’s as annoyingly painful as the female voice that occupies space on the song’s chorus. He became the bad boy ladies love to get their hands on, even if it meant being burnt, while also propping himself up as a guy who other men could envy due to his many conquests chronicled in the song. Here was Earl crafting his version of a song soft enough for women, thanks to help from Dru Hill’s Sisqo and Nokia, but made for men. “What These B*tches Want” was the dog we knew and loved.
Knowing how to spot that hit element came in play on that record.” Capturing those moments as a producer is important. Everybody feels like that.’ We took that frustration and excitement and put it into a hit song. He continued, “So we said, ‘You’re not the only person who feels like that. “X was probably frustrated coming to the studio that day like, ‘Y’all gone make me lose my mind!’” “‘Party Up’ was at a time when things were moving fast,” Swizz told Complex in 2011. They opted to go to Miami instead, which, again, would explain the change in the final product. Coincidentally, the song wasn’t created in New York. Swizz once explained how he took X’s frustration and turned it into “Party Up,” which is remarkable in a sense but not exactly the best move in hindsight because most fans weren’t coming to DMX for party records. Instead of making the gritty songs that were authentic to the emotions only X could express, Swizz and company tried to contort DMX’s style into a neatly packaged presentation they could market. The wrinkle here is that as that, despite their success, those singles are symbolic of what happened with the rest of the project - things with X sounded like they were going in forced directions. It’s okay to admit that you still have know more than half of the 46 different women - because there were three Kims - named on the Sisqo-assisted “What These B*tches Want.” The doomsday sound of “What’s My Name” still rings out as clear as it did at the time of its release.
“Party Up” probably still clears substantial royalty checks to this day since it pops up in TV commercials and movie trailers from time to time. The project is certified five-times platinum, making it X’s biggest seller in his catalog, and it sported three singles - “What’s My Name,” “Party Up (Up in Here)” and “What These B*tches Want” - that all went on to become anthems, each in their own right. Let’s acknowledge that …And Then There Was X did have its fair share of success. 1 on the charts and went gold in its first week before eventually going on to sell three-times platinum. They completed the challenge in grand fashion as the album landed no. That was the whole drive,” X recently revealed to Fader. “Lyor said if I could do another album in 30 days, I’d get a million-dollar bonus. Lyor Cohen was running Def Jam at the time and he placed the ultimate carrot in front of X and his team. Those albums were both released in 1998, with the second actually being birthed from a million dollar bet. Remember that X was coming off the massive success of his first two projects, It’s Dark and Hell Is Hot and Flesh of My Flesh, Blood of My Blood, which went quadruple platinum and triple platinum, respectively. DMX thought he could do no wrong but that’s what happens when you record a song with Marilyn Manson. So how did And Then… end up soiling X’s track record? Primarily, the quest for more success.
X, Swizz Beatz and the Ruff Ryders camp were all fire hot around this time period and records were still selling in high numbers. For that answer, look no further than his third record, …And Then There Was X, released on this day in 1999.īefore we go too deep into it, let’s establish that …And Then There Was X was not a bad project. Comparing that record with his arrest record in the years that followed brings to mind the question of where it all went wrong. Yes, DMX, he of many unflattering headlines in the current day had his first four solo efforts reach the top of the charts during his late ’90s heyday. 1 spurred memories of one of the other two rappers who accomplished a similar feat: Drake and DMX. Cole’s recent success of having his first four albums go no.