Back in 2017, Fat Joe and Remy Ma’s album Plato O Plomo was one of the year’s biggest missed opportunities. Instead of building off their joint banger “All The Way Up,” the project languished and meandered. On Family Ties, his alleged final album, the Bronx legend teams up with his long-time collaborator Dre, of Cool & Dre fame.
The Terror Squad founder unites a hodgepodge of A-Team artists and occasionally experiments with form, hinting at a creative renaissance just as he’s shutting the door. Despite having a handful of mediocre tracks and lacking a career-closing statement, Family Ties manages to invoke nostalgia while also sounding fresh.
The first batch of songs are simple, refined bangers that center Joe and Dre’s talents. As a grand finale to a multi-decade career, the project kicks off with a song celebrating how far Joe has come. Over a menacing beat, the “Lean Back” rapper brags about his accomplishments: “Forgive me, I’m a milli from the projects/ Drip team, triple beam and the Pyrex.” Dre echoes his gusto with a verse boasting his street bonafides.
This energy carries over on “Been Thru” and “Heaven & Hell.” “Been Thru” is a slick and somber track where the two artists lament about their dynamic pasts. Dre plays around with Auto-Tune, giving his old school folklore a contemporary spin. And “Heaven & Hell” repurposes Wendy Rene’s hit “After Laughter” as a soulful backdrop to Joe and Dre trading bars oozing with nostalgia. Dre collapses the last few decades of Hip Hop history in the verse: “He talking yay all through the wire, this ain’t Kanye, you bitch/ This is strictly for my n*ggas, like 2Pac in this shit.”
An eclectic group of artists have RSVP’D yes to Joe’s retirement bash but unfortunately, some of their parting gifts aren’t of the highest quality. Ty Dolla $ign and Jeremih sleepwalk through the lethargic R&B song “Drive.” While Mary J. Blige does her best to muster out a hook on “Lord Above,” Eminem succumbs to his typical, late-career corniness. In a verse that could have benefited from serious editing, Slim Shady throws jabs at Mariah Carey and Nick Cannon and once again proves that he’s trying way too hard to be relevant.
Even if there is disappointing filler, Joe has a knack for bringing out the best from his guests. Remy Ma gives a charismatic performance on “Big Splash.” “YES,” featuring Cardi B and Puerto Rican rapper Anuel AA, is a fiery banger. And “Pullin,” featuring Lil Wayne, is refreshingly bizarre. Dre interpolates an iconic Weezy bar with a Marvin Gaye sample and Wayne sounds newly energized, flexing his skill for being both humorous and sinister.
Though Family Ties shows that Joe still has bravado, it relies way too heavily on the star power of its guests to carry it to the finish line. With so much talent in the mix, the project has more than a few gems —it’s just missing a grand finale banger that can do Joe’s career justice.
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WHOLE ALBUM IS ?, YALL STOP HATING ON THIS ONE!!!
FIRE IS THE WORD, WHERE ? IS in comment
As an MC myself with the utmost respect for NY hip hop, Fat Joe was never really that skilled to me. To his credit, after being around Pun, he stepped his rhymes up by starting to flip multi syllable patterns. But even with that, his flow and content was always lacking. I respect you Fat Joe if you’re reading this and a big THANK YOU for holding it down. Maybe it’s because I never heard a WHOLE Fat Joe album, just mainly his singles. Idk
You wack…
Oh my God, Daniel. You’re so full of shit
This slams. Y’all are crazy
This album go hard, Idk what they talkin about. Smh
E’sa terrible review guy. Listen again.
I don’t know why rappers use their weakest material to
End their career with. This was the weakest one from
joe. But it wasn’t the worst album ever, just the worst he’s ever brought out
This review trash. Hating is evident. Smh
The Album is different but good. No one song sounds alike, and there are different artists who feature on the tracks. I feel that albums should be progressively aggressive based on the theme and what the artists were looking to create. ?
Fat Joe’s longevity is underrated. I haven’t listened to anything he’s done since “slow down” with Jeezy about 10 years ago, but I’m aware that he’s had big hits in the past few years (“all the way up”, for example) His first hit was “flow joe” in the early ’90s. Staying relevant that long is pretty rare, Crack doesn’t get enough props for it the way LL Cool J does.
Lmao the hate on EM is real from this clown. His verse was absolute ??
No cuban link, no tony sunshine, no armageddon. No old terror squad. The album is trash.
Unnecessary album
Wow this guy’s a clown! Ems usual corniness? Jealous much
Good album. A fat joe album is never trash and I hope it isn’t his last.
3.8
They kill it Daniel is just a playa hater get the fuck out here racist dude
First person I’ve heard from that didn’t like Em’s feature. Terrible review from a typical hater. I don’t think Eminem responding to someone talking shit about him in interviews is him begging to be relevant. Also, that was just a couple of lines, the rest of his verse is dope, why not mention that? I’m not even a fan of dude in 2019 but a fire verse is a fire verse. Hip hop is dead as fuck.
Another em hating review. Lol. Album is great. I enjoyed it a lot. Production was good. Not all trap like you highest rated stupid albums. Classic Joe flow. Plus, Lord above was flawless. Em sounded great on it. U can hate all you want but it’s the song that had most streams without being a single. Overall album rating is 4/5 to be fair but whatever.
Fat Joe is dope
This review makes no sense, you praise the songs but mention there is one song with ty dolla sign that’s not that good, so that 1 song ruined the album to give it a 3 rating? Or was it eminem’s verse that ruined the album? This guy needs to check his hating at the door and just do an impartial review without letting his personal eminem feelings get in the way, there’s no way the author should’ve gave it less than 4 because that’s what he wrote about, the numbers and the words don’t seem to add up here. This was definitely a strong effort and one fat joe’s best albums to date, definitely ended at a high note.
Itt
That album was fire who ever didn’t like it you are a fucking hater Joe and Dre is hot.
No one agreeing with this review. Guess y’all got it wrong.
I will say this again. This person needs to get fired. Your a poor representation of hip hop culture. All they do is hate on the older artist. You’re a joke
Agreed!!! Absolutely fucking agree!
FIRE WHOMEVER WROTE THJS TRASHY ASS ARTICLE. If I could I would jump through the screen and smack the shit out of the writer for disrespecting FAT JOE’s album and legacy
Who does he sound like now? I mean, who’s writing for him? He used to be himself about 25 years ago. Then he started trying to be Pun, then he tried to sound like 50 even when 50 was dissin him, then he tried to sound like Lil’ Wayne, actually trying to sound southern and everything. This guy has no identity, he just takes turns jockin the style of whoever is hot at the time and getting features from whoever the trendy rapper is. There’s nothing authentic about this guy. He probably trying to sound like Migos now or something. He was wack since I was 12.
It’s called adapting, or evolving. Joe’s been rapping since the early 90s. He can’t get by rapping like that today. Even though in my opinion those are his best days. But if he’s trying to sell albums. So, he’s got to adapt to the music that’s getting radio play at the time being. You don’t really know nothing about Joe or hip-hop. Then you rated the album before 4 out of 5, what are you saying? Respect his longevity. And his ability to keep it gangster and stay relevant.
Em’s trying to be relevant 🙂
And how is this guy’s opinion any different than any opinion on Twitter Facebook or any other social media? 20 years ago what some clown in a critic magazine said actually held some water,those days are gone.
Hip-hop magazines or hip-hop websites that contain critics are irrelevant…. Funny that this guy would say Em’s trying to stay relevant when …. who wrote this again?
He is trying to be relevant…talking about a 10 year beef is corny and what worse is he dissing a R&B singer…at least Drake has had beef with real rappers we care About
I sense a biased author
Never forget that this is the site that gave The Carters a 5.
His best decision here turned into his biggest mistake. To be able to get Em on the album and decide to promote it as the first single brought a great amount of attention to this album. And then… it turned into a Nick Cannon battle. Smh. A couple weeks later and no one cares about either anymore. Not to mention ANOTHER person named Dre rapping on the songs. I thought dude was a producer? Bad choice Joey.
Good lord you Em Stans are THE worst!! I thought Nicki fans were bad but yall take the prize.
Terrible review….this was a solid album! Like it in the Gym or in the whip!
LOL. One of the worst reviews I’ve ever read. Let me just begin by Stanning, which I hate but I feel like I have to, Eminem’s verse was so ridiculously fire on Lord Above. Straight flames – I had to listen to it about 5x before I caught all of the bars. And there were BARS. If you’re hating on him calling out Nick, he already went after Joe Budden, Lord Jamar, etc. recently. I mean do you really want to listen to a Gucci Mane diss from Eminem because Gucci says the hood doesn’t listen to him? Who else he gonna go after lol? Now on to Fat Joe. One of the most respected careers in Hip Hop history. He will never have the shine of the other NY artists of his time – Jay, Pun, Puff, etc, but he was a mogul. To still be at this high of a level this area into his career is fire. Also, Joe is always flames. Just is what it is. Get a new writing staff.
This staff is clearly trash….I thought I was the only one thinking this..glad to see others are on board
This is a good album…replay value.
What a terrible description.byou guys have lost all your credibility
What’s the purpose of this review? If it’s to discourage people from liking the album, you lost. The fact you took the time to post one means you heard the same thing we heard, so this wack review CAN’T be about rap bars or the culture. People can tell when you’re being disingenuous. Articles like this let me know y’all ain’t for the culture at all. Just bite and leave the rest. I bet Joe write his own rhymes though.
This trash ass site needs new direction….dudes that run this site I bet they can’t even name 5 members of the Wu TAng Clan… FOH
The review says there’s only 1 bad song so how didn’t it get like a 4.5? Were there 2 different people that gave the number rating and wrote the review? Doesn’t seem to align correctly, i get it if the review was trashing songs but he seemed to like the album so why not a higher rating makes no sense, this album was nothing but flames
If this Fat Joe’s last album …. He should be disappointed as well … This album sounds like continuation of the Remy & Joe album without Remy … Don’t like the album …..
Your review is much worse than the album!!!
Average at best there’s better albums out this year IMO
Damn I don’t even fuck with this site…but today I did. I’ve read about 4-5 articles and this is my fifth article. Now I see why I don’t fuck with this site cause y’all Spewing a lot of HOT GARBAGE. How is this fat joe album anything short of phenomenal in today’s music climate
Fat Joe is Legend…25 years in the game and he still coming stronger…..
I May never fuck with this site again on some real shit
Albums ? one the best albums to end the year
Ever since joe sold out hip hop, i was never a fan again
Dre ruined the album IMO
After a few weeks digesting Family Ties ….this review sucks. This joint is straight fire. Normally I would just KIM but I couldn’t let terrible review slide. Y’all need to reevaluate y’all album review process. Real talk.