Written By: Anthony Seaman
Unless you’re Joe Budden, retiring from music doesn’t just happen. You either internally lose the drive, label calls stop rolling in to grease the wheels of a new project, or you keep going but everyone stops listening. In 2004 Jadakiss announced he was done releasing major albums until he could get off of his label, the powerhouse that was Interscope. Jadakiss and The LOX future albums were put in limbo thanks to in part to 50 Cent. A beef with the Queen megastar, born of being a feature on Ja Rule’s “New York” at a time of war between Ja and 50, later grew into a slew of diss records, childhood friends turned industry folk mudding up any attempts of reconciliation, and a failed 1-v-1 showdown at Madison Square Garden where a champion of the beef and $1 million dollars would be on the line. 50 was a major star for the company and had the ear of Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre like few others had. Not to mention the LOX as a whole had been followed by the black cloud of label issues since the beginning of their career. Bad Boy, the label owned and operated by Diddy that gave the Yonkers trio their first shot in the business, had not only held an excessive amount of their backend money from their releases but was constantly forcing them to make creative compromises that they saw as detrimental to their artistry. As the war with 50 Cent and Interscope waged on, Jada took to the internet, focusing on self-releasing mixtapes and doing feature verses for up and coming rappers. Eventually signing to Def Jam, thanks to a personal friendship with Jay-Z while he was still running the label, Jadakiss would release the long clamored for The Last Kiss.
Like every commercial Jadakiss project before it, to put it plainly, it sucks. It would be one thing if Jada was a bad rapper, a guy who just recycled the same lines time and again, would regularly get washed by his peers, or was uncreative in his cadences and flows. Yet he’s none of that. The Achilles Heel that still burdens one of the greatest feature killers in hip-hop history is his dreadful song crafting. From his time at Bad Boy to the modern day, If the songs had hooks at all, they were halfhearted attempts at crossover refrains or R&B hooks that couldn’t buoy the cringeworthy beat selection. He had earned his stripes across New York in the late 90’s rapping in tandem with Styles P and Sheek Louch, battling in parks and freestyling everywhere from street corners to live on Hot97. Production on every album saw the same faces; Swizz Beats, Icepick, PK, Pharrell. Timbaland, D-Dot and Scott Storch even found their way into the mix doing the same thing everyone was doing; overproducing. The Last Kiss is no different.
The late 00’s saw a frenzy of producers ripping off J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League, Swizz, Sean C & LV and Just Blaze to create cinematic monstrosities that work best for lighting sparklers while $300 in the hole at a strip club. Those artists themselves even became stale and either swapped out their palette or shifted gear completely. Some rappers toed the line perfectly (essentially anyone not from the North East featured on a DJ Khaled album) and others ended up like Jada, struggling to find a foothold in something so detailed. The music was exclusively for those who got chubby and moved to Miami, but Kiss was still trying to compete. The Champ Is Here mixtape series was electric, and showed no signs of rust as a pure MC. But when it came time for a new album, the same deficiencies reared their head. He rehashed the “questions concept” he patented on “Why?” with Nas for “What If”, for the umpteenth time. He tried to be a ladies man “Rockin’ With The Best” and “By My Side”, biograph the hard life of a young girl turned resilient woman “Smoking Gun”, or turn his own life to a motivational tale “Can’t Stop Me”. Every overthought concept fell flat as potent bars were watered down for commercial rap consumers. “Who’s Real” and “Something Else” sound like unwanted cuts from any number of Jeezy albums. Lonely in the depths of nothingness are actual inspired and sonically pleasing tracks “One More Step” and “Things I’ve Been Through” leaning into his gold standard connectivity to Styles P or his picture perfect storytelling. 90% of the record you can skip through and miss nothing of substance, or you could tape your hands together to make tracks unskippable and be delivered a living blemish in an already hapless career.
If Jadakiss had entered the rap universe 5 years earlier everything would be poised for his success. Being ushered in by pop-rap titans Diddy and Notorious B.I.G. put an expectation of chart topping success on himself and his crew, something they never were meant to become. Not to mention in the early 2000’s the Golden Age sample heavy sound that birthed them faded away for electro-leaning beats that doubled as Transformers cut music. They were rugged, vile lyricists who flourished ripping the hearts out of opponents; but when you’re pushed as a pop star everyone is supposed to see you as a friend. A safe haven. Instead he was meant to be unlocking new chambers with Wu-Tang Clan or playing a counter balance to Guru on Gang Starr albums. The Last Kiss is the worst of Jadakiss’ studio albums (arguably the worst project bearing his name in any capacity) and falls in a lineage of NY greats falling off the mountain top of mainstream relevance with an explosive thud (everyone wave hello to Fat Joe and Busta rhymes). If you find it in the Used section at your local record store, buy it and burn it for the safety of others.
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