CD Reiews

Fat Joe
The Elephant in the Room
Virgin Records / 2008
♥♥♥

Fat Joe’s new album, The Elephant in the Room, is appropriately titled. An elephant in a room would be a difficult object to overlook, just as the offensive lyrics and crude themes presented in this album are impossible to overlook, should you have the unfortunate experience of listening to this album.

Most, if not all, of the songs make a reference to the selling or using of crack-cocaine. The most in your face example is “The Crackhouse,” with the title being the only lyric that is appropriate enough to be in print. If a song doesn’t mention crack, Fat Joe will use his lyrics to say something derogatory towards women. This album will offend any listener within the first three songs.

Fat Joe has an impressive amount of help in carrying out this project; over half of the songs have cameos from artists ranging from J. Holiday to Lil Wayne. These guest appearances fail to guarantee him any big commercial hits. In the first song, “The Fugitive,” Fat Joe expresses distaste in the very idea of churning out hits that gain him commercial success. He jests, “What? You want that hard-core commercial shit?” This may just be his way of defending his name. It is highly unlikely that this album will benefit from the commercial success of opposing artists like Kanye West. But this view seems incredibly hypocritical when compared to other lyrics on the album.

Fat Joe is clearly interested in supplying the public with “commercial shit” as he raps, “We up a hundred grand whenever I hear a new song, c’mon c’mon that’s too many ringtones.” The album even comes with a little piece of paper advertising two ring tones. Most people should be paid to use his songs as their ringtones.

— Leah Werier, staff