As a minimal beat that sounds like
Ludacris' "Stand Up" grinds underneath the opening "Spit That Shit,"
DMX admits "Between you and me/I've been in the dark for too long," and suddenly, the once seemingly career-suicidal rapper appears to level-up on the self-awareness scale, even if he's betrayed his moniker, Dark Man X. Everything else about the supreme cut rings of the early days, when the man's music was driven by ferociousness and somehow still squeezed out the hooks, but the bumpy
Redemption of the Beast is just too close to a "street release" to call an overall success, as the handful of highlights are undermined by filler that borders on demo quality. A top-notch producer could have turned "Get Up and Try Again" into the professional wrestling anthem it aims to be, but without the guts: it's under-powered and the aural equivalent of a dusty Successories poster found while cleaning the office. Even worse, the rock-rap fueled "On and On" aims to be
Tech N9ne but comes off more like a discount "Dirty Diana." Plus at 16 tracks, the release seems designed exclusively for fan club members who can cobble out their own return-to-form EP if needed. ~ David Jeffries