Combs had started out at Andre Harrell’s label, Uptown Records, where he’d heard Biggie’s raw demo. Provided you can stomach the Will Smith version of Cassius Clay proclaiming 'The champ is here!' about every 30 seconds (Jada's cackle could've been kept in check a little more, too), you should find that it's actually superior to this fine record.No Way Out, the chart-busting, Grammy-winning debut double-album by Sean Combs – aka Puff Daddy – was released by Combs’ own Bad Boy label on 22 July 1997, a few scant months after the violent death of his key signing and friend, The Notorious B.I.G., and the release of Biggie’s second album, the diamond-selling Life After Death.

For further proof, listeners looking to go deeper are strongly advised to seek out The Champ Is Here, a teaser mix presented by Big Mike and Green Lantern. No matter the number of bright moments, you can't help but feel that Jadakiss has his best days ahead of him. These issues aside, Jadakiss makes good on his promise to become a rounded lyricist and receives some valuable help in the form of tight production work from a handful of pros - surprisingly enough, Swizz Beatz's work on 'Real Hip Hop' tops anything that producer did for Cassidy's debut, and the Red Spyda-manned title track (bizarrely tucked near the end) is Jadakiss' most vicious track yet. This, along with a particularly ill-suited 'soft and smooth track for the ladies' featuring a carted-in Mariah Carey as well as a too-familiar-sounding Scott Storch production, is thankfully the only outright blights on an otherwise satisfactory showing. The most startling thing about Kiss of Death is that Jadakiss dumped a bunch of Neptunes productions and kept only 'Hot Sauce to Go,' one of the record's poorest tracks.

Jadakiss kiss of death feat