Thirteen years of persistence paid off, and DMX finally got a record deal, and rap would never be the same. This album helped return hip hop to the streets from a lot of the pop rap that was popular at the time, with this album eventually going on to sell over 5 million units. When you consider there ain't really a radio-friendly track here, and DMX was pretty much a new commodity, I think it shows what DMX added to the genre. While like every DMX album this has some truly great songs such as 'Stop Being Greedy'-which is one of my favourite rap songs ever-the production (while suiting the lyrics well) is slightly dull on enough of the tracks for this not to reach a higher status for me. It's very solid and any violent lyrics D spits are as believable as any rapper due to his past and present, but a touch more variety on the boards, largely handled by Dame Grease would have made this excel further. A bit inconsistent but there is enough great stuff on offer. Best Tracks: Intro, Let Me Fly, X-Is Coming, Damien, How's It Goin' Down, Stop Being Greedy, ATF, The Convo.