It's Dark and Hell Is Hot

Infobox Album
Name = It's Dark and Hell is Hot
Type = Album
Artist = DMX


Released = May 19, 1998
Recorded = 1997-1998
Genre = Hardcore hip hop, Gangsta rap, East Coast hip hop, Horrorcore
Length = 65:15
Label = Ruff Ryders/Def Jam
Producer = Damon Blackman Irv Gotti P.K.
Swizz Beatz
Reviews =
*Allmusic Rating|4|5 [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:oadnvwxua9uk link]
*Review-Christgau|cut|name=DMX
*The Daily Vault (A-) [http://www.dailyvault.com/toc.php5?review=4645 link]
*"Entertainment Weekly" (A) [http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,283969,00.html link]
*"Q" Rating|4|5 [http://www.tower.com/details/details.cfm?wapi=105805466 link]
*RapReviews rating-10|8
*"Rolling Stone" Rating|5|5 [http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/dmx/albums/album/131026/review/6068128/its_dark_and_hell_is_hot link]
*The Source Rating|4|5 [http://www.tower.com/details/details.cfm?wapi=105805466 link]
*"Spin" rating-10|6 [http://www.tower.com/details/details.cfm?wapi=105805466 link]
*Sputnikmusic Rating|4.5|5 [http://www.sputnikmusic.com/album.php?albumid=9717 link]
*Yahoo! Music (favorable) [http://music.yahoo.com/read/review/12025835 link]
Last album =
This album = "It's Dark and Hell Is Hot" (1998)
Next album = "Flesh of My Flesh, Blood of My Blood" (1998)

"It's Dark and Hell Is Hot" is the debut album of rapper DMX, released May 19, 1998 on Def Jam subsidary Ruff Ryders Records. The album featured 4 popular singles with music videos, "Get at Me Dog", "Stop Being Greedy", "How's It Goin' Down" and the "Ruff Ryders Anthem". The album is widely considered a hip hop classic by numerous hip hop fans, mainly due to its revitalization of the hardcore rap mainstream scene, after Puff Daddy and Bad Boy Entertainment briefly dominated the charts with their pop-orientated and sample-reliant songs. It debuted at #1 on The Billboard 200, and was certified 4x platinum on December 18, 2000.

Music

tyle

Before the album was coming out DMX had Irv Gotti, PK, Dame Grease, and Swizz Beatz as his producers. Each producers had their own music style while creating instrumentals for the album. It's Dark and Hell Is Hot usually features Horrorcore influenced instrumentals and it was created mostly by PK with DMX rapping mostly about violence. Compared to most rappers, DMX is usually known for his rare, rough, tough voice when he is rapping on songs. DMX also features "dog barks" and "dog growls" on some songs. The album is also very different compared to other DMX's album considering his most gothic album by the producers' instrumentals. Majority of the songs on It's Dark and Hell Is Hot is usually focused on dark beats with harsh lyrics and showing anticipation of violence. Songs like "Ruff Ryders' Anthem", "How's It Goin' Down" shows a different background compared to his aggressive songs like "Intro" and the album even feautures more introspective or less harsher side with tracks like "Let Me Fly", "For My Dogs", and more.

Lyrical themes

The lyrics of It's Dark and Hell Is Hot is known for featuring very extreme lyrics about violence with songs like "Intro","X-Is Coming", and a lot more. The album is still know for DMX's painful past life when he was more younger which is known on "Look Thru My Eyes" and "Let Me Fly". More topics are included like love, rage, stories, and God. Unlike many hip hop albums DMX features prayers which are dialogues with him and God. Rolling Stone critic, Miles Marshall Lewis, talked about the lyrics in "X-Is Coming" and he quoted these lines from the song: "If you got a daughter older than fifteen, I'm a rape her/Take her on the living-room floor, right there in fronta you/Then ask you seriously, 'What you wanna do?'". In his response for his reaction to the extreme violent writing ability of DMX, he answered: "Even within the context of a hardcore rap album, DMX goes beyond the pale."

Reception

The album has gained a commercial for selling more than 6 million copies worldwide and it was mostly known as a very brutal hip hop album by most professional critics. Allmusic states: "Unlike so many other hardcore rappers who are more rhetorical than physical, DMX commands an aggressive aura without even speaking a word." Sputnikmusic.com was astonished of DMX's delivery and rapping and states it: "The music flows perfectly, with little to no redundancy. This is an excellent trait, and something more hip-hop albums should feature." More professional reviewers also describe "It's Dark and Hell Is Hot" as a very extreme album for Hip Hop: ...."IT'S DARK AND HELL IS HOT is a mind-gripping opus that fully encompasses the appeal of one of rap's newest sensations" - The Source, "A psychotic concept album that celebrates bloody style over creative substance" - Spin. Hip hop fans and DMX fans consider "It's Dark and Hell Is Hot" as a classic and it's known for DMX featuring his most discourteous lyrics and being at his best. The album sold 251,000 copies in its first week.

Track listing

Charts

succession box
before = "The Limited Series" by Garth Brooks
title = "Billboard" 200 number-one album
years = June 6 - June 12 1998
after = "City of Angels (soundtrack)" by Various artists