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. Despite what the haters say, this is another missed opportunity for Jadakiss, a man whose best work never lands on the high-profile releases.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. That's a first, but "What If" isn't a first at all, using the exact same structure as Kiss of Death's Nas collaboration "Why." One of the more interesting cuts, the heartfelt "Letter to B.I.G.," already appeared on the Notorious soundtrack, and the album's title is nonsense, as Jada had already declared his intention to keep going. So many prime street cuts have been given away to comps, mixtapes, and soundtracks in the five years since Kiss of Death was released that only the slick, polished numbers remain, save the misleading kickoff "Pain & Torture." Two tracks later he's singing the silly "If you're real and you know it/Clap your hands" over an unsurprising Swizz Beats production, but it's "Grind Hard" that really disappoints, with the Mary J. This problematic arrival shows too in the final product, but the problem may not be the much maligned rapper's ability or inspiration but the constant mishandling of his material. In a genre where albums frequently miss their street date, Jadakiss' The Last Kiss is an especially late hip-hop release, having been pushed back, retitled, and retooled numerous times.
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