First impressions are often lasting and can crystalize our view of people, places or things, but those initial experiences can be deceiving. At times, wolves dress in sheep’s clothing, and a dog’s bark may be bigger than its bite – everything isn’t always what it seems. One example in hip-hop of an appraisal that proved to be misleading was the rap world’s initial reception of The LOX, who went from being cast off as sell-outs to being hailed among the most revered purveyors of hardcore lyricism this side of the new millennium.
Comprised of Jason “Jadakiss” Phillips, David “Styles P” Styles, and Sean “Sheek Louch” Jacobs, the Yonkers-based trio started off as a duo, with Jada and Sheek’s battles alongside one another on the gridiron as kids evolved into lunchroom ciphers in high school. With Styles P later joining the fold, the trio, originally known as the Bomb Squad, settled on the name the Warlocks and began catching wreck dominating the local rap scene. Scoring their first appearance on wax in 1994 after Jada and Sheek appeared on the song “Set It Off” from Main Source’s sophomore album F**k What You Think, the break that would change The LOX’s fortunes for the better was when fellow Yonkers native and R&B star Mary J. Blige passed the group’s demo to Sean “Puffy” Combs, who had built his imprint Bad Boy Records into the most successful and popular rap label in the game.
By then, the group, which was being guided under the tutelage of then-management company Ruff Ryders, had already built a reputation as spitters during their time on the local freestyle and battle circuits but would see their buzz skyrocket in fall of 1996 with a pair of appearances on DJ Clue’s Holiday Hold Up mixtape. In addition to the song “Thumbs Up” featuring Richie Thumbs, the tape included the original version of “All About The Benjamins,” which paired Jadakiss and Sheek Louch with Puffy. A string of guest spots on subsequent Clue mixtapes like Triple Platinum, ClueManatti – The Clue World Order, and Show Me The Money, as well as high-profile features alongside The Notorious B.I.G. (“Last Day”), Mary J. Blige (“Can’t Get You Off My Mind”), Ma$e (“24 Hrs.To Live”), and Mariah Carey (“Honey Remix”) brought their approval rating to a crescendo. However, it would be their contributions to Puff Daddy’s No Way Out album, which included the star-studded remix to “All About the Benjamins,” that firmly put The LOX on the mainstream radar and paved the way for their own wildly anticipated debut, Money, Power & Respect.
Hitting shelves on January 13, 1998, Money, Power & Respect, the third rap album released in the aftermath of the murder of Bad Boy’s flagship artist The Notorious B.I.G. the previous year, was significant because it was the first release from a rap group in the label’s history and it looked to keep the house that Puffy and Big built on solid ground. Despite being a commercial success, peaking at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 and earning platinum certification, the album was considered a mixed bag that relied too heavily on the glossy bells and whistles that had made previous Bad Boy efforts platinum sellers, particularly at a time when the Shiny Suit era was drawing to an abrupt close. The songs “Livin’ The Life,” “Everybody Wanna Rat,” “So Right,” “I Wanna Thank You,” and the Lil Kim and DMX-assisted hit “Money, Power, Respect” are all quality inclusions that trend closer to The LOX’s realm of reality rap, but Puff’s influence and finger-tips can be found all over lackluster cuts like “Get This $,” “Start Rap Over,” “Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop” and the ill-advised single “If You Think I’m Jiggy.”
The LOX may have enjoyed chart success, music videos in rotation on BET and MTV, and the cache that came from being down with Bad Boy, but they also felt the subtle backlash from a large portion of their core base. Given their street roots and raw lyrical talent, many felt the group had failed to meet expectations with Money, Power & Respect and were destined to succumb to the whims of the music industry, such as donning Shiny Suits, designer shades and penning contrived singles built around disco loops. This disdain slowly bubbled over, with Jadakiss, Sheek and Styles P. requesting to be let out of their contract with Puffy and Bad Boy to pursue other opportunities, most notably the chance to reunite with the Ruff Ryders, who by then had secured a distribution deal with Interscope Records based off the breakout success of DMX. A fellow native of Yonkers and frequent collaborator with the group, ironically, DMX had brought the streets back to the forefront of mainstream rap with his own 1998 debut, It’s Dark & Hell is Hot, which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and transformed the underdog into super-stardom.
With their sights set on an alliance with their management team and its promising roster of talent, The LOX approached Puffy for a release from their contract. A notoriously shrewd businessman, Puffy and his team of lawyers initially balked at the idea of letting the prized trio go, leading The LOX to rebel. In 1999, at New York City radio station Hot 97’s annual Summer Jam concert, Jada, Sheek, Styles P. and their entourage sported “Let The LOX Go” t-shirts, a public denouncement of Puffy and Bad Boy Records. In an age when rap acts often languished in obscurity due to bad contracts, the move was unprecedented. “We was the first rebels, man,” Sheek noted during a sitdown with Tim Westwood. “You didn’t have a lot of guys going at major people like that.” With the beef now public and tension brewing between The LOX and Puff, a deal was brokered between Darrin “Dee” Dean and Puff to terminate The LOX’s contract, allowing them to sign with Ruff Ryders through Interscope Records. “He said, ‘All right, you know what, if they’re not happy here, I’ll release them,” Dee recalled in an interview. “Just pay up whatever they owe.”
As for Puffy, he took a more diplomatic approach while speaking on the group’s split from the label with MTV News. “The LOX situation, it just didn’t work out,” he said. “That’s nothing new to any record company. Hopefully, the press won’t try to dramatize that. Any record label and you have twenty acts, one, two, three of the acts aren’t going to be happy. And it may be a situation that you can work out. We tried to work the situation out; it didn’t work out. So we’re in the process of selling them right now. And they are still to me some of the hottest rappers out. I wish them the best of luck. I’m sorry it didn’t work out.” With a steep price tag of three million dollars, Jada, Sheek and Styles P. were now down with one of the hottest movements in hip-hop and primed to revert back to their roots as hardened, no-frills lyricists.
Released on January 25, 2000, The LOX’s sophomore album We Are the Streets doubled as a rallying cry, with the trio thumbing their nose at all of the glitz and glamour synonymous with their former home. The album cover alone, which features each member’s face cast in concrete, is a stark contrast from Money, Power & Respect, which saw them rocking shimmering leather coats and designer shades. The change in scenery was also reflected in the sound of the album, with producers Swizz Beatz, DJ Premier, P.K., and Timbaland exchanging rehashed loops and plush instrumentation for screw-face inducing drums, haunting keys, ghastly synths and more inventive usage of samples. Not oblivious to the critiques of their debut, The LOX kick off We Are the Streets with a skit in which disgruntled fans diss them, challenging their street cred and levying threats against the crew. This self-deprecatory moment is upended as the rapid snares on “F**k You,” the album’s introductory number, sets in, which finds Jada, Sheek and company wasting no time in addressing the haters and naysayers. Barking “If you hoped we wouldn’t make it, f**k you/Talk with a heart full of hatred, f**k you” in unison, the label castaways proceed to attack the Swizz Beatz -produced track with a fervor that makes it evident that these weren’t the same guys rapping about getting jiggy just two years prior.
This message was driven home throughout the album, starting with “Breath Easy.” Produced by P.K., who proclaims “No more shiny suits/None of that sh*t” at the beginning of the track, Jada and Sheek deliver the hook, with Sheek shouting “We gonna R.U double F.R.Y.D.E,” in a show of allegiance to their new label. One of the premier offerings on the album, “Breath Easy” finds Styles P. stepping to the forefront, delivering a stanza full of nihilistic quips that foreshadowed the aggressive content he spewed on We Are the Streets and subsequent projects. As the more reserved member of The LOX, Styles P.’s succession of standout performances helped propel his reputation as a rhyme pugilist to another level, silencing any questions of him being able to flourish in the confines of a group or otherwise. Considered the de facto frontman of the group due to his elite lyrical exploits, Jadakiss had slowly crept into conversations debating the best spitters in rap, talk that he solidified with his highlight reel of verses on We Are the Streets.
Like Money, Power & Respect, We Are the Streets included a solo selection from each artist, the best of which is “Blood Pressure” by Jadakiss. Crowning himself as the streets’ favorite, the baby-faced rapper scoffs “Who really the best rapper since B.I.G. ain’t here,” before alluding to his bad blood with Puff just a few lines later. While The LOX focus the bulk of their efforts towards terrorizing the competition and slaughtering instrumentals on We Are the Streets, their strained relationship with their former benefactor is alluded to on numerous occasions, particularly “Rape’n U Records,” a scathing skit poking fun at Bad Boy’s shady business practices. The skit is also notable for being the introduction of J Hood, a teen from Yonkers who would become one of the hottest young artists on the mixtape circuit just a few years later. We Are the Streets is short on guest appearances, save for a handful of features from Drag-On and Eve, the latter of whom’s vocals appear on the album standout, “Recognize.” Produced by DJ Premier, the song captures the synergy between the three members as they seamlessly bounce off one another, while a chopped up sample of Eve’s verse from the Ruff Ryders posse cut “Ryde or Die.”
In terms of singles, “Wild Out,” a raucous Swizz Beatz-produced anthem, was a minor success, but its follow-up single, “Ryde or Die B*tch,” fared much more favorably, peaking at No. 22 on the US Rap chart. Produced by Timbaland, who also appears on the hook alongside Eve, “Ryde or Die B*tch” finds Jadakiss, Sheek Louch and Styles P. professing their desire for the type of woman that will please them sexually and stay loyal regardless of the consequences or circumstances. Other highlights from We Are the Streets include “Can I Live,” solo efforts from Styles (“Felony Niggas”) and Sheek (“Bring It On”), and “If You Know” featuring Drag-On, Eve and Swizz Beatz, which all touch on the rules of engagement and harsh realities that transpire when one lives off of experience.
Peaking at No. 5 on the Billboard 200, We Are the Streets was eventually certified Gold and was regarded as one of the stronger group efforts of the year. Although the album failed to eclipse the success of Money, Power & Respect or their previous hits, We Are the Streets is remembered as a body of work that thrived off of the sheer fact that the artists involved were unleashed from the constraints of balancing pleasing the label with retaining their artistic integrity. In the years following its release, each member of The LOX would release solo albums, branching off to pursue careers individually, but never straying too far from the fold. The LOX would continue to record together and release material on a consistent basis, but contractual limbo would prevent the trio from crafting a proper commercial release as a unit until 2013, when they released The Trinity independently on their own label, D-Block Records. Having dropped classics in three different decades and counting, with no signs of hanging up the mic anytime soon, Jadakiss, Sheek and Styles P. are regarded as ambassadors of the streets. And while they will always be remembered for their tenure, and subsequent war with Bad Boy, in their hearts, they’ll forever be Ruff Ryders, and We Are the Streets will forever be their magnum opus and shining moment.
