Back when Eminem rapped "I'm a kill you and them loud ass motherfuckin' barkin' dogs!", he definitely didn't speak about that dog from Yonkers, New York, that just dropped his new LP. Earl Simmons, better known as the Dark Man X, abbreviation DMX, just dropped his highly-awaited new album called "Grand Champ". And it definitely is a product for the streets. Let's get into it:

Several producers worked on the twentyfour tracks long LP (including some skits), and besides Roc-A-Fella wingman Kanye West, most of them are not that famous. Yet, this fact does have a certain influence on the record: You don't hear chart-hymns, but street anthems. Shit is real on that one, there ain't no sellout songs. Peep the first single off the record being on heavy rotation, "Where the hood at?". A streets thing, right? Even though this one is gonna do big numbers, it's for the heads, not for the dancefloors. This gives the album enough space to go for subjects that are more difficult than dancing and wilding out. “A’Yo Kato” is a reminiscence of DMX’s friend Kato, “Don’t Gotta Go Home” is a great controversial song about cheating in relationships. Meanwhile, X doesn’t forget about the original ingredients a real rap soup gotta have: He represents Ruff Ryders all over the album, shows his team’s power in “We ‘Bout to Blow”, tells everyone that he’s back on double R with Eve and Jadakiss on “We’re Back”, and Sheek, Infa-Red, Cross, Drag-On and Syleena Johnson help him to convince the people that he’s “Untouchable”. And then again, X is still pure: “F*** Y’all” tells all y’all about that.

It doesn’t make sense to lose more words on this record than what is written here. DMX has a unique style of rap and a unique sense of rap and being and living the rap game. Alone this makes him earn the spot he has in the league jof big MCs. Yet, the album persuades once again in its own special way. So if you don’t like X at all, don’t buy that one, ‘cause he’s all about himself and totally non-corrupted by today’s rap’s influences. But if you dig him, it’s another chapter in the musical career of one of the realest persons in this game. And that makes this barkin’ dog untouchable.

 ***** out of SIX SHOTS.