Steve 'Flash' JuonThe story of Hussein Fatal is a tragedy. 2Pac handpicked him for fame and fortune when he made the New Jersey rapper part of his Outlawz collective, and his star rose even further thanks to a scathing diss verse directed at Notorious B.I.G. and Junior M.A.F.I.A. on the song “Hit ‘Em Up.” Sadly Tupac Shakur was gunned down in Las Vegas a little over a year after that track dropped nationally, and at that point everything changed. Fatal had multiple beefs with the Outlawz at the time — he felt they didn’t do enough to protect their mentor from his assassins, he felt that signing with Death Row Records was a mistake (he was right), and he felt betrayed by the fact a member of the group (Yaki Kadafi) was shot and killed by a cousin of another member (Napoleon). It was not surprising when he wasn’t on any posthumously released Shakur albums — they even went as far as removing any verses he previously recorded from “Still I Rise.”
It’s hard to imagine that level of animosity could ever have led to reconciliation, but Fatal started doing duet albums with Young Noble in the late 2000’s, so they only needed to add E.D.I. Mean to the fold to reclaim their name as a group. They did just that when the Outlawz came back in 2011 for “Perfect Timing,” released on the 15th anniversary of Shakur’s passing. Regardless of association with the Outlawz casually or officially, Fatal continued to release albums as a solo artist all the way up until 2015, culminating in his final release “Ridin’ All Week On Em” through his imprint Thugtertainment. Not Thugtertainment Records or Thugtertainment LLC — just Thugtertainment. Thug + entertainment.
This is where Fatal’s life took another tragic turn. A few months after “Ridin’ All Week On Em” came out he was a passenger in a fatal car accident in Banks County, Georgia. His girlfriend at the time was behind the wheel and she was subsequently arrested for DUI, reckless driving and first degree vehicular homicide. Just when it seemed like he was about to enjoy the “Freedom” he and Young Noble rapped about his life was cruelly taken away. “When freedom is outlawed, only Outlawz will remain free/this petty ass game can’t change me.”
In an ideal world I’d be telling you that this was a fitting sendoff to Bruce Washington Jr. and that he went out on top of the game. That would be dishonest. “Ridin’ All Week On Em” is an album that hints at the potential Fatal had in his youth, but he sounds tired and the music sounds confused. “Rydaz” is a 3hmb that apes the sound of an Xzibit song produced by Dr. Dre (the hook even seems to imitate X to the Z) but fails in its mimicry. “Ya Bishh” is subpar pile of synths and bass from High Class Beats without Fatal having much to say other than shouting out deceased comrades. It’s not really good news that Houston legend Z-Ro turns in the album’s best lyrical performance on “What I Do” — he should have saved it for one of his own releases.
The times when Hussein Fatal achieves his potential on this CD are few and far between. “Hip Hop Circus” is the only track that really feels like the rapper revisiting his 1990’s peak and he’s helped in that regard by a hot Snowgoons beat and guest bars from Aspects & Punchline. The scratching on the hook might even make you think it’s a Premier production. Nope. “I’m not Fat Joe but +Lean Back+ because my +Squad+ brings +Terror+.” Thanks Punch — this album needed some of your verbal skills. The WNBA diss was an unnecessary bit of misogyny though.
I’d love to tell you to pay your respects to Fatal by buying a copy of “Ridin’ All Week On Em” but even if I was willing to do that I’m not sure you COULD. It appears that Thugtertainment distributed this album digitally only, flipping the same middle finger as the song “Fuck All Yaw” does to anybody who still rode with physical media in 2015. The market has changed so much in the last decade though that compact discs are now “collectors editions” in many cases, so you could argue he was ahead of his time. Still this is not the note I would have sent Fatal Hussein off given a choice. His reunions with Young Noble and E.D.I. Mean represented him better and that’s the greatest tragedy of all — he couldn’t escape the long shadow of the Outlawz or 2Pac no matter how hard he tried.