Steve 'Flash' Juon“Most of Tim Dog’s later releases suffered from poor promotion and distribution, with albums like 2002’s Immortal and 2006’s BX Warrior being commercially unsuccessful.” – Discogs
They’re not kidding. I have never seen a copy of Tim Dog’s “Immortal” for sale. If I owned one I’d scan the cover art and upload it myself, because I couldn’t find a single high resolution version online (apologies for the one accompanying this review). No music service has made it available. Spotify seems to have everything he’s ever done except for this album. I thought Discogs would come through with some details about it since they mentioned “Immortal” in his bio, but they don’t have an entry for it EITHER. That’s some self-fulfilling shit Discogs, congratulations. Please don’t mention albums if you’re not going to put them in the database.
We are one upload of this release to YouTube away from this album becoming lost media. A few scant tracks from the album like “The Professional” also exist, and that might be the closest thing to a rap single to be released from this album. It’s got all the requisite qualities you’d want from one — a beat that thumps, an unnamed deejay scratching the hook, and Tim’s trademark testosterone unchanged after a decade in rap. “Any rapper with ‘Dog’ in his name is on my dick.” You couldn’t ask for more. Actually… you could. The song is only two minutes and change long, but it’s an enjoyable two minutes.
Who produced the tracks? Allegedly Ced Gee and TR Love, but without being able to physically inspect the liner notes, I have to take the word of a Genius (no not GZA) for it. No one has submitted a single lyric from the album to them. You might think their entry for the “Intro” is from “Immortal” but it’s not — it’s mistakenly linked to his debut “Penicillin On Wax.” I’m willing to accept that it was released in 2003, but nobody seems to know what record label put it out. Forget Amazon — they don’t have it for sale or to listen to. Last resort? Let’s look for this one on eBay… that’s a no. I’m not even going to bother hyperlinking the results because it’s a bunch of comic books. For all anyone knows Timothy Blair printed these albums by hand one at a time and sold them on a street corner in The Bronx.
The funniest part of this thing to me is that I’ve been wanting to review this album for over a decade but a full copy didn’t exist on the internet until October 15th, 2025. I suggest if you care about Mr. Blair’s legacy in rap you find a way to rip a copy before it vanishes again — unless his estate provides a legal way to buy it in which case you should definitely do it the right way. That leads us to one important question I’ve been dodging this whole time. Does anybody care? The channel that uploaded it is humorously called W.A.C.K. FM and only has six subscribers. Well, seven now. I’ll show them some love just for providing this public service. They even put time stamps in the description so you can skip right to individual songs, and they listed the guest stars who rap with the Dog throughout.
- “Hustluz,” “Make It Last” and “Sun Don’t Shine” feature Mo Bline
- “Ain’t It Funny,” “Hustluz,” “We Can Grow,” “Sun Don’t Shine” and “Immortal” feature Max Lux
- “Makin Love” and “Immortal” feature Tah
- “Get Out Da Life” features Rika
- “We Can Grow” features Khal
- “Hustluz” features Rhymestein
The credit for “Hustluz” is incomplete, but that’s quickly obvious when you hear multiple rappers, so I found a quasi-legit “Greatest Hits” Tim Dog album that fleshed it out. I’d say I mean it nicely when I call his guests a low rent version of The L.O.X. but I don’t. The track sounds like a bad imitation of some Swizz Beatz shit. Tim’s lyrical skills have always been secondary to his vocal presence, but it feels like he’s barely trying here.
“If my money ain’t right, I’ma cut ya
I don’t give a fuck ya
who you roll with, who you did a show with
All you rappers in the game is on MY dick
You wanna fuck MY bitch, get in MY whip
Meet MY chick, all y’all can suck MY dick for that!”
Folks, he’s rhyming “ya” with “ya” and “dick” with “dick.” Poor distribution and scant information existing about “Immortal” is exactly what he deserved here. The plethora of unrecognizable guest stars suggest something I never would have said before hearing this album — a lack of confidence from Timothy Blair. At his best he was a one man army fighting against the entire West Coast like some post-apocalyptic mutant Hulk. He barked, he growled, he roared, he waged war. This is a neutered Dog.
There are a few highlights like “Can I Live” (the Jay-Z track of the same name is obviously better) and the throwback 1990’s energy of “Bring It” but they’re sandwiched between banal songs like “Dog Shit” and “Pop Life” that aren’t worth your time. The best thing I can say about “Immortal” is that it makes “BX Warrior” sound better by comparison. If you’re completing his catalogue make this your last stop.