Considering X put out his first two albums in May '98 and December '98, the wait for his third one, released in late '99, seemed like a very long time. And the album lived up to the hype. Sort of. While it certainly had the aggression and intensity of his first two albums, …And Then There Was X wasn't as aggressive or intense. The trade off, however, was that it made for a very commercial album that could be marketed to the TRL crowd just as easily as hardcore hip hop heads. And I'll certainly admit I was a little bit of both, but more so the latter. Therefore, I would've been more pleased had X recorded more records like "Fame" and "One More Road to Cross," instead of blatant commercial songs (i.e. "What These Bitches Want" featuring Sisqo "Party Up" [but not as much]). Overall though, it was a good album-with solid rapping and production. Culturally-speaking, it was Ruff Ryders' top artist while they were in their prime. The album couldn't fail. And it didn't. Ryde or Die!
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