This came out in 2000 — or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
The opposite of water, of course, is fire. Which is what you’d expect from a rapper named Drag-On. And which makes it all the more surprising that this teenage protege of big dog DMX is anything but a fire-breathing blowhard.
Despite his boasts to the contrary, Drag-On — whose government name is Melvin Smalls, going by the songwriting credits — is more smoke than flame on this 19-track debut. True, his dark rasp of a voice does have the texture of a match strike, but it rarely ignites these fractured, Ruff Ryders-style jams into anything truly explosive. A few standout guest spots from labelmates DMX, Eve and The Lox are a plus, although they also highlight Smalls’ relative inexperience. Still, while he won’t be burning up the charts with this one, Drag-On definitely has a spark. It seems like only a matter of time until he catches fire.
