Review Summary: Marky Mark reinvents himself in his collaboration with late reggae singer Prince Ital Joe. Unfortunately, Prince Ital Joe didn't follow his lead.
Mark Wahlberg's career as an musical artist was on the decline, with the second album of his band "Marky Mark And The Funky Bunch" in 1992 being massively panned by music critics and less than stellar sales. It eventually resulted in the disbandment of the group, leaving Wahlberg all by himself which led to him doing an acting career in which he's most recognized by today. During the early years of his acting career, Mark was still at it in the music studio as he collaborated with the late reggae singer Prince Ital Joe two years later in 1994 to create an album. A former concert promotor for acts like Ziggy Marley, the Dominican singer along with Wahlberg released their debut LP "Life In The Streets" in Asia and Europe, but not anywhere in the US but earned immense international success. "Life In The Streets" turns out to be a lackluster debut by Prince Ital Joe and Marky Mark, seeing an improvement with Wahlberg's rhythm and rap cadence which plagued his last two albums with his former band along with some enjoyable, fun sounds. However, it's plagued by the same vocal issues that befell Wahlberg with the terrible lyrical timing and cadence by Prince Ital Joe, as well as instrumentation that doesn't fit in together with the duo's vocals at all.
The musical formula in this album was a bit different from Marky Mark's two albums with Prince Ital Joe blending in his reggae with Wahlberg's pop-rap style. It also contained some Eurodance which Marky Mark is familiar with working with, as highlighted in his debut album with fist-pumping tracks like "On The House Tip" and "Good Vibrations". The musical style is showcased in the party anthem track "United", which in Germany managed to be at number one for five weeks. Prince Ital Joe's vocals which like many reggae singers did saw the use of tremolo (volume oscillation) and vibrato (pitch oscillation) which don't blend with the upbeat dance track at all, reminiscent of what his partner did in his first sets of material with a disjointed rhythm cadence. Marky Mark shines on the party anthem track, seeing a vast improvement on timing with his on-point rap cadences along with extremely catchy yet slick rhymes. Being criticized in the past for his mediocre lyrical skills and poorly-timed cadence, Marky Mark was able to keep those well-needed improvements on the entire record with consistency, something he never duplicated in "Music For The People" and "You Gotta Believe. The Eurodance formula doesn't work entirely, with another track in "Happy People" that also was a hit in Germany but the upbeat sound doesn't blend with the gospel-influenced hook nor with the vocals by Prince Ital Joe and Wahlberg.
"Life In The Streets" contains some pretty decent tracks, highlighted by the reggae-heavy track "Love Of A Mother". An ode to all moms out there, the tropical flavor in the track undoubtedly fits with Prince Ital Joe's vocals very well along with Marky Mark's rapping. The lyrical content is a bit cheesy and corny, but it is bearable. The duo definitely should've touched more on more reggae-infused material, as that particular formula worked very well. The love track "In Love" is definitely slower than most of the tracks in the debut record, which contains a beautifully-played piano set and is significantly less up-tempo. Unfortunately, Prince Ital Joe's vocals continue to degrade the tracks with the lack of versatility and rhythmic cadence, along with horrible lyrics and rhymes. Fortunately Marky Mark is able to salvage what's left in the track with another terrific rap set with slick rhymes and on-point timing. The religious track "Into The Light" sees the duo speak about getting away from the darkness and moving "into the light", which sees the last time where both artists vocally excel. The lyrical content in the particular track is easily the best, much less poking fun and more serious topics which should've been covered a bit more. The Eurodance-influenced track "Babylon" sees the duo on religion again, but the upbeat sound isn't that great along with another poor vocal showing by Prince Ital Joe. Again, Marky Mark is able to make the track interesting to listen to but it isn't enough to save this one, going down as easily the worst track on the debut.
"Life In The Streets" saw Marky Mark mature as a rapper, and also vastly improve as well. His on-point timing and versatility along with his slick rhymes and consistency is nothing like what he did back when he was part of "Marky Mark And The Funky Bunch", and showed promising signs that he's better than ever musically-speaking. Unfortunately, Prince Ital Joe wasn't able to duplicate that with his lame lyricism and disjointed rhythm cadence, displaying obvious signs of inexperience and what many couldn't stand about Marky Mark earlier in the '90s. The pop-rap and reggae sounds work to a certain extent, with some just not fitting at all like "Babylon" and ones that blend in like "Love Of A Mother". Fortunately the music realm would never have to bear a Prince Ital Joe record again, as he only released a remix album of "Life In The Streets" in 1995 and that was all he wrote before his death in 2001. Unfortunately, it was the last time the music world would ever see the likes of Mark Wahlberg as he dropped his moniker and became fully involved in his acting career. Sadly he ended up hanging up the cleats on a less-than-stellar note.
