Flesh of My Flesh, Blood of My Blood

On his sophomore slammer, Flesh of My Flesh, Blood of My Blood, this dog’s bark bites. As he rasps distinctively through a set of horror-show hardcore hip-hop, DMX’s primal grooves pump as relentlessly as an AK-47, and he’s not afraid to mix it up (Mary J. Blige and Marilyn Manson make cameos). It’s his choking-on-broken-glass delivery that draws blood, however: At his best, he radiates a nihilistic thug charisma that rivals Tupac’s. B+