Redman has expressed that his sophomore album Dare Iz a Darkside was created at a time when he was heavily under the influence of drugs. This led Erick Sermon to be less involved in this project even though he is listed as an executive producer. Despite the album receiving a positive reaction from many fans, Redman lists this album as his “least favorite” as it reminds him of a dark time in his life:
I was living in a real dark world at that time. I was doing a lot of acid and I was seeing shit [laughs]. […] A lot of women hit me about that goddamn album. They tell me Dare is one of their favorite albums which is the weirdest shit to me. I don’t even do ‘Can’t Wait’ at my shows today. In fact, I hardly do anything off of Dare Iz A Darkside. I think the reason why is because it reminds me of a darker time in my life. It was a weird time. When that record went gold I was like, ‘Damn…are you serious?’
The album achieved gold status within two months of its release after peaking at #13 on the Billboard 200 and #1 on the Top R&B Hip-Hop Albums charts with support from the singles “Can’t Wait” and “Rockafella.” A remix to “Rockafella” was also produced by Erick Sermon.
The album’s cover is an homage to the cover of Funkadelic’s 1971 album Maggot Brain.