NOTE: I have a few tracks from all of these Albums in the Music Section!
Rating Scale
Score Meanings :
10 Flawless. A must purchase.
9.0 Excellent
8.0 Very good
7.0 A nice piece of music
6.0 Above average
5.0 Average
4.0 Flawed
3.0 Pretty shit.
2.0 A hint of quality.
1.0 Pitiful
0.0 Plain wack.
5.5- Raekwon- Immobilarity
I really had my hopes up that this would be the album that would restore my faith in the greatness that was once the Wu-Tang Clan. Sadly this is the last straw for fans of the Wu like you and me, we shouldn’t have to put up with this. ‘Cuban linx..’ was a classic album so obviously its gonna be hard to follow that up, but a decent effort isn’t even show here, its just poor. Now the main problem with the Wu lately has been the lack of RZA, and with his very few appearences a drop in quality and that’s putting it lightly. Where Rza was once dominant over a Wu-tang album he merely just signs on as ‘Executive producer’ these days and he doesn’t even do that here. Raekwon holds his own, hes still coming out with the same stuff lyrically as he always has but there are 2 things missing from this album. First off its good production, Rza may be lacking but Raekwons choice of producers have just come with cheap sounding beats and basic mediocrity, only a handful of tracks make me listen to them the whole way through. Second, its Ghostface, the tag team partnership is sorely missed here, the 2 bond when they collaborate on a track and carrying most of the album on his own is something new to Rae and while he tries his best it just don’t work.
The album builds up with an intro that is reminiscent of the plan in ‘Striving for perfection’ a beautiful layered beat accompanies Rae here so why the hell didn’t he rhyme over it?. ‘Yae Yo’ starts the album nicely but unfortunately this is where problems begin, it’s a nice fast paced track that should have set a standard for what’s to come but it just slowly goes downhill from here. ‘100 rounds’ and ‘Friday’ have a west coast feel to them but it’s a vibe that Rae cannot adapt to as he sounds awkward and out of time. The same thing can be said about ‘Heart to heart’ which sounds more like a freestyle over a beat used a thousand times before. Things are not looking good so far are they?Embarrassing is the only word that can sum up ‘All I got is you part 2’, while this could have been a heartfelt tribute to his mother it comes off corny as fuck. Bub could have brought some real soul to this with the right music and made a credible follow up to Ghosts Vivid account on the original but this is really bad.
The best track of the album is without a doubt the DJ premier-esque sounding ‘Sneakers’ where Raekwon does a GZA ‘labels’ type thing (But not as clever) with the brands of footwear he’s feeling. Then there’s ‘Live from New york’ the first single which is not amazing but stands out here. ‘Real life’ with its tripping beat and low key pianos definitely provides perfect material for Raekwon to perform at his best, even close to a Cuban linx.. type track.
I always thought Raekwon was the greedy one, the one who wanted all the best beats to lay his verses upon but with the absence of RZA it seems he has picked any old cheap and nasty backdrop to lay his verses upon. The Wu are also painfully absent from this album, while the absence of Ghostface is understandable with his recent incarceration we only get mediocre appearences from Masta Killa on ‘The table’ which is still one of the better tracks and Method Man on ‘Fuck them’ . So while it’s a test to see if an emcee can hold his own without a slew of cameos cluttering up an album its something Raekwon could pulled off if only he had at least had good production to go with it.
7- Shyheim- Manchild
A few years ago it seemed we never got enough Wu-Tang related product, they always seemed to drop a small amount of the albums promised but since we hit 1999 its like anything with the Wu-tang logo is dropping every other week. So this fortnight it’s the turn of Shyheim to drop his 3rd album, yes number three, while core Wu members have only reached their second album this Wu-fam member is hitting 3rd base.
For those of you who were taking hits of ya hip hop 5 long years ago in 1994 you’ll remember this lil 14 year old kid who was down with the Wu, he was Shyheim AKA the Rugged Child. If you checked his debut you’ll know it wasn’t bad, he had some nice production on tracks like ‘Here come the horns’ and ‘On and on’ and although his voice hadn’t broken he showed some maturity. A few years later his second album was received with mixed reviews, but it did bring us the lil Wu-Tang epic that was ‘Young Godz’ and the very good ‘What makes the world go round’. Now ever since we heard Shyheim on ‘Soul in the hole’ and ‘Co-defendants’ we realised he had come of age, not many child stars make it into their prime before they are abandoned by the fickle industry. Shyheim has stuck with it, polished his style and honed in on his skills, no longer the rugged child he is ‘Manchild’.
This album is really gonna be Shyheim’s major attempt at most hip hop fans taking him seriously and not as a novelty act anymore so the album blasts open with ‘I declare war’. A lil manic piano production gives Shyheim that energy to spit lines of fire and serves as a reintroduction to Shyheim as an adult. His skills have improved, we all know in his younger years he could break down scenarios vividly and he continues to do this on ‘Crime Story’ and the title track ‘Manchild’. This is one of the album’s most powerful tracks as he breaks down what he’s gone through over the years and how he’s tried to keep his head up. Tekeitha adds a haunting hook to the very dope Spanish guitar loop.
He doesn’t rely heavily on his infamous 8 man associates but Method Man joins the album for ‘Am I my brothers keeper’, a dose of Wu isn’t just brought with his verse but the Oriental beat accompanying this track touches back to the original Wu sound. He even adds an eastern feel by sampling Brian Mcknights ‘I belong to you’ on ‘One life to live’, which takes the original mellow love track and thugs it out.
‘Furious Anger’ is one hell of a song, not only does it establish a great connection between 2 emcees it reminds us once again that the road Big L would have traveled a prosperous road if he hadn’t met his untimely death. Riding an ill loop, the 2 go verse for verse with interwoven samples from Samuel L. Jackson’s infamous ‘Pulp Fiction’ quote.
If I’m gonna talk about the low points, well first off I was surprised how short it was, the 13 full tracks are only around the 45 minute mark, but its quality that counts right? . That’s true but some of the tracks go back to the sound that he displayed on ‘Shit Iz real’ which was directed towards the radio play but he seems better and more comfortable with what he does best on tracks like ‘I declare war’ and ‘Furious anger’. Examples of average tracks come in the form of ‘Unconditional Love’, which is dedicated to his Mother, its not that bad but its no ‘Dear Mama’. ‘Twin Glocks’ is also disappointing, as its lackluster production just drowns Shyheim out. I couldn’t wait to get to the end of the album to hear ‘Cease-fire’ which is subtitled as Wildflower 2000, now we all know how amazing Ghostface’s take on this was but not only does the lazy production (Courtesy of who I think is RZA) take it down but Shyheim just seems like he can’t be bothered to put any effort into it.
Overall this is a very decent album and definitely worth picking up. Maybe it was the move from Virgin to Wu-Tang records, great production, or maybe its just Shyheim’s maturity in voice, flow and lyricism but ‘Manchild’ is definitely his best album to date.
7.5- U-God- Golden Arms: Redemption
So here it is, the final member of the original 8 man line up that is the Wu-Tang has decided to drop his debut solo album. While GZA and Dirty have dropped sophomore albums that fail to live up to previous efforts it is now time for Golden Arms to come on the solo tip, so can he redeem what seems to be a falling wu empire?
When we spoke to U-god earlier this year he said that this was gonna be a on a party vibe and he’s like the Frank Sinatra of the Wu, this had me a little worried that the wu would go off on a tangent. Thankfully the album doesn’t apply to the vibe U-god talked about, although it does seem to have its own originality within the slew of Wu releases hitting us left and right.
The album is a mix of U-Gods darkness and an aura of mystery that surrounds the 8th clansman, coupled with the presence of Rza on 2 tracks, it is left up to the new breed of Wu-elements to add the sonic sound-scape that attempts to match U-Gods persona. ‘Bazzare’ caught us a lil off guard this year, the first single from the album wasn’t on no jiggy shit but it wasn’t what we expected, still very dope and is really an indication of what this album is like. U-God seems at his best when teamed up with fellow core disciples of the Wu-tang on tracks such as ‘Royal Rumble’ and ‘Shell shocked’ where Method man , Inspektah Deck and Raekwon each lend a helping hand. These are the standouts but more evidence of great tracks can be found with ‘Pleasure or pain’ where U sounds a lot more relaxed with the beats he’s got to work with. The Inspektah deck laced ‘Glide’ also fits well with U-god under its darkness and moodiness. Also a lil different is the manic production on tracks like ‘dats gangsta’ that instill a sense of U-gods past ferocity in the listener.
The downfall of this album is U-gods inadequacy to hold some of the songs together on his own, at times his flow sounds too forced, other times it gets to the point of embarrassment when it seems like he’s making it up as he goes along, very poorly. Examples of this can be found on tracks such as ‘Stay in your lane’ which isn’t even saved by a boring Rza beat and ‘Hungry’, honestly it can be done a lot better than what’s presented here.
There is a welcome return of the kung fu samples we all love in a Wu release, this may seem like a small thing to miss but it makes a difference in returning that Wu taste to the tracks. It seems U-God is an artist who can come correct in short bursts, in the past he has had me in awe with his attack on the mic but unfortunately U-God and most of the wu ain’t hungry no more, they don’t have that passion for killer verses. This is not a terrible album but its one that would have been better under the influence of RZA’s production circa 1995-96, when Wu Brought the muthafuckin’ ruckas. Die hard wu fans will lap this one up, and even if you just like the wu in passing this is worth the purchase
8- Method Man & Redman- Blackout
The collaboration of these 2 blunt brothers has been too familiar with the Heltah Skeltah project from Cube and Dre, long awaited and seemed it was never gonna happen. Well 3 years on from when Redman announced on the inlay of ‘Muddy waters’ that him and Mef would finally work on an EP we have a full length album plus bonus tracks. For a duo of this caliber to come out with something just under 72 minutes long is pretty spectacular.
I don’t need top break down any history on these 2, you should know that they first wove their magic on ‘How high’ way back in 1995 and its included here as the final track. From there on they’ve been freestyling and doing collabos on loads of projects, they included their best as 3 bonus tracks, the aforementioned ‘How high’, ‘Big Dogz’, and ‘Allritechall’ but who can forget how they flipped it on ‘4321’, ‘Got my mind made up’, ‘Do what ya feel’ and more recently on ‘Symphony 2000’. I ‘ve heard some people already say that meth and red are not really emcees of various lyrical content but they are emcees who can spit and if they got tight beats underneath them who gives a fuck?.
You gotta really notice cos of the majority of E doubles production this feels more like a Redman album that features Method man. This production hasn’t really changed which is good and bad, good cos basically its dope and bad cos Sermons showing no versatility. It does carry the album though and other bursts of life from Rza, Mathematics, Scratch and Rockwilder make this a listening pleasure. The opener of the title track is that heavy funk we know from Sermon and Meth and Red just ride the track sounding just as excited as the listener probably is. This continues into ‘Y.O.U.’ a pretty minimal based beat that keeps that head in back and forth motion in the same way that ‘Full co-operation’ from the Def Squad did. Def jam obviously wanted some collabo on there with labelmates so LL proceeds to come thru and pretty decently may I add on ‘4 seasons’ but what the fuck is Ja Rule doing on here?, the track seems to go smoothly til he comes in. By now your getting just a little bit sick of that funk so its up to Rza to come with some 70’s shaft like music on ‘Cereal Killer’. His production here is different and both emcees seem to lap it up but where Rza really leaves me with jaw open is on ‘Run 4 cover’ this track alone is proof that he can still do it. Add to this Street with a blazing opening verse, Redman loving the track and a killer verse from Ghostface to close things off this is the albums best track. Mathematics comes close with the wailing of ‘Dats dat shit’ featuring Mally G with a great verse and Young Zee on the hook and he even comes correct on production with ‘Fire ina hole’.
‘Maad Crew’ comes off nice even if it’s a bit slow, it freaks the same loop as Extra P did on ‘Mad scientist’ and speaking of familiarity the def squad remake one of their past tracks once again. On ‘Cheka’ Das Efx’s ‘Mic Cheka’ is reused both in some of the lyrics and the original beat, surprisingly its good, no, its very good. In fact all tracks are rocking that Richter scale but maybe with the exception of the disapointing ‘1,2,1,2’ which I was looking forward to cos of DJ scratch’s past production and I still really ain’t warmed to ‘Tear it off’ its good but when it’s a meth and red track its boring. Its not really about the production which I’ve talked about but you cannot ignore it on here, you know Method Man and Redman won’t disapoint lyrically and they seem so at ease in each others company.
I had no expectations for this album, because A) I didn’t think it was gonna happen and B) cos I didn’t hear half of it before it got released. Listening to something this good in its entirety for the first time is pretty rare . No wonder this took a long time to record, even if they did do most of it on the Hard Knock Life tour, their ideas and freestyle sessions fuelled their passion for rhyming and they put a lot into it. This is definitely one of 1999’s great releases.
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