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| Iron Flag |
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And the sixth element
of hip hop is to diss. And one of its most prominent
manifestations is to diss the Wu-Tang Clan. Okay, several
times they deserved it. But now it's their time again
to laugh in all the non believer's faces. Why? Because
with this album they are showing how good they still
are. How much that first album was not some one hit
wonder ish. But this album is awfully short, with only
12 cuts on the US, and 13 on the international version.
The extra cut is, quite interestingly, called "The
W", and it's in the best tradition, making
this a comfortable retrospective of the Wu sound, circa
first GZA album, who's also opening the cut. But that's
not to meant that it sounds warmed up, it just provides
a serious backing for the cats to spit some braggadocios
venom over this RZA beat.
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What makes this album
good again is due to it actually using all those dope
soul samples that The RZA has in his cellar. Hence we
get stuff like "Iron
Flag" or "In
The Hood", where he dares to even pick
up the pace. The soul can also be heard on the first
single "Uzi
(Pinky Ring)", where some horns are slicing
through the cut, with the drum being all over the place
and quite incredible. Every crew member (apart from
the incarcerated Ol Dirty Bastard) steps to the mic,
with GZA finishing it, and also having the dopest verse,
him going: "from dark matter to the big crunch / the
vocals came in a bunch without one punch / rare glimpse
from the, strictly advanced, proved unstoppable / reputation
enhanced, since the cause was probable / so you compare
contrast but don't blast / through extreme depths, with
the pen I hold fast / watch the block thirst for one
became all / shot 'em with the long forgotten rainfall
/ delivered in a vivid fashion with simplicity / the
blind couldn't verify the authenticity / the rhyme came
from the pressure of heat / then it was laid out, on
the ground to pave streets".
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"Ya'll
Been Warned" is just one
of the tracks that is retrospective, what doesn't mean
that it goes out to straight up copy old stuff. It more
picks up some of those flavors and shakes 'em up, and
the result is always getting our heads nodding in no
time. Urgent is "Radioactive
(Four Assassins)", with Masta Killa,
who still hasn't gotten his well deserved solo album,
spitting: "many shall come, few chose to stay exact
/ track after track I'm fightin for survival / before
me I see hills and mountains they sway / the words gotta
move and the crowd's like the ocean / I walk water holding
y'all suspended with the vocal / what's the total people
that came to see the Gods?"
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We are even treated
to some good old 'Wu-Tang' chanting on "Rules",
where Ghostface is addressing the WTC tragedy, before
INS throws darts over this bouncy Mathematics produced
cut. "Soul
Power (Black Jungle)" is another cut
that could be played in a club. It features Flavor Flav
who takes care of the chorus. Poke and Tone of the Trackmasters
are handling the production duties on "Back
In The Game" with Ron Isley singing the
hook. And this is a nice reminder that the Trackmasters
have being doing non pop bubble gum in the past too,
hence it fits the gritty rest of the album well. Again
GZA drops something ill: "split the demos, put insurance
on tapes / a safeguard against the crusaders in capes
/ if I double down they say the Gods are sharks / if
we win against the house they thought the cards was
marked"
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However, not all things
are good, like "Chrome
Wheels" is resurfacing the sounds of
the first Cappadonna album, and that style is arguably
the first glitch in the track record of the Wu. What
then shows how good this album is, tracks like "One
Of These Days" or "Dashing
(Reasons)", who would have been one of
the stronger offerings on some past efforts, here are
merely cool offerings. "Babies"
on the other hand is just uninteresting on the beat
tip, while the words are talking about the seeds and
the family.
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The Wu is back and we
couldn't even be mad at 'em if they'd put some laughing
in the back of every track on this album.
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| review:
tadah |
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