producers: the rza, allah mathematics

guests: isaac hayes, redman, nas, junior reid, snoop dogg, busta rhymes

A few years ago, when "Wu-Tang Forever" was about to come out, the release was an anticipated event. Hip hop as a whole was stirring, buzzing and impatient. The audience was thirsty for more collective music from one of hip hop's most groundbreaking talent overflowed crews. Wu-Tang was the epitome giving other artists a run for their money, to just be able to barely hang. The Wu lived up to the high status that the self proclaimed God's gave themselves. And then "Wu-Tang Forever" dropped, and they humblingly were quite human after all. Of course the record was appealing to many, but it wasn't and never will be an undisputed classic that "Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)" is. But did they fall off or just fall short?

Around the time that this album "The W" dropped, there was no big fuss and hoopla. A lot of people that were counting the hours the last time around, barely seemed to care. Too much mediocre Wu offerings we had to bear. And the Wu knew. That's why they tried to get back the momentum, claiming that this album will be dirty again. But that doesn't mean squat in today's times, where some claim to be street, but only dare to touch the streets, with their Bentley or Lexus wheels. In times where people sampling cheesy pop can claim to be hardcore, and in times where people selling platinum, claim an underground status. See, hip hop today is full of too many 'yeah right's. But the Wu did come out with the "W", in the year 2000, as promised on the Wu interview CD and "Wu-Tang Forever" snippet tape. Now where's the comet? It certainly wasn't a publicity Christmas star leading the hip hop world to the birthplace of this album. However, the Wu made a lot of things right on this record, to many people's pleasant surprise.

For example the infamous Kung Fu samples return, as heard on "Chamber Music", that actually remembers the griminess, and only lacks energy to be a true resurrection. The energy is still not present, but the roughness of "Careful (Click, Click)", the complexity of the beat, and the true amalgamation of the emcees voices, works as a new branch of Wu tradition. The soul sample of "Hollow Bones" of course could be set in context with other Wu cuts, but RZA utilizes it in a comfortable contentness, with not much else going on, while Rae, Deck and Ghostface destroy telling rhymes, like Deck going "fleeing the crime scene speeding / beefing leaving behind cream / not even peeping that I was leaking / won't see the precinct, just got a recent case beaten".

Meth's comrade Redman then drops by to kick braggadocios rhymes on "Redbull". In contrast to the Austrian caffeine drink, this does not come animated, and despite keyboard strings, that messed up the last album, Meth spits "I'm hotter than a hundred degrees with my coat on / playing with a dynamite stick, where did I go wrong / somebody pull the fire along when Johnny stomp / if ya lukewarm leaving ya clothes and boots torn", while Deck wraps things up for "One Blood Under W" to come on, featuring the unnecessary Junior Reid. This is followed by another confusing and totally not working and completely only done for business reasons collaboration, with Snoop Dogg being featured on "Conditioner". Not even the drastic contrast adds excitement, and to further set back this track, Ol' Dirty Bastard's sole contribution to this album is so demo-state, it would have worked as a hidden track bonus, but not as full song.

The blues guitar of "Protect Ya Neck (The Jump Off)" is already known, due to this being a single release, while the first ever guy to spit over a Wu track, without being Wu, Nas (on Rae's album), shows up on "Let My Niggas Live". The percussion and downplayed horns are making it to be more than it seems to be . And again RZA seems to be content with bareness and being minimalist. And while to some this is as hard to enjoy as was "97 Mentality", to the others, it's quite satisfying.

RZA goes a very interesting route taking the whole of Isaac Hayes "Walk On By" for "I Can't Go To Sleep", a definite highlight on here. Interesting because he lets the music progress like the original, not intending to chop it to loop it. And Ghosface's rhyme starts in despair, is then returned to be second. The maestro Isaac Hayes himself then does the chorus, before RZA, also with high pitched voice like Ghost, rhymes "I can't go to sleep, I can't shut my eyes / they shot the father of his moms, killed him seven times / they shot Malcolm in the chest, front of his little seeds / Jesse watched, as they shot King on the balcony / they spat at Marcus Garvey cause ht tried to spark us / with the knowledge of ourselves, and our forefathers / oh Jacqueline you heard the rifle shots crackling / her husband's head in her hair, you tried to put it back in / America's watching, blood stained in k blotches / Edgar took one to the skull for integrating college / what's the science? somebody? this is trick knowledge / they try to keep us enslaved and still crape for dollars".

The only track not produced by The RZA, but Allah Mathematics, "Do You Really (Thang Thang)" comes on next to be followed by another commercially dictated collabo, this time Busta Rhymes, dropping by on "The Monument". Then again, he works well along Rae and GZA, with also the beat seemingly being fit for all three. The second single "Gravel Pit" (with an annoying female hook), leads up to Junior Reid returning for "Jah World", this time making much more sense, giving this track another shade. And it's no comfortable song, as it's hard to face true suffering in Ghost's rhyme, and it can be heard when he goes "we pick cotton, my back is still hot and dark and / they threw burners in our babies' faces / pale hands that looked scary, touched our bodies in the strangest places / sweat from the white man's head / fell on our daughters as she cried, giving white man head, almighty / alrighty, niggas is screwing / god won't you tell me why these ho niggas is screwing / I'm sorry father, sacrifice me, leave me wife / sacrifice me twice, so my kids can see paradise".

We are then taken on the detour of the hidden track "Clap", before we can conclude that as many hip hop acts do these days, the Wu are facing the business dictatorship, catering to it with giving the listener entertainment music, over accessible beats. But that only at times, as the Wu also does speak from the heart, giving uncomfortable songs with un-pop beats and haunted lyrics. But things were expected to be worse than they actually are, and while most likely never being able to accomplish to change the hip hop world a second time, they enriched it with this album.