Step Nine: RZA: Bobby Digital in Stereo.

Artist:  RZA
Album:  Bobby Digital in Stereo
Release Date:  November 24, 1998
Producer:  RZA (except "Love Jones" produced by King Tech and "Kiss of a Black Widow" produced by Inspectah Deck)

Review:  Bobby Digital is a hedonistic superhero alter-ego of RZA - an original invention of a character, knee-deep in honey-dipped blunts and a conspiracy theorist's obsession with all things binary.  RZA has stated in interviews that he invented Bobby as an outlet for all of his basest urges.  Unfortunately, this idea is the key to understanding just why Bobby Digital in Stereo is the first Wu-related album that can possibly be considered a misstep.

Now, I have an enormous amount of respect for RZA.  He's one of the best producers in the music industry, the ingenious mastermind behind the Wu-Tang Clan and a rapper with an incredible vocabulary that he molds into tight, interwoven rhymes on a regular basis.  Hell, even his work for the incessantly commercial Dr. Pepper-sponsored EP Only One Place to Get It at least sounds terrific, if one can ignore the catch phrases and fizzing sounds of the soda giant strewn throughout its four tracks.  Having said that, perhaps it's this bar, that he raised to Everest-like heights with his first seven steps on our map, that leads Bobby Digital in Stereo to inevitably disappoint at times.  One the one hand, kudos to RZA for trying something different.  He discards the expected chunky beats and kung-fu samples almost entirely, instead composing a keyboard symphony to score Bobby's 17-song journey.  He mostly sheds his skin of Five Percenter and biology-based rhymes to make himself a commercialized, stereotypical rap character.  It takes real brass to throw away practically everything tried-and-true that led to his success and put out an album completely out of left field.

However, this works better in theory than in practice.

The album starts off fine with "B.O.B.B.Y.," which has strong lyrics and a catchy beat.  "Run your commissary, attack your coronary / I'm very revolutionary / Honorary is sonic electronic brain like Johnny Mnemonic / Get boosted from the sorrow and went Wu-tonic."  Lovely.  "Unspoken Word" follows, which is mostly noteworthy for kickstarting the still-present Wu trend of raising the pitch on sampled soul vocals to a near-Alvin and the Chipmunks level (which would appear on Think Differently, No Said Date and many more albums).  "Airwaves" is a criminally short track dependent on a stuttering vocal sample that could use extra verses both by Raekwon and Inspectah Deck to match its upbeat music.  For reasons I'll never understand, RZA then interpolates "Love Jones" before eventually settling into the album's second great track, "Mantis."  "Mantis" features a guest spot by Masta Killa and uses the classic Wu sound to (accidentally?) remind us of what's been missing from the record so far.

Guest emcee Holocaust utterly slays on a track named after him, "Holocaust (Silkworm)," with rhymes including

"Holocaust: black man whose veins (littered with thorns)
Back-smack you so hard all your seeds will be born deformed
Swarm dorms, sting birds, fling verbs like mean curves
Strike three, mics flee, I infect 'em with green germs, ringworm
'Cuz I'm filthy and guilty, dastardly, mastery
My felony melody has to be a bastard's masterpiece"

over music that includes an electric guitar with a trip-hop delay pedal.

Speaking of trip-hop, the next notable track is "Kiss of a Black Widow," which samples Portishead's "Over" in spectacular fashion.  RZA and Ol' Dirty rap about dangerous women while Portishead singer Beth Gibbons sings "This uncertainty is taking me over" in the background.  Big props to Inspectah Deck and RZA for forming this track.  "My Lovin' is Digi" at last brings the classic Wu sound to the album with intro vocals by The Force M.D.'s and 1970s soul music, but it seems wasted as they sing a less-than-brilliant hook: "Sometimes I find / Someone fuckin 'with my pussy /  My money and my ride / Tuck my 9 inside my hoodie."  For all the genre-bending, image-shattering sounds of the previous five years of the Wu revolution, is this stereotyped gangsta chorus the strongest that RZA could muster for his first solo endeavor?  I don't know.  The proper album wraps up with "Domestic Violence," in which one of RZA's girlfriends derides his personal life and career while he spits verses about her unsavory womanhood.  This uncommon turn of events emotes in me a genuine empathy for him - he sounds like he's at the end of his rope, or that despite his supposed grandiose deeds as superhero Bobby Digital, he still comes home and catches unending flak from his woman.  Is it then satire?  Could RZA be making an hour-long statement about how desperately powerless children grow up and want to make a difference, only to be whipped back to reality by their loved ones?  Again, I don't know.  However, by the end of "Domestic Violence," I can honestly say I'm really only genuinely wowed by 24 of the album's 55 minutes.

After this are "Four bonus RZA tracks," according to the jewel case.  The liner notes further differentiate RZA from Bobby Digital.  Is this where we'll be blown away by an EP's worth of RZA-controlled, RZA-centric material?  Not exactly.  The beat for "Project Talk" could fit on Wu-Tang Forever just as the music on "Lab Drunk" foreshadows future Wu like "Unspoken Word" does, but only "Daily Routine" flirts with RZA's lyrical range with lines like "Amplify the sound of the earth rotation / That's why knowledge is the basic foundation of / All things and creation, like man is the foundation of / His family and the sun's the foundation of the solar system / Wisdom is the manifestation when words and actions are put into activation / Escape this captivation."

Of the 21 tracks on Bobby Digital in Stereo, I only find six of them to be very favorable.  The rest range from good ("My Lovin' is Digi" and "N.Y.C. Everything") to acceptable ("Handwriting on the Wall," "Lab Drunk").  Given his full portfolio, I truly hate to talk any shit about RZA, but this album tends to misfire more than it strikes gold.  It still finds its way into my rotation on occasion, but more for my favorite half-dozen tracks than anything else.

Legacy:  At the very least, Bobby Digital in Stereo works as RZA saying to the world, "Guess what?  Wu-Tang is about a lot more than just kung-fu samples and funk-inspired beats."  Perhaps the most amazing legacy that Bobby Digital in Stereo leaves behind is that RZA at one point prepared to become a real-life superhero, or vigilante, akin to the lifestyle I examined in my book Penny Cavalier.  According to RZA...

"I decided to become Bobby Digital for real.  I had the car and I had the suit.  I was getting ready to go out at nighttime and right some wrongs.  That was my plan - like on some Green Hornet shit.  I had this suit built for me that's literally invulnerable to AK fire.  The car was a black Suburban that I had made bulletproof and bombproof up to government-security-level standards.  [...]  I was really on a mission; I really felt compelled.  I spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to get Bobby Digital up and online - to keep it real.  That's how seriously I took it."

Recommended Tracks:  "Airwaves," "Mantis," "Holocaust (Silkworm)" and "Kiss of a Black Widow."

Next Week:  Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai Original Soundtrack

RZA.  The Wu-Tang Manual 90.  Riverhead Freestyle, 2005.  Print.

Step Eight: Method Man: Tical 2000: Judgement Day.

Artist:  Method Man
Album:  Tical 2000: Judgement Day
Release Date:  November 17, 1998
Producers:  True Master (tracks 4, 6, 8, 16, 17 and 23), RZA (tracks 2, 10 and 11).

Guest Producers:  4th Disciple (tracks 7 and 27), Havoc (track 19), Inspectah Deck (tracks 13 and 22), LB da Life Bringa (track 3), Mathematics (track 21), Method Man (tracks 1 and 27), Prince Paul (track 15), Poke/Tone/Quran Goodman (track 26), Redman (track 24), Erick Sermon (tracks 18 and 24).

Review:  Tical 2000: Judgement Day 1) immediately follows the multi-platinum-selling, chart-topping Wu-Tang Forever, 2) marks Method Man's second solo outing before half the Wu even put out their debut solo records, 3) is a concept album about Y2K apocalypse theory and the Mad Max-style fallout that follows, 4) departs from being an almost exclusively RZA-produced Wu-family album, 5) uses 12 producers and nine skit tracks and 6) boasts 28 total tracks.  Looking at these factoids alone, the set of balls on Method Man for releasing an album like this is already massive, which is to say nothing of the demonic voice effects, harmonic dissonance, mortality obsession, guest list and horror artwork in the package itself.

And for the most part, I love it.

Tical 2000 kicks off with "Judgement Day (Intro)," in which the countdown to the millennium on New Year's Eve being interrupted by an explosion.  Method Man narrates that "first they dropped the bomb, then came the disease" before getting into it on "Perfect World."  As usual, his flow-switching verse is on point:  "Yo, on foreign land keep your toast up, hot rocks / Catch a close up of your snot box, broke up" (stay armed and beware the dangers of strange places).  RZA sets the tone with brooding bass and drums and an ill keyboard for the treble end.  "Perfect World" sets the scene for Method Man's character's evil tendencies with lines like "Mr. Sandman bring 'em a dream / Infrared light beams, homicide scene: perfect world."

Next up is "Cradle Rock," featuring Left Eye from TLC sounding harder than she ever has.  LB da Life Bringa uses a catchy violin riff and samples "Bright Tomorrow" by Mighty Clouds of Joy to juxtapose violent lyrics.  Likewise, Wu-affiliate True Master (who produces more tracks than anyone on the album) uses horns and guitar to emote a sound similar to RZA's on "Sweet Love," a slow jam about sex that catches Method Man revising his hook for Raekwon's "Ice Cream" - "Watch these rap niggas get all up in yo' guts."  Cappadonna turns in a solid verse here, as does Streetlife - a Method Man disciple who appears on several tracks throughout the album.

The real star of the album for me, musically speaking, is "Shaolin What."  While billed as a skit, "Shaolin What" is a two-minute song with a 30-second in-character vocal intro and a solid 90-second verse over the best music on the disc.  Whereas most hip-hop beats loop in a few seconds, the two odd piano parts harmonizing on "Shaolin What" take a full 22 seconds to repeat.  Big props to 4th Disciple for turning in this short-but-sweet gem.  The harmonic dissonance continues on True Master's next production, "Torture," with its clipped keys.  RZA returns for the bass guitar-heavy "Suspect Chin Music" and the old-school "Retro Godfather."  True Master's next turn is on "Party Crasher," a clear RZA-inspired horn loop; and the brilliantly discordant "Grid Iron Rap," which features the kind of out-of-tune keys one would expect from Nine Inch Nails.  Much of the album's music evokes the broken, apocalyptic feeling introduced by the first tracks' prophesying, continuing at least through True Master's flat keyboard part in "Killin' Fields."

Sadly, Tical 2000 is not without its problems.  You'd expect the music would suffer, but that's not really the case.  I'm fine with the producers on the album taking the reins from RZA.  If RZA spent five years of his life cooped up in his home studio producing six albums in a row, Lord knows he deserved a break.  The whole Clan can't depend on him forever to make every album they want to put out, especially when you look at a year like 1999 which featured a half-dozen releases on its own.  True Master, 4th Disciple, Inspectah Deck, Mathematics and Method Man are all legitimate Wu affiliates and they produce 12 of the 19 actual songs on the album - and they do a fine job.  In fact, much of their despondent sound would carry to RZA's 1999 score for the film Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai, so again I see no real problem.

If Tical 2000 has any real issues, they ultimately lie with the amount of non-musical skits and an abandonment of concept in the final act.  Before the music gets going on "Perfect World," I appreciate Method Man setting the scene for his rugged dystopia, but the (admittedly cute) sample of his son on "Dooney Boy," the phone messages from Donald Trump and Janet Jackson and the farewell at the end of the album don't serve the record like they should if they're meant to be included.  I appreciate the respect from such high profile names, but I don't need them to be in the playlist.  Ed Lover's "Where's Method Man?" is hilarious, and Chris Rock's "You Play Too Much" is funny, but they and the intro are the only three skits that really make sense.  The other speedbump the album hits is that it abandons its own theme a half dozen tracks from the end.  "Killin' Fields" is a great song, but it opens with a radio DJ explaining that "the big alert has been called off" and all the end-of-days fuss was over nothing.  How can that be, if so much of the rest of the album spends time explaining this bleak scene?  Aurally, the rest of the album after "Killin' Fields" doesn't fit the rest of the brilliant "gloom and doom" sound the first 23 or so tracks set up so well.  Redman is great on "Big Dogs," but the music is considerably brighter; "Break Ups 2 Make Ups" is sweet and soulful (at the end of a full hour of the end of the world); and "Judgement Day" sounds upbeat and like a precursor to the much-contested Wu track "Gravel Pit."  After spending an hour imagining all the street warfare of hip-hop has taken an ironic literal role in a fight over supplies post-apocalypse - one of Tical 2000's most underrated and brilliant ideas - the last thing it needs is for the last five tracks to say "Naw, just jokes."

Speaking of the lyrics, the album is great for its flow and rhymes with moments of real brilliance peppering its rhythms and themes throughout.  In "Shaolin What," Method Man provides imagery of his place like Walking Dead's The Governor in his nightmare world:  "Makin' maneuver through the slum / Nigga, Iron Lung / Ladies and gentlemen / Welcome to my torture chamber, my pit and pendulum / Foul play, T-2000 be the Judgment Day / Face millennium, hell to pay."  Meth's flow never fails him, especially shining on tracks like "Step By Step" with intricate sections like

"Deadly melodic, robotic, Steez-o blur your optic
So you can't see the topic, condition combo
Blaze bring the heat to your Mourning like Alonzo
Head honcho like Eastwood, gun in my poncho
Another bad desperado
Trapped in between the hills and El Dorados."

Method Man is referencing Gangstarr, Alonzo Mourning, Clint Eastwood's Man with No Name trilogy and the mythical city of El Dorado - all in an impossibly smooth stanza of lyrics - to get his audience hyped for his track.

There's so much to love on Tical 2000, it's hard to understand the haters.  While not immune from criticism (again, the skits are cool but not so necessary and I wish the grimy sound would've stayed throughout), Method Man makes bold moves that mostly pay off to keep hip-hop listeners excited about the years to come from the Wu.  I love the off-kilter sounds on most of the tracks, Method's flow is always on point and overall this is just a fascinating listen.

Legacy:  Tical 2000 is a personal favorite from the post-1997 Wu solo catalog and a great effort by Method Man, True Master and other Wu affiliates to initiate the post-RZA-production era of Wu-Tang.  If you thought the only fictional angle the Wu could play was the Italian mafioso influence of Cuban Linx, Method Man is happy to prove you wrong.  Ghostface's '80s-inspired Apollo Kids and comic book-esque 12 Reasons to Die followed over 10 years later; RZA's superhero alter-ego Bobby Digital made his debut literally a week later on Bobby Digital in Stereo; etc.  Method Man's Thunderdome story is a flag, planted to say "You ain't seen nothing yet." And although it eschews some of the kung-fu feel of earlier Wu-Tang, costing some fans, it's a landmark for a broader range of personalities, stories and ideas expressed by one of hip-hop's most influential groups.

Recommended Tracks: "Cradle Rock," "Shaolin What" and "Torture" for the music, "Spazzola" and "Step By Step" for group and solo lyrics, respectively.

Next Week:  RZA:  Bobby Digital in Stereo

Step Seven: Wu-Tang Clan: Wu-Tang Forever.

Artist:  Wu-Tang Clan
Album:  Wu-Tang Forever
Release Date:  June 3, 1997
Producer:  RZA (except "Cash Still Rules/Scary Hours," "Older Gods," "A Better Tomorrow," "Impossible" and "The City" produced by 4th Disciple, "Visionz" produced by Inspectah Deck, and "The MGM" and "Heaterz" produced by True Master)

Review (Disc One):  It's essentially impossible not to discuss Wu-Tang Forever track-by-track for three reasons: its place in Wu-Tang's history, its role as the sophomore effort from the whole group and its sheer volume - the US version has 26 songs on two discs, clocking in at 110 minutes; the international version features two bonus tracks and runs over two full hours.  In fact, the first disc is so tightly packed with amazing tracks, I'd be remiss not to mention them all.

The first disc kicks off with "Wu Revolution," a 7-minute spoken word track by Popa Wu.  While this slow, steady beat would sound great behind verses from Masta Killa and GZA especially, Popa Wu takes his time to explain the teachings of the Islamic sect of the Five Percent Nation and to scoff at Darwinism and evolution.  Although I believe in evolution, my only real problem with it is that "Wu Revolution" essentially keeps the listener from the slick beats and rhymes of the WTC for way too long.  Except for my 10 or so listens to the album for this review specifically, I skip "Wu Revolution" almost every time.

However, with so much to live up to following six superb albums, Wu-Tang Forever delivers the goods immediately after stumbling on its intro.  "Reunited" kicks off with verses by GZA, ODB, RZA and Method Man - all four established solo artists by this point, although RZA is best known for his production.  The beat is dense, with an emphasis on an acoustic guitar.  This curious loop is the first of a new style that persists throughout the album and the video game Wu-Tang: Shaolin Style as well.  Between "Reunited" and the next two tracks, "For Heaven's Sake" and "Cash Still Rules/Scary Hours," every core member of the Wu besides U-God gets a turn on the mic.  This is excellent sequencing by RZA, getting most fans a taste of who they want in the first 12 minutes of emceeing.  The music, likewise, offers a classic heavy Wu-beat ("For Heaven's Sake") and an ethereal, choppy piano-and-female-vocals loop ("Cash Still Rules") to help convince the listener there's a broad spectrum to come.

Inspectah Deck's production debut, "Visionz," brings an impossibly cool Method Man-led song with electric guitar and piano trucking along behind him, Raekwon, Masta Killa, Deck himself and Ghost.  It's a toe-tapper that leads into the goofy "As High as Wu-Tang Get" with a Sanford and Son-style production under an ODB hook.  U-God finally appears on "Severe Punishment," rocking his uptempo flow and tongue-twister rhymes like "Check these hi-hats sting things moving through the rubbish / Party robust, rec room style for you brothers."  His classic style has remained through the 2013 release of The Keynote Speaker and is utterly on point here and throughout the album.  Masta Killa's ability to weave strange rhyme schemes shines on "Severe Punishment" as well:  "Shots I give, while researchers of rescue teams / Look for means of survival and and who's liable / For this harrowing experience / You scream for the extreme, fiend for the cap."  He rhymes "survival" with "liable" in the same line, then uses the end of the line ("teams") with the beginning of the next line ("look for means") and holds off another line and a half before closing that rhyme with "You scream for the extreme."  It's bizarre, it's fascinating and it just works.

The music on "Older Gods" is pure bliss, while Ghost and Rae pair up for the first half of the track before a great closing verse by GZA.  "Maria" borrows from the skirt-chasing themes of "Ice Cream" as Cappadonna and ODB rap about women.  Finally, taking a cue from the vulnerable Raekwon verse on "C.R.E.A.M." and Ghost's solo "All I Got is You," "A Better Tomorrow" regrets the bad habits and vices of modern life: "You can't party your life away, drink your life away / Smoke your life away, fuck your life away / Dream your life away, scheme your life away / 'Cuz your seeds grow up the same way."  The closing song, "It's Yourz," features exceptionally strong verses from U-God, RZA and Deck and ends the disc on a high note with RZA's classic production.

Review (Disc Two):  If it's possible to make anyone a die-hard Wu-Tang fan in 10 minutes, it's by playing them "Triumph" and "Impossible" back-to-back.  They're my go-to for introducing people to the Wu.  "Triumph" features verses from all nine members (besides ODB, who does hype lines) plus Cappadonna, so it's even more balanced than "Protect Ya Neck" in terms of acting as a sampler platter of every Wu general, and almost every verse is outstanding.  Inspectah Deck sets off a bomb with his opening verse, which starts with the following stanza:

"I bomb atomically
Socrates' philosophies and hypotheses
Can't define how I be droppin' these mockeries
Lyrically perform armed robbery
Flee with the lottery, possibly they spotted me
Battle-scarred shogun, explosion when my pen hits
Tremendous, ultraviolet shine blind forensics."

The only verse on "Triumph" that doesn't quite amaze me is Cappadonna's.  Here his better-known style emerges, loose and strange without the complex rhyme schemes that Masta Killa uses to tie his lines up.  Couplets like "Run for your team and your 'six can't rhyme' groupies / So I can squeeze with the advantage and get wasted" and "I twist darts from the heart, tried and true / Loop my voice on the LP, martini on the slang rocks" demonstrate how I feel: I just don't have a place to hang my hat on a lot of his appearances.  He can really bring the pain on his tighter verses, as we heard throughout Ironman, but a lot of his stuff is this open prose style that just isn't for me.

"Impossible" follows and gives any Wu newbie a sense of how serious rap can be.  RZA drops a vocabulary-heavy verse about economic disparity and paranoia about the government:  "Innocent black immigrants locked in housing tenements / Eighty-five percent tenants, dependent welfare recipients" is followed later by this stanza:

"Electric microbes, robotic probes
Taking telescope pictures of [the] globe
Babies getting pierced with microchips inside their earlobes
Then examinated, blood contaminated, vaccinated, lives fabricated
Exaggerated authorization, Food and Drug Administration
Testing poison in the prison population
My occupation is to stop the inauguration of Satan
Some claim that it was Reagan, so I come to slay men
Like Bartholomew, 'cuz every particle is physical article
Was diabolical to the last visible molecule."

U-God provides a sturdy verse next, but the real star on "Impossible" is Ghostface, with an award-winning verse about a friend being shot dead in the street.  It's easy to get choked up hearing Ghost relate the story of comforting his boy as he died: "Oh shit, here comes his Old Earth (mother) with no shoes on / Screamin' holdin' her breasts with a gown on / She fell and then lightly touched his jaw, kissed him / Rubbed his hair, turned around and the ambulance was there [...] Finally this closed chapter comes to an end / He was announced, pronounced dead y'all, at 12:10."

Even after the knockout one-two combo of "Triumph" and "Impossible," the second disc has some other very strong group tracks:  "Deadly Melody," "Little Ghetto Boys," "Hellz Wind Staff" and "Heaterz" are heavyweights on the CD, with compelling music and expert verses by most of the clan.  There are also three or four solo tracks depending on which version of Wu-Tang Forever you bought, following suit from Method Man's solo "Method Man" on Enter the Wu-Tang.  Here, Inspectah Deck shines again on "The City," which feels to me like a precursor to his impeccable solo record The Movement (check back in months to come for that review); Ol' Dirty Bastard jokes on the character-defining "Dog Shit," which ends with recorded audio of Dirt heckling a group onstage at a club ("What's up with yo Speak-n-Spell shoes?  Fisher Price: My First Timberlands"); and U-God raps solo on "Black Shampoo," the last proper hip-hop track on the album.  The international version of the disc also features a RZA solo track, "Sunshower."

Unfortunately, the second disc is bogged down by a few lukewarm songs.  Even though RZA, 4th Disciple, True Master and Inspectah Deck bring very enjoyable music throughout the entirety of the album, there are a few songs that I feel don't add enough to the project on the whole that justify being "must-hears."  For example, "The Projects" has a throwaway beat, the verses lack some focus and Ghost's extended bit about sexing up some girl is just too much.  "Suck my dick it's the kid with the fat knob / I bust all into ya face, plus it come in globs."  20 more lines like that follow.  "Bells of War," likewise, has cool music and decent verses but doesn't stand out.  "The MGM" is a solid Ghostface/Raekwon team-up, but I feel like it would work best on one of the Cuban Linx albums - it even has the bolder string sound and back-and-forth between the two emcees.  "Duck Seazon" falls a bit flat for me too.  I hate criticizing these four tracks, as a lifelong Wu fan and standing in awe of these nine rappers, but I honestly feel like any one of them would do fine, saving the other three tracks for other projects and cutting up to 15 minutes from the second disc's 66 minutes.

Similarly, the album's end raises some questions for me.  Tekitha's "Second Coming" is beautiful, offering the extended outro to mirror Popa Wu's "Wu Revolution" intro.  I get the relaxed opening and closing of the album, like an epic film - it reminds me of The Thin Red Line - but she's followed by Raekwon talking on "The Closing" about the Wu style and mission.  I respect the Hell out of Rae, but if you add in "Wu Revolution" and the second disc's first track, "Intro," this makes for the third spoken word track about Wu-Tang, totaling in 11 full minutes of dialogue.  Rae made a great point on "Shark Niggaz" on Cuban Linx about not plagiarizing, and he has another solid monologue on Supreme Clientele about 50 Cent, but here I think Tekitha should've finished the disc as an "end credits" track.

Review (Quick Summary):  Let's take a quick step back to analyze the project as a whole.  Totaling 122 minutes, Wu-Tang Forever is an amazing effort by the band to continue their earth-shattering effect on the music industry and American pop culture.  It showed that the nitty-gritty of Enter the Wu-Tang and Tical could be expanded upon with a new sound while maintaining real hip-hop.  It's a prime example of a band evolving and bringing something new to the table while adhering to much of what their fans love about them.  Solid music and lyricism throughout, with the aforementioned hiccups on a couple tracks bloating the second disc a bit.

In terms of each member's presence?

- RZA produced 75% of the album and has 11 verses (excluding choruses, shared verses and dialogue) plus one solo track.
- Method Man dominates with 12 verses.
- Raekwon offers at least 11 verses, sharing another two or three and helping on interludes and intros.
- U-God brings eight verses to the album besides shared verses and his solo track "Black Shampoo."
- Ghostface also has 11 verses plus various minor contributions.
- Masta Killa sees a huge rise from his one verse on Enter the Wu-Tang to a full seven verses plus shared verses and choruses.
- Inspectah Deck earns a name for himself on "Triumph" and "The City" especially, but offering a total of seven verses plus his solo track, also producing "Visionz."

- GZA makes a very lean appearance with only five verses - four on the first disc, only appearing on disc two for a quick line of dialogue, his verse on "Triumph" and a shared verse on "Deadly Melody."  

- Cappadonna appears on the album as much as GZA with five verses across the 28 tracks.

- Ol' Dirty Bastard has just four verses to himself, plus choruses and hype lines on several tracks and a solo track.

Legacy:  For many fans, Forever is the last album in the so-called "Golden Age of Wu," arguing that few records in the following 17 years stack up to those we've already discussed on Map of Shaolin.  There have been some real popular releases subsequently (Ghostface's Supreme Clientele and Raekwon's Only Built 4 Cuban Linx... Pt. 2 chief among them), but too many listeners checked out after Forever.  It's actually one of the reasons I stated this blog - to keep the talk going about post-Forever releases - but this is an important anchor point for the storied career of Wu-Tang Clan.  Swapping one tour for another in support of this album, the group essentially stopped operating under RZA's command to pursue their solo careers, although they continue to guest on one another's albums and have put out three more group albums (with two more on the way) as of this writing.  Listening to Wu-Tang Forever gives us a great foreshadowing for the careers to follow.  For example, as I mentioned, Deck's "The City" is reminiscent of his first two albums (Uncontrolled Substance and The Movement); the production sound here comes back throughout Wu-Tang Shaolin Style; ODB's occasional contributions would continue throughout his lack of appearance on Wu-Tang's The W and Iron Flag; and so on.  This splintering of the Clan that started after Wu-Tang Forever is most apparent on their later, worst-received solo efforts, as well:  Raekwon's Immobilarity, U-God's Mr. Xcitement and Method Man's Tical 0.  No disrespect - all these albums have their qualities - but the public didn't latch on the way they did the "first phase" of the Wu.  Stay tuned for thorough looks at all those and more as the Map of Shaolin continues.

Recommended Tracks:  "Triumph," "Impossible," "It's Yourz," "The City."

Next Week:  Method Man's bizarre apocalyptic concept album Tical 2000: Judgment Day.

Step Six: Ghostface Killah: Ironman

Artist:  Ghostface Killah
Album:  Ironman
Release Date:  October 29, 1996
Producer:  RZA (except "Fish," produced by True Master)

Review:  Some would say it's almost a misnomer to call this Ghost's debut album, since he featured on a full 14 of the 18 tracks on Raekwon's Only Built 4 Cuban Linx... the year before, even earning his name on its cover.  However, this is the first album in the catalog to be primarily released under his name - although he returned the favor to Raekwon by listing him and Cappadonna both on the cover, since both are featured throughout Ironman.  In addition, the album has such a distinctly different feel from Cuban Linx that it would be even more unfair to lump him in as a supporting act on Cuban Linx and proclaim that he just eked out a solo record here.  Both albums deserve to be respected as separate visions from separate artists, despite their extensive collaborations on both records.

As early as the intro of Ironman's opening track, "Iron Maiden," any adept listener will notice an audible difference between it and previous Wu-related albums.  RZA has utilized funk horns before, but here, they and the uptempo bass and drums seem much more heavily inspired by old blaxploitation and crime films from the '60s and '70s.

This effect is aided by dialogue samples from blaxploitation movies like The Education of Sonny Carson and J.D.'s Revenge.  Both the instruments and the dialogue persist throughout the album's 16 tracks (17 if you caught an early pressing) and give Ironman an old-school hip-hop feel from the get-go.  Even the cover, featuring Ghostface, Cappadonna and Raekwon dyeing Clark Wallabys and wearing bright colors, exudes a classic rap feel.  The bright brass on "Iron Maiden," "260" and "Poisonous Darts" could have easily been composed 40 years ago by Bobby Womack, and True Master earns his reputation with "Fish," which perfectly echoes the sentiment - True Master would be entrusted with production of two songs on the next album in the Wu catalog (also the sophomore album by the group), Wu-Tang Forever.  The melodramatic backing vocals throughout "Black Jesus" blend in nicely with the pulp movie feel of the album, as do the uneasy keys on "Camay" and "Assassination Day."

RZA's fast-paced music invigorates Ghost and his guest stars (nearly every Wu member, aside from GZA and Ol' Dirty Bastard) to command likewise upbeat, rapid-fire verses - Cappadonna especially is on point throughout Ironman.  I mentioned his slow, open-verse style when I discussed his appearances on Cuban Linx... and here he may as well be a different emcee.  For example, in his verse on "Daytona 500," Cappadonna rhymes "For the Son of Song, I keep dance halls strong / Beats never worthy of my cause, I prolong / Extravaganza, time sits still / No propaganda, be wary of the skill."  Once again, tight and upbeat rhymes to match the music.

Long-time Wu fans know that Ghostface loves the ladies - his later album Ghostdini is slathered in sex-inspired R&B tracks; many of his songs and guest appearances on other albums constitute story-telling verses about local girls he's known in one way or another.  If his verse on Raekwon's "Ice Cream" hadn't set the precedent for Ghost's affinity for sex, Ironman does so in spades.  "Wildflower" is all about Ghost telling his girlfriend that he had sex with a friend of hers; "Camay" sees him sealing the deal with a girl on a date.

However, the biggest takeaway of Ghostface Killah's lyrical mastery on Ironman is "All That I Got Is You," which also has the distinction of being the most vulnerable, heart-felt Wu-family track so far.  Beating out Method Man's "All I Need" and even Raekwon's verse on "C.R.E.A.M.," Ghostface rhymes

"Sadly, daddy left me at the age of six
I didn't know nothing but mommy neatly packed his shit
She cried, and grandma held the family down
I guess mommy wasn't strong enough, she just went down."

Ghost then delves deeper into his humble beginnings, dredging up some of his hardest family memories.

"And there was days I had to go to Tex's house with a note
Stating 'Gloria can I borrow some food I'm dead broke'
So embarrassing I couldn't stand to knock on their door
My friends might be laughing, I spent stamps in stores
'Mommy where's the toilet paper?' 'Use the newspaper'
Look, Ms. Rose gave us a couch; she's the neighbor
Things was deep, my whole youth was sharper than cleats
Two brothers with muscular dystrophy, it killed me."

His girl-crazy stories might have lasted for 20 years, but so has Ghost's ability to tell a serious story about life in the city.  His next notable heart-wrenching verse is on "Impossible," on disc two of 1997's Wu-Tang Forever, about watching his friend Jamie die in the street. Ironman also gave us the classic "Winter Warz" which, despite not being a single for the album, has been a fan favorite ever since.  "Winter Warz" features strong verses by Masta Killa, U-God, Ghostface and Cappadonna.

Legacy:  Ironman is the last album in what's considered the "first phase" or "round one" of the Wu-Tang saga.  Aside from Wu-Tang group albums and RZA solo albums, Ironman is also the last solo record to be produced primarily by RZA, unless you count Ghostface's 2000 follow-up Supreme Clientele which features 11 RZA-produced tracks out of its 21 tracks (although some are skits).  If one could consider this a send-off for RZA's five-year agenda for the Wu, it's a hell of a last hurrah.  And unlike the mixed reviews for Method Man's, GZA's and Raekwon's sophomore releases, Ghost followed Ironman with Supreme Clientele in 2000, which some call his best album.  It's hard to believe that Ghostface is the fifth Wu member to release a solo record; he has since become the most prolific member of the group, releasing 10 studio albums in less than 20 years.

Recommended Tracks:  "Winter Warz," "Iron Maiden," "All That I Got Is You."