Album: Iron Flag
Release Date: December 18, 2001
Producers: RZA (except Mathematics' "Rules," Nick "Fury" Loftin's "One of these Days," True Master's "Y'all Been Warned" and Poke and Tone on "Back in the Game").
Review: Wu-Tang is one of the best hip-hop groups of all time, so I honestly hate it whenever I have to make any complaints about one of their albums. Hopefully by this point - the 22nd step on the path across the Map of Shaolin - I've proven that I give credit where it's due and I throw my W's up with the best of them. However, up to this point (December 2001 on my map), Iron Flag is the weakest group album the Wu had put out. It still has some real bangers, but there are too many problems to simply ignore. However, it's such a unique contrast to their previous outings that it deserves to be dissected track by track.
Before even getting to the music, the packaging speaks volumes about the album's troubles. The album cover might be their best (aside from the special edition 8 Diagrams, released six years later), imitating the famous picture of the U.S. flag raising at Iwo Jima in 1945. However, once again Ol' Dirty Bastard is missing. RZA dons a beanie or skullcap bearing his initials, but ODB's appearances on Wu-Tang albums finally decreased all the way to zero - on The W he only appeared on "Conditioner" and on Wu-Tang Forever on just over a quarter of the tracks. Cappadonna is also missing, but in a different sense of the word. He posed for the photo between Raekwon and RZA (see that big gap between them?) and was airbrushed out after having a falling out with the group. Fans never fully accepted him as much as the original nine Wu-Tang members, which upset him, and it was also revealed that his manager Lord Michael (birth name Michael Caruso) was a police informant. After that trouble, he only ended up on one Iron Flag track and was taken off the cover. RZA also only produces two-thirds of the tracks here. I'm not a RZA purist with production duties but for their group albums it's surprising that he'd dip below the 75% mark he hit on Wu-Tang Forever - which, to be fair, was his seventh straight album and to which he contributed 21 of the 28 tracks at the controls.
So before hearing a single track, any listener on his/her way home from the record store has the first impression that Iron Flag is - compared to previous albums - missing ODB, Cappadonna and a higher rate of RZA-produced songs. What's worse is Loud Music's liner notes advertisement, promising a "new album" from Raekwon in early 2002 - which became The Lex Diamond Story, dropping in late 2003. Other albums have done the same - promising Method Man's Crystal Meth and GZA's Liquid Swords 2, both of which have yet to be released - but it sticks out more here due to Iron Flag's unstable staff (no pun intended).
Fortunately it starts off with a bang, between "In the Hood" and "Rules." The former is highlighted with a fiery verse by Inspectah Deck and a chorus by Suga Bang Bang (who formerly appeared on the Ghost Dog soundtrack) over lively horns, uptempo drums and sound clips of sirens and gunshots. Ghostface kicks off "Rules" with a verse about 9/11 and is followed by Masta Killa and Streetlife, who both offer tight verses. The music is hype without being as frantic as "In the Hood," which is perfect for Method Man's last verse. It reminds me of the more recent Wu-Tang sound - cleaner and less chunky than their classic albums but not without the chopped '70s horns we know and love.
Then there's "Chrome Wheels." A sung hook about smoking pot and "bangin' that shit retarded" leads off before RZA raps a verse as his alter-ego Bobby Digital (which is likely why the production sounds so similar to Bobby Digital in Stereo on this track). 12 O'Clock and Prodigal Sunn appear, and they're fine but why are we hearing them before a word from GZA or U-God? Flava Flav appears on "Soul Power (Black Jungle)" which some have criticized as a stand-in for ODB's usual wackiness. It also features the power duo of Ghost and Rae, but Masta Killa and U-God shine brightest with sharp couplets illuminating their verses. Masta Killa rhymes "I need a beat to expand, the mind guide the hand" and "Pen stroke excellent quotes of literature / Nights over Egypt, black as Arabia"; U-God recalls decades-past black pop culture with "Line Cadillacs to blocks, Richard Pryor Redd Foxx / Jukebox records, flatfooted cops" and "Dr. J before Jordan, Al Green on the organ / When Rerun did the dance, the whole world saw him." Their two verses aside, "Chrome Wheels" and "Soul Power" pulled me out of the experience for nine minutes before bouncing back.
"Uzi (Pinky Ring)" calls back to The W's style with the blaxploitation funk horns and thicker sound. It's got a hell of a loop with verses by all eight present Wu members, in the same strategy as "Protect Ya Neck," "Triumph" and "Protect Ya Neck (The Jump Off)" before it - including GZA's first appearance on Iron Flag, over 1/4 through the album. It's followed by "One of these Days," most notable for Raekwon's classic-style gangster/kung-fu lyrics: "Take these niggas and throw 'em in lakes, it's business / Rake these niggas on the mic, display your ninjas."
Then there's another quick rut. "Y'all Been Warned" has a great post-Forever beat by True Master but no real standout verses by the otherwise spectacular emcees featured (INS, RZA, Rae and Meth); "Babies" aims for an endearing and dramatic chorus by Madame D (who also sung the hook for "Chrome Wheels") but somehow misses the mark. A phenomenal RZA beat holds it together, and the real-life stories by Ghostface and Raekwon sound genuine and sorrowful, but when put together it doesn't hit the high-water marks of other tracks here or a year prior (on The W). Essentially, Madame D's choruses - and she's a great singer, no doubt - don't hit me as hard as Tekitha on "Impossible" or Blue Raspberry on "Rainy Dayz."
But then GZA brings it back with his best verse yet on "Radioactive (Four Assassins)." He opens with Liquid Swords-quality lyrics:
"Slept on this hazardous enterprise
Hit from the back from a long-range attack in disguise
Weeks of captivity became months
Those who were holdin' it down they hold a pump
Do we delay the conflict and prolong the suffer?
Got a mass of starvin' niggas wanna eat supper
Unfair corruptions lead to abductions
Creatin' wider circles of destructions."
Trackmasters bring a compelling beat and killer guest spot by the legendary Ron Isley to "Back in the Game," but there's little else on which to hang your hat. The title track "Iron Flag" has awesome music, mixing old and new Wu sounds; and very solid verses by Raekwon, Masta Killa and Inspectah Deck - it may be Rae and MK's best verses so far. Then it crossfades into a hidden track, "The Glock," which effectively undoes all the good "Iron Flag" did. At the end of every bar in the song is a slowed-down loop of the line "Good thing we brought the Glock!" that alternates with every line or two. Its closest cousin is "Careful (Click, Click)" on The W, but most of the dangerous antihero feelings from "Careful" are gone here, making way for a painful hook: "Never leave home without it / Good thing we brought the Glock! / Y'all niggas ain't 'bout it 'bout it / Good thing we brought the Glock!" It's effectively the least impressed I've been with a Wu song. Where are the amazing spiritual, philosophical and pop culture references? They all got traded in for lines like "20 drunk crabs try to push the back door / Good thing we brought the Glock / Five box cutters drawn, they was ready for war / Good thing we brought the Glock."
Inspectah Deck and GZA close with decent verses and a ridiculously cool hook on "Dashing (Reasons)," but by the time the disc stops spinning, the album is as close to wearing out its welcome as Wu-Tang has been so far. It leaves its audience with an anticlimax, and they'd have to wait six full years before the Wu returned with 2007's 8 Diagrams.
As far as emcee presence goes, the Clan is tallied up as follows, with big ups to Raekwon for providing ten verses on his own throughout 12 tracks.
RZA: Production on eight songs, five verses.
Raekwon: 10 verses and a shared verse with Masta Killa.
Inspectah Deck: Eight verses.
Masta Killa: Seven verses and a shared verse with Raekwon.
Ghostface Killah: Six verses.
Method Man: Five verses, two hooks.
GZA: Five verses.
U-God: Four verses, two hooks.
Cappadonna: One bridge ("The Glock").
ODB: MIA.
Legacy: Iron Flag saw Wu-Tang standing on shaky legs, coming in just a year after The W and completely lacking Ol' Dirty - a sore disappointment for those hoping for his comeback after only appearing on one song on The W. Cappadonna is also virtually absent, and although he's not my favorite Wu emcee he'd earned a place on Ironman, Wu-Tang Forever and The W so it's odd not hearing him here. RZA also only produces two-thirds of the album, which is strange because considering his near-impeccable track record, three of my four least favorite songs on Iron Flag had him in the producer's booth. Not knocking RZA - he's one of the world's best music producers - but a couple of his tracks here weren't for me. Despite those handicaps, Iron Flag holds its own as best it can for 55 minutes and brings some real winners to the mix.
From the standpoint of the band regrouping between solo records, Iron Flag is also a damn memorable place. Between it and 8 Diagrams would come Masta Killa's debut solo album, Method Man's widely-panned Tical 0: The Prequel, a whopping four releases by Ghostface Killah, the departure and return of U-God to/from the Wu and the biggest tragedy the group has faced: the death of Ol' Dirty Bastard at the age of 35, marking The W as the last group album on which he appeared before his passing.
Recommended Tracks: Uzi (Pinky Ring), Radioactive (Four Assassins).
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