Album: Afro Samurai Resurrection: The Soundtrack
Producer: RZA
Release Date: January 27, 2009
Review: When is the sequel better than the original? When the sequel is the soundtrack for the second season of Afro Samurai, subtitled Resurrection. I don't know that there's a better title for this RZA-produced effort, considering that Digi Snacks and Birth of a Prince just didn't click for me. This is not to mention some critics - along with some Wu generals - have publicly dissed 8 Diagrams, released less than two years prior. So it's a damn good thing for everyone involved, I think, that RZA's soundtrack for Afro Samurai Resurrection is so great. There are maybe three tracks out of 17 that don't stand out as much as their 14 brethren, but that's really a minor grievance that's overshadowed almost entirely by the high-quality tracks here.
Things start with a bang on "Combat," the opening song for this season of Afro. RZA raps and P. Dot performs the hook. The music is perfect. Slow, chunky drums and hints of keys and piano sneak around the back while RZA delivers verses about the show. "Sword in my hand I want the Number One Headband." "You Already Know" keeps things going with clap tracks and staccato piano and a one-note bassline that sound deadly and dangerous. Some kind of stringed instrument akin to a mandolin or koto plucks a catchy and simple line behind solid verses by Kool G Rap and Inspectah Deck (with Suga Bang Bang on chorus duty, keeping his killing streak that started on Ghost Dog).
The classic "Family Affair" gets the hip-hop treatment by Reverend William Burke, Sly Stone and Stone Mecca on "Blood Thicker than Mud (Family Affair)." There are some good references here too, as Burke says lines like "I keep blades sharper than Hattori Hanzo / Be the last man standing after the last blow." "Whar" is centered on a slowed, slightly-lowered sample of "Clan in da Front" from Enter the Wu-Tang 16 years before it, so it's pretty logical that Ghostface and RZA each provide a verse here, but the real star is singer Tash Mahogany. I've always found Wu-related sung hooks to be very hit or miss for my own personal taste, and they probably deserve a bit more credit than I've given them in the past, but this is a happy exception to my usual hesitation. Her confident voice is a great fit for the hook on "Whar" and it sets the stage for several more original sung hooks and songs that all won me over.
In fact the next track, "Girl Samurai Lullaby," features vocals by Stone Mecca's Dionna Nichelle, as did "Blood Thicker than Mud." Here, RZA's full drums (with the sound of drumsticks striking the edge of a snare drum) and bass are surrounded by ponderous flute and high-pitched, descending keys. It's like Massive Attack's "Weather Storm" covered by Stone Mecca and Rah Digga (who raps the verses). Dionna Nichelle's lyrics are spot on and enjoyable as you could hope for.
Making it a hat trick for sung tracks, Thea Van Seijen performs "Fight For You" in her classic voice that evokes classic '40s jazz vocalists. Van Seijen has appeared on several Wu-related projects, including the first Afro Samurai soundtrack, Digi Snacks and Raekwon's Cuban Linx Pt. 2. Unfortunately, in 2012 she sued RZA for royalties on 14 tracks she's said to have co-written with him. Here though (and on her other tracks, "Bloody Days Bloody Nights" and "Bloody Samurai"), she amazes. "Bitch Gonna Get Ya" has one of the phattest beats on the album (alongside "Combat" and "You Already Know" so far) and "Kill Kill Kill" is a quality track by Rugged Monk.
The only let-downs on the whole album kick in with "Nappy Afro" by Boy Jones. The beat is fine, but Jones's voice and lyrics are weird enough that they pull me out of the experience ("Check my swag, my afro still nappy" and "My sword will slice the nipples off your breast, something something something / Chest inflation, then I put his lungs up for donation / My eyes closed but my third eye's swollen / I'm thinking too hard about Jedi mind controlling").
Fortunately, "Bloody Samurai" is so good it practically erases "Nappy Afro" from existence. Black Knights and Dexter Wiggles rap fast verses about drug dealing, gentrification and spreading knowledge through hip-hop between hooks by Thea Van Seijen, all over an urgent beat by RZA with strings and plucked electric guitar. I was bummed that "Dead Birds" shares nothing with its predecessor "Dead Birds" on RZA's Ghost Dog score, and Killah Priest's verse isn't his strongest, but Prodigal Sunn gets past the loud raucousness of the track and almost saves it.
The third track that doesn't quite stand up to the rest is "Arch Nemesis" by Ace and Moe Roc. It's not shitty by any means, but it just doesn't have the oomph or energy that the rest of the album bursts with. Again, fortunately it's followed by the excellent "Brother's Keeper" by Rev. William Burke and RZA. RZA gets in his best-balanced verse of the album, about brothers and the spiritual flow of hip-hop over what can only be described as industrial drums.
"Blessed be the meek, if we strivin' to be meeker
Plus we flow together like the mic through the speaker
Through good times and bad times, happy and sad times
Any time, all the time, until we reach a flatline
Link like medallions to cables, mixers to turntables
Never turn on each other like Cain did to Abel."
Ace and Moe Roc fare much better on "Yellow Jackets" backed by quiet jazz/rap drums and subtly strummed guitar, before "Take the Sword Pt. III" (which follows the first two parts on Afro Samurai's first season). The crazy thing about "Sword" is that it's a full 10 minutes, featuring full verses from 60 Second Assassin, Leggezin, Tre Erie, Crisis, Christ Bearer, RZA, Rugged Monk, Beretta 9 and Reverend William Burke. The breakdown there is that 60 Second Assassin dates back to the first Cuban Linx, Christ Bearer's legacy will now be that he cut off his dick with a steak knife, Beretta 9 has guested several times in the past on other Wu projects (including RZA's most listenable solo record, Digital Bullet). It's also the longest rap track I've personally heard, and it never really gets old. I'm a sucker for long/"epic" music so this is pretty exciting to hear. I've always wondered why songs with so many verses get cut so short and I'd be interested in having a long track that breathes like "Take the Sword Pt. III" at least once every few rap albums.
Resurrection closes with "Number One Samurai," RZA's track for the end credits of each episode. He shares verse and hook duty with Killarmy's 9th Prince (previously heard on "Fuck What You Think" from Bobby Digital in Stereo). It's got chunky drums, sampled suspense violin and piqued vocals, one of the most Wu-sounding tracks on the record. It's an awesome close to an awesome album that barely stumbles during its one-hour run.
Legacy: Afro Samurai Resurrection is at least RZA's third full soundtrack (fourth if you count his score for Unleashed) following Ghost Dog and the first Afro. It was astonishingly poorly received, earning a 4.2 out of 10 from Pitchfork, who spend plenty of time complaining that the dialogue snippets don't explain enough of the show's plot and making digs about RZA involving Russell Crowe in his upcoming The Man with the Iron Fists, both of which apparently affect the music here somehow? This type of comment is pretty typical of Pitchfork, though; as they once hated a latter-day Weezer album so much they pondered if it retroactively made Pinkerton a weaker album like some kind of time-traveling killjoy. In terms of the Map of Shaolin, Resurrection (which I think is pretty damn listenable) has some stiff competition for the year of 2009: U-God bounced back from Mr. Xcitement with the much more palatable (if not perfect) Dopium, Raekwon was on the verge of finishing Cuban Linx Pt. 2 and Wu also released their first compilation with The Revelations, Wu-Tang: Chamber Music.
Recommended Tracks: You Already Know, Whar, Bloody Samurai, Number One Samurai.
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