Step Forty One: Ghostface Killah: The Big Doe Rehab.

Artist:  Ghostface Killah
Album:  The Big Doe Rehab
Producers:  LV and Sean C, Anthony Acid, etc.
Release Date:  December 4, 2007

Review:  It's fitting that we're looking back at The Big Doe Rehab this week, since Ghostface Killah's collaboration with BADBADNOTGOOD, Soul Sour, was released yesterday.  At the same time, good lord - out of the last seven albums we've discussed on the Map, this makes the third that's GFK's.  More on his prolific nature later in the "legacy" section.

The first thing you'll notice when you look at the liner notes and artwork for Big Doe is that it's a brighter, cleaner-looking package than the Fish albums.  The sound reflects as much, trading in RZA and DOOM's grittier and more indie-sounding production (respectively) for a more polished sound.  Ghost said the idea for the album came from a dream he had, in which he was in rehab for having too much money (hence the stacks of cash on the album's booklet and case).  That may raise a few red flags in some listeners' minds, since Wu-Tang's braggadocious style has never shied away from talking about riches, but I'm glad to say it's an album that delivers without too much conceit over wealth.

After a goofy intro skit, Ghost sets it off with "Toney Sigel," a strong opener that's followed by "Yolanda's House" with Method Man and Raekwon.  Meth delivers a fast and smooth verse that stylistically stands up to anything on his own solo records, as does Raekwon.  Next comes "We Celebrate," which is based on the classic "I Just Want to Celebrate" by Rare Earth.  "We Celebrate" is cleverly placed early on; adapting classic funk and soul songs for their own albums (eg. the Sanford and Son theme on Masta Killa's No Said Date) is a tried-but-true Wu tactic that will help ease listeners in for the remaining 12 tracks.

Trife da God, Sun God and Shawn Wigs, from Ghostface's Theodore Unit (see More Fish) first appear on "Yapp City" and "White Lines Affair (Toney Awards)."  Quickly becoming a standard on Ghost's records, all three are talented rappers and they don't wear out their welcome on any of the songs they feature on.  "Yapp City" has some intriguing keys that vibrate and shimmer, adding a sense of urgency to the low-tempo music.  Sun God especially shines on it, with tight rhymes like "I post up, packed the shotti / Black mags in lobbies, with red dots, to detach the body."  "White Lines Affair" is a funny track, as Ghost plays master of ceremonies for a fictional award show and name-drops about 50 celebs in the rap industry.

"Rec-Room Therapy" gets points for using a live band, which Ghost will revisit excellently on the just-released 36 Seasons.  It also features Raekwon and U-God, though Rae's best appearance on the album is probably either on "Paisley Darts" or "Shakey Dog" later on.  "Rec-Room Therapy" is followed immediately by the a cappella track "The Prayer" performed by Ox - a surprisingly somber and despondent track compared to the rest of the album.  It's not that it doesn't fit, but it's a splash of cold water on the face compared to the outright funny scenes set in tracks like "Yolanda's House" (where Ghost walks in on Meth getting laid) and "White Lines Affair."

Speaking of "Paisley Darts," it's the perfect marriage of Theodore Unit and Wu-Tang Clan, as it includes Wu's Ghostface, Raekwon and Method Man, with Cappadonna (bridging the gap as he's a member of both groups) and Theodore Unit's Sun God and Trife da God.  Ghostface brings some of his classic-style lyrics to get the party started: "With cowboy hats and Coach bags, they party like rock stars / Bo Gary watches, just chill, they down in the shark bars / And me, gunslinger, clips, cock D / My fashion on, I'm rockin' them new Rasheeds."  Raekwon spits stealthily with "You know what time it is, crime it is / No matter what rhyme it is / We gonna stay fly, hit lye and rock diamond shits."  Trife also knows the score, opening with "You know ya boy stay fresher than produce / Timberland snow boots, collecting more C.R.E.A.M. than a toll booth."  Method Man's verse on "Yolanda's House" was a bit better than here, but he does get in some smoothly-written laughs: "Man listen, ice glisten, they love the life we livin' / That's a given, like football players love white women."

Big Doe coasts across the finish line with "Killa Lipstick" and "Slow Down," the former featuring Method Man and Masta Killa.  They're not the best tracks on the album, but a satisfying conclusion to a relatively short (41-minute) album.  It's good to see so many Wu guest stars back on a Ghost album after being almost completely absent from More Fish, but Ghost and Theodore Unit hold their own on the Wu-free tracks as well.  Wisely, Ghost and his producers switched it up enough from track to track that the album never gets too dense or repetitive.  It may not be my #1 Ghostface record, but Big Doe Rehab is a great listen from front to back.  Looking back on it, though, it's definitely a grower.  I bought it when it released, and only listened to it a few times, a bit disappointed that it wasn't as dark-sounding as Fishscale or as classic Wu-Tang as Ironman, but I'm glad I've revisited it since, because in my eyes it's definitely moved up in the ranks.

Legacy:  The Big Doe Rehab is Ghostface Killah's seventh studio album, clocking in at Year 14 on the Wu-Tang discography.  In this same amount of time, Ol' Dirty Bastard and Masta Killa had each only properly released two albums, with Inspectah Deck and Raekwon each turning out three.  In fact, in the time since then, if we count Wu-Block (the Ghostface/Sheek Louch record) as another Ghostface album, considering how many verses he has on it, Ghostface has released six more albums since Big Doe came out in December 2007.  And that's not including his collaboration album Wu Massacre with Method Man and Raekwon.  Clearly Ghost is the most prolific solo artist from Wu-Tang; it's a pretty amazing feat to have released 13 good records in under 19 years (since Ironman debuted in 1996).  Big Doe is also said to have been downloaded illegally by enough fans that Ghostface was disappointed in the unit sales following its release, which was the second hiccup it had after its planned release on the same day as Wu-Tang's fifth album 8 Diagrams (RZA pushed 8 Diagrams back two weeks to compensate).

Recommended Tracks:  We Celebrate, Paisley Darts, Yapp City.

Step Forty: Various Artists: Afro Samurai Soundtrack.

Artist:  Various
Album:  Afro Samurai Soundtrack
Producer:  RZA, Tru James
Release Date:  January 30, 2007

"It's nothing personal.  It's just revenge."

Review:  Like its predecessor Samurai Champloo, Afro Samurai is a glorious blend of hip-hop culture and samurai film.  Samuel L. Jackson voices the titular character and his imaginary friend/sidekick Ninja-Ninja in this short Americanized anime series alongside fellow actors Kelly Hu (Arrow) and Ron Perlman (Hellboy).  In the series, Afro is a hardened samurai whose father, the previous #1 samurai in the world, was challenged and killed by the #2 of the day, Justice.  Since his boyhood, Afro has trained to avenge his father's death and kill Justice, reclaiming the #1 headband for himself.  Of course anyone can challenge the #2 samurai for his headband, but only the samurai in possession of the #2 headband can challenge the #1, so Afro finds himself the subject of constant attack from wannabes and greedy swordsmen who desire to take his #2 headband so they can challenge the #1.  It's a classic martial arts movie setup and one that pays off pretty well.

The aesthetic twist, beyond Afro being the lone black warrior in the Far East, is that modern technology is abound.  Cell phones, binoculars with digital readouts and headphones playing hip-hop beats are just some of the contemporary tech peppering the otherwise feudal-era setting.  Naturally, this fusion of classic Eastern and modern Western cultures lends itself well to Wu-Tang, so it's no surprise that RZA was contracted to provide beats and much of the soundtrack to the series.  Of course this isn't the first time the Wu family has ventured into film/TV territory; by the time Afro Samurai was heating up, members of the Clan had already worked extensively on Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai, the video game Wu-Tang: Shaolin Style and How High.

Of course RZA raps the show's theme song, which is appropriately brief and powerful (just 29 seconds).  He recruits Talib Kweli, Lil' Free and Suga Bang Bang (who performed ragga vocals on Ghost Dog) for "Certified Samurai," which attacks out the gate like one would hope a samurai anime co-produced in the West would.  It's followed by "Just a Lil' Dude (Who Dat Ovah There)" by Q-Tip and Free Murder, which is equally as dynamic and relentless.

Then comes "Afro's Father Fight," which channels its inner Isaac Hayes.  It's said that RZA proclaimed in the middle of a production meeting for the show that Afro's father represents funk, and Justice represents rock 'n' roll.  Rock 'n' roll killed funk, but Afro represents hip-hop and hip-hop kills rock 'n' roll, so it's no surprise that Afro's father's songs seem steeped in flanged funk guitar.  The second episode of the show includes a sex scene with Afro, and the Stone Mecca track "Oh" that appears there is on this soundtrack.  That's also not shocking, since Stone Mecca were touted by RZA around the time of this album release and have toured with him and Wu-Tang since then.

No matter how great the hip-hop songs are on the first half of the disc are, "Cameo Afro," with its verses by Big Daddy Kane and GZA, sounds the most like a Wu track out of the first dozen.  That's not necessarily a bad thing, since the cartoon is clearly not explicitly for/by the Wu, but it's something for fans to consider before they lay down $15 for the soundtrack.  It's easily the fifth great rap song on there but the others sound more like RZA-recruited talent than a Wu-centered piece like this.   "Take Sword Pt. 1" follows suit by opening with a kung-fu dialogue clip directly referencing Wu-Tang swordsmen and a verse by RZA.  It also has a verse by Beretta 9 of Killarmy, who fans may remember from either Bobby Digital album.

60 Second Assassin (who first appeared on the Map for collaborating on Only Built 4 Cuban Linx...) delivers some loose, trippy thoughts on "Take Sword Pt. 2" before producer True Master drops an equally awkward verse ("Since knowledge of myself is truly known / My foundation is like that of the most solid stone").  RZA raps again on "Fury in My Eyes / Revenge," delivering three solid verses of rhymes between Thea van Seijen's retro jazz hooks.

The next four tracks are apparently Bobby Digital bonus tracks, and I find that RZA's alter ego is pretty hit or miss on other albums.  Here, he provides an infectious beat on "Insomnia" if slightly disjointed lyrics.  "So Fly" doesn't fare as well ("Just don't squeeze my nuts too hard / I won't slap ya butt too hard"), nor does "We All We Got," but "Glorious Day" ends with a mysterious beat and ominous lyrics.  On "Glorious Day" and "Insomnia" he sounds the most like Ghost Dog RZA, with dry beats and lyrics expressing desperation and ponderous uncertainty.

Legacy:  As you'll notice from this discussion, it's not that there's anything clearly wrong with the Afro Samurai soundtrack as it is there isn't a whole lot to talk about.  There are plenty of gems to redeem the price of the disc, but some forgettable tracks that are clearly left best as background music for Afro Samurai's scenes.  Like the show itself, it's a beautiful album with occasional scripting problems.  When it works, it really works, and when it doesn't, it just walks along without any truly awful songs to be found.  It's not bad, but not always great either.

Recommended Tracks:  Just a Lil' Dude, Cameo Afro, Certified Samurai.

Step Thirty-Nine: Ol' Dirty Bastard: A Son Unique.

Artist:  Ol' Dirty Bastard / Dirt McGirt
Album:  A Son Unique
Release Date:  Officially Unreleased / Nov. 6, 2006
Producers:  RZA, Damon Elliott, etc.

Review:  Alright, from word one this is a complicated album to explain.  Please excuse the lengthy intro/disclaimers since in some ways, this album doesn't technically exist.

I've heard it said that before his passing in 2004 from a drug overdose, Ol' Dirty Bastard had been re-marketing himself, instead going by Dirt McGirt.  Dirt McGirt is a long-standing alias professionally dating back to at least Return to the 36 Chambers, where on the track "Goin' Down" he shouts himself out as "Dirt McGirt, that's my motherfuckin' name / Love to flirt, that's my motherfuckin' game."  Though official word on the subject of the official name change is pretty slim, there's supporting evidence in DJ Noize's ODB tribute track on 2005's Think Differently compilation.  Amid the beats and samples of ODB talking (just after the reading of W.H. Auden's "Stop All the Clocks, Cut Off the Telephone...") he clearly says "It's time for me to move on.  It's time for Ol' Dirty Bastard to not exist no more.  It's time for a new Ol' Dirty Bastard, a baby Ol' Dirty Bastard, not called Ol' Dirty Bastard..."

Then comes the album name.  Dirty adopted Unique Ason (or Ason Unique) as his righteous name in Islam's modern sect of Five Percenters.  The majority of Wu-Tang members follow this belief, which owes to the idea that society is divided neatly into three categories of its population: 85% are willfully ignorant or uncivilized, another 10% take advantage of the 85 and a mere 5% of the population can hope to achieve enlightenment through properly living the teachings of Islam.  This religious terminology is present throughout the Wu's long history; Method Man says in ODB's "Raw Hide" that he fears "for the 85 who don't got a clue."  ODB's first line in "Brooklyn Zoo" is "I'm the one-man army Ason."  At any rate, rearranging Unique Ason gives us A Son Unique - ODB is the embodiment of the one-of-a-kind spirit schooled in part by modern Islam and his life growing up in Brooklyn.

Next is the release date.  A Son Unique was close enough to completion upon Dirt's death that it was very nearly released as his official third studio album.  As I mentioned in our retrospective on Nigga Please, the record labels had had enough of his legal shenanigans before his death that they assembled mixtapes, greatest hits albums and other compilations to qualify him as having fulfilled his contract with them.  This is where we get albums like Osirus: The Mixtape and The Trials and Tribulations of Russell Jones.  In terms of all-new material that wasn't scraped from the bottom of the studio's barrel, A Son Unique was it.  Dirty actually died in the studio on a day on which he'd been recording the material  However, during the ensuing posthumous rights to the recordings themselves, record label Dame Dash and ODB's widow Icelene Jones ended up in a gridlock that included a two-year lead-up to the finished (?) product.

In November of 2006, the album had apparently been finished enough that some promotional copies of the CD are said to be floating around the black market, with the widest release being a quasi-legal debut on iTunes which was very quickly removed thereafter.  It remains unreleased officially, besides the date in question: November 6, 2006.  In deciding whether or not to cover this album for Map of Shaolin, I decided if it were finished enough that the studio had sent it to publication, it deserved a spot on the Map.

Finally, the personnel.  Without a finalized package to reference, we're left with second-hand accounts of who produced what and which rhymes belonged to whom and when they were recorded.  For example?  Clearly, Lil' Frame's contribution to "Pop Shots" was finished after Dirt's death, as the first sound is Frame saying "Rest in Peace, Ol' Dirty."  We also know beyond the shadow of a doubt who produced some tracks, as the music for "Skrilla" previously appeared somewhat cleaned up as "The Glide" on Method Man's 4:21: The Day After and are credited to RZA.  Album review sites (eg Rolling Stone) also have finalized articles that were published on the eve of the album's digital release/disappearance.  At any rate, a hodgepodge list of credits has since consistently appeared on leaked downloads of A Son Unique and a Wikipedia page made for the album.  Without intending to add fuel to the rumor fire, I'd like to add that the production credits I reference here are all taken from my leak of A Son Unique and its Wikipedia page (that developed after I obtained my copy in 2006) and I can't verify their authenticity 100%.

Out of respect for the late Ol' Dirty, the work that went into this project and the criminal act of it being shelved, here's a full-on track-by-track review.

The album's opener, "Lift Ya Skirt," features Missy Elliot, but starts with a piano playing "Hallelujah" before getting into its jazzy refrain.  Dirt and Missy both spit tight verses that get the album popping off right.  The hook "Dirt Dog, Dirt Dog, you our man / If you can't do it no one can!" is as silly and bouncy as Chris Rock's hook from "Recognize" off of Nigga Please.  Dirty gets the chance to sing in his bizarre and soulful style for the hook on "Pop Shots" and he gets in some fun braggadocious lyrics - "I scrap with the best / If I spit ten rhymes, nigga, nine gon' connect."  It may have a bit of filler, though, as DJ Premier skratches the sample "See my name is the ODB" dozens of times throughout the track.

The beat on "Operator" is maybe a bit more mainstream/polished than I'd like, with a hodgepodge hook of ODB and Pharrell that nearly makes for a fun call-and-response, but frankly it's hard to decry anything on an album that we're lucky to have at all.

Then comes the RZA-produced "Back in the Air" with a Ghostface Killah verse bookended by two verses from Dirty.  Ghost sounds right at home on this track, but ODB's lyrics really take off more than they have so far on this record.  In the first verse he brings some classic Wu-style references to '70s cinema with "I show no mercy, dunk like a bar of Hershey / Call my gun Lil' Seymour, bitch, or Big Percy" (two characters from Uptown Saturday Night), also calling out fake emcees like Puff Daddy with "This is Dirt McGirt, ho, not P. Diddy / All we got in common is the money."  But the third verse is his best, with the following lines:

"Stealin' anything that twinkle bright to my eyesight
Many nights I used to stay up at the twilight
And wonder to myself if there's a Heaven or Hell
Been alone in these streets since 11 or 12
On my own, I run buckwild in the west
A knucklehead nigga, I used to sleep in my vest
Had no home, my moms used to show me no lovin'
Burn the crib down trying to dry my shirt in the oven."

"Work for Me" doesn't grab me as much, sitting on par with "Operator" as a decent track but by no means a stand-out.  If anything, both tracks suffer from the same trouble as Method Man's Tical 0, in that they sound more like a commercial effort than a Wu-Tang member's fascinating creativity let off its leash.

"ODB, Don't Go Breaking My Heart" is absolutely a reworked cover of the Elton John song from which it borrows its name, with Macy Gray and ODB trading lines on the hook in between ODB spitting some quick and incredibly scattered/messy verses that sound like "Let's get Hot Dogs on a Stick now three drinks of lemon fresh drip over back of back the ngh king-size bed fiffo kee let's dooooo the doooooo" and Macy Gray making furious mouth sounds like she's scarfing popcorn while sick with rabies.  Unfortunately, it's one of those times that ODB's unpredictable persona stumbles over the finish line face-first instead of in the charming drunken boxing way that made him such a folk hero.

"The Stomp Pt. II" features RZA on back-up vocals for the hook and Dirt actually connects his rhymes twice per line - every other beat.  For example, "Things ain't the same today, this is the game they play / Dirt the name they say, throwin' the blame my way / So they can change my face, take and claim my space / But I remain the ace, always maintain my space."  It's short, fast and furious like its namesake "The Stomp" from Return to the 36 Chambers, and does a good job reaching nearly the same heights.

"How Ya Feelin'" is a classic fast-paced wacky circus with Dirty as its ringmaster, frantically tying together tangents about parole, MTV appearances and sex into a three-minute frenzy.  Despite the altogether different feel of its music, it's the same all-over-the-place attack that made his verse on "Da Mystery of Chessboxin'" in 1993.

RZA returns - and brings Raekwon and Method Man with him - for "Intoxicated," which also features Macy Gray.  Rae and Meth absolutely kill it - Meth opening his verse with "Yo I was born on the same day as Dr. Seuss / Plenty of friends, Henny and gin, who got the juice?" - before Ol' Dirty closes the song with a really tight verse of his own.  "Silence on Smith with six shots, lick shots / Leave ya head like a Shaolin monk with six dots / Hit a gush, twistin' a sweet switcher / In search of Bobby the Digital, bitch, not Bobby Fisher."  It may be his most reeled-in but simultaneously effective verse on the album, and one of the best arguments for the album's release.

"Dirty and Grimey" isn't at all bad, but feels more like a N.O.R.E. track with a guest spot by ODB than the other way around.  Glad it's on the album, but ends up in the middle of the pack.

At its outset, "Danger Zone" sounds like a fucking mess, and Dirty's rhymes barely fix it.  It may be the only track on the album that I feel wouldn't have made it on if Dirty would've lived to see it to completion.  Whether or not it's really a crappy song (taste is subjective, after all), it just doesn't seem like it fits on the album.

Then comes "Skrilla," which is the closest the album comes to capturing a perfect evolution of the Return to the 36 Chambers sound we could hope for when we push Play on A Son Unique.  Big stomping percussion with hand claps and finger snaps reign over popping bass synth, '90s gangsta rap keyboards, weird saxophone, Wu slang, shouted hooks and unstoppable lyrics.  Dirty's energy and flow on this track are, to me, the epitome of what made him so incomparable to any other rapper in American music history.  Check out some of these brilliant couplets, which are slung at you through an indomitable sound that threatens to jump out of your speakers and slap your mama in the face:

"My nameplate travel through the interstate
Glock in the stash box, my drop top ventilate."

"Disrespect me where I lay my head, my hammer spray
My cybertech nylon suit reflect gamma ray."

"Beer belly, I chuckle like Kris Kringle
Put four grams of cocaine crushed up in a single."

There's absolutely no way on God's green Earth to follow "Skrilla," but "Don't Hurt Me Dirty" does a good job of bringing us back down to Earth for the end of the album.  It's got that cleaner/electro/club sound that a couple of the other tracks do (eg "Operator," "Work for Me" and "Dirty and Grimey") but with stronger lyrics than those offer.

Legacy:  Some of the tracks that ended up on the kind-of-unreleased A Son Unique debuted a year prior when WuTangCorp.com released an official ODB tribute mix that also included hits from both of Dirt's previous albums, edited for time and mixed into a continuous playlist.  If anything, it only helped to drum up interest for the album.  It's a real shame it hasn't seen an end-all be-all, official, in-store release, but at least we music pirates still get to hear these 13 cuts in some fashion.  As a 45-minute package and third album from Wu-Tang's fallen soldier, this release is a mostly successful return to form from the weaker tracks on Nigga Please to rest - in quality - somewhere between Dirty's two previous outings.  Ultimately, on the downside, some of the tracks suffer from sounding too cleaned-up and commercial, perhaps in a way Dirty wouldn't have gone organically (eg "Dirty and Grimey" or "Danger Zone").  Also, a couple others sound like they contain some posthumously cut-and-pasted moments that soil their otherwise solid delivery ("Pop Shots").  However, despite its occasional hiccups, A Son Unique brushes against brilliance on more than one occasion (see "Recommended Tracks" below).  Dirty was coming back and sounding great before his unfortunate death, making up for his absences on The W and Iron Flag with several instant classics featuring Wu-generals and others without.  Had it been finished on schedule, it likely would've released in early-mid 2005, in the 15-month gap between Masta Killa's brilliant debut No Said Date and U-God's unsuccessful Mr. Xcitement.  In fact, since No Said Date itself came out just weeks after Method Man's weakest effort, Tical 0, Dirty's A Son Unique likely would've made a smooth transition, with a couple uninspired tracks peppering an otherwise enjoyable listen.

As it is, it surfaced in an odd unofficial way just after the street-influenced Method Man comeback 4:21 and the rugged More Fish by Ghostface Killah.  Two months later RZA dropped the hand-picked Wu-affiliate-laden Afro Samurai soundtrack, as the Wu catalog once again broadened its scope and took on a new visage.  Rest in peace, Mr. Jones; the world isn't the same without you.

Recommended Tracks:  Lift Ya Skirt, Back in the Air, Intoxicated, Skrilla.

Step Thirty Eight: Ghostface Killah: More FIsh.

Note:  Hey Wu family!  Excuse the week-long delay on our look back at More Fish.  I came down with a severe case of strep throat on the same day I'd meant to write this up for the Map.  Couldn't talk for the better part of a week and spent three days in bed, but now we should be back up and running on a regular schedule.

Artist:  Ghostface Killah
Album:  More Fish
Producers:  Fantom of the Beat, DOOM, Anthony Acid, etc.
Release Date:  October 12, 2006

Review:  Releasing just seven months apart and bearing similar titles and album artwork, it's a safe bet that Fishscale and More Fish were recorded in the same sessions.  The biggest notable difference between the two is in the personnel - it's a bit confusing, so let's knock it out first.  None of the songs here feature Wu-Tang generals except "Guns N Razors," where Cappadonna guests.  In fact the only other arguably Wu-Tang-related collaborations on More Fish are a guest spot from Killarmy's Killa Sin (also on "Guns N Razors"), one verse by longtime Meth affiliate Redman and several tracks produced by Fantom of the Beats, who have worked on other Wu-related albums in the past.  Killa Sin you may remember from Inspectah Deck's Uncontrolled Substance and The Resident Patient, Method Man's Tical 2000 or RZA's Bobby Digital albums.

Basically, Fishscale seems like "a new solo record by Ghostface Killah from Wu-Tang," whereas More Fish is refocused and showcased as "a new album by Ghostface Killah with his new group, The Theodore Unit."  Fortunately, The Theodore Unit slays tracks from start to finish so they never feel like a commercial or a weight on Ghost's efforts.

After a New Year's skit, More Fish kicks off with the high-energy "Ghost is Back."  The music belongs in a Guy Ritchie heist movie; it's what "Gravel Pit" should've been.  Not to mention there's a good bit of skratching throughout, which brings some fun nostalgia to this heater.  Ghost steps back and lets Trife da God and Sun God take "Miguel Sanchez," and they annihilate it.  Trife is as upbeat as Inspectah Deck while Sun God takes a more laid-back approach, but they don't disappoint.

"Guns N Razors" is clearly a DOOM-produced track, and everyone - Cappadonna included - turn in competent uptempo verses for it, but "Good" is my first standout track on the album (besides "Ghost is Back").  The music is so heavily steeped in '70s blaxploitation it's almost a marvel on its own.  Bright horns blow, falsetto-sung hooks and splashy vocal harmonies abound.  If you can't hear it for yourself, you can judge by the words on the hook:  "GOOD I look so GOOD the car look GOOD, I'm in the hood and I'm okaaaay / GOOD the jewels look GOOD the cars look GOOD, they all from around the way."  Listening to "Good" I half-expected a 30-year-old Pam Grier to kick in my door holding a pistol in two hands.  The sound is nearly everything that we've come to love from Wu-Tang and it's fun to boot.

The modern Wu sound I've been talking about - a bit less chunky/grimy but with soul samples and other great sounds - returns on "Street Opera," and on my last listen of More Fish, had the sucker-punch real-life lyrics that catch you off guard and don't let go.  Ghost's verse carries these lyrics:  "Your projects' steps is Ajax down, dried blood / Maintenance men with the scrub brush scraping the ground / Diapers, baby bottles and broken lighters / I led many horses to water just to see if they like it."  It's a bold image that juxtaposes some of the everyday things one sees in high-crime neighborhoods: violence (dried blood being washed off of a tenement's front steps with Ajax) and drug use (broken lighters, more likely used for drugs than cigarettes since the hook on this song is "Jeans, hoods, guns, crack").  The sad part is that the violence and drugs are so close to babies (diapers and baby bottles).  It may only be a few lines, but it's stuff like this that makes Ghostface and the other Wu generals stand out among their peers.

My only problem with "Street Opera" is that at the end there's the sound of Ghostface eating something, and I hate - I mean I hate - the sound of people eating.  It's a pet peeve, but just the sound of chewing, slurping and sucking in someone's mouth?  I've had to leave dinner tables because of it.  I actually skip that bit every time I put More Fish on.  If I weren't so lazy, I'd rip the whole album, edit that last 5 or 10 seconds out then burn it to a new CD.  Sorry Ghost!  You're still the man.

Shawn Wigs makes his debut on "Pokerface," performing the entire song (besides the hook) by himself.  He carries himself well over a beat that would be at home on Think Differently, with vocals pitch-raised to Alvin and the Chipmunks heights, but the coolest and best surprise of the album comes on "Greedy Bitches."  On "Greedy Bitches," producer Anthony Acid reworks the beginning of Van Morrison's "TB Sheets" for this track that features Redman and Shawn Wigs.  I don't know that I've heard anything as enjoyable as Ghost and Red rapping over Van Morrison.  Also, having Redman rap over such an unexpected track reminds me of his verse over Gorillaz' "19-2000" for the Blade II soundtrack, "Gorillaz on my Mind."

"Josephine" is a lament of a girl who became an addict and a prostitute.  Willie Cottrell sings lamenting vocals while Ghost and Trife bring sad verses about addiction.  Ghost raps, "Putting dope in the cook, searching for her vein / Tracks all over her arms, she never felt the pain / The monkey on her back is now a gorilla / Fiending for a hit knowing one day it's gonna kill her."  Trife responds with the hard-hitting "Two months pregnant, carrying around her fetus / But the found her on Broad, in the dumpster, behind the cleaners."

"Blue Armor" is nearly as energetic as "The Champ" from Fishscale, which is to say it is fantastic.  Big ups to Fantom of the Beats for bringing a high-energy jam for Ghost and Sheek Louch to slam heavy rhymes over.  It's chaotic and dope, and especially noteworthy as a prelude to the Ghostface/Sheek Louch album Wu Block (which Map of Shaolin will cover in turn) and its recently announced follow-up Hidden Gems.

The rest of the album settles down a bit, featuring Ghostface's collaboration/remix version of Amy Winehouse's "You Know I'm No Good" and a Kanye remix of "Back Like That."  It's a good way to simmer and finish the record, especially if you listen to both Fish records back-to-back, but at the same time it's hard not to feel like you're listening to Winehouse's Back to Black and Ghost's Fishscale for a couple minutes.

Legacy:  Two full-length records in under a year.  Ghost was either working his ass off in 2005 and 2006 or writing comes so easily to him that he's able to pump out verse after verse.  He has as many solo records as of this writing as Inspectah Deck, ODB and Masta Killa combined, and we're already aware of Hidden Gems, Soul Sour and DOOMStarks, possibly within a year of his appearances on Wu's A Better Tomorrow and releasing his own 36 Seasons.  The album was well-received, too; in their review of More Fish, Rolling Stone called Ghostface "the most irrepressible rapper of his generation."  After the cleaner sound of Pretty Toney and Bulletproof Wallets, it's good to hear Ghost going for this grittier tone, working with indie hip-hop producers like DOOM and Madlib.  Ghost's career is fascinating to follow, too - after this he put out The Big Doe Rehab, the retro-inspired Apollo Kids, the R&B-heavy Ghostdini then two comic book concept records, 12 Reasons to Die and 36 Seasons.  He seems to be an unstoppable force, and most of his albums are top-notch.  But if he proved one thing with the Fish albums, it's that Ghost is back.

Recommended Tracks:  Good, Street Opera, Greedy Bitches, Blue Armor.

Next Week:  Ol' Dirty Bastard's real third album, A Son Unique, which was only (and accidentally) released for one day on iTunes.

Step Thirty Seven: Method Man: 4:21 - The Day After.

Artist:  Method Man
Album:  4:21 - The Day After
Producers:  Erick Sermon, RZA, etc.
Release Date:  August 29, 2006

Review:  Coming just two years after 2004's disastrous Tical 0: The Prequel, Method Man's fourth solo LP (fifth if you count his and Redman's Blackout!) is a huge step up in every aspect.  As I noted in my Map of Shaolin retrospective a couple months ago, Tical 0 sounded more like a commercial for Def Jam records than a Method Man album.  It had out-of-place guest stars, it was overproduced and came across as way too commercial.  Fortunately, on 4:21 - The Day After, Method Man took the wheel back and steered the ship back on course.  No P. Diddy, no Missy Elliott, no Ludacris, no Kevin Liles and fewer producers overall make for a more cohesive hour of rap.

The intro track is a short-but-sweet two minutes 11 seconds, and just features one long verse with an ending hook, but it's on fire.  He addresses the criticism of himself and Tical 0 no fewer than three times, too, with lines like "Look and listen, guess who coming up? / And y'all was dumb enough to think that Method's number's up," "If Def Jam is deaf, then start reading my lips" and "How could you ever say that I'm washed up when I'm the dirtiest thing in sight?"  It's a good way to acknowledge a misstep and move on right.  It's followed immediately by "Is It Me?" from producer Scott Storch.  The high piano notes and mid-tempo drumbeat lay the groundwork for the first 1/3 of the album (roughly six tracks) to sound much darker and more "street" than anything on Tical 0, and Meth takes the opportunity to spit quick internal rhymes throughout the song ("Until these rap niggaz stepped up, checked up, man this game is messed up / Next up, you know what it is, don't get it F'ed up" etc).

"Problem" and "Somebody Done Fucked Up" sound just as solid, produced by longtime Method Man producers Erick Sermon and Havoc.  Both first worked with Meth on Tical 2000: Judgement Day and Erick Sermon brought plenty of live beats to Blackout!, so it's little wonder they both appear here.  Sermon's drum loop on "Problem" is very RZA-esque, piquing on the snares.

The first big standout track to me is "Fall Out," with music by Kwame.  I know I said earlier that 4:21 has fewer producers at the end of the day than Tical 0 did, and I've already named four producers across four tracks, but things settle down later on and Erick Sermon and RZA produce eight of the album's 17 songs (almost half the album) between the two of them.  Getting back to "Fall Out," the wall-shaking bass drum and sonar snare are the backbone for what's about the phattest music on the album.  There's a quick ascending-and-descending harpsichord line, police sirens, echoing hype vocals in the background and, above all, a genuinely eerie two-chord keyboard line that permeates the track.  It also doesn't hurt that the Ticallion Stallion himself busts some seamless braggadocio rhymes across the track that fit perfectly with the music.  "Here we go again herb smoke blowin' in the wind / Cops chasin' wanna put him in the pen / And the day he leave the game yo he going in the Benz / On them 24's lookin' like he rollin' in the rims."

The album's first guest spot belongs to Ol' Dirty Bastard, nearly two years after his death, on "Dirty Mef."  There are tributes to him all over the album, from the cover (check the bottom of the number two in the pic above) to the pic of Method Man and Dirty acting the fool behind the disc in the album's inner back cover.  Given that, it's good to hear that his verse (which is a full verse, not the quick four-line snippet on Fishscale's "9 Milli Bros.") is as solid as his best tracks from Nigga Please.  The only odd bit is that he repeatedly sings "Fuck you" on a couple parts of the track, but what's strange is that it sounds really cut together.

RZA co-produces "4:20," which features Streetlife (who's been appearing on Wu albums for a long time now, especially Method Man's last two) and Carlton Fisk from Housegang (who featured heavily on Inspectah Deck's The Resident Patient earlier that same year).  It's a great-sounding track, and Streetlife and Carlton Fisk hold their own after Meth's first two verses.  By this point on the album, I get the impression that, much like some of U-God's better material, these are producers and beats that just fit really damn well with Method Man's style, flow and voice.

Things get a little prettier/poppier for "Let's Ride," which has Ginuwine singing the hook.  It's not my favorite track, but it's not the first time Method Man has gone romantic on us.  His most successful was on "All I Need" from Tical,  This one doesn't do it for me, but I tend to forget it in light of the mystery surrounding the following track, "The Glide."

Now, after ODB passed, the official Wu-Tang website released a free mix of a lot of ODB tracks.  I think it came out in 2005.  It ranged from his best-known singles ("Brooklyn Zoo," "Shimmy Shimmy Ya" and "Nigga Please") to unreleased tracks from the album he died making, A Son Unique (tracks like "Intoxicated" and "Don't Go Breaking My Heart").  But maybe the best of the new material on the ODB tribute mix was "Skrilla," produced by RZA with one of the phattest beats I've ever heard from the Wu.  The drum beat has piqued claps and fingers snapping, electro bass synth and plenty else to keep your ears entertained (behind some of ODB's most cohesive lyricism since his first release).  Fast forward a year or so and "The Glide" has the same music, but polished up and quieted a bit.  It's still a great beat, but the Dirty version is...well...dirtier.  The other mystery with "The Glide" is that U-God provides a quick (eight-line) verse between Raekwon and Method Man, but he isn't credited on the back (the tracklist reads "The Glide feat. Raekwon & La the Darkman") or in the booklet (the liner notes read the same for the track name and there's no L. Hawkins (U-God's birth name) in the writing credits).  Not hatin', because it's still a tight track, but what the fuck is going on here?!  Raekwon kills it, coming out the gate with his best rhymes at the beginning like usual ("From out the air space I'm rockin' leather pants in the 10th grade / My pen blaze, now we in the wind gate, killin' haze") and U-God sticks with his established style ("We got them anthems, we handsome and raw / All day, cops harass but we laugh at the law").  La the Darkman (who we know from Think Differently) only provides the hook.

Moving on, "Got to Have It" uses the increasingly familiar sound of latter-day Wu: a quick pitch-raised vocal sample over a mix of clean hip-hop and old-school live instruments (in this case, a plucked guitar).  Erick Sermon produces again here and on the next track, "Say," which features Lauryn Hill singing a couple lines from Bob Marley's "So Much to Say."  It's a pleasant-sounding laid-back song about music critics dissing Method Man, but (like its predecessor and "Let's Ride") results in a much, much softer sound than the first six or seven proper songs led us to expect.  It's a bit jarring, but by no means bad.

Phat beats return on "Ya'Meen," which features bizarrely awkward verses from Fat Joe and Styles P before making room for the RZA-produced "Konichiwa Bitches."  As you probably guessed, this track gets its name from the hilarious Chappelle Show skit with the race draft, in which Chinese delegates draft the Wu-Tang Clan to be Chinese from now on instead of black.  The title is used extensively throughout the hooks, in the form of a sample of GZA saying "Konichiwa, bitches!" after being drafted by the Chinese.  It's not RZA's best beat, but a catchy hook ("NYC is all I see / ODB nigga RIP / This Killa Bee's on your M-I-C / You want it all then y'all like me") comes between consistent - if not legendary - verses by Meth.

Inspectah Deck and Streetlife guest on "Everything," produced by Allah Mathematics.  It's a great dark sound overall, and every emcee is on point, but it takes a couple listens to get back into after the lukewarm previous tracks.  Its follower, "Walk On," features Redman and has RZA and Erick Sermon on assistant production behind Versatile.  Points to it for a standout rock sound (electric guitar and lo-fi live-sounding drums) and compelling/weird time signatures.  Usually it stays in 4/4, but between verses is a three-beat "hook" with a sample of someone saying the name of the track.

The album wraps up with another romantic track, "4 Ever," produced by "Fall Out"'s Kwame (although the music is considerably lighter and brighter here).  But first, there's the last real banger on the album: "Presidential MC" featuring Raekwon and RZA, produced by RZA.  It's definitely RZA's best beat on the album, with a swelling bass end that sounds like sampled and tweaked cello, ominously laying over a clear kick-kick-snare beat.  It's as intimidating a sound as "Borin' Convo" from JJ Doom's Key to the Cuffs.  Raekwon is better here than on "The Glide," laying out some really intricate rhymes.  Check 'em:

"Them red beams is coming, losers
Got to walk the plank, users
With Uzi's on 'em, you move, you gettin' spanked
Shank broilers banked, alcoholics ranked ballers
They should call us, I rock mad ice like a walrus."

Legacy:  4:21 was received much more favorably than Tical 0, and with good cause.  It's just a better album from start to finish, despite a couple less impressive tracks.  I'm not as sold on the happier-sounding songs like "Let's Ride" and "4 Ever," and there's a bit of a lull two-thirds into the album, but all in all I think it's a serious win for Method Man.  It topped out at #8 on the Billboard 200 and it's a clear bounceback from its troubled predecessor.  Plenty of my favorite bands have had a dud in their discographies, so I can't begrudge Meth's whole career for Tical 0's sins.  All said and done, by 2006 he'd released a legendary record (Tical) and three others that I really love (Tical 2000, Blackout! and 4:21).  Nine years later, this is still Method Man's last official "solo" album, although he and Redman compose the majority of Blackout! 2 in 2009; Meth is also one-third of the short album Wu Massacre with Ghostface and Raekwon; and Method Man features really heavily on the latest Wu-Tang album, 2014's A Better Tomorrow.  All in good time.  For now, enjoy the sound of the resurrection of Method Man's career.

Recommended Tracks:  Fall Out, Everything and Presidential MC.

Step Thirty Six: Masta Killa: Made in Brooklyn.

Artist:  Masta Killa
Album:  Made in Brooklyn
Release Date:  August 8, 2006
Producers:  Bronze Nazareth, DOOM, Pete Rock etc.

Review:  Like its nearest Wu predecessor, Inspectah Deck's The Resident Patient, Masta Killa's sophomore release Made in Brooklyn is just a fraction less stellar than its artist's previous release.  Inspectah Deck's 2003 album The Movement was damn near perfect, as was Masta Killa's 2004 debut No Said Date, and each artist followed with a nearly-as-great 2006 release.

Made in Brooklyn starts with "Then & Now," a track featuring some of the Wu-generals' kids on the mic, like "The Future" from No Said Date.  Here, however, the kids are pretty competent MC's considering their age.  Masta Killa's first proper track is the DOOM-produced "E.N.Y. House," following DOOM's production spots on Ghostface's Fishscale.  It's as fun as it is indie, which is to say a lot of both.

I'll admit, I'm not as tied to the minimal "Brooklyn King" as I am many other tracks on the album.  It has a lively drum beat, but the drums are the only instrumentation in this 2m40s song besides a bassline that's only present for 1.5 out of 16 beats.  Luckily, the retro horns that snagged so many ears on No Said Date make their debut on the following track, "It's What It Is," which features Raekwon and Ghostface Killah.  Now, Rae and Ghost are terrific emcees wherever they go, but their involvement isn't the only thing that makes this track so live.  The instrumentation is live and engaging and MK is on point when things first get going.  Had this been an MK solo track, it still would've been great, but Raekwon and Ghostface definitely add to the mix as well.

Once "Nehanda & Cream" gets its (admittedly entertaining) skit out of the way, Masta Killa and producer Bronze Nazareth lay out a song that's as listenable musically as it is smooth lyrically.  Wood xylophones and charming piqued percussion back Masta Killa's silky smooth lines like "They be like, 'Send us out to Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan / The Bronx, Harlem and Island of Staten' / Just a dedication to radio station / DJ's across the nation."

If you listen to Made in Brooklyn and any of it seems lackluster to you by this point, your fears should be assuaged by the time you hit the excellent "Iron God Chamber."  This track features guest spots by U-God, RZA and Method Man before Masta Killa locks it down for the final verse, and it's killer.  Considering that the legendary "C.R.E.A.M." only has verses by three Wu-generals, "Iron God Chamber" should resemble a wonderful group effort.  U-God gets things going.  It's hard to tell exactly when he left and re-joined Wu-Tang since he appears on so many albums between his albums Mr. Xcitement and Dopium.  RZA is also on fire, even if his first few lines don't inspire - I'm sure no Wu fan is getting "I used to be afraid of the devil as a boy / But now as a grown man I realized he's just a toy" tattooed on themselves.  He picks it up immediately afterward with rhymes like "Elements and chemicals, fire space and minerals / Kept devils on the run, like Monk-Monk the General."  Method Man is next, dropping signature smooth lines all over the track, and Masta Killa sews the package up.

"Older Gods (Part 2)" marks the first of three tracks that have a very unique structure on the album.  It's easy to see them as being divisive among Wu-Tang fans, and I won't pretend they're for everyone, but their frequent placement in the album hints that they weren't a one-off risk to take.  On "Older Gods (Part 2)," "Let's Get Into Something" and "Lovely Lady," the actual hip-hop verses take a back seat to a different form of musical expression.  In "Older Gods" (named after the track from Wu-Tang Forever although it bears little resemblance to it), there are several Popa Wu-sounding guys talking about Five Percenters and Islam.  "Let's Get Into Something" primarily features R&B or soul vocals performed by Startel.  Finally, "Lovely Lady" focuses on reggae music and fitting vocals sung by Ski and Governor Tools.

Getting back to the more hip-hop-oriented tracks on the album, "Let's Get Into Something" is followed by "Street Corner" featuring Inspectah Deck and GZA.  The music, provided by Bronze Nazareth, is the same as "Street Corners" from Think Differently Music: Wu-Tang Meets the Indie Culture, on which neither Inspectah Deck nor Masta Killa appeared.  However, it's great to hear their takes on this Bronze Nazareth beat.  Masta Killa ponders, "We shine without the hung jury, produce light that'll travel through mics" before GZA raps about "Large holes in the front door of a housing tenement / Allows room to retaliate so conflict is imminent."

Speaking of recycled materials, Masta Killa's verse on "East M.C.'s" is taken directly from his appearance on Inspectah Deck's "Sound of the Slums," released just six weeks before.  I'm admittedly a fan of both albums, and I have absolutely no idea which track the verse was originally written for (since they're released so close together it could go either way), so take it with a grain of salt when I say that it's a solid enough verse that I don't mind hearing it twice.

"Ringing Bells" is also a rock-solid, retro-inspired Wu track.  Music by Bronze Nazareth and lyrics by Masta Killa, it's just a phat track that finds a quick and welcome home in MK's catalog.

Legacy:  Made in Brooklyn likely won't stand out to as many Wu fans as a latter-day solo blockbuster like Only Built 4 Cuban Linx Pt. 2, which is a damn shame because it's a really solid album.  Masta Killa remains one of the most underrated Wu MC's there is, and this album is a testament to his high-caliber (if not always immediately accessible) style of music and lyrics.  It's surrounded by more high-profile members' releases (Ghostface's Fishscale and Method Man's 4:21 among them), but I ask you not to let those overshadow this album, a competent sophomore release without a shitty track on it.  Give Made in Brooklyn more of a chance than you may ever have; it's worth it.

Recommended Tracks:  E.N.Y. House, Iron God Chamber, Street Corner, Ringing Bells.

Step Thirty Five: Inspectah Deck: The Resident Patient.

Artist:  Inspectah Deck
Album:  The Resident Patient
Release Date:  June 25, 2006
Producers:  Mondee, Liveson, Inspectah Deck, etc.

Review:  Inspectah Deck's third solo album, 2006's The Resident Patient, starts with a bang.  "Sound of the Slums" may very well be the best opening track in Wu-Tang's entire catalog, with the exception of "Bring Da Ruckus."  It's short but sweet at just two minutes and five seconds, and Concrete Beats produces, bringing us one of the phattest beats in years.  It's the track that got me hooked on Masta Killa (who brings the second/final verse) and The Resident Patient in general.  Surprising no one, INS opens his verse with some real thunder:  "It's the sound of the slums, drama with drums / You pop shots with the corks cause problems for some / Got the whole city up, float with the semi tuck / Roamin' outta zone and I'm known in the gritty cuts."

After the incredibly cinematic opener, The Resident Patient settles into a darker street sound a la its predecessor, The Movement.  "C.R.E.E.P.S." features some genuine vocal growling on the hook ("Don't go to sleep, there go the C.R.E.E.P.S.") before "Get Ya Weight Up" bounces and pops with the energy we'd expect from a Deck-produced, Deck-performed track.

By the time "It's Not a Game" appears, Deck has already name-checked his group Housegang at least twice and they finally get their voices heard on this track.  Housegang has had several rotating members (only releasing one album in 2004), but here they include Carlton Fisk, La Banga, Donny Cash and Paulie Caskets.  La Banga died in 2008, but Donny Cash is the standout emcee on this track.  He sticks with one rhyme his entire verse, utilizing two soft A's followed by two soft I's approximately 15 times in lines like "They never catch Cash flippin' or catch Cash diggin' / In his stash for his last while these fag hags listen [...] It's no mag when I let the mack blast hit 'em / Then I'mma make a black bag fit 'em / And casket every cat I catch with it like I bag fast with 'em."

Deck also produces "My Style," which is just an all-around great track.  Full music, tight rhymes.  But historically, one of the most interesting points on Resident Patient is "A Lil' Story," which was thought to be a RZA-produced track.  RZA is even credited in the liner notes with the production, but Deck has since confirmed that Cilvaringz produces.  Cilvaringz is a disciple/student of RZA's, and his sound is fantastic - enough so that it fooled plenty of listeners on "Lil' Story"'s release.  Cilvaringz will likely go down in history as the producer behind Wu-Tang's mysterious upcoming double-album Once Upon a Time in Shaolin, of which only one copy is being made and toured in art museums around the world.

By the way, if Once Upon a Time in Shaolin makes it to the Smithsonian in D.C., I promise a review on the Map of Shaolin.

As far as the album's second half goes, more solid tracks follow the exceptional "A Lil' Story," including "Get Down wit Me," the freestyle "Grits" and "Handle That" (which features U-God).  "I.O.U." and "Do My Thang" are fine, but don't quite get the blood pumping like some of the others.  Fortunately, the final three tracks (including "Handle That" and the bonus tracks "Animal Rights" and "H.G. is my Life") end the record on a pretty high note, all things considered.  It's not a bad second half by any means, but I think the most standout tracks on the record end after "Get Down wit Me."

Legacy:  For my money, The Resident Patient is a great third effort by Inspectah Deck.  Like The Movement, it aims for credibility and a street sound instead of cashing in for mainstream appeal, even keeping the Wu-Tang guest spots to a minimum once again (two verses here, zero on The Movement).  Since the second half is a bit bogged down by some so-so tracks, it doesn't result in as tight a record as Deck's previous work, but this is still an underrated album.  I don't grade my reviews, but I feel like The Resident Patient would earn about an 8.5 next to The Movement's 9.5.  In the larger scheme of things, it also comes chronologically right before Masta Killa's sophomore release Made in Brooklyn and Method Man's 4:21: The Day After.  Interesting times for the Wu, with a lot of albums straddling the line between good and great while leaving virtually all their duds behind.

Recommended Tracks:  Sound of the Slums, Get Ya Weight Up, My Style, A Lil' Story.