Cappadonna — The Pilgrimage

After the critical failures of the previous two efforts, Cappadonna releases his sixth studio album. People are just starting to get used to the fact that yes, since 2007 this guy is the 10th official member of the Wu-Tang Clan. Despite this, perhaps due to the burden of responsibility for being an official member, Darryl Hill has posted material that's only good for the landfill, since then. The ransom comes here.

The intro has a heavy, lean and pounding boom bap, Cappadonna delivers better than usual and throws himself into this new LP. It follows "Dart Imports", good, dusty, dirty, NY jazzy boom bap, with drum midtempo and an inspired delivery of Cappa, who on this disk seems to be lively and fit as in the beginning. Great samples, good song. The third one is "Energy Guard": after a skit, it's blessed with a dirty and dusty beat, with regular and pounding drum machine, and good sample, simple hook, smooth delivery of the rapper, at home here. A short skit also opens the following track, the first with guests: Matlock and Killa Black spit bars with raw, smooth and effective flows, together with Cappadonna, on a jazzy boom bap with dark string samples, with a lean eclectic drum, and in a hook-free choice. A female soul sample opens "Good Wine": «Wu-Tang is for the kids» announces Cappadonna taking up the mythical reference of the late Ol' Dirty Bastard at the lost '98 Grammys. Simple and gaunt, dirty and raw jazzy boom bap, made by beatmaker Snipes, which recalls the sound of RZA in a certain way: tight soul sample, Chedda Bang on delivery, smooth, fast, clean, Cappadonna is good too.

"Put God First" is a gift from Blaze, unknown producer who brings out the best beat of the tape: wonderful jazzy sample of JJ Band's "Changing Faces", heavy boom bap, skinny, lively and energetic drum machine, rhythm left to breathe a few seconds, then Solomon Childs in the first verse, rough, quick, dope; simple and effective hook, then the rhythmic beat speeds up the smooth delivery of Cappadonna, who can take his time to bring out a smooth verse that finds no friction; Inspectah Deck closes with a raw, technical, fast, smooth, dope flow. It's one of his best cuts ever. "Hold On", again produced by Blaze, at the second and final beat, features a good soulful female sample looped in the background, raw and dirty boom bap, lean and slow drum, pounding, smooth delivery of Cappadonna returning to a solo track after three collaborative ones. The eighth song boasts the second featuring of Rebel I/N/S: skit, skinny syncopated drum machine, boom bap lo-fi, tight looped guitar riff, rhythm left to breathe, then female soulful sample, and finally third definitive sample, cheap and almost annoying. The rhythm is alternative, it looks like a bad copy of the early and mid-2000s Neptunes for Roc-A-Fella's commercial albums, and, at the time, they didn't make great rhythms: the sound is cumbersome, heavy and annoying; both spit out their bars, but just before they performed much better on a jazzy beat. "For You" sees the return of Killa Black as a guest on a raw and dusty jazzy rhythm, with a frantic and tight drum, accompanied by a looped rnb sample in the background: Cappadonna boasts a good energetic flow, while the bars of Killa Black are practically inaudible, something went wrong with the mix of this track.

A boom bap follows with electric guitar riffs, electric piano keys, slow, eclectic and skinny drum, bouncy alternative rhythm, the Wu-Tang MC spits bars along with Chedda Beng, delivering a powerful hardcore third verse even overbeat. "Can't Believe It's Him" ​​has a good sample from Little Richard's "The Rill Thing" which, together with dark samples and a lean and tight drum, composes a good very dark jazzy boom bap, with a MoobDeepian flavor, light rhythm, Cappa delivers calm, clean, flowing; simple hook, second verse, then some scratches accompany the listener up to the skit that closes the song. Another skit is the prelude to the last high point of the record, "Cuban Link Kings": sample by Aretha Franklin from "Young, Gifted and Black", great, dirty and dusty jazzy boom bap provided by Phantom of the Beats (UMC's), NY-inspired, with skinny, tight and pounding drum machine, smooth and clean delivery of Cappadonna, excellent braggadocio song.

"Trials & Tribulations" is the last song of this LP. Don Cappachino makes history, again, it's extraordinary. There will be no other rappers like him. The song has a jazzy boom bap composed by another classic sample, "Anna" by Lucio Battisti. Sì, CAPPADONNA campiona LUCIO BATTISTI. Cappadonna può tutto. Idolo. If you understand the importance of an artist like Battisti and the power of an iconic song like "Anna", both collide with what Cappadonna is and has represented throughout his career. How is it possible that a Song by Battisti is in such an album? This is what the guys are also wondering in the comments below the video of "Trials & Tribulations". It's beautiful. Surely Cappadonna doesn't know who Battisti is and he's simply paying homage to the intro of "Jewelz" from the O.C. album (1997), nevertheless, the fact that in an album like this, while good by his standards, there's an excerpt (even a short one and not exactly immediate to grasp, if you listen to the track) of such high quality in the project of a rapper who has never made quality a priority in his music, manages to give you mixed feelings, for example I am pleasantly surprised, grateful and at the same time irritated by the fact that Battisti is featured on a Cappadonna album. Excellent rhythm realized by Matlock, vibrant and skeletal drum, smooth delivery of Cappadonna, continues Killa Black on the same line, calm, raw, simple style and effective, closes the rapper Elite, helped by the splendid beat, with distant soul samples in the background, not rewarded by the mix.

46-minute album, 13 songs, all quite short. Six guests, only one is an official member of the Wu-Tang Clan, Inspectah Deck, then there's a Killa Bee affiliate, Somolon Childs, and four other performers who we can define as Cappadonna's friends, although Killa Black has performed his lyrics in an interesting way. The air you breathe here smells of payback, smells of revenge, against The RZA: Inspectah Deck was one of the last to have his debut, even Cappadonna released the first album before him, after the producer he had drunk an album made four years earlier. Here, what we can now define as former Theodore Unit, decides to reward one of the last to come out of the poverty of the ghetto along with him, with two guest appearances, one of which together with the other Theodore Unit Solomon Childs, and a beat, for "Honey's Look Good"; this last choice is questionable, because the rhythm that Deck chooses for the track is the worst of the whole record, the boy doesn't seem to have an ear for rhythms.

The album is one of his most personal, perhaps the most personal, almost entirely produced by Cappadonna himself, leaving a beat to Snipes, Inspectah Deck, Matlock, Phantom of the Beats and two to Blaze, the best producer of the record with two good rhythms out of two: Hill manages to create a better soundscape than what RZA – which in the late nineties didn't intend to produce his entire album nor Deck's "new" album, leaving both to others Killa Beez – could have done from 2005 onwards. The production is often dirty and dusty, jazzy, typical of the New York underground circuit, it's extraordinary because it comes from the guy who's almost unanimously considered Wu-Tang's worst rapper and one of the worst overall. And here, he creates something acceptable, from a production point of view. Lyrically, he doesn't change his meter and his lines, always pricking on thug and braggadocio bars, delivered with an energetic, raw, straight, dirty and hardcore style, which he hasn't had in at least a dozen years, since his debut and his bars on the Raekwon and Ghost Face Killer debut albums, when, fresh out of prison, he had to prove that the damn place in the group was his by right, if he hadn't been incarcerated, he had to prove that he was up to all the other members who were already coming and had arrived, while he was just getting started. Produced by independent labels Fat Beats, Soulspazm Records and Chamber Muzik, he finds that energy in his own right here, is easily at his best and, coupled with an underground production hissing Wu in the dark alleys of Staten Island, makes one of the freshest albums in his discography, rightly recognized as his second best behind the unrivaled "The Pillage".

Highlights: "Dart Imports", "Good Wine", "Put God First", "Hold On", "For You", "Can't Believe It's Him", "Cuban Link Kings".

Rating: 7/10.