When Priority was definitively absorbed by EMI via Capitol Records in 2004, U-God was left unlabeled and he signed with Free Agency Recordings, a minor label that releases Allfrumtha i, a unknown Californian hip-hop group that is present in this effort with Binky in production (as The Produkt, with DonDoe), Squeak Ru, and affiliates Boo Kapone and Ebony Burke in guest roles. Second studio album for U-God, which is also known under the moniker UGodz-Illa around this time: this record comes from a feud not fully clarified with The RZA, dating back to 2004, and in fact, if you exclude a 4th Disciple (Killarmy) rhythm, in these 50 minutes there's nothing of Wu-Tang. Neither on the production side, with rhythms created by DJ Homicide, Leatha Face, Mark Baiardi and the duo The Produkt, nor on the lyrical side, with practically unknown guests among which MC Eiht stands out.
DJ Homicide sets the beat for the intro, a heavy and quick, really bad jazzy boom bap, U-God delivers uninspired, before the first track: disturbing, quick, controversial jazzy boom bap, by DJ Homicide, female rnb sample looped and chopped on the hook, pounding, hard and bad drum machine, U-God quickly delivers along with the tape's first guest, his friend Leatha Face. "Hit 'Em Up, Roll Out" boasts an almost decent, slower alternate jazzy rhythm, realized again by DJ Homicide, skinny, pounding and slow drum machine, fast delivery by the rapper, aided again by Leatha Face. The fourth track is one of the best of the edition: West Coast rhythm, created by The Produkt, bouncy beat, cheap, lean and syncopated drum machine, bad vibes, weak hook, amateur delivery of everyone, except Eiht, who's laid-back and gangsta here, is the one who seems closest to Wu-Tang in the whole record. Skit, then the sixth track boasts the latest rhythm produced by DJ Homicide, boom bap alternative, unsuccessful attempt to rock rhythm, bad samples, delivery without energy and personality of U-God, he struggles a lot on the first solo cut after two skits and three collaborative songs. From "Kick Azz", the level of the record, already low, starts to drop considerably, with one of the worst songs: simplistic, poor, weak and hopping production made by The Produkt, it's a bad test for U-God, he doesn't seems to have no idea how to deliver on this rubbish, which fortunately is short.
In "You Don't Want to Dance", Mike Baiardi provides a cheap and bouncy alternative soundscape, but I don't know what Golden Arms is trying to do, sung hook? Oh man, it's an absurd attempt, unlike six years ago, U-God doesn't seem able to hold up the whole album, and there's still half an album ahead. Baiardi competes as the worst beatmaker of the edition also thanks to the next song: poor and bouncy boom bap, bad and amateur beat, the song is difficult to digest also due to U-God's voice, monotonous, banal and boring. Thanks to 4th Disciple comes the best tracks of the project: alternative lo-fi boom bap, hook reinforced by the soulful voice of Ebony Burke and the reference to the Temptations classic "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone", U-God delivers subdued and average, with a weak flow, but good personal lyrics, better than the rest of the project, in the only Wu-song of the entire disc. Ebony Burke gives some solidity to the record with a good rnb-soul hook, killing "Stop (Carry On)" with a performance that's better by far than all the others, UGodz-Illa doesn't take advantage of a very good forerunner, he delivers better than usual on this street cut on an acceptable jazzy boom bap by Baiardi, but he's not at his best.
"Bump" is bad, cheap and badly synthesized rhythm by Leatha Face, heavy and ridiculous sung hook, wacky, horrible crunk attempt. After the last skit, Leatha Fase also produces "Drugs": boom bap jazzy, tense, gloomy, well done, it looks like a third-level production taken from a minor underground album of the mafioso rap subgenre, monotonous delivery of the rapper, bad half-singing functional hook that ruins the whole piece. Leatha Face offers a simplistic, poor and very heavy boom bap for track fifteen, Lucky Hands is completely unfit; nonsense confused bridge in the middle of his bars, bad hook. Closes the filler "Jenny", love song produced by Leatha Face, in which U-God apologizes to a certain Jenny, singing the whole song: he probably doesn't care about the listener, because he can't sing and the whole song is horrible, musically and lyrically. On the last verse, the rhythm is distorted in a particularly annoying way, a pretty typical conclusion for an incredibly disastrous album.
Everything is very amateur in these 50 minutes and 16 tracks (3 skits): the lyrics are ridiculously bad and weak, while trying to put disparate arguments on the table, his bars range from dull gangsta to name-dropping materialism and are always forgettable, there is no quality in his lyricism or even in his stanzas. From a technical point of view, the boy proves to be little more than an amateur and has nothing to do with the rest of the Wu-Tang Clan, his lyrical skills in comparison to all the other guys are markedly limited and the choice to distance himself not only from RZA, but from everyone, has definitely not rewarded him. The rapper disappoints so much: he has a weak and uncertain flow, he takes several missteps, he stumbles often while trying to be smooth, goes fast, then backs up, goes slow, but his rhymes are always monotonous and never attract the attention of the listener. The production isn't even the typical copy of the RZA rhythms you can expect on a Killa Beez album, is quite another thing: the beats are sometimes decent, but much more often they're bad, they're made by amateurs for amateurs, the result cannot be professional. The mixing, split between Cue and Mike Baiardi, practically doesn't exist. These dudes try commercial pop, crunk, rock, rnb and club dance, always failing.
Released as a kind of bad mixtape under a minor label and completely detached from the Wu-Tang world, the album sells just over 5.000 physical copies and is disowned by the same author, who considers it in the same way as an unrecognized son: and the reason it's soon said, the product is easily one of the worst solo albums ever released by a member of the Wu-Tang Clan.
Rating: 2/10.
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