Nine years after releasing his latest solo record, Method Man decides to go back to releasing something: the production is made by 4th Disciple, Mathematics and a dozen amateurs and is mainly managed by Pascal Zumaque, while in rapping, he calls Raekwon, Inspectah Deck and Masta Killa of the Wu-Tang Clan, the affiliates Streetlife, Redman, Killa Sin, and iNTeLL and many Wu-external rappers, including Hanz On, main guest of the album.
Since the introduction, Method Man proves to be short of ideas, especially good ideas: the album is entirely based on the cult TV series "Breaking Bad" and features several skits from the series scattered throughout the record. Cee the Architek produces the title track: tight and thin drum, annoying sample, ridiculous boom bap. Method Man has a good flow, then Hanz On performs in a generic way, closes Street Life with a more effective technique. The song represents the rest of the tape well, thematically linked to drugs, battle rap, violence and braggadocio, musically difficult to overcome. "Straight Gutta" should be an easy banger: acceptable rhythm created by Ron Browz, heavy and tight drum, decent chopped and looped male soul sample, Streetlife worthily delivers his bars with an inspired style, then there's Hanz On, which isn't on the same level as the others. Redman disappoints between hook and verse, it closes Meth.
Level 13 is the beatmaker of the next cut. He makes a cheap boom bap, poor drum, haunting and irritating sample in its mediocrity, hook of Eazy Get Rite, generic delivery of Hanz On, then Method Man turns on the track, and Streetlife closes it: the latter is simply spitting out words at random, but for some reason, I don't feel like condemning him. "50 Shots" is a kind of posse track: production made by Pascal Zumaque & Don't Panic Ent, for a choice clearly intended for the club, hook by Method Man and Mack Wilds (who you should already know for his acting skills), Johnny Blaze delivers his verse, then Cory Gunz slices the song with one of the best performances on the tape. "The Pledge" is a short cut that features Streetlife exclusively, with single verse, and Hanz On in the outro, on an essential production with downtempo drum made by Mathematics. At this point, Streetlife performed on more tracks than the author of the album, before disappearing over the belly of the record and returning to making cuts towards the end of it.
It follows a solo piece of Method Man, it's a more unique than rare event here, in fact, it's the only one of the edition: Mathematics' wacky and forgettable beat, with messy drum machine and random sounds to support Meth's syncopated bars, clearly not at his best ever. Pascal Zumaque and Don't Panic Ent provide the rhythm of choice number eight: on a cheap sound carpet, Chedda Bang and Hanz On perform the hook, while the verses are reserved for Blaze and Uncle Murda, who closes the tune. Notably, Uncle Murda stands out with one of the best performances of the entire record: he brings out the most Wu-Tang stanza of the album with a brilliant, energetic and hardcore execution, great, brilliant work. He's one of the few that truly deserves his spot on an official Wu-Tang Clan album. In "Soundcheck" I didn't understand what happened behind the keyboards: Pascal Zumaque and Code Red combine a galactic disaster, a mess of hardly quantifiable dimensions. The drum went crazy, completely lost its mind and stabbed all the other elements of the rhythm, while there are random sounds going crazy all over the track. Right now, I'm looking for who did the mix to blame someone, but no one seems to have been credited with mixing in this whole project. Carlton Fisk's thug-mafia verse isn't evil and I believe it's on a higher level than the others in this tape, but over this suffocating noise, he's incomprehensible.
At this point, Hanz On also leaves room for his Method Man's other guests. The same amateurs who made the previous beat produce "Water", where they show they can also do ballads in addition to annoying random noise: it's a pity not to have been able to make a hip-hop rhythm on a hip-hop album. On a Wu-Tang Clan album. Meth also flows well on the ballad rhythms, but Chedda Bang adds nothing to the song. Track number eleven is "Lifestyles": Clifford Smith doesn't perform, leaving room for his nephews, Eazy Get Ride, Cardi and Freaky Marciano, who spit some generic bars on a Zumaque rhythm that will not go down in history. The tracklist says "The Purple Tape" is a must-listen highlight: Method Man, Raekwon and Inspectah Deck on a decent boom bap beat made by J57. It's one of the two Wu-Tang tracks on the tape, and it's a pleasant listening: slow heavy drum, annoying sample, slow and flowing delivery by Meth, then the Chef arrives with a clean, smooth, fantastic style, while Rollie Fingerz closes on the third verse with a polished, confident, smoothness rapping.
At track number thirteen comes what is probably the best beat on the album, thanks to 4th Disciple. Boom bap with slow pounding drum, and glossy eclectic piano sample: iNTeLL attacks this rhythm as soon as possible and destroys the cut with an energetic, hardcore, flowing, dope, excellent delivery style, to prove himself up to the Wu-Tang. The task isn't easy, but Meth arrives with a calm, flowing rap and allows him to take the track, the calm Masta Killa and the confident Streetlife don't catch up with him. The production seems to have come from another dimension compared to everything else, taken out by a champion. Immediately after, the disc dives into the mud: Daez's beat isn't evil or bad, but it certainly is bland and very poor. Low midtempo drum, ridiculous tight looped sample that can only sound annoying, weighted delivery by Johnny Blaze, then space for five other different performers. Kash Verrazano probably stands out most of all, in a negative way: his text is more generic and poorly thought out in a tape that is weak from a lyrical point of view, technically, he struggles, and metrically, he finds the drum only by chance, towards the end.
Carlton Fisk manages to get an accessible rhythm where he can express himself at his best, here he's committed and you can feel it, however, his performance sounds a little blander than his real potential and doesn't fully convince. After five cuts, the tape welcomes the return of Hanz On, after that of Streetlife in the previous track: the guy is still your generic MC, but at least he's not the worst here, maybe. Streetlife comes in the fifth verse and spits bars with an uncertain flow, stumbles, it's one of his fewer convincing performances on a record where he's a solid shoulder for the lead rapper so far. Finally, the cut is closed by the sixth rapper, Killa Sin: as of this writing, March 2021, this is the rapper's last appearance on an official studio album. The Killarmy rapper comes in with a perfect attack and kills everyone who performed before and after him on the album, delivering his bars with smoothness, hardcore, fluid, fantastic flow, brings out the best performance on the record.
Zumaque is clearly incapable of creating hip-hop rhythms: his attempt at track fifteen is embarrassing, the performers zombying throughout the song and it seems they've lost the will to live. "Another Winter" boasts a competent rhythm, made by 4th Disciple: the drum machine finally beats as if it were a drum machine, Streetlife seems to have regained some energy, Carlton Fisk regains form and energy with an honest verse, it closes Method Man with a good energetic flowing rapping. The fact that this cut features four consecutive hooks from three different performers, sounds whimsical to say the least. Daez makes a poor music carpet for "Rain All Day", on which Johnny Blaze, Hanz On and Dro Pesci spit out bars for three minutes. Hanz On here performs hardcore, he seems good, but it's exceeded by the hardcore and rough style of Dro Pesci. Zarko Krstic is credited with producing the latest joint, along with Zumaque: decent rhythm, but I wouldn't say good, poor drum, generic samples, decent delivery from the performers, it closes Hue Hef with a technique to improve, a little too cumbersome, uncertain and not very confident. The final outro is the curtain of the project.
Much longer and much worse than what I remembered at first listening, where it seemed like a competent record. Unfortunately, it isn't. The production is carried out by a dozen different people: Mathematics and 4th Disciple are the closest to the Wu-Tang Clan, part of the «Wu-Elements» production team, and are the only ones who prove to be professionals in building rhythms. 4th Disciple stands out effortlessly over everyone, while Mathematics is just honest. The others leave a lot to be desired and come up with shoddy and incredibly poor beats: Pascal Zumaque is credited on seven tracks as a producer and co-producer and each of his songs is musically flawed and very weak. It's not a name I'd like to see again on a Wu-Tang album. A similar argument can be made with Don't Panic Ent, Code Red and Daez, with two beats each. Cee the Architek, Ron Browz, Level 13 and Zarko Krstic just don't make their best productions, while J57 is lucky enough to find himself in a track with the rapping of Raekwon and Inspectah Deck, which is why his soundscape takes a back seat, nevertheless, he too hasn't found a good rhythm to place on a Wu-Tang album. The production is deeply underwhelming, and overall, consistently bad, with rare flashes of quality.
Lyrically, there's little to say. The record revolves around "Breaking Bad": drugs, violence, weapons, sex, hardcore. Generic themes with splashes of random misogyny, which lower the already low level of effort: all these topics soon become secondary to the braggadocio and the battle raps with which the performers fill these 19 tracks and 57 minutes of listening. With such a large amount of gangsta themes, you might think you're looking at a gangsta album, it'd be obvious, but it's not like that: all through listening, it never gives you gangsta vibes, it's more of a thug album, subdued, there are street rap and g-situations, but they're functional to the braggadocio and to the survival in the neighborhoods, with a lot of representation of Shaolin Land. The author promotes it with a record made on Staten Island, from Staten Island, for Staten Island. While Method Man manages to retain acceptable delivery and almost always discreet if not good lyricism, the other MCs carry generic, hollow, bland, directionless bars, performing random lyrics with a flat rapping style. Even when the bars are decent, the interpretation is poor.
Due to the abundant space given by the Wu-Tang Clan MC to the guests, the project, released as an official studio album, immediately takes the contours of the third-series mixtape. Method Man brings a bit of Wu-Tang to his record, with collaborations from Raekwon, Inspectah Deck and Masta Killa, nevertheless, the record represents a crystal clear and unrepeatable showcase for some of his closest friends, neighbors and relatives: Hanz On, Streetlife, Redman, Eazy Get Rite, Mack Wilds, Cory Gunz, Uncle Murda, Chedda Bang, Carlton Fisk, Cardi, Freaky Marciano, iNTeLL, Kash Verrazano, Killa Sin, Donny Cacsh, Dro Pesci and Hue Hef. Most of these guys come from the back streets of Staten Island: Hanz On appears ten times in seventeen cuts, Streetlife reaches eight appearances, Carlton Fisk stops at three, basically the tape it's yours. Meth sounds like an external guest in his own effort and is present for a third of the time, while the other guys get excessive minutes and, unintentionally, weaken the product with forgettable performance. The rappers of the Wu-Tang Clan offer great moments, Killa Sin deserves a separate paragraph, iNTeLL inflames his cut and Streetlife has some good flashes, while among the best external guests, Cory Gunz and Uncle Murda stand out.
Distributed by Tommy Boy and Hanz On Music, the album achieves considerable commercial success: it stops in the top 60 of the Billboard 200, climbing the other charts until it reaches the top five both among independent records and in the rap chart, selling well all over the world. Criticism is divided, and it cannot be otherwise: it's an exhausting and very long commercial tape, carefree and effortless, performed on autopilot, with cuts ranging from generic to bad, ridiculous production and often weak rapping. It's lacking in originality, really disappointing, and it's close to being the worst thing the Wu-Tang Clan rapper has ever accomplished in his career. Among the few things to save in the tape, there's the cover, it has a bright color, it's good, even if that "M" it's not very clear. Last note, on Killa Sin: if this is a Staten Island album, the guy has once again proved that he's the best in the neighborhood.
Highlights: "The Purple Tape", "Intelligent Meth".
Rating: 4.7/10.
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