In the early 2000s, the Wu-Tang Clan has half a dozen platinum records, and every single member has pulled out a classic record: the few who don't, they've "36 Chambers". Cappadonna also has his own. It should all go beautifully, however, it doesn't: outside the four walls of the Brooklyn studio, there are so many problems, especially with law side. To complicate everything, the public part of the figure of Michael "Mike" Caruso emerges forcefully, today manager of Cappadonna and part of the inner circle of the Clan, yesterday drug kingpin in the circle of nightclubs, arrested by the DEA and that, to avoid jail, has sold his club friends and partners. In turn, the former friends have miraculously escaped prison and aren't very happy: Caruso goes around protected day and night by his bodyguards and has antagonized everyone, certainly he can never re-enter the discos that he has cleverly closed off. Caruso grew up on Staten Island along with Cappadonna and also promoted several techno artists in the city, this guy understands that music is changing: he convinces the Wu-affiliate to become his manager and, also blessed by the Ghost Face Killer, he enters the inner circle of the Wu-Tang Clan, coming out of nowhere. Only at the beginning of the 2000s, the supergroup discovers that Caruso is a federal informant, just at the same time that the police are investigating the rap group on illicit affairs related to a weapons deal, focusing their attention in particular on the founder of Wu-Tang, The RZA.
Caruso is fired from his role, and many suspicious glances fall on the figure of Cappadonna, who's now seen less legitimately by the Clan: he's still with Epic / Sony, with whom he has signed a contract for two albums, and is still backed by Ghostface Killah's Razor Sharp. From that point of view, RZA can't do anything, but from a production point of view, the Tito Jackson of Wu-Tang won't have any help. I think "Super Model" was recorded first of the record release, because it has a True Master rhythm (disciple of Rakeem aka Wu-Element), and is actually one of the best beats of the project, it just feels like a scrap from "Supreme Clientele". The remaining rhythms are delivered by Goldfinghaz, at the time part of Wu-Elements, 8-Off aka Agallah, Neonek, Jermaine Dupri and Inspectah Deck.
Yes, it won't be pleasant, you can predict that from the tracklist. If you've listened to Deck's beats on his debut album, you can guess that for another rapper, even if a friend, he won't do better. At rapping, Wu-Tang is only with Raekwon and Ghostface Killah, with whom he shared glory in the past, giving both of them respectively his best-crafted and dingy sexual line of his life in '95, and his best stanza ever, unrepeatable and timeless, with which he proved to be able to keep up with Ghostface in '96, even if only for a few minutes before returning to sit on a bench to gorge on sandwiches, while the pigeons eat the crumbs all around. Then, there are a couple of affiliates, Killah Priest of Sunz of Man, Timbo King of Royal Fam, Crunch Lo of Otherized FAM, Shyheim, Jamie Sommers, and Freemurda of CCF Division (son of Popa Wu), along with several outside guests such as Agallah aka 8-Off, Jermaine Dupri, Da Brat, and the least-knowns Neonek and Culture.
The record is opened by "The Grits", skit, decent and cheap jazzy boom bap of 8-Off by Producer aka Agallah, Cappadonna's sluggish and hardcore delivery. It follows "Super Model", bouncy and slow boom bap, rhythm for the club, decent hardcore delivery of Cappadonna, while Ghostface Killah is better than the other rapper's remaining fifty minutes by reciting four random lines on the hook. The song doesn't spare itself from misogyny, in the only one produced by a Wu-Tang, True Master. "War Rats" is Cap's only solo cut, he has a lot of self-confidence here: aided by a ridiculous hook, he spits three nonsense verses with a slow hardcore style, managing to place homophobic bars against both boys and girls. Neonek's rhythm was almost good, hardcore beat, lean and hard drum, cheap samples. Neonek also produces the following song, a bouncy, annoying, alternative rhythm, with poor random samples and a frantic drum machine: on this confused beat, the Staten Island rapper spits a meaningless verse, to which is added a second one performed by his friend Neonek, who is inspired by him. Killah Priest isn't inspired, however, he still spits out the best verse of the edition: in Cappadonna's opinion, it's not enough to close the song and he still wants to say something with a fourth verse, unable to say anything, as usual.
"Love is the Message" presents the latest Wu-Tang Clan of the rapping edition, Raekwon: poor and cheap jazzy boom bap by Goldfinghaz, which has an actually weak drum, combines decent samples for the attempt straight to the club: Raekwon uninspired delivery, in any case, he has the second verse of the disc, he has more energy than Cappadonna, but not too much energy. Despite two stanzas, the affiliate doesn't allow the Chef to close his track, and he spits out a fourth verse that has the same nonsensical random bars as the previous ones. Jermaine Dupri sets the beat for another commercial track, another hit attempt for the club: cheap, simplistic and annoying boom bap, very close to Dupri's typical southern sound, Cappadonna performs a hook longer than his first verse, then leaves the field to Da Brat for the second stanza, easily better than the main rapper, who goes to close the joint, always meaningless. Track number seven is another hit for the club: alternative boom bap, tight syncopated skinny drum machine, with Jamie Sommers, forgotten affiliate of Wu-Tang: on a bad beat by Goldfinghaz, Cap delivers weakly and unwillingly, realizing a homophobic track. Neonek produces "Big Business", with Crunch of the Wu-affiliated group Otherized FAM and Shyheim: boom bap light, jazzy, dark, decent samples, cheap and tight drum machine, Cappadonna boasts a hardcore and fluid flow. Shyheim, affiliated with Wu-Tang at least as much as Cappa, has a decent flow, goes slow, but doesn't impress on this beat: it almost seems as if he were clocking in, walking in to pretend to work, working listlessly for five minutes and then going out all day to go to the bar. A waste on this track, moreover, Rugged Child himself, may have the second best verse of the record behind Killah Priest and even better than Raekwon (first excerpt), however, he doesn't give up on a homophobic trait that lowers the quality of his stanza, although you may not notice it. I didn't understand what Crunch's role is in this track.
Inspectah Deck creates a bleak, somber, jazzy rhythm for "Revenge", posse with Timbo King of Royal Fam and Freemurda of Cuffie Crime Family: the production is mediocre, lazy, with poor drum, Cappachino in the opening verse, Timbo King & Freemurda are called to restore freshness to the CD with their flow, they're both decent but not very inspired. Then Cappadonna returns to the last verse, after offering a horrible sung hook, no one can finish any of his tracks. On the fourth verse, he brings out what comes close to being his most understandable verse and furthest away from the abstract rap that he has gutted throughout the CD, but which still lacks logical sense. Culture is the guest for intro and outro, in an oriental rhythm by Neonek, with decent samples and very weak drum as usual: I don't know here, I think Lauryn Hill's song was a Cappadonna favorite and he wanted to make a dull, reggae-esque copy of it, spitting out random words related to religious themes. He's yet the latest guy on this record who compares himself to Jay-Z, I think was the trend of the time: you can appreciate the coherence of the Staten Island rapper, in the next record he keeps it so real that he'll go to diss Jay-Z himself and all the Roc-A-Fella. Five senseless minutes follow, there's still Culture and this time a verse is reserved for him on a weak and economic synthesized rhythm.
Cappadonna returns to the bench that I casually mentioned at the beginning, with this record, and from there, he never gets up again for at least ten years. With the release of his second LP, he proves that he's not up to par with all the other members of the supergroup and that he doesn't deserve a legitimate place within it. 50 minutes, 11 songs, little Wu-Tang, little representation. There's a lot of Park Hill, but I don't think that's what Wu fans want to hear on a Wu-Tang record. The production is easily one of the worst of the year: this record keeps giving me a headache due to constant horrible choices behind the keyboards, the drum kills your brain on every track, somehow. RZA is credited with producing and executive producing, but don't be fooled, he's not there. Lyrically, it's one of the worst records of him, it's one of the worst Wu-Tang records ever: lazy, devoid of personality, with an awkward choice of words and a non-logical sequence, he almost delivers an abstract record in an attempt to mix easy braggadocio, thug, gangsta and club dance themes. It's all deplorable: this guy throughout the album says that if you're homosexual you're not keeping it real, but if your manager is a police informant who has spent his life cheating, deceiving and robbing relatives, friends and friends of friends, then you are real. He makes you understand that his human values are like his credibility on the street: they aren't valid, they don't exist. The record is a completely different thing from the debut and goes beyond the classic conception of the sophomore jinx: Cappadonna is completely unable to handle an album on his own and in this effort he has only one solo track, for the rest of the record he's dragged around by the guests. After the first two cuts, the album collapses into a very deep ravine and is a continuous, constant, disappointment. There are no highlights, the tape proves to you firmly that this is the worst rapper of the Clan.
No comments:
Post a Comment