Fourth solo studio album for U-God, Wu-Tang Clan rapper, released four years after the last record, during the fifth wave of Wu releases. Most of the beats are made by DJ Homocide, the rest of the production is provided by RZA, with three rhythms, Leaf Dog, Steve Reaves, Teddy Powell each with two beats, J Serve, J Reynoso Jr. and Blastah Beatz with one rhythm each. The Wu-Tang Clan supports the project: in addition to the rhythms of RZA, from the lyrical point of view, U-God is helped by GZA, Method Man, Inspectah Deck and the affiliate Scotty Wotty, while Styles P of LOX, Elzhi of Slum Village and Kool Keith of Ultramagnetic MC's, are guests outside the Wu-Tang.
After a Vivian Scarlett skit, the title track is the first real song: alternative jazzy boom bap made by Leaf Dog, good smooth and hardcore delivery of U-God, functional hook, short jazzy bridges during his final verse. Jackspot Scotty Wotty opens "Heads Up" with a smooth and punctual delivery on DJ Homocide's synthesized jazzy rhythm: U-God performs well, then GZA kills the cut. After another skit, Scotty Wotty is the first MC to spit on "Fire" too: Steve Reaves' bad beat, annoying and simplistic, Wu-Tang Clan affiliate rapper Jackpot Scotty Wotty is still punctual and effective even such a bad beat, decent U-God, closes Method Man with good style. Leaf Dog packs a great light jazzy boom bap rhythm for "Fame", which features a smooth delivery of Styles P, dope flow, fine U-God, but not as good as LOX rapper.
The middle section of the album is entirely solo and is easily the weakest section of the edition. DJ Homocide provides a tight and simplistic minimal rhythm for the seventh track, then Teddy Powell creates a mediocre panorama for the next track, not even the typical tightly looped female soul sample in the background can elevate the quality of the track. Skit, then again DJ Homocide: "Stars" features minimal simplistic production and deep synths in the background, U-God has good flow, but he can't do the miracles the track asks of him. Luckily J Serbe and J Reynoso Jr. bring out a better sound carpet in "Golden Arms", simple rhythm, bridge synthesized on the hook, the boom bap is good enough to hold up the bars pulled out by Wu-Tang MC.
"Room Keep Spinning" is the first track produced by RZA: decent jazzy rhythm, MC-inspired delivery, he starts to see the light at the end of this particularly somber section. DJ Homocide is called to make the beat of "Zilla", he's not his best nor his worst, Lucky Handz still sounds decent on these generic rhythms. DJ Homocide has been doing bad beats here, his worst is yet to come, but he hasn't done any real damage yet. Unlike RZA which, despite being on his second beat, places a ballad for "Get Mine": U-God sings the whole song. I didn't believe my own notes of, I don't remember how many years ago, when I wrote that the rapper delivers singing the whole track, so I went to listen to it again now, and the guy actually sings over a ballad beat realized by RZA.
The end of this somewhat lackluster midsection is a relief. The first song of the final part is "Mt. Everest": Blastah Beatz's simple and essential rhythm, on this boom bap with a few dark piano keys, Inspectah Deck decides to rip the track right away with a smooth dope delivery. Then Elzhi, clean, sharp, spectacular, then closes U-God, again inferior to the guests. Track number sixteen is the worst produced by DJ Homocide: simple rhythm, U-God still sings, limiting himself to the hook, luckily. Teddy Powell hasn't finished surprising behind the keyboards and for the song with Kool Keith he places a musical carpet that seems to have been extracted from a video game: on this confusing beat, U-God sounds bad, Kool Keith sounds worse. "Be Right There" still bears The RZA signature, but Bobby Digital provides another annoying beat, with overly tight synths in the background that don't facilitate U-God's rough delivery style. It closes an average choice produced by Steve Reaves.
Released by Soul Temple, the LP gained critical attention, never predictable for a Wu-Tang Clan solo album published after 2007, and attention from the public, reaching the top 60 among hip-hop records. Consisting of 19 tracks for a total of just under 50 minutes, the album is a mix of good tracks, bad tracks, useless skits and lots of generic choices: U-God's lyricism centers on braggadocio and battle rap, in essence, he doesn't say anything, but he does it with a pleasantly confident style. Production should be much better than it actually is: most beats fall flat due to amateurs behind keyboards, nevertheless, when the only one who should be the real pro, The RZA, comes along, things get even worse: two of his three beats are among the worst of the edition. Guests provide the best moments of the edition, always overshadowing the lead rapper (except Kool Keith), which is why the midsection suffers so much from solo songs with generic lyricism and stammering rhythms: Styles P, Elzhi and the MCs of the Wu-Tang Clan are strong, in particular Jackpot Scotty Wotty deserves an honorable mention, which shows himself on the level of GZA and Meth in the two tracks in which he's present. I only recommend listening to the following tracks for Wu-Tang fans.
Rating: 6/10.
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