Compared to all the other mixtapes released over the years by rapper Chef Raekwon, this one hits differently. There's a welcome and massive presence of Wu-Tang: Ghostface Killah is the main guest on the tape, with seven appearances, covering half the album. In addition to him, Inspectah Deck, Method Man, GZA, U-God, Cappadonna, Trife Diesel of Theodore Unit, Raekwon's group American Cream Team, and external guests Big Pun, Fat Joe, Armageddon, Biggie Smalls and Nas. The tape is curated exclusively by Memory Man: this mixtape is yet another and fortunately last in view of the upcoming release of "Only Built 4 Cuban Linx... Pt II", which has been eagerly awaited ever since Lex Diamonds first announced it at the release of "Immobilarity".
You can savor the official nature of this project from the very first moments, you immediately understand that it's a work of Raekwon aka Lou Diamonds: the intro samples a skit from "The Godfather: Part II" (1974). The film is important. For us. It's an all-time favorite of the MC, but you probably already know that. You understand, if you've listened to at least a couple of tracks from either "Only Built", it doesn't matter which one. The movie is important, but the scene that's shot in the intro is even more important: Michael has just witnessed the martyrdom of a guerrilla and thinks the rioters can win, unlike his friend-enemy Hyman Roth, who hosts him together with numerous businessmen in his residence in Havana and, instead, he's confident that Batista can stay in government for decades and continue to provide them with the protection and full legitimacy they sought at home and never had. Hence the title of this mixtape. For the record, the guerrillas will win what will go down in history as the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro will unseat Batista in power, which you can also see in Francis Ford Coppola's film.
The album is a kind of DJ Mathematics artwork. Cutting and sewing extracts of verses, skits, samples, and putting them on top of a couple of beats, is something that pretty much everyone can do. What the producer affiliated with the Wu-Tang Clan does here, however, is on a completely different level than the average. His production is melodic, pleasant, accessible, he chooses boom bap rhythms that are at the same time modern and maintain a typical mid-nineties mood, thanks to a dirty, dusty, thin and dry drums and melodic, dark, jazzy samples. Memory Man does justice to Shallah Raekwon's third album, "The Lex Diamond Story" (2003), by remixing several tracks in which he creates better beats to support the rapper's delivery. On that album, the MC's performance is overshadowed by a sloppy, flat and forgettable production, while here you can enjoy his rap.
"King of Kings" becomes "All That Money Is Us", "Smith Bros." changes into "Better Shoot Something", "Clientele Kidd" turns into "Iron Chef": originally, they are generic or bad songs, among the least successful of that LP, Memory Man makes them masterpieces, in which the rap is flawless, silky, dirty, flowing, hardcore, dope. "Iron Chef" has epic vibes and is complemented by a hardcore verse from Inspectah Deck, "All That Money Is Us" has a good dark mood and the remix improves it sounds to be "Better Shoot Something", where the producer provides some somber strings that they are let to breathe, creating a beautiful rhythm. The tape is also composed of remixes of previous mixtapes by Raekwon ("Curiosity" is "Curious", by "Heroin Only", "A Wise Man" is "Enemy", by "Vatican 3"), maybe a couple of unpublished, hidden pearls and from songs that you have already heard elsewhere.
"Run Away" is an extraordinary posse with the best MCs of the Wu-Tang Clan. The opening section is the remix of AZ's "New York": dirty, dusty, uptempo, perfect drum, wonderful strings, mafia mood. Raekwon & Ghostface Killah both kill the track with a spectacular delivery. Inspectah Deck flows confident, hardcore, crisp, his verse is from DJ Dutchmaster's "The Raw", excellent. Method Man enters his effortless, slow, inspired, dope flow style from "N 2 Gether Now" by Limp Bizkit, then the mega posse is closed by GZA: slow, punctual, smoothness, hardcore, the verse of him was hard to recover. It's a hidden gem, solo track ("When the Fat Lady Sings") from the Soul Assassins album: the work of Memory Man is so good that at the first listen you may not even notice that it cuts the ending of the first verse and combines it with its second, the style of GZA fits perfectly to the rhythm.
"Cipher Born" is a remix of "My Piano" with a good rhythm that collides two dissonant piano scales and is coupled with a fresh U-God verse from his latest album. Track number six features an interesting quick exchange between Raekwon, Polite & Chip Banks of American Cream Team, and Ghostface, so, the track is closed by Trife and the last verse of Killa Sin, which is excellent and for some reason, he's not accredited. "Slang Copulation" boasts an ethereal female sample in the background, a lean dry midtempo drum, great boom bap: the opening section of the track is taken from Fat Joe's "John Blaze", and is concluded by the hit "Slang Editorial" in which Cappadonna flies off smoothness with a dope flow, and the last verse of Ghostface Killah, taken from "Holla". Again, as in the GZA verse, Memory Man links the beginning of Tony Starks' first verse with the end of the second.
"We Gettin' Knots" is a hidden gem, Memory Man remixes "Firewater" from the "Relativity Urban Assault" compilation, originally, the song is the b-side of Fat Joe's hit "Envy". There are Joey Crakk, Lex Diamonds, Big Punisher and Armageddon in this posse, the producer brings out an alienating boom bap with a good downtempo drum and dark distorted samples, sci-fi vibes. Raekwon's rap is amazing, then Fat Joe is at his best, hardcore, confident, energetic, he rips the cut. Armageddon boasts a slow, raw, energetic style, it closes Big Punisher that annihilates the song with an ultra-fast, clear, dope rap. "Fearless Ninjas" is a back and forth between Lex Diamonds & Tony Starks on a light beat, so, "The All-Time Lineup" is the latest posse on the tape: American Cream Team, Raekwon, Inspectah Deck and Method Man on an uptempo boom bap, very robust track, even if not at the level of the best.
Last but not least, "Live Kid". What is this cut? There are Biggie, Ghostface and Raekwon, so, I think it could be yet another re-release of "Three Bricks". And it is. I like "Three Bricks". It's one of the few Cool & Dre and Diddy beats that I can accept, it's a great beat. The performers are three of the best to come out of the mid-nineties New York scene, possibly, three of the best ever. Fine, beyond the feud and the peace that came a day or two before Wallace's death. I don't know what curse there's around this song, which doesn't allow any producer, no matter how good he may be, to remix the song without finding a truly excellent rhythm that fits both the verse of Biggie Smalls and that of the Wu-Tang MCs. Memory Man fails here and its remix sounds less good than the original. The tape is closed by a second skit from "The Godfather 2", with Roth again talking to Michael and his friends, in the same scene as the intro.
With 15 tracks and 48 minutes of listening, the mixtape maintains a remarkable replay value and is the best mixtape ever made by Raekwon. The contribution of the Wu-Tang is sensational and is combined with the rapping of some of the best performers of the period in New York. The tape is entirely New York and is an interesting prelude to "Only Built 2", there are several excellent tracks, Memory Man did a commendable job. 8/10.
No comments:
Post a Comment