Remedy — Code:Red

After the positive reception of his debut album, the Wu-Tang affiliated rapper Remedy returns with his sophomore album two years later. Meanwhile, he founded his own label Code:Red Entertainment, from which the album title comes and also literally took Cappadonna off the streets and brought him back into the studio to record the Don's new album "The Struggle", also released through Remedy's label and unfortunately one of the worst records ever recorded by a Wu-Tang member. Remedy produces most of his second album, there are also beats from RZA, 4th Disciple, Cilvaringz and scratches from PF Cuttin. The guests are RZA of Wu-Tang Clan, future Theodore Unit member Solomon Childs, Beretta 9, Islord and Shogun Assason of Killarmy, Lounge-Lo of Othorized FAM, Cilvaringz and SweetLeaf.

Legitimized by the Wu, the boy tries again to break down the doors of the underground, knocking very calmly and without obtaining the desired results, again. Almost all of the songs fall on deaf ears. The beats are there, the rapping is there, but nothing sounds noteworthy until "Muslim and a Jew". Here, Remedy tries again with a socio-political track after the success of his best-known song and this time he creates a piece on the Israeli-Palestinian situation in order to bring the two sides closer, with Cilva Ringz and Remedy himself representing them and RZA in the role of mediator. The lead rapper and artist from Dordrecht, Netherlands is clearly inspired on this boom bap with a good sample, robust bass and tough, hard, solid, midtempo drums. The collaborative production between Cilvaringz and Bobby Digital is honest, nonetheless, The Abbot is less inspired than his own performance on Remedy's previous album, although his performance is acceptable and in the end one of the best songs ever in the Remedy catalog comes out.

Immediately afterwards, the boy also released a song dedicated to the September 11 attacks. Despite the efforts of guests Sweetleaf ("Cure for This") and Solomon Childs ("21st Century"), the album doesn't see any other highlights until the author has the brilliant idea of going for a direct cover of a masterpiece track by Redman, also close to Wu-Tang: the tune is "Tonight's Da Night" from "Whut? Thee Album". The beat, unscrupulously credited to Remedy himself, when it's an authentic magic of Erick Sermon and Redman, who take a wonderful loop from a classic, Isaac Hayes' "A Few More Kisses to Go", is sensational, boom bap where for some reason the drum is sparser and weaker than it should be and Remedy isn't Redman, his rap is calm and gentle: despite all the flaws this cover may have and actually has, it's still one of the best tracks in this guy's discography, somehow. In the end of his cover, the boy also manages to complain that his debut album didn't sell enough and make the numbers that Remedy dreamed of doing due to distribution problems, makes you smile because very little of what he proposed in his first album works, not to mention that the cover is ridiculously disgusting.

This album still has some interesting tracks among some rather boring ones. The title track sees the returns of RZA, Solomon Childs and Lounge Lo on the album: the boom bap chosen by Remedy is poor, the sample is fine, but the drum for some reason is still too weak. It doesn't matter, because the author has another highlight on the paper in his pocket, it should be that easy, but instead Steels comes in with another mediocre contribution leaving the field to Wu affiliate Solomon Childs and Cappadonna's younger brother Lounge Lo, former member of Othorized FAM, one of Staten Island's lesser-known hip-hop groups. This track ends up being a barely decent posse track. After another interlocutory cut, "Never Again" arrives, a perennial staple in this guy's records. Another, final, posse follows immediately after: this time Remedy also turns to Killarmy for "Chant the Anthem". On a weak and unscrupulously inoffensive boom bap due to the usual dramatically weak drum and a sample that is simply ok, the main rapper puts Solomon Childs, Lounge Lo and Killarmy on the same track, represented here by Beretta 9, Shogun Assason and Islord. Unfortunately, there's nothing memorable about it, this is your generic Wu-Tang posse. A skit precedes the last song of this Remedy album.

Remedy understands the mistakes of the past and comes back stronger than before, this time asking for help from Wu more forcefully. Clan founder The RZA's contributions double from one on the first album by Remedy to two here, in addition the Abbot brings a beat from Shaolin to share with the new Wu-Tang affiliate Cilvaringz directly from the Netherlands and this boy also stops to lend the author a hand in creating one of his best songs. Solomon Childs, future member of Ghostface Killah's Theodore Unit and historic Wu affiliate, he's present as the main guest of the album with four appearances together with the young unfulfilled promise of rap Lounge Lo, talented emcee who slips out of the alleys of Staten Island and makes his way through the underrated hardcore rap group Othorized Fam, in whose footsteps he left the best performances of his career, to arrive on this album and whose presence here seems to be justified more by the fact that his older brother Cappadonna owed a whole series of favors to Remedy for sleeping in his label's offices and being able to eat decent meals after spending a year living homeless on the streets of Baltimore and he didn't want to take part directly in this thing, more than for any other valid reason.

As with Remedy's previous effort, this one also features a 4th Disciple production, one of the best producers to ever touch a Wu-Tang record, and even in this case the beat sounds exactly like a scrap from a session with Killarmy that the guys didn't want or didn't have the chance to place on one of their records. Everything else doesn't work well and maybe it's no coincidence, because that rest is exclusively Remedy himself which is managed behind the keyboards and in front of the mic and he fails to carve out anything interesting when he has to create a new original cut without the help of established beatmakers, competent lyricists and guests strong enough to carry the track on their own or isn't paying homage to the greats of the past. Released by his Code:Red Entertainment label and distributed by Musicdrama, the effort was ignored by fans and critics, quickly falling into oblivion. 5/10.