Announced since the mid-2000s, the sequel to Chef Raekwon's masterpiece is expected for many years, during which it's refined, rewritten, revised. It's originally supposed to come out under the label of Dr. Dre Aftermath, for which the rapper signs, then the deal is broken. In 2007, the songs destined for the album "Baggage Handlers" and "State of Grace", both with a Tony Montana skit, were leaked on the internet, and inserted in some mixtapes. At the end of the same year, the Wu-Tang Clan begins work on "8 Diagrams", and the disagreements between Raekwon and RZA for the production of the group's record are publicly manifested, which leads the MC to review the rhythms of the album and to continue editing the tracklist until the final release, in September 2009.
"Pt II" boasts a cinematic mood and lyrical concepts similar to those of the first chapter, in this LP the plot revolves around the story of a mafia boss at the apex of the criminal world. Production is handled by RZA, Mathematics, True Master, J Dilla, Pete Rock, Dr. Dre, The Alchemist, Erick Sermon, Young Justice, BT, Busta Rhymes, Mark Batson, Icewater Productions, Marley Marl, MoSS, Necro, Raewkon and Scram Jones. As in the first chapter, all members of the Wu-Tang Clan except Golden Arms make cameos, and resume their Wu-Gambino monikers. Other guests are affiliates Popa Wu, Suga Bang Bang, Tash Mahogany, Blue Rapsberry, Thea Van Seijen and Stone Mecca, as well as exteriors Jadakiss, Styles P, Beanie Sigel, Lyfe Jennings, Slick Rick, Busta Rhymes, The Game and Bun B.
Popa Wu picks up where the first chapter ended, on the same slowed beat, with the same epic cinematic mood, sample from Barry White, excellent intro with Raekwon introducing the album. "House of Flying Daggers" is considered one of the best posse tracks of the Wu-Tang Clan after the group's heyday in the nineties. J Dilla's rhythm is explosive, hard and minimal, Rollie Fingers comes in with overwhelming energy and Lex Diamonds, Tony Starks and Johnny Blaze look particularly inspired too, with Maximillion on the hook. "Sonny's Missing" is a pearl, one of Louis Diamonds' few solo songs on this LP: skit intro from "The Killer" (1989), in homage to Purple Tape, boom bap, skinny midtempo drum machine, dirty and dusty strings, dark piano, mood noir / gloomy, rhythm left to breathe, then Lex delivers with great style, velvety, confident, inspired, accompanied by a fresh cornet in one of the disk's most cinematic productions, sublime work by Pete Rock.
Track number four is a short choice on a great Marley Marl beat, light loop, dirty and dusty drum downtempo, street mood, noir and melancholy, silk rap. Suga Bang Bang has a long section sung in "Cold Outside", Raewkon's flow runs easily over a sound carpet packed by Icewater Productions, Tony Starks calmer than usual here. "Black Mozart" is originally known as "Godfather", RZA samples "Theme From the Godfather" by Jesus Acosta & the Professionals: skeletal drum, dark sounds, hook by Bobby Steels and Tash Mahogany, delivery by Lex Diamonds & Rollie Fingers. "Gihad" is considered among the best tracks: boom bap with minimal drum and melancholy samples, excellent rhythm of the underground producer Necro, velvety rap by Louis Diamonds, Tony Starks enters and delivers fluid, hardcore, spectacular, slices the cut with what is the verse of the year 2009, according to the critics.
"New Wu" is yet another track fighting to be the best on the album. RZA, at one point credited with most of the rhythms of the whole LP, only provides two beats, three if you also consider the deluxe edition: they're few out of thirty total tracks, the important thing is that they're all excellent, they're at the best of him, on a par with his choices of the nineties, or in any case nearby. This production is untouchable, untouchable like Sean Connery. The beat is amazing from second number one and samples "I've Changed" by The Magictones, giving it a melancholy, dark and cinematic feel, the loop is melodic and haunting, beautiful, accompanied by the sound of vinyl. Then comes the drum and the Johnny Blaze's energetic hook, practically a Wu-Tang song quality certificate: this is one of the best voices you can hear in rap, Method Man claims the return of the "double v" to the hip-hop scene after years of alleged absence.
He's a perfect forerunner for Lex Diamonds' silky and relaxed delivery on an ethereal and heavenly soundscape, dope from the very first moments. Tony Starks delivers calm, crisp, clean, excellent, it closes Johnny Blaze, velvety, he kills the cut with superlative flow. This is one of the best Wu-Tang Clan tracks ever, extraordinary. BT is the beatmaker of "Penitentiary", his loop is dark and haunting in the wrong way, this is one of the less accessible rhythms of the whole LP, the drum is too tight and the loop itself is too tight, Rae & Ghost do a nice job in back n forth but their effort isn't enhanced by the music. Erick Sermon is the author of the following beat, for "Baggin Crack": Rick Diamonds' rap is good, however, he sounds a bit unfit on an overly tight beat, with lean drum, somber loops, honest synths, and an annoyingly pressing snare.
"Surgical Gloves" sees a return to quality music thanks to the timely intervention of The Alchemist: light skinny midtempo drum, haunting loop, dirty and dusty boom bap, Shallah Raekwon here sounds better than the previous five minutes. "Broken Safety" should be an event: dry boom bap with decent samples of Scram Jones, Jadakiss aka Montego Jada and Styles P aka Styles Pinero along with Lex Diamonds on a Cuban Linx track. "Canal Street" is another Raekwon solo on a dry and clear musical carpet by Icewater Productions. "Ason Jones" is a dedication to Ol' Dirty Bastard, a dry and ethereal production by J Dilla, with soul samples and trembling strings, rap inspired by the performer, a couple of samples from an ODB interview. "Have Mercy" boasts a melodic hook sung by Blue Raspberry, immense secondary protagonist of the first chapter. Midtempo naked essential drum machine, great bass line, honest samples, slow smooth delivery by Beanie Sigel aka Mack Mittens, along with Lex Diamonds, excellent track.
"10 Bricks" sees the return of the three protagonists of "Only Built" and "Ironman": Raekwon, Ghostface Killah and Cappadonna. J Dilla's dissonant rhythm, The Chef is fine, Cappachino isn't helped particularly by the rhythm and provides one of the few subdued performances in these seventy minutes, then Starks goes away with an overwhelming, energetic, top flow, destroys the rhythm and raises the level. "Fat Lady Sings" is the latest solo by Shallah Raekwon, on an interesting musical carpet from True Master, which combines a minimal drum with dark samples, dark trembling strings and plucked guitar strings, excellent slow style on the sample of "If This World Were Mine" by Zulema. "Catalina" opens with the sample from the theme of "The Killer", and is therefore another reference to Purple Tape: exquisite beat by Dr. Dre and Mark Batson, hard dry midtempo drum, Raekwon inspired rap, accompanied by the hook sung by Lyfe Jennings.
When looking at some of the best Wu-Tang posse tracks, "We Will Rob You" is hardly ever considered, and it's curious, because it's one of the best cuts in the Staten Island group: there are Lex Diamonds, Maximillion and Noodles blessed with the presence of Slick Rick and a good rhythm from Justice Kareem. Boom bap, tight drum, dry and hard, midtempo and skeletal, the production is mesmerizing, Rae is inspired as throughout the record, then emerges from nowhere The Genius, who is surprisingly still alive behind the mic, which you wouldn't have said later having listened to "Pro Tools". Slick Rick's second hook pays homage to Queen in a more evident way, then Noodles arrives and locks the track, laid-back, slow, crisp.
There's Busta Rhymes in "About Me", Dr. Dre and Mark Batson's second and final production. Midtempo drum, clap sound, short elegant piano scale, Chef Raekwon's honest fluid delivery, Busta's smooth and crisp rap, neither hardcore nor shouted, calm, with good smooth flow. Rick Diamonds returns with the last verse, good track, even if perhaps not up to the best moments of the record. "Mean Streets" is an obvious homage to Scorsese's movie, you find many tributes to mafia and gangster films in this LP. Suga Bang Bang hook over this energetic, lively, explosive boom bap, lean drum midtempo, honest samples, good strings, good work by Mathematics. Raekwon spits bars with a slow, confident, inspired, hardcore style, Rollie Fingers is in one of his best moments, followed by a superlative attack from Tony Starks, energetic, flowing, dope flow, great cut.
"Kiss the Ring" is the last track on the original release of the album. The track takes you into a festive atmosphere that directly echoes the music of "New Wu". Out of nowhere, a simply extraordinary sample emerges straight from "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road", Sir Elton John. On a Wu-Tang Clan album. One of the albums of the year 2009. And this festive track is the authentic symbol of Raekwon's record. The return. Rollie Fingers aka Inspectah Deck does what you now expect from the best Method Man and makes a hook destined to go down in rap history. The production chosen by Scram Jones to conclude the album is masterful, absolutely brilliant, the drum is perfect, midtempo, dirty, dusty, Elton John's sample is chipmunk soul, ethereal. Spotless entry by Lex Diamonds aka Raekwon, fully confident, inspired, powerful, he dominated his record. Rollie Fingers proves he's still one of the best years later from his brightest efforts and delivers bars with great flow.
Then Noodles aka Masta Killa. He deserves a separate paragraph. Look what he's doing, he sits in the armchair like an affirmed, laid-back, calm, impassive Don, as if he were Don Corleone, and he acts as Brando, this is a sensational acting performance, he walks away like he's the rapper of the year, he looks like a G Rap at his finest, deeply smoothness, flowing like velvet, immaculate. He's fantastic, he interprets better than all the others the atmosphere, the climate, the mood of this precise artistic work and sums it up entirely in his verse, it's like he's a voiceover at the end of this movie, I think no one could close the album better than him.
The bonus tracks arrive, initially two, then increased to eight in the Gold Deluxe Edition. Scram Jones offers another pearl for "Walk Wit Me", wonderful rhythm, with ethereal-heavenly soul samples from Freddie Hubbard's "Little Sunflower", three solo stanzas by Raekwon, who signs yet another classic in his discography. He's one of the first MCs to mention Griselda Blanco in a song. "The Badlands" features the duo Lex Diamonds & Tony Starks on the mic, originally the title is "Criminology 2.5", the beat of BT isn't at the level of the rest of the record. Track 25 boasts The Game in place of Busta Rhymes in the original version of "About Me", also on beat by Dre, before three remixes of BT that I have struggled more than usual to find and whose common problem is the poor choice of production. "Never Used to Matter" is one of the songs that comes closest to a must-listen among the bonus tracks: Bun B and Raekwon on an excellent melodic beat by Scram Jones who didn't do anything wrong on this record. "Rockstar" is the last bonus track, number thirty considering everything. Honest production of RZA, smooth delivery of Louis Diamonds, Thea Van Seijen luckily doesn't overdo the hook, Inspectah Deck tries to give the rhythm a shake, then GZA with a style more in tune with the ballad rhythm, regular, crisp, relaxed.
Raekwon's fourth LP, «the first hip-hop major studio album to use "Part II" in its title». The sequel to the rapper's debut in 1995 is the third major mafia rap album released in the 2000s after GFK's "Fishcale" and Jay-Z's "American Gangster". It arrives in the fourth wave of Wu-Tang releases and anticipates the underground wave of mafioso rap albums generated by Roc Marciano. It's a very ambitious project, perhaps not one of the most ambitious in the hip-hop decade, but it's an important bet for Chef Raekwon: he comes from a tense moment with the Wu-Tang, managing to equally bring almost all of them back to his album again, he hasn't released a LP in six years, he anticipated the record many years before and in this time span he released dozens of mixtapes that it's an understatement to define disappointing and generic, and his only disks that aren't called "Only Built" are considered bad records, not to mention that few rap artists have made sequels worthy of being called such.
The production partly recalls that of the mid-nineties and is at the same time modern, rewarding more thin and minimal drums instead of a rich sound based on sampling as in the past, while making use of a considerable choice in the selection of rhythms and different skits from kung-fu films to each track, reminiscent of the glorious times when Wu was at the top of the game. The music is made by different producers, and this is another big bet for the rapper, who hasn't released any notable material since he gave up on the rhythms of RZA: fortunately, the name of Bobby Digital is replaced by that of some of the best producers on the circuit, J Dilla, Pete Rock, Dr. Dre, Erick Sermon and The Alchemist, as well as the beatmakers affiliated with Wu-Tang True Master and Mathematics, and Chef Raekwon friends. The RZA himself is quite surprising in delivering three of its best beats of the decade, having released albums outrageous for its very high level of quality for years. The one beat created by Marley Marl lasts less than a minute and is certainly one of the greatest rhythms on the album.
From the point of view of the lyrics, I have nothing to ask. As a huge fan of mafia movies, I have nothing to say, everything you need is there. The themes are similar to those of the '95 script. Ghostface Killah is the main guest with nine appearances (Gold Deluxe edition), providing a thrilling hardcore performance, Inspectah Deck kills each of his five spots, Method Man is in three tracks, GZA, Suga Bang Bang and Masta Killa appear twice, RZA and Cappadonna once each, Ol' Dirty Bastard is present, uncredited, in the track dedicated to him. Blue Raspberry and Popa Wu boast a track each, in less incisive roles than those of the first chapter, along with Thea Van Seijen, Stone Mecca, and Tash Mahogany. Outside guests don't disappoint either, including heavyweights Jadakiss, Styles P and Beanie Sigel who lend themselves to changing their aliases, as well as Busta Rhymes, The Game, Bun B and Slick Rick.
Distributed by Raekwon's Ice H20 and EMI, it achieved considerable commercial success, reaching second place among rap records and fourth on the Billboard 200, the same chart result as the debut. It's received with great enthusiasm by the critics, who call it the hip-hop album of the year and one of the best of the decade. What is certain is that it takes numerous plays to fully absorb it, being composed of 22 tracks and 72 minutes of listening, which are extended to 30 tracks and 100 minutes in the Gold Deluxe edition, abundant material, wanting to be generous, for any casual listener. If you come here directly from "Only Built" and expect another mind-blowing masterpiece record just like that one, the first listenings could easily shock you, in a negative way, because the quality isn't the same: the first chapter is one of the best albums in one of the best moments for hip-hop, the second chapter is one of the best albums in one of the worst moments for the scene.
Ultimately, it's a great bet won by Raekwon, which brings the boys back into the roles of Wu-Gambinos and proves that the Wu-Tang Clan hasn't ended as it was thought, that the Staten Island rappers are able to put together an excellent mainstream album, rapping even without the production of RZA and that especially the Wu-Tang isn't represented just by Ghostface Killah, the only one able to release quality records as soloist consistently over the years. It's hailed as Raekwon's second best solo record, both of which are under the pseudonym Lex Diamonds, one of the best comeback albums ever in New York, one of the best sequels in hip-hop and one of the best of the 2000s.
Rating: 9/10.
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