Following the unification of Italy, formally proclaimed in the spring of 1861, agricultural contracts of feudal origin, allowing the population working on the land to continue to live, especially in the south of the country, were abolished. The democratic land distribution, which passes from the vast ownership of kings, nobility and clergy to smaller properties divided among the heirs of those lands, it no longer allows farmers to live on the fruit of their labor in a country that is almost completely devoted to agriculture, and forces them to look for work elsewhere in order to survive and not die of hunger. Between 1861 and the First World War, there was a massive migration of Italians seeking their fortune abroad, particularly to the United States, Canada, Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay. Many survive, adapt and proliferate in these places, even starting to eat meat, a food that before the Second World War most Italians could not afford due to the inaccessible price.
The economic well-being derived first from the industrial revolution and then from what is defined here simply as "the economic boom" (Italian economic miracle), bring flour and meat respectively to the tables of the less wealthy Italian families. Among the many dishes that come out of Italian kitchens, «ragù» makes its way after several years, a condiment based on finely chopped, ground or minced meat, cooked for many hours over low heat, which preparation include a characteristic soffritto of onion, celery and carrot. In Italy, there's a centuries-old tradition in cooking stewed meat and cooking pasta, sometimes served with a meat broth in a kind of soup, but never with meat. At the end of the 18th century, the first documentations of recipes presenting this meat-based sauce served together with pasta in recipe books in Emilia-Romagna begin to be had: it's the first region to inherit the ragù from the French – derived from ragoût, to revive the taste – which had dominated the northern part of the country for several decades from the end of the 18th century under the command of Napoleon.
The recipe, with an unlimited number of variants that are also very different from each other, spreads globally, losing its original meaning – is known as tomato-based sauce to which minced meat has been added, in a sort of reinterpretation of another type of ragù, mainly made in the regions of southern Italy – and in some way also lands in hip-hop, where often represented by the single word "bolognaise" and its variants, always to indicate ragù in reference to the popular dish in which tagliatelle and lasagne, both originating from the same culinary region as ragù, are replaced by spaghetti and other types of pasta.
In 2006, the mixtape "RAGU", Rae and Ghost United, the first unofficial collaborative work by Chef Raewkon & Ghostface Killah, was released. I don't consider the previous compilation, "Live Unreleased Classics" (2005), because it's a mix of live songs and others that you can listen to in others Wu mixtapes and compilations, basically. One of the best MCs in history & one of the best MCs in history. Whatever comes out, it would be classic. Immediate. It's a certainty. The tape is released under Think Differently Music by Dreddy Kruger, part of the Royal Fam and affiliated with the Wu-Tang Clan who released "Think Differently Music: Wu-Tang Meets the Indie Culture" the year before, bringing the clan back to its independent roots after a lifetime into the mainstream.
Even with a random selection of the best tracks from Louis Diamonds & Tony Starks, it would make for an extraordinary tape, however, if you've come to read this far, I anticipate that it's not a great tape. Or a good tape. Dreddy Kruger doesn't take the best of the two guys. I don't know who made the final selection of these twenty-four tracks, but whoever did it didn't do a good job. The album is a strange mix of Raekwon & Ghostface tracks, often solo, where they simply change the titles and there's little classic beyond the original cuts, almost nothing. Any other person, any Wu-Tang stan could make a better tracklist with a playlist, this is a kind of half lame, a little shoddy, disappointing kind of playlist. If you spend five minutes of your time on Spotify, you come out with a much better result and you don't even have to try too hard, because on the internet there are many pious souls who have already put together a list of some of the best collaborations of the two Wu-Tang Clan rappers.
The tape is a mix of tracks taken from Ghostface LPs – "Bulletproof Wallets" ("The Hilton", "The Forest"), "Fishscale" (title track, "Kilos", "Crackspot"), "More Fish" ("Ghost is Back", "Outta Town Shit", "Charlie Brown") – and Raekwon mixtapes – "Vatican 2" ("Fly Shawty Penelope", "Flawless Crowns), "Vatican 3" ("Chef's in the Kitchen" is "Da Destroyer"), while "Cuban Chronicles" which will then be included in the collaborative mixtape between him, Ghost and Method Man "Avenging Eagles". In order to complete the mixtape, snippets of other songs are taken, merged and cooked together to give a better flavor.
There's nothing I can complain about the first five tracks, they're fine and all collab songs between Raekwon and Ghostface Killah, among which, "M.G.M." from "Wu-Tang Forever". After "Kilos" that has a "s" added, "Rolex" is the second tracks that boasts a different title in respect of the original song: is "The Watch", from GFK compilation "Hidden Darts: Special Edition". The album begins to lose altitude with the arrival of two solo sections performed by Shallah Raekwon and Ghostface. In the eight piece, the guys take a Lex Diamonds verse from Cappadonna's "Life's a Gamble", from one of his worst albums, "Slang Prostitution", then the beat breathes a minute for some reason.
The tracks "More Fish" and "Ironman" have bogus titles like many others to pass it off as original songs. Do you hear the rhythm of DJ Premier in the first one? This is a personal version of Ghostface of the iconic "Crooklyn Dodgers 95" by the Crooklyn Dodgers, the correct title is "Return of Theodore Unit", a song that you find in "Hidden Darts". The other piece is a reissue of "The Champ (Remix)", taken from "Ghostdeini the Great". "Heaven & Hell 2007" is certainly one of the most interesting tracks in this tomato and meat mixed sauce: the song is "Heaven or Hell", is from 2006, and is performed by the German-born rnb singer Joy Denalane, who hosts Raekwon and uses as a sample the same song as the original cut, Syl Johnson's "Could I Be Falling in Love", an authentic masterpiece. "Pure White" is so short that it sounds like a freestyle, instead, it's a single verse by GFK taken from "Weight", a song by Swollen Members.
The final section is stronger than the previous one, but not up to the initial part. After the last joint from "Fishcale", there's "State of Grace", an original cut made around 2000/2001, then inserted into one of Raekwon's mixtapes ("Chef Cocaine Cooked"), preparatory to the realization of "Only Built 2". Two original songs from Lex Diamonds' debut arrive, "Rainy Dayz" and "Can It Be All So Simple (Remix)". The last four tracks aren't memorable, "Crockett & Tubbs" mixed a Ghost verse from Cappachino's "Oh-Donna" with another verse by Rae.
In summary, it's far, far from being a good mixtape. It's gray, like aged meat or the cover: the two Wu-Tang rappers are back-to-back, presented as Pretty Tony and Lex Diamonds, two of their many aliases, below you can see two more, for example. This track selection is weird and contrasting, the ingredients were right, but the cooking had been poorly executed and excessively hasty. I don't think it's a good sauce. Do not eat.
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