Compilation that has remained incomprehensibly unnoticed and never properly treated. In 2006, Robert "The RZA" Diggs, rapper, producer, master and co-founder of the Wu-Tang Clan, officially releases an instrumental tape through Think Differently Music, a label managed by Dreddy Kruger, Killa Bee and part of the Royal Fam. 21 instrumental tracks from some of the most famous songs by Wu-Tang and other affiliated artists, in addition to the intro, a jewel of over eight minutes. The rest should be the best of RZA, it shouldn't be that hard to find, it's all wrapped up in the Wu-Tang Clan albums between 1993-1997: "36 Chambers", "Tical", "Return to the 36 Chambers", "Only Built 4 Cuban Linx...", "Liquid Swords", "Ironman" and "Forever". Easy come easy go. But that's not the case, for some reason, and RZA beats from the beginnings up to 2007 are encapsulated: it means that there may be underwhelming beats made by Steels in the last decade. And so it is, unfortunately.
After one of 36 Chambers' rhythms, an easy winner, it comes "Black Mamba" which is a kind of spot to its "Kill Bill 2" soundtrack. That's not a top-notch production from The Abbot. It's not in the same league as the others. A similar argument could be made for "Diesel" ("Legend of the Wu-Tang Clan", 2004) and "Ya'll Been Warned" ("Iron Flag", 2001), which is also the only beat featured here not to be made by RZA, but from True Master. After another excellent rhythm from Chef Raekwon's debut, RZArector takes, of all possible choices, one of the less melodic ones from "Supreme Clientele", "Child's Play". Track number eight is "Chamber Music" ("The W", 2000), followed by three Wu instrumentals, before returning to Ghostface, with an instrumental from his first album. The ballad rhythms of "Camay" and "Ice Cream" have a lot in common and the decision to place them in sequence was one of the smartest in the construction of this tape. The choice to highlight Eddie Murphy's comic scene, coupled with Johnny Blaze's iconic hook, is special.
Track number fourteen is the instrumental of the hit "Triumph", simply one of the best rhythms of the decade, followed by "State of Grace", a piece by Raekwon: both boast an epic mood, tough drums, excellent sample soul and mesmerizing loops. "Run" is one of Cappadonna's best-known solo cuts. "Brutality (The Grindz Remix)" is a hidden gem of Prodigal Sunn, from his 2005 solo debut album. Two other Wu cuts follow, the instrumental from RZA's solo piece featured in his debut, "My G.O.D." and "Duck Seazon". Among the latter three, "My G.O.D." is the one that sounds best and is the most interesting: it's the second rhythm that was not done by RZA on this record, but the tracklist credits it to Bobby Digital anyway. Actually, it's made by a guy named Conz around 2000, maybe shortly before, who at one point posted his beat on a Wu-Tang forum, someone took it and somehow it made it into this compilation.
In summary, RZA, or whoever for him, would have had to take rhythms from '93 to '97 to be on the safe side. It wasn't the most difficult thing in history. Still, there are barely ten out of twenty-one soundscapes taken from these four years, less than half. The other half, with rare exceptions, obviously did not live up to that period. 2 beats from "36 Chambers", and they're not the best, by the way, 0 from ODB, 2 from Rae, 0 from GZA, 1 from GFK. 5 from the clan sophomore and aren't even the best-performing productions. There's no common thread or anything like that, the rhythms are randomized most of the time. Camay-Ice Cream, Triumph-State of Grace, okay, they've their own logic. The rest don't. In retrospect, it's ultimately pretty disappointing. In 2006, the best of RZA was almost ten years away, strange that he couldn't even figure out what the best beats were. Or he just didn't want to put them together, this release doesn't seem create to be a masterpiece, a good mixtape, a collection of best or something to sell, because, even without all the promotion side, half of those choices don't make any sense. 6/10.
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