Coinciding with the release of his first book, a controversial autobiography that describes part of his life together with the Wu-Tang Clan and points the finger to RZA several times in the management of the group, U-God releases a mixtape that also serves as a prelude to his next LP, "Venom". Busy year for one of Shaolin's least popular rappers. I don't know how good it is when your book gets more attention than your music and you are not a writer. You are a rapper. From one of the most important groups ever.
Either way, this is a curious mixtape. It's the sequel to a mixtape of the same name released ten years earlier and consists of 18 tracks, more or less 40 minutes of listening. The first part is dedicated to trap, U-God freestyles on trap rhythms taken from some of the biggest hits of the period, there's "Kodak Yellow", "No Limit", I think the best is still "Ghostface Killers", straight from 21 Savage and Offset's collaborative album, "Without Warning". His rap is decent, no infamy nor praise, he's better than most mumble rappers but he's still not good enough to make me say "I recommend it to fans" or whatever. "Zilla (DJ Homicide Blend)" is quite interesting, because Lucky Hands freestyle to the beat of Luniz' '"I Got 5 on It". The rest of the tape is a frayed ensemble of remixes performed by friend DJ Homicide and DJ Green Lantern, other freestyles and the proposition of some old Wu-Tang Clan classics featuring U-God.
I would like to write that this is a random, generic mixtape of a generic MC, but it isn't. U-God puts an intro and an outro by inserting a "Scarface" (1983) skit in both. Initially, I don't really understand, the boy has always been distant from both the mafia subgenre and the gangster rap (with some exceptions during his career), he has never made entire albums dedicated to either of these genres, even if his rapping style seemed suitable for both of them. Then I remember that U-God was on "Ironman" and he was also on "Only Built 4 Cuban Linx..." and that if he hadn't gone to jail, he probably would have had a debut album between 1995 and 1996 as well. I'm not saying that it would have been the same as the classic record that Deck would have made, but a kind of cousin album of Purple Tape and Starks first solo, somewhere in between, perhaps. Besides, of course, "Raw I'ma give it to ya with no trivia / Raw like cocaine straight from Bolivia", which is a direct reference to Sosa, we always return there, to "Da Mystery of Chessboxin'".
U-God himself also returns to it, after a couple of remixes of songs from his previous album, "The Keynote Speaker": DJ Homicide takes the Wu-Tang debut track and holds, in addition to the first verse of Golden Arms, also those of Inspectah Deck and Raekwon, then cuts the piece. Here, the tape takes a curious turn: why cut the hook and three other stanzas? I think his beat wasn't good enough to go any further. "Gravel Pit" is reported in full, then with all the verses of Method Man, Ghostface Killah, Raekwon, U-God, with the hook of Paulissa Moorman and above all with the intro of RZA. The next joint is "Cherchez La Ghost", borrowed from Tony Starks featuring Golden Arms, then follows another posse Wu-Tang song, "It's Yours", straight from the supergroup sophomore: the boys hold Chef Raekwon's opening stanza, RZA's hook and U-God's second verse, cutting the song as soon as the third verse, performed by Bobby Digital, arrives.
The last two tracks before the outro are DJ Green Lantern remixes of pieces from previous Lucky Hands records, but the real pearl is "Triumph", the version of the song that Baby Huey proposes: hook by ODB, stanzas by Inspectah Deck, Method Man, Cappadonna and, of course, U-God. The song is ending, immediately after the MC, another verse should start, there's still, coincidentally, RZA after him: in the last seconds of this mix, the guys get Steelz to start its own verse and then they put in a gunshot that interrupts the mix, brilliantly. It's a detail in this mix, you don't even notice it, but it's also a very strong statement from U-God. The boy hasn't been paid royalties by RZA for his Wu-Tang albums since 2010, and the reason isn't understood.
It's not an essential listening for a Wu-Tang fan or for completists. If you want to hear a Wu-Tang rapper on some trap beats, there are a couple of dedicated tracks. For the rest, they're average remixes and some excerpts of the best of U-God in the first years of the supergroup. Despite everything, it's a tape that comes close to entering the history books of the genre, because it features almost all the members of the Wu-Tang Clan: RZA, Ol' Dirty Bastard, Raekwon, Method Man, Ghostface Killah, Inspectah Deck, Cappadonna, the affiliate Jackpot Scotty Wotty, who's the main host of the mixtape with three appearances, and Paulissa Moorman. For some reason, there's no Masta Killa and GZA extract, which are the only Wu-Tang rappers not featured in the mixtape. It would have been noteworthy just for having packed all the MCs of the Clan into a solo record — which has rarely happened in Wu's history — but it didn't. 6/10.
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