Fourth studio album for Cappadonna, who in spring 2007 is still the tenth unofficial member of the Wu-Tang Clan. The supergroup comes from a long hiatus, hasn't released a studio album for six years and is engaged with the third wave of solo releases. This time frame is one of the most complicated for Darryl Hill: in the summer of 2004, the boy was welcomed again as an affiliate in the group by The RZA, with whom he mended the financial differences of 2001, however, his career is on the bubble, and only Ghostface Killah makes him work constantly finding him always some place in his mid-2000s records to make him spit a few bars, generously. The tear with the Clan is mended, but the scar will remain forever: the man decides not to include any guest and any producer who's in the least tied to Wu-Tang, establishing a historical record and managing to improve "Mr. Xcitement" of U-God, that had tried to do the same thing, but had to give up to a beat of 4th Disciple by Killarmy.
Cappadonna returns, but isn't inspired, on a ridiculous rhythm of an unknown guy who puts on a poor drum and a very poor sample. Spinzilla offers a better job on track number two, jazzy boom bap with melodic female soul sample which is an affordable and decent carpet for the rapper's easygoing bars. "Don't Turn Around" samples the Black Ivory song of the same name, Q-Dini provides an acceptable boom bap with that female soul sample that follows the title; Staten Island's MC doesn't disappoint, but he doesn't kill the cut. The next one is produced by Sosa, a name that remains quite common in the rap game: this guy signs a mediocre beat, despite the Bee Gees sample, Cappadonna delivers badly, and Born Divine doesn't do better as guest of this bad, but short choice. Q-Dini also produces the fifth song, creating an economic rhythm on which the Cappadonna and Lounge Lo brothers cannot produce anything audible. "If You Don't Stop" is opened by a skit and boasts the production of Fontane, yes, another amateur: his beat is so cheap and basic, there's a skeletal drum machine that hasn't eaten in weeks, and some noise in the background, there are so few elements that you doubt that this guy really exists and that the rhythm hasn't been picked up by some dark side of the web.
Born Divine, the main guest of the album, shows up again to spit some lines with Cappa. "One Night Love Affair" shows us several things: Q-Dini may have a taste for samples, but he's an obvious fan of DJ Khaled, and cannot produce, Cappadonna continues to have a bad flow, zero sense for rhythms both in musical sense both in metric sense and the rapper doesn't know how to do this kind of songs. Track number eight is a posse with Hugh Hef and Lahluga on an almost decent rhythm by Q-Dini, which hits the melodic sample, but completely misses the choice of the drum machine and the other sample: a poor and average sound comes out, on which the three performers are unable to express themselves at their best. In "Dream", the producer Solo decides to place a sample by Delfonics: the rhythm is light, decent boom bap with cheap and lean drum, but not as horrible as the previous ones, Cappadonna seems to sound good, even if he's slow and uninspired, however, for the whole three minutes, the track continues to release weak and poor vibes, peaking in the ridiculous hook.
MPM and Born Divine join Cappadonna in "Gotto Find a Way", over Q-Dini's jazzy boom bap rhythm with hard thumping drum and random noises in the background: it's not one of the best cuts on the tape, but not one of the worst either. This song precedes the reggae filler with KMC on rhythm by Danjah Mentals: horrible cut with a bad rhythm, among the worst choices on the record. Cappadonna gets pissed off in "Goon Skwad" on an extravagant production of Sparx, with extravagant drum machine and dark piano synthesized looped in the background, the rapper's slow shouting delivery doesn't lift the piece. Q-Dini greets the record with his fifth and final production: jazzy boom bap, samples mixed together and fast, hard and tight drum, Cappadonna has one of the most confident deliveries of the whole record, but the track sucks like all the others. Fontane returns, the producer who I thought didn't exist a few paragraphs before: after "My Gang", I don't think he exists yet, whoever hides under this moniker manages to create the worst rhythm of the album: the beat is annoying, due to a dull sample and a wacky drum on crack, Cappadonna's bars fall on deaf ears here. B-Rock produces the latest track, quite confusingly and cheaply, the elements are decent on their own, but put together they just create mess and random noise: everything is poor, Cappadonna is back, hardcore, but supported by his brother Lounge Lo, both forgettable despite a good female soul sample.
47-minute album for 15 songs, it's bad, completely erratic, musically and lyrically poor. It's hard to deal with it even for a Wu-Tang fan, because here, as well as in the U-God sophomore, there's nothing of Wu-Tang: Born Divine is the guest who comes closest to being a affiliate, having released a mixtape in 2007 with many Killa Beez via Protect Ya Neck Records, despite that, his closeness to the Clan is feeble and it stops at that tape. This project was initially released in 2007 with Kingz N Queenz LLC, then re-released the following year, with Cappadonna Records, a new title going from "Cappatalize" to "Cappatilize", and a renewed cover, in which the boy presents himself in front of a background made of banknotes and holds other banknotes in both hands: you might think that, in these years when the Clan has hardly worked, he has found some financial peace, but his face is just saying: "RZA paid for the concerts by giving me these couple of benjamins, look at them, does this look like real money to you?" Ah, in any case I don't think the guy has capitalized (or how he wants to write it) from this bad effort, which takes a seat in the warm place that kept "Mr. Xcitement" next to it as one of the worst albums in the Wu-Tang Clan discography.
Rating: 2.5/10.
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