The further you delve into the immense Wu-Tang discography, the more RZA appears as the poorest rapper of the group and as the rapper with the worst solo discography of all. Four LPs, one worse than the other. More than ten soundtracks, some embarrassing, all the others just plain bad. His best work comes later on soundtrack number eleven, with the album "The Man With the Iron Fists: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack" (2012). Now, great credit for this work goes to the Koch Records label, which sees money where few can see it: in the lack of talent of a musical artist who has been gone for over ten years. You always have to take off your hat when one or two executives manage to come up with things like that. At the call, of money, RZA answers present and throws out fifteen tracks (plus one hidden) for his new LP and brings all possible friends to the album.
One of the most serious problems of this record lies in the friends that RZA called on his album. He doesn't have many friends anymore. The Wu-Tang Clan is not there. After the huge failure of "8 Diagrams", Raekwon and Ghostface Killah publicly express their bad mood and not even the other members of the group seem to be happy with the musical choices that The RZA decides to impose dictatorially for the last LP of the supergroup. As a result, none of the Clan get to spit bars here. From the tracklist, you can read Inspectah Deck's name, who is actually featured in "You Can't Stop Me Now". This track is the best of "Digi Snacks", after that there's the emptiness: honest boom bap with tight drum and guitar riffs, good bass, Rollie Fingerz delivers focused, inspired, hardcore, fluid and he rips the track.
Fantastic. Who would have thought that he would have made such an impressive performance after being so pissed off after the result of "8 Diagrams"? I wouldn't have said that. His position about that LP is similar to those of Tony Starks & Lex Diamonds. And indeed, Inspectah Deck didn't. This cut sounds exactly like a discarded track from the Wu-Tang album sessions and not one made for this scandalous RZA project. Which would explain a lot of things. So, in summary, no Wu-Tang Clan MC took part in this tape. There are a plethora of Killa Beez affiliates, on the other hand: singer Thea Van Seijen, lead guest with five appearances, Crisis, Doc Doom and Monk of Black Nights, Christ Bearer of North Star, Reverend William Burk of Achozen, Stone Mecca, Dexter Wiggle, Kinetic of Killarmy, Prodigal Sunn of Sunz of Man, as well as Understanding, Bekon, Startel, Rakeem Diggs, Talani Rabb, El DeBarge and George Clinton.
The best rapper among these guys would be P Sunn in "O Day", however, his contribution is limited to saying a whispered phrase in the outro of the song, if you don't pay attention you can't even hear it, it's all quite ridiculous the work in this album. Kinetic is Kinetic, Black Knights and North Star you know them, if you don't know them, now you know them: I mean, they might not stick in your memory after this album. Thea Van Seijen probably can sing, but this project isn't the best showcase for her, her qualities don't seem to be adequately exploited during this hour: with her or without her, all these sung hooks sound lame and clumsy. As for RZA, his rap is fine: it sounds fresh for the first five to eight seconds, then falls on each track in a style that quickly becomes sleepy, lazy, compliant, effortless. He can't get through any tracks and they're all quite long choices, often around four and five minutes.
Lyrically, he's at his worst. Music was the strong point of RZA. Was. Here there are some of his less inspired rhythms ever. The drum is cheap, the samples are bad, the loops are annoyingly haunting, everything sounds horrible, simplistic and indigestible. The album sells, for Koch's sake, critics cheer, fans turn their heads the other way, they don't want to see this disgrace. Facing and reviewing this record is disheartening. Look at the artwork. Ok, I look at the cover. A girl with an afro. Well. An Asian girl. What, where? Bobby sitting in the big king's chair and then the villains (Raven, Hawk, Eagle and Crane) the four birds of prey that I use as my enemies. Wait, wait, what? Man, we're looking at different covers. What the? What is this? One of the very few good things is the half-naked girls that have been elegantly censored. One of his worst albums though, 3/10.
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