What a mess! But how did we get here? Let's rewind the tape from the beginning. After releasing "Wu-Tang Forever" in 1997, RZA decides to look out West Coast for rap talent and stumbles upon the Black Knights of the North Star, a six-star hip-hop group: Crisis, Rugged Monk, Doc Doom!, Holocaust, Christbearer and Meko the Pharaoh. RZA signs it to Wu-Tang Records and takes it to perform on "The Swarm" (1998), then the group splits into two different acts, Black Knights (Crisis, Monk, Doc Doom! and Holocaust) and North Star (Christbearer and Meko). The two groups both perform in "Ghost Dog" (2000) and in "The Sting" (2002), the Black Knights should come out with their own CD in 2001, but the record has been postponed.
RZA therefore works on the first North Star (or Northstar) album, the boys are no longer with Wu-Tang Records and Bobby Steels takes them to Koch, independent label with which he's signed himself and with which he has released an album ("Digital Bullet") which has received positive responses from critics and a major sales return despite being a very bad job. Around 2003, the album would be ready, it's a kind of showcase for Christbearer, Meko and their friends, it features Warcloud as a star guest — a few years after his departure from cousin group Black Knights, to form his own group, Da Monstar Mob — and a production that sees minimal input from RZA with much of the beats left to Monstar Mob producer Skarekrow. Koch decides to get in the way and forces North Star to re-record the album from scratch. The original one was released as a sort of mixtape in late 2004, then Chambermusik lifted it and legitimized it the following year, under the title "West Coast Killa Beez".
RZA shows his cards and calls all affiliates who aren't part of the Wu-Tang Clan: in addition to friends of the Long Beach duo, participate in the record Kinetic, Dom Pachino and Ninth Prince of Killarmy, Freemurder and Shacronz of CCF Division, TMF and Solomon Childs (both later in Theodore Unit), Doc Doom of Black Knights and Suga Bang Bang. From the Wu-Tang Clan should come Masta Killa and Ol' Dirty Bastard, but they fail to take part in the tape. RZA produces four beats, the other beatmakers are Mathematics, Armand Van Helden, Mix Jive Musick, Choco and DR Period. The album could come out, but a further fraction arises between RZA and Koch Records: the label presses on North Star to decide to publish the record, the boys releases to the detriment of the contrary opinion of RZA, who in reprisal removes his name from the title and from the cover — from the original RZA Presents to Bobby Digital Presents, taking away some appeal — he cuts most of the group's promotional tour and doesn't promote the singles' music videos, which I have no idea at this point what they are.
"Luv Allah" kicks off and it's a pretty strong start: decent drum, not good, not on Wu-Tang album quality level, it's fine. There's an okay melody and a chipmunk soul sample that's neither bad nor excellent, it's exactly average. It doesn't suck and it's quite listenable. It might prove Bobby Digital's production value in the mid-2000s, if it were a Bobby Digital beat, but it's not a RZA beat. Oddly, it's not even from Mathematics. It's a beat created by the house producer Armand Van Helden, name that I mostly associate with Dizzie Rascal's banger "Bonkers", which dominated Europe in 2009. Going to look in Van Helden's discography there are pearls everywhere, the omnipresent "Barbra Streisand" also deserves to be mentioned, today a classic that takes up a hit from the late seventies and whose music video deserves to be reviewed, as it includes, among others, Questlove, André 3000, Steele & Tek (aka Smif-n-Wessun), DJ Premier, Buckshot, Yelawolf, Pharrell and Kanye West.
Returning to the introductory track, both performers are introduced, Andre "Christbearer" Johnson, with a technically messy, hardcore style, and Reginald "Meko the Pharaoh" Grier, who has a rougher voice and a more calm, nonchalant delivery. In this first track, although his voice creates an important contrast to the mild melody, Meko sounds better than the other emcee, before the track is closed with a third verse by Kinetic 9 of Killarmy. The lyrics are so poorly written that they are difficult to pigeonhole. Luckily, everything else on the record is simple, the boys provide battle rap and spit out thug rap for an hour. It would be West Coast if most of the dudes you hear weren't from Staten Island and Brooklyn.
It's up to the production to make the difference and launch the record and consequently the Long Beach, California duo. "We Got It" is by Mathematics and the beat slips away almost unnoticed, it sounds cheap. There's a skit, then "Red Rum", by RZA. The beat is something totally inconceivable. Unlistenable, it's bad to the point that I wouldn't want it credited to RZA, while this is a typical 2000s Rakeem production, perhaps he can't get better than that. There are four different dudes spitting things, it doesn't matter, because nobody would sound worthily on this mess. After another useless skit, you can go on thinking you've at least passed the CCF Division, but you haven't, because Freemurder returns later.
In fact, it's a more complicated listen than it seems or as most enthusiastic aficionados might lead you to believe. "Crazy" is an easy-listening track to which an annoying cheap drum has been added and the North Star friends almost go into spoken word, all very bland. We come to the other highlight of the record, "Nuttin". This is a nice beat, finally. RZA? No, it's still Armand Van Helden, on his second and last beat. The drum is hard, severe, correct, the loop breathes freely on the hook then is stifled in the background during the verses to favor the hardcore rap of North Star and Killarmy, represented by Ninth Prince and PR Terrorist aka Dom PaChino (uncredited). "See Me" is a better production than "Red Rum", but RZA continues to disappoint. The rap of the boys is fine, this track doesn't stick in the memory.
The next track contains the most beautiful soundscape excerpted by Bobby Digital on this disc. It's not Wu-something, it's not RZA in his prime, it's still good rhythm, but it's not what it should be. Christbearer and Meko deliver with dignity on a production that steals the atmosphere directly from "Respiration" by Black Star, without possessing the same epic aura. "So So Serious" focuses on more cartoonish sounds, and the two emcees spit together with Kryme Life and Trife. Mathematics provides its second beat on "Duckie", a song that detaches itself from the prevailing theme of the effort so far, made mostly of flexes and gangsterisms, and tells of a friend who fell into the temptations of hood. The production is decent, Wu-Tang's street DJ lacing up a soulful chipmunk loop from Aretha Franklin and throwing a drum into it, creating an honest, unpretentious beat.
"Ballin" boasts a good production by DR Period, Meko and Christbearer deliver bars along with Solomon Childs, then Suga Bang Bang performs the outro. Kinetic is the last guest from Brooklyn of the tape and raps together with the two authors on the latest production of RZA, "Destiny", a kind of ballad that has a loop that annoys every moment that passes. "Black Knights of Northstar" is what the entire album should have sounded like: the drum is hard, fresh, the sped-up loop is twisted and bridled, there's a good bassline and the rap of the boys sounds suitable to the rhythm of Mix Jive Musick. The song marks the reunion with the twin group, even if only Doc Doom takes part in the effort.
Impressive, flawless style, brilliant, perfect chemistry. North Star is none of those things, although there are some dudes out there who want you to believe quite the opposite. The production is poor for at least three quarters of the disc, the lyricism has its limits from the first minutes and the technique is questionable. After pocketing part of the one hundred / one hundred and fifty thousand dollars made available by Koch for the album, RZA is humiliated by Van Helden, who proves capable of fitting into a hip-hop disk and being the best on a Wu-Tang album, and that's not a given for a house producer. Little is saved ("Luv Allah", "Nuttin", "Black Knights of Northstar") in a negligible disc whose haste in construction and execution makes it raw, harsh, impenetrable to the casual listener and hard as a walnut to even the Wu completists. Not recommended, 4.5/10.
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