Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Wu



RZA produced the beat above. It's from GZA's most recent album, Pro-Tools, and it's the only track on the album that I'm into. I like the instrumental version more because it's not ruined by GZA's broken down old man flow. RZA has a verse on the song and his rapping is weak like GZA's. Raekwon's flow is weak now too. Most Wu members don't rap like they used to. Maybe they quit smoking weed or doing coke or whatever it was that got them to record such great tracks in the nineties. Ghostface has been consistent, bless his heart, and I'll probably always love RZA no matter how off-beat his rapping gets. I forgot about Method Man until The Wire and then he contributes my favorite verses to the surprisingly good Wu-Massacre record that came out last year. This track isn't produced by RZA but it's got a great Meth verse on it and I feel like he references The Wire when he says "potato silencers"...



RZA's beats are some of the most melodic and experimental music I've heard in rap. Hip hop is a relatively small genre of music so popular trends in the sounds used by producers can often be traced back to single influential songs. For instance, RZA's beat for "Verbal Intercourse" off Raekwon's Only Built 4 Cuban Linx paved the way for songs that incorporate sampled vocals into the beat, like Kanye's "Golddigger"...



Here's another great RZA beat...



Sometimes I imagine what the world would be like had RZA's Prince Rakeem schtick taken off...



P.S. I thought it was weird when Cappadonna released a greatest hits CD after he was only two albums into his career. Here's a story about his stressful life: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1472556/20030611/cappadonna.jhtml

1 comment:

  1. WU-TANG!! awesome dude. are you guys coming back to youtube any time soon?

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