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WUTANGS NEW ALBUM |
| TRUTH (12/17/07 11:51:32) Tag: articles |
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One night about four years ago, I was flipping through channels when who should pop on the screen but the RZA. He was being interviewed for part of a program on MTV Jams where they interspersed conversations with hip-hop artists about their work and music in general, with related videos. (Since the show was educational and the type of thing an actual music fan could get into, it was of course on at 1:30 AM.) At one point, the interviewer, who I believe was Sway, asked RZA what current albums were his favorites. His response? “Lauryn Hill.” Sway, caught off-guard, responded along the lines of, “You mean Miseducation…yea that’s the joint right there.” But Rza quickly corrected him, noting that he was referring to Lauryn’s second album, the divisive, largely viewed as disappointing, Unplugged. It was a telling moment for me in understanding the RZA. He was lauding, in fact defending, an album made by another artist whose earlier work was held in the highest regard in the hip-hop community, yet now faced criticism from fans for releasing material that was too inaccessible and too far astray from her former successes. Sound familiar? It should, because Rza has been facing similar criticisms since The W dropped, which have only increased in the last seven years. If anything, the daggers aimed at RZA cut deeper, because the summit of Rza’s genius reaches even higher levels than Ms. Lauryn. From 1993 to 1997, he had the greatest sustained run of production in hip-hop history. Only Premier, Dre, and maybe Timbaland can **** with him in terms of classic songs and albums. Unlike Dre or Timbaland, accessibility has never been his calling card. What has made him great is the ability to continually push the envelope in terms of production. Take a beat like “Verbal Intercourse,” an incredible mish-mash of horn, bass, and ear-splitting violin, with a clip of “what is he…oh I love him,” looped over and over. These dissonant parts become sonic perfection providing the perfect backdrop for one of rap’s great songs. This style of mixing and matching dark bass lines with random noise has been extremely influential in modern hip-hop production. Still, no one mastered it quite like the RZA, and many a producer has failed in attempting to build beats out of such disharmonies. The problem with these types of beats is that if one part doesn’t mix in quite right, the whole piece falls apart. These beats lack the catchy melodies of say a “Hate it Or Love It.” Without a melody to easily grasp on to, the listener must put in work; it often takes ten or more spins to fully dissect all the parts of the beat and understand what is going on. And in some ways, this listening experience is becoming outdated. In 2007, where you can download the album two weeks before it drops and fill a hard drive with every major release, most fans do not have the time or patience for that ****. Summary judgments are made on albums before they are even released. This doesn’t mean that the production on 8 Diagrams is on par with Liquid Swords or Return to the 36 Chambers, and the fault lies solely with the lazy listener. There are some egregious errors, like splicing in the sampled chorus between every…single… verse on “Life Changes,” that ruins the songs emotional punch. And if anything, it seems that RZA’s trying too hard to build the perfect beat out of different parts, songs like “Rushing Elephants,” have so much going on in them that you feel exhausted after trying to pick them apart. Rza’s forgotten that for every “Verbal Intercourse,” to his credit, there’s a “Shadowboxin’” a simpler, dissonant beat that allows the MCs to shine over the production. And with the greatest group of rhyming talent ever collected ready to rip his beats, why wouldn’t he do that? Still, when RZA’s meshing works on 8 Diagrams the results are still incredible. “Stick Me For My Riches,” is the best example, where a soul sample mixes with a No Limit-esque high-hat and what sound like video-game sound effects. “Campfire,” harkens back to “Cold World” off Liquid Swords, with a violin over a cappella singers and movie clips spliced in. “Gun Will Go,” fuses the two styles, the violins and warrior code overtones with a soul singer on the chorus. That’s why claims that the album was unfocused (a sentiment I shared on the first few listens,) are missing the point. The album is focused around making the most mind-blowing, weird yet dope production possible. In releasing the first major Clan album in 6 years, RZA is trying to recapture all the past glory of albums past in 14 songs. It’s not a lack of focus, it’s having unreasonable expectations. What RZA needs to do is remember that, even if he led Wu-Tang to hip-hop glory, he couldn’t have done it without the help of his MCs. The rhyming on 8 Diagrams from Deck, Meth, Rae, Ghost, and Masta Killa shows that there are still plenty of shots left in the chamber. If RZA can remember that they should be the focus, he still has a five star production left in him. It’s hard to be humble for a genius and certainly RZA ‘s confident in what he is doing. Sometimes though, you have to bow to the wisdom of the crowd. |
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