Wu Tang Clan
8 Diagrams
9/10
Its not so much that Wu Tang Clan ain’t nothing to fuck with, it’s more a question of who would want to? With sick samples of While My Guitar Gently Weeps, guest appearances by George Clinton, and a an ode to ODB that would make my head bob more if it wasn’t so fucking depressing, 8 Diagrams is pretty fucking solid. However, other than a few threatening lyrics, I don’t understand this rep they’ve developed in the Young Republican crowd that they are ultra-thugged out gangstas who want nothing but to beat bitches and slap some hoes. Switching from funky to old school hi-hat beats, Wu Tang show that they aren’t just inner-circle fights and overdubbed martial arts films, though there are plenty of interludes featuring the latter of the two. With a vocabulary that can rival a college thesaurus, RZA, GZA, Ghostface and the billion other people on the record show that it’s not always tricky to rock a rhyme, if you’re the best.
-Jonathan Yost