8 Diagrams

I just grabbed an advance copy of the new Wu Tang album -- 8 Diagrams. There's also a mixtape to accompany it, which was mixed by Mathematics.

The mixtape is OK. I thought that the first half of it was a lot stronger than the stuff on the back end. It's got a few songs from old Wu or solo work pasted onto to new beats. Some of the these work better than others. I wouldn't be exaggerating if I said most mix-tapes are better than the actually album. Fortunately, this is not true here.

All the surviving members of the Clan are present. There is a tribute to ODB that is bit of a posse cut. The album is also note worthy because it has the first officially cleared sample of the Beatles. The RZA sampled "As my guitar gently weeps" for "The Heart Gently Weeps". Its kind of mellow, but in a real gangsta Wu Tang sort of way.

I would have figured that the Ghostface Killah and Raekwon would have been heavily featured on the tracks before I listened to it. But it turns out that the Method Man probably gets more verses than them. It's probably Meth's best showing in a quite a while. It's refreshing to hear Masta Killa, U God and Inspecta Deck also get some verses. There are a few RZA stream of conciousness flows. Ghostface and Rae also get their share and deliver. It almost easy to forget the GZA because he's just so calm and understated by nature. In any event, all of them are in top form.

The production is kind of what you would expect from the RZA -- snippets from Kung Fu movies, samples of shaolin soul -- but just to cross you up he's got a beat with a little bit of crunk in it.

I really liked this. I don't think that there's a song that just blows you away, but when you step back and look at the whole piece its really solid. There's nothing really disappointing on this.