A Week With Wu-Tang Clan's "8 Diagrams": Day 4
5 May 2008
tell your friends...
Words by Todd Olmstead // Illustration by Sean Duggan
RZA, as a producer, has always been extravagant, flaunting his singular vision as both an artistic movement and as well as a veritable hip hop mogul (“Father of the hip hop renaissance”), as if he sees himself as a face on a future Mount Rushmore of rap. I’m not necessarily one to disagree, but that’s a different argument altogether. There are times at which, much as it has hindered him in the past on lackluster solo projects, his undeniable genius is hampered by his egoism here. Nowhere is this more blatant than on “Sunlight,” a RZA solo rap stream about praising Allah and who knows what else. With no one but the RZA rapping, the beat is wasted – or is it the other way around? It’s well documented that RZA can be hit or miss as an MC, so to listen to him go for three minutes against a vapid beat is tiring, and not surprisingly I find myself skipping over it 9 times out of 10. The abbot himself would probably defend it as the pinnacle of his vision, the combining of his spirituality with his art, so on and so forth, to which I say, “Could you just not get anyone to come into the studio that day?” It’s the same thing I wonder on “Unpredictable.” Why just Deck and RZA? No one else showed up that day, and RZA said, “Alright Deck, looks like it’s just you and me.” It just doesn’t add up. There are some judgment lapses that make you ask, “Really? Is that the best that you could do?” Take “Starter” for example. Despite being the most inane lyrical content of anything Wu has ever done, it features GZA, U-God, Inspectah Deck, and Streetlife. GZA mails it in like LeBron used to do. You can almost see him in the booth, scowling at RZA saying to himself, “This is the best you could give me on this track?” As I’ve mentioned before, U-God admirably does his best to energize this record throughout, but to mistake him for a premier MC is an epic mistake. Streetlife’s inclusion is laughable amidst such a weak supporting cast and Deck’s trademark intensity is wholly lost on this track. There’s a reason he’s on “Unpredictable” but not “The Heart Gently Weeps.” So, I don’t mean to pick too many bones when I’ve gone on record to say that I think this is a modern Wu-masterpiece. But there are a lot of questions I can’t ignore. Most glaringly undeniable is why Ghostface is missing from “Life Changes,” the O.D.B. tribute that closes the album. I mean, if you were going to plan an extravagant seven-minute tribute track, wouldn’t you make damn sure your best MC was represented on it? Who’s at fault for this unforgivable omission – RZA or Ghostface – will probably never come out, but it makes you truly wonder what was going on in the Wu world that let this happen. Couple that with the fact that “Life Changes” also happens to be overtly overlookable – it serves its purpose merely by existing but requires no more than a few listens – and more than ever, RZA begs the question, “why?”
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