After Wu-Tang Clan’s second album Wu-Tang Forever marked the end of the RZA’s five-year plan, the
generals dispersed to focus on their own projects. RZA, freed from the
responsibility of overseeing every Wu-Tang solo album, turned his attention to
an odd but worthwhile solo project, Bobby
Digital in Stereo, and to expanding the Wu-Tang empire. RZA’s two record
labels, Wu-Tang Records (distributed by Priority/EMI) and Razor Sharp Records
(distributed by Epic) began putting out records by members of the Wu-Tang
b-team, the Killa Bees.[1]
Great albums by affiliates like Killarmy, Sunz of Man, and Shyheim are minor
classics of the post-Forever period,
but no Killa Bee album[2]
was better than Cappadonna’s 1998 debut The
Pillage.[3]
Cappadonna was on a hot streak leading up to The Pillage, with incredible verses on Only Built 4 Cuban Linx… and Ironman (including the best verse he’s
ever spit, on “Winter Warz”), and aside from a few bum tracks The Pillage lived up to his early promise.
The album’s first track[4]
“Slang Editorial” introduced fans to Cappadonna the solo artist. Wu-Element producer
True Master’s O.V. Wright sampling beat lurches uneasily with the horn sample
frequently cutting off abruptly, a perfect fit for Cappadonna’s occasionally
(but endearingly) awkward flow and claims that his and the rest of the Clan’s
lyrics would set black people free.[5]
The Pillage went
Gold and marked the end of Cappadonna’s rise. Having peaked early, the quality
of his rapping grew wildly inconsistent, and his second solo album, 2001’s The Yin and the Yang, was terrible. A
string of more bad solo records was interrupted by a brief and supposedly
self-imposed period of homelessness and he all but disappeared from
Clan-affiliated records. His time away seemed to improve his abilities, and he
returned with great verses on 8 Diagrams,
Only Built 4 Cuban Linx… Pt. II, and Apollo Kids, and the lackluster The Pilgrimage and Eyrth, Wynd, and Fyre albums haven’t done too much to dampen
excitement among Wu-Tang stans for Cappa’s long-in-the-works sequel to The Pillage.
Unfortunately, “Slang Editorial Part 2,” the first song from
The Pillage 2, is awful. DJ Intrigue’s
beat features practically non-existent drums, an obnoxious and poorly chopped
up vocal sample over the same horn sample used in the first “Slang Editorial,”
and an amateurish and sloppy scratch hook. Lyrically, Cappadonna isn’t much
more than a shell of his former self, but he shows brief flashes of the fire
behind some of his recent guest verses. The song’s association with The Pillage and the original “Slang
Editorial” ultimately highlights “Slang Editorial Part 2”’s faults in a way
that wouldn’t have happened if this was just another average late period
Cappadonna song.
Raekwon set the bar so high with his own sequel to his
classic debut that any rapper trying to do the same has no choice but to rise
to those standards.[6] I
really hope The Pillage 2 turns out
well. Cappa’s been working hard the past few years, and he deserves a win, but
with “Slang Editorial Part 2” he isn’t doing anything to prove that he has it
in him anymore.
[1]
U-God, apparently the only Clan member unable to get a record deal with a major
label, also put out his debut solo album through Wu-Tang Records.
[2] With
the possible exception of Killah Priest’s Heavy
Mental.
[3]
Cappadonna’s status as the tenth member of the Wu-Tang Clan has been all over
the place over the last decade and a half, but at this time he was still being
listed as a featured artist on Clan albums so I’m counting him as a Killa Bee.
[4]
Also the first of two singles from the album.
[5]
The video also notably featured Tony Sirico, best known for playing Paulie
Walnuts on The Sopranos, in one of
many “generic mafia guy” roles he’s played throughout his career.
[6] I’m
looking at you Ghostface and GZA. Supreme
Clientele 2 and Liquid Swords 2
better be mind-blowing if they ever come out.
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