Sach O won’t shut up about this thing.
“Surgical Gloves”
45. The beat to Surgical Gloves would be more impressive had I not heard Alchemist chop up this same synth beyond recognition several times on his own album. Still bangs but it sticks out like a sore thumb, whereas the rest of the album’s production flows naturally without calling attention to each individual producer.
46. Thankfully Rae comes through with the rhymes. Could have used a guest verse though. It’s not that Raekwon can’t hold down a song for dolo, but when his verses don’t have the benefit of narrative they often blend together. Subsequently, his non-story tracks sound better when he edits his parts down and lets other emcees fill in the blanks. Besides, having an extra voice on here might tie it to the album and keep it from sounding like something they held back from Chemical Warfare, which they probably did.
47. I love that the hooks on this album have more words than most current major label rap verses. The only way you know the chorus hit is that the vocals double.
48. Peep the background vocals on the last chorus. I can’t tell if that’s Rae or if he brought his crew in the booth with a couple of beers on some Illmatic shit.
“Broken Safety”
49. I was really worried about Scram Jones having beats on this thing but “Broken Safety” is as good as anything else, and it’s a large part of why Jada and Styles’ guest spots don’t feel out of place. Props due.
50. Every time the Lox guest on a Wu-Tang album I’m reminded of how much less charismatic they are then their immediate predecessors. D-Block: possibly the most workmanlike rap group ever assembled. They DO know how to rap about drug sales though and that’s pretty much what this track needs; I don’t think Deck and Cappadonna would have significantly improved the proceedings anyways.
51. In fact, I think Styles is channeling Cappa with his choppy cadence, strangely high-pitched voice and “Brown rectangles” line. Jada doesn’t really channel anyone but thrives in 16 bar doses. Both of them get severely outshined by Chef.
“Canal Street”
52. “All of our fathers was bank robbers”
53. If this album doesn’t sell, Raekwon should consider licensing the instrumentals for Spike Lee’s Inside Man sequel. “Canal Street” sounds like a blacksploitation epic. Has Rae ever considered producing a bio-pic? Cuban Linx: the movie could be AT LEAST as interesting as Notorious. Hell, if Rza’s kung fu flick turns out alright they can keep it in-Clan and have him direct.
54. “All we wear is Fila and Guess?” I appreciate fashion advice Rae, but in 09 I think Ima stick with Ghost’s Lo collection.
55. “Canal Street” and “Surgical Gloves” are dope but they can’t keep up the momentum built up by the album’s first half. That tracks that would easily be the highlights of contemporary AZ or even Gza albums are close to “filler” here shows the kind of heat Rae was working with.
56. “Niggas is poo-put”.
“Ason Jones”
57. Ason Jones is a much better ODB tribute than Life Changes because it’s actually about Dirty’s life instead of his passing and how everybody else in the Clan felt about it (spoiler: they were saddened). That and there’s no grating chorus every 20 seconds.
58. This is closer to the kind of production you might expect from late period Dilla with a treble heavy soul sample looping under boom-bap drums. The original source sounds like a swinging slow jam, I can’t imagine it was easy to flip that into 4-4 boom-bap.
59. The Dirty monologues between the verses are a great look, capturing his craziness without the self-parody of his later years.
60. ODB was 5’7? I can’t believe we never got a Short Dog/Dirt Dog collaboration out of that fact. No I don’t care if that doesn’t actually make sense, I just want a Too $hort/ODB collabo. Is that too much to ask?
61. I’m really glad Raekwon didn’t “no homo” the line about kissing ODB. No homo.
“Have Mercy”
62. Hey! Blue Raspberry! I thought she was relegated to dropping R&B hooks on Demigodz albums.
63. Raekwon the Chef and Beanie Sigel: best of both bearded, slightly overweight, vividly descriptive east coast gangster rappers.
64. They attack the track in different ways: Beans is on edge, rattling off a list of jail related ills with the kind of intensity last seen in ’05–when he was actually fighting a murder charge. Conversely, Rae raps from the outside looking in, with the resignation of someone who feels trapped in the free world. Bodies get chopped in lobbies, opponents bleed ceasarian and you can get a hole right in your derriere. You can go from a cell to the streets to the cuffs in two days…and yet he can’t help but describe his hood as illustrious.
65. This beat is closer to the kind of muted soul Easy Mo Bee was pushing on Ready to Die than a Cuban Linx beat but that doesn’t take anything away from it.
