Archive Review: Ghostface Killah's Supreme Clientele (2001)

The Wu-Tang Clan revolutionized rap music in a way that trailblazers like Public Enemy, Run-DMC, or NWA can’t match. Using the multiple MC approach of NWA as a blueprint, the Clan mixed gangsta-rap roots with kung-fu chop-sockey mythology and ‘90s-aware style, launching hip-hop into the commercial stratosphere in the process. If anything, Wu-Tang suffered from an overabundance of talent, a wealth that has resulted in Clan solo albums of varying success and substance.

Ghostface Killah’s 1996 debut Iron Man surprised many with its depth and passion and it quickly copped Platinum™ sales status. After working on a number of other album projects, Killah is back with his sophomore effort, Supreme Clientele and, if the rapper doesn’t stray far from the style of his debut here, the good news is that he’s not resting on his laurels, either.

A rock-solid collection of songs, Killah raps solo on a number of cuts, notably the soulful, 1970s-styled “One” and the “In the Rain,” which waxes old school with the addition of former Detroit Wheels guitarist Dennis Coffey, with backing vocals by the Dramatics. An homage to fallen comrades Tupac and Notorious B.I.G. “In the Rain” is a heady brew, indeed. Collaborations on Supreme Clientele include the energetic “Apollo Kids” with Wu-mate Raekwon and “Deck’s Beat” with 60 Second Assassin.

Method Man, Superb, Redman, GZA, and Cappadonna also make cameos here while Killah enlisted the talents of producers like Ju-Ju of the Beatnuts, Inspectah Deck, UMC’s Hassan, and Wu-wizard The RZA to bring his vision to fruition. The result is a hardcore mix of rhyme and rhythm, Supreme Clientele another notch in the Wu-Tang Clan’s collective belts. (Razor Sharp Records, released August 20, 2001)

Review originally published by Alt.Culture.Guide™, 2001

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Archive Review: Wu-Tang Clan's Wu-Tang Forever (1997)

The long-awaited Wu-Tang Clan sophomore effort is a mixed bag of viciously brilliant rhymes, searing hip-hop and insipid pop-culture philosophy. When they’re at the top of their game, Wu-Tang provide rap with a social conscious without peer; at their worst, the most successful collection of rap talent to ever be caught on disc is laughingly inept.

Wu-Tang Forever suffers from its length, with twenty-seven pieces stretched over two discs that could just as easily been distilled into one monster of an album. Instead, the listener is forced to accept the good (“As High As Wu-Tang Get,” “Triumph”) along with the bad (“Little Ghetto Boys,” “Second Coming”) as Wu-Tang Forever indeed seems to sometimes play on forever – and in my book, any group (rap or rock) that resorts to incorporating the insufferable “McArthur Park” in all of its sickening vapidness into a song deserves to meet an ignoble death.

Although still the premiere group working in rap today, the Wu-Tang Clan seems to have stitched this reunion effort together piece-by-piece rather than creating a seamless artistic tapestry like their mega-platinum debut. Also, although I have no problem with bands marketing themselves through clothing and other paraphernalia – “wu-wear” is offered both through the enclosed CD booklet and online through a dedicated web site – to include America Online software as part of Wu-Tang Forever’s “enhanced CD” is really a tad much, offering more of a high-tech come-on to monied middle class rap wanna-bes than to providing a meaningful artistic connection to the African-American portion of their audience. (Loud Records, released June 3, 1997)

Review previously unpublished

Buy the CD from Amazon.com: Wu-Tang Clan’s Wu-Tang Forever