When Puffy set the mark. Many of his peers went with the flow as most of the releases consisted of nothing but sampling pop tunes, rhyming about how much money you have and not focusing on the harsh realities. Many hardcore rap acts(Mainly the West Coast) got thrown in the backburner because the Industry seen the mark Puff set and wanted to cash in.
Theres alot of dope songs on the first disc so that makes it more superb, You also have Cash Still Rules which is basically a sequel to C.R.E.A.M. featuring Method Man, Raekwon and a standout performance from Ghostface Killah who stepped up his Rap Game on this album and straight up blazed the joint and completely blacked out. Visionz which is the next track is where Method Man shines the brightest, To all those critics who think Method Man has sold out or came soft at the time needed to hear this verse.
The other half of the 2nd disc has the Clan going back to basic and showcasing their skills and letting rappers know that their united and show no love to wack rappers. The MGM has a very hot concept where Ghost and Raekwon are talking about scrapping. The back and forth between Ghost shows that their chemistry is up there with Dre and Snoop. Mix that along with he crowd background noises and the rings of a ringbell bring a visual that a fight is really occurring.
Duck Season is a pretty good song where Meth, Rae and RZA throw their lyrical darts come off sharp lyrically but its Hellz Wind Staff thats much more sicker. The Kung Fu samples were present on here and the beat has this dark up tempo feel to it. INS and Ghostface literally wrecked this track
Overall This is one of the best albums to have dropped in 1997, I felt that this album was released ahead of his time. Proved that despite the forever changing rap climate that Wu Tang will always have their deserved spot.
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