There Is No Thirteenth Day of Wu-Mas 2025

 

Yep, another Wu-Mas has successfully come and gone. It's time to take down the tree, throw away the platters of cookies and gin that were set by the fire, and put the sheet over the golden eagle's birdcage. We're done. It's over. Onward to 2026!

This site's going to take a bit of a break now, but don't worry: the Patreon will still get regular updates, and I might just add some stuff here if I get bored and/or ambitious again. For now, though, some well-deserved rest.

I want to thank all of you for continuing to support this site through the Wu-Mas shenanigans, through all of last year with the Wu-Wednesday side project, which I found fun and enjoyable except for all those instances when I was in a time crunch and deadlines were hovering over me like that dark cloud that follows us all wherever we go, and just through my idiosyncratic publication schedule as of the past few years. I know that I keep reminding you all to sign up for the Patreon (there's a free tier, and I do plan on releasing some of the older reviews there, I swear), but the fact that folks still visit this site even without the constant updates hits me hard. I appreciate all of the support, even if you're just coming here to fight with a younger version of me that no longer exists.

So no reviews (here) and no RandoMax Radio episodes. What now? Well, I haven't figured all of that out just yet, but with regard to the Wu-Wednesdays series, there is a running playlist over on both Spotify and YouTube Music that will continue to receive updates until every episode is represented in some way. I would actually suggest that you go with the YouTube version, because there are a lot more of the songs available there, and I plan on housing the RandoMax Radio and Max-Approved Mix playlists there once I've tweaked them a bit. Also, other stuff that has been running through my mind (different radio playlists? Artist-specific lists? Who knows?), so stick around and maybe I'll get my shit together long enough to keep you both entertained this year.

Again, thanks for everything. This isn't goodbye, this is "I'm over on a different site, come find me there, but if not, that's cool too." Hit me in the comments if you have any questions, concerns, suggestions, or simply want to chat. I'm around.

-Max

The Twelve Days of Wu-Mas 2025 - Day #12

Supreme Clientele 2 is the long-awaited sequel to Ghostface Killah's widely-praised second solo album, Supreme Clientele. Sure, that project was released in 2000 while its follow-up just dropped as a part of the 2025 Legend Has It... series Mass Appeal commissioned last year, but time is relative, right? The common denominator is Ghostface Killah, surely he is fully capable of recording and releasing a sequel to a beloved album without falling down the same booby traps as his peers in the rap game who tried to do the exact same shit, right?

I mean, it worked for Raekwon, right?

Supreme Clientele 2 allegedly features tracks that Ghost had tucked away over the course of the past quarter-century just in case this specific project ever came to pass, which helps explain why his voice changes throughout the album's twenty-two tracks.Unlike the original project, however, Ghost doesn't have the failsafe of an executive producer such as The RZA to help guide him through the goalposts, instead having to rely on his own creative mind, and look, all I'm saying is, RZA at least came back for Only Built 4 Cuban Linx... Pt. II.

Click here to read my thoughts on Supreme Clientele 2, a brand new Patreon post that has been unlocked for subscribers at every tier level, including "free", as a part of the 12 Days of Wu-Mas. Enjoy!

-Max

The Twelve Days of Wu-Mas 2025 - Day #11

Back in the late 1990's, RZA was working every angle he possibly could to reach his goal of complete world domination. He had actually managed to secure outside record deals with the rest of his Wu-Tang Clan brethren, so he figured he could do the same with the myriad affiliates the group had collected since their debut like so many grains of sand in their respective shoes after a trip to the beach. Groups Sunz of Man and Killarmy, both of which were comprised of members who would later bring their friends, and then they would bring their friends, into the hip hop sphere, were first, after which RZA laid his cards down with The Swarm, a compilation project featuring many of the lesser-known associates of the Wu all in one place. The Swarm, naturally, led to other acts, both individuals and groups, who would not only release their own projects, but then try to put their friends on, and then their seeds would marry the seeds of other affiliates, and that's how to keep Wu-Tang money all up in the family.

Anyway, the Wu-Syndicate was one of the recipients of a bump in interest post-The Swarm. The Virginia-based trio (why only two of the members made the album cover is a mystery to me - one could claim it's because the third was indisposed at the time of the photo shoot, but then why would he be in the liner notes as a part of the same setup/ Why did I have the bowl, Bart?), made up of rappers Joe Mafia, Myalansky, and Napoleon, were very loosely affiliated with the Clan, coming on to the scene through sheer willpower and a co-sign from RZA himself, which makes perfect sense when you remember that he was trying to expand his empire by any means necessary at the time. Wu-Syndicate specialized in criminal raps over harder beats, as their self-titled debut album would attest, and they frequently discussed not just the prizes they won from the street life, but also the sacrifices and losses that they suffered, which, I know, makes them sound like every other rap act in fucking history, which is why they didn't make it much further than this debut.

At least not until Black Stone of Mecca arrived on the scene...

Catch up with my thoughts on Wu-Syndicate, a Patreon-exclusive review that is now unlocked for subscribers at every tier, including "free". Enjoy!

-Max

The Twelve Days of Wu-Mas 2025 - Day #10

It may seem like there are a lot of Bronze Nazareth write-ups these days on the site, and you aren't wrong. The Grand Rapids, Michigan-based producer and emcee has quietly become one of the most prolific artists in our chosen culture, not just the Wu, whether he's offering production assistance to one of his many friends in the industry (typically handling the beats for entire full-length albums) or challenging himself by going in over someone else's instrumentals, the latter being an example of  what we're discussing today.

Bundle Raps is a collaboration between Bronzey and the UK-based producer-slash-rapper Leaf Dog (of the crew The Four Owls). Leaf's subdued, slightly drug-addled boom bap serves as the perfect foil for Bronze Nazareth's boasts-n-bullshit, whether he's promoting his prowess behind the microphone or adopting a more serious tone to talk about something important to him. Throughout the project is a running theme of drug trafficking, which I suppose was alluded to in the album's very title, which is pretty standard for hip hop, but these guys (and their invited guests, with even Leaf taking to the microphone occasionally) manage to make it sound anything but ordinary.

Click here to read my write-up for Bronze Nazareth and Leaf Dog's Bundle Raps, a former Patreon exclusive that has since been unlocked for subscribers at every tier, including free! Enjoy!

-Max

The Twelve Days of Wu-Mas 2025 - Day #9

The story goes like this: actor Tom Hardy has always been a fan of hip hop, underground hip hop in particular, and was particularly fond of this crew who named themselves Czarface, a comic book alien ambiguously-motivated hero-type, created as a love letter to the type of superheroes and supervillains rappers Esoteric and Inspectah Deck, along with producer DJ 7L, grew up reading about. Tom Hardy was the lead (and producer) of the film version of Marvel villain-slash-antihero Venom, an antagonist of Spider-Man comprised of a human man and an alien symbiote who grafts onto him in order to survive, but slowly begins shifting Brock's personality. That synopsis reads more horror-thriller than its execution, which ran with the whole "Spider-Man movie without Spider-Man" aesthetic, adopting a sarcastic tone with occasional extreme violence to keep the teenage boys off their goddamned phones for a moment.

Anyway, Venom was so successful that Sony Pictures commissioned a sequel, one for which Tom Hardy would continue to be a producer on, except now with much more authority to make creative decisions, such as influencing who gets included on the accompanying soundtrack. This is how Czarface made it to Hollywood, an event believed to be so unlikely when the crew originally linked up but now just seems like it was always a foregone conclusion, an event memorialized by the Good Guys, Bad Guys EP, a vinyl-exclusive extended version of a single of the same name released to streaming at the same time as the movie. The Czar boys may have been so thrilled that they extended an invitation to a certain actor to participate, as well...

Click here to catch up with my thoughts on the Good Guys, Bad Guys EP, a Patreon-exclusive write-up that has now been unlocked and is available for subscribers at every tier, including "free". Enjoy!

-Max
 

The Twelve Days of Wu-Mas 2025 - Day #8

 

Black Samson, the Bastard Swordsman is another one of those Wu-Tang Clan albums that isn't officially credited to the Clan proper for a variety of reasons, many of them having to do with its production process. An indirect follow-up to the 2017 compilation project The Saga Continues, Black Samson, the Bastard Swordsman is also entirely produced by Allah Mathematics, the Wu-Element who also serves as the group's tour DJ and is also responsible for creating the Wu-Tang logo, so to say that he was there from the very beginning is the mere definition of the word "understatement."

While not a sequel by any means, Black Samson, the Bastard Swordsman is advertised as being "from the The Saga Continues collection", which is Math's way of threatening us Wu stans with a good time. It purportedly features all nine living members of the Clan, making this the first project in a decade that they all appear on, doing so alongside a number of artists from outside the Wu bubble who share the gift of criminal slang and colorful metaphors, or so they'd hope.

Although my write-up for Black Samson, the Bastard Swordsman appears over on the Patreon, to help ring in the new year I've made that brand new post available to subscribers at every level, including free, so go ahead, click on the link, create an account if needed, and enjoy!

-Max

The Twelve Days of Wu-Mas 2025 - Day #7

Today's Wu-Mas gift is something that I've been working toward for just over a year now, and... well, would you look at that, today just so happens to be Wednesday.

Huh.