The 12 Hours of Wu-Tang: #12 - My Gut Reaction: Wu-Tang - The Saga Continues (October 13, 2017)

The final write-up of the day goes to the Wu-Tang Clan proper, although it isn’t a real Clan album. Instead, it’s a compilation put together by producer (and the group’s longtime deejay) Allah Mathematics, The Saga Continues, which received the blessing of The RZA early on in the recording process, because there’s no goddamn way Prince Rakeem will ever record another Wu-Tang Clan album that sounds like their older, much more revered work. Let’s just say they won’t be touring to celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of A Better Tomorrow when the time comes.

Unlike Allah Math’s other albums, on which Wu members and his own friends rapped over his production, The Saga Continues follows an actual theme: in an effort to help with 2018’s planned celebrations of all things Wu, Mathematics wanted to put together an actual Clan album that featured the classic sound that everyone claims they miss from the group. The RZA gave the project the green light, as he realized, in an rare moment of self-reflection, that he had moved so far away from the Wu-Tang sound throughout his career that it would make no sense for him to try to return to it, whereas Math had never stopped creating it in the first place. So over the course of a couple of years, Math convinced every Wu member (except for U-God, who was in the middle of yet another battle over finances with The RZA) to contribute to what eventually became The Saga Continues.

Unlike his other projects, Mathematics is not the credited artist for The Saga Continues, although he produced it in its entirety: that distinction instead goes to the Clan, as his intention was to not only showcase their individual talents, but to also give the Wu stans another group album. He claims that the only reason the album is credited to “Wu-Tang” and not “Wu-Tang Clan” is because U-God’s absence prevents it from being a true Clan project, an explanation that makes some sense when one considers those two Wu spinoff albums executive produced by Fizzy Womack, Wu-Tang Chamber Music and Legendary Weapons, neither of which were attributed to the proper group. However, that’s just bullshit spin for the marketing materials: the lack of RZA production makes this not a true Wu-Tang Clan album, a fact that, weirdly, U-God supports, as he, along with myself and a growing number of others, believes that Once Upon A Time In Shaolin (another project intended to help celebrate the Wunniversary) is just a Cilvaringz compilation album and not an official Wu project, as it doesn’t feature the input of any actual Clan members aside from contributed verses.

The Saga Continues was met with critical praise, mostly from older heads who want to hear the Clan over their classic sword-bap sound. If any of the Wu-Elements producers would have an idea of how to recreate the Clan’s groundbreaking efforts, it would be Allah Mathematics, the man who was around the group since day one, even going so far as to create the group’s own logo, one that is still used to this day. Shit, I hope he’s getting residuals for that – I mean, you can buy Wu-Tang Clan shirts at Target these days.

1. WU-TANG THE SAGA CONTINUES INTRO (FEAT. THE RZA)

Kung-fu flick samples and a RZA introduction over a decent instrumental. Already this seems to be more promising than A Better Tomorrow. I’m just saying.

2. LESSON LEARN’D (FEAT. INSPECTAH DECK & REDMAN)

It’s a weird choice to open what is ostensibly a Wu-Tang Clan album with a song that prominently features Redman. It’s even stranger to select it as a single. But if you buy into Reggie Noble’s claims of being the eleventh member of the group, I suppose it makes more sense. Over a soulful loop with drums Mathematics may have lifted from the Wu’s own “Careful (Click, Click)”, Deck and Reggie, a tag team I didn’t know I wanted to hear more from until I wrote this sentence, each deliver a single verse with the swagger that only veterans can provide. “Lesson Learn’d” (not sure why they couldn’t just say “learned” there) could possibly be the first time listeners have heard the Rebel INS outside of a Czarface project, so he makes it count, taking his trash, dropping references to television shows, and even taking a quick shot at the former owner of Once Upon A Time In Shaolin, Martin Shkreli, about whom Deck clearly has an opinion, even if he’s still keeping it relatively close to the vest for now. Reggie’s verse (and hook) establish the playful, yet threatening tine of both “Lesson Learn’d” and The Saga Continues proper, and he ends the song with an extended introduction-slash-shout –out to Mathematics himself, which, let’s be real, I would have left on the album too.

3. FAST AND FURIOUS (FEAT. HUE HEF & RAEKWON)

I see Mathematics couldn’t resist making the project all about him, as “Fast and Furious” features one of his friends, Hue Hef, alongside Raekwon, who agreed to be here for some reason. The beat is bland, and both artists suffer for it. Hefner opts to use his verse to describe a drug deal gone awry when he gets into an argument with his girlfriend, which isn’t a bad idea, but the fact that he makes it a point to appear superhuman when the guns come out signals some insecurity about his own writing. Chef Raekwon fares better at least with the pen, turning in a verse that details being kidnapped while out of town on business (read: selling drugs), only for the kidnappers to end up being the feds. The storytelling was alright here. The song, however, was not.

4. FAMOUS FIGHTERS (SKIT)

More kung-fu flick samples. Brings a certain nostalgic charm, but I want to hear actual rapping.

5. IF TIME IS MONEY (FLY NAVIGATION) (FEAT. METHOD MAN)

Method Man performs solo on “If Time Is Money (Fly Navigation)”, a one-verse wonder equipped with a chorus. He sounds pretty good, even as he runs with a pun based off of the title of the show Fuller House, but Allah Math’s musical backing is pretty goddamn fucking boring. If you grew up with the Wu-Tang Clan, then you’re old now (like me), but that doesn’t mean we suddenly need to hear Method Man over a beat that sounds like adult contemporary boom bap. Just give us the good shit! I know some of you two will likely enjoy the slower pace of this track, as it gives Meth’s bars room to breathe. I say, fuck that shit, this song sucked.

6. FROZEN (FEAT. METHOD MAN, KILLAH PRIEST, & CHRIS RIVERS)

Meth sounds okay here, too, and the inclusion of Killah Priest and Chris Rivers (the second appearance of the late Big Pun’s son on the blog today, weird) is kind of fun, but “Frozen” is tanked by its nonsensical chorus, which is performed by Raekwon and Ghostface Killah, who clearly didn’t share a studio with each other, let alone the other participants, as they are wholly disconnected from the proceedings. At least that’s how they appear to have been mixed: I find it hard to believe that Mathematics wanted Ghost to sound that jarring on here. His beat was otherwise fine: it was a simple loop, but the Wu can destroy on these, so that isn’t a concern. The rest of this album, however, has just become one.

7. BERTO AND THE FIEND (FEAT. GHOSTFACE KILLAH)

The hell? This isn’t a Ghostface Killah solo album. The fuck is this kind of interlude doing on The Saga Continues?

8. PEARL HARBOR (FEAT. GHOSTFACE KILLAH, METHOD MAN, THE RZA, & SEAN PRICE)

For seemingly no reason, Ghostface drops a reference to Santa Claus during his hook, which makes this review oddly timely. Anyway, Math’s instrumental is pretty good on here, combining a guitar riff with a slower drum loop as Method Man, The RZA, and the late Sean Price march toward rap dominance. Not sure why Pretty Toney only performs on the chorus, but everyone else sounded pretty good: Method Man apparently came to Allah Math’s recording sessions with something to prove, and it shows in his performance, while RZA makes a bizarre and ugly comment about Lady Gaga during a more-aggressive-than-normal verse. Sean P’s posthumous contribution makes me sad that we’ll never get a full-on album-length Wu/Sean price collaboration, but what we receive here was great. About fucking time.

9. PEOPLE SAY (FEAT. WU-TANG CLAN & REDMAN)

The first single from The Saga Continues is credited to the entire group for some reason, but features Meth (shit, why wasn’t this just a Meth x Math project? By the way, that’s an excellent title, you’re welcome to use that), Raekwon, Inspectah Deck, and Masta Killa over a soul sample cribbed from The Diplomats ‘ “I’ve Got That Kind of Love” (featuring Jim Jones), accompanied by some kung-fu flick sound bites, the honorary Reggie Noble, and even the late Ol’ Dirty Bastard during the outro. Now that sounds like a party. Thankfully, everyone sounds pretty energized on here, especially Redman, who’s more alert on “People Say” than on any of the songs he’s released recently in the lead-up to Muddy Waters Too. Runs at a slower pace than my favorite Wu tracks, but it does reintroduce the Clan rather nicely.

10. FAMILY (SKIT)

…

11. WHY WHY WHY (FEAT. THE RZA & SWNKAH)

Essentially a RZA solo song, with guest Swnkah along for the ride during the chorus (she also provides her own verse as well), one that starts off with Prince Rakeem condemning racism but veers into “I have a daughter, so now I’m concerned with how these strippers are being treated as human beings”-territory. That’s not a joke: Bobby literally wonders aloud what fathers would think if they knew their daughters were sexually active. It’s bizarre. He sounded okay, but thankfully the reggae-tinged “Why Why Why” isn’t very good, so there’s no need for anybody to ever hear this.

12. G’D UP (FEAT. METHOD MAN, MZEE JONES, & R-MEAN)

Meth (once again – shit, this is getting exhausting) returns for “G’d Up”, a duet with Los Angeles-based Armenian rapper R-Mean (with crooner Mzee Jones performing on the hook), and while the Mathematics instrumental wasn’t the most memorable, the performances were pretty entertaining. Method Man fucking kills it during his opening verse, revealing a slightly darker side that hasn’t really been seen since the “Torture” skit on Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers), and R-Mean’s verse was pretty goddamn impressive for a dude who hasn’t been doing this shit nearly as long as our hosts. I do wish the beat had been more engaging, though. Also, instead of sampling some older Raekwon vocals for the bridge, why not just ask the Chef to drop by the studio for a couple of hours?

13. IF WHAT YOU SAY IS TRUE (FEAT. WU-TANG CLAN & STREETLIFE)

Method Man does not appear on “If What You Say Is True”, a song built around the kung-fu sample that famously opens side one, track one of Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers), “Bring Da Ruckus” (except instead of using said sample, the dialogue is recited, which was unsettling), but his boy Streetlife is here to keep the Johnny Blaze flag waving, but I like Streetlife, as he’s one of the better Wu weed carriers, so I’m okay with this development. Over a moody, moving Math beat, Street, along with Cappadonna and Masta Killa, talk their shit like the rap veterans they’ve all become at this point, with the GZA stopping by for eight bars just so nobody can accuse him of not being a team player. Math uses another Ol’ Dirty Bastard vocal to close the track, which then runs for an additional minute with just an unobstructed instrumental, so there was plenty of room for Meth to have jumped on if that was something he wanted to do. Not bad.

14. SAGA (SKIT) (FEAT. THE RZA)

The RZA’s spoken word-slash-verse during the intro having been abruptly cut off, Allah Math plays it back during this mid-album skit, just in case you all wanted some semblance of closure.

15. HOOD GO BANG! (FEAT. REDMAN & METHOD MAN)

Don’t be fooled by that guest list – “Hood Go Bang!” is a Method Man one-verse wonder bookended by a chorus from Reggie Noble, one that sucks. It’s sad to see such promise go to waste, as Allah Math’s loop is entertaining and Meth, in what is his final appearance of the project (if not the evening – more on that in a bit), once again proves his naysayers wrong with a fire verse that makes me wonder just how it’s even possible that he’s somehow gotten better with time, especially with all of his Hollywood distractions keeping him from the studio.

16. MY ONLY ONE (FEAT. GHOSTFACE KILLAH, THE RZA, CAPPADONNA, & STEVEN LATORRE)

The best instrumental of the evening comes packaged with the commercially-accessible love rap “My Only One”. Yeah, Math and the Wu managed to sneak one of these onto The Saga Continues. But it’s really fucking good, even though The RZA’s contribution is more of a lust rap (one with some overly-sexual but possibly nightmarish imagery – “She had a couch in the library / And a bed that led to a cemetery”). I’m not sure who crooner Steven Latorre is, but his vocals on here sounded great, and Ghostface Killah and Cappadonna turn in yet another version of their “Camay”, albeit one now celebrating independent women who know their shit. Not only was all of this pretty fantastic (even RZA’s verse is kind of fire), Math lets the beat ride at the end, just so the listener can appreciate just how good it truly is.

17. MESSAGE

Gotcha! This is just an interlude.

18. THE SAGA CONTINUES OUTRO (FEAT. THE RZA)

This RZA performance, which is somehow still going on, seems like the man’s attempt at bookending The Saga Continues with a Jay-Z “Hova Song”-esque intro and outro. It also cuts off suddenly, so my guess is that Math just didn’t really know how to close this project out and decided to just pull the plug arbitrarily.

THE LAST WORD: The Saga Continues is just a slightly more concise version of one of Mathematics’ earlier projects, one with far more Wu involvement. As such, there are some songs on here that go absolutely nowhere, and some of the choices are puzzling at best. Featuring Redman on three tracks is something I usually welcome, but the man is utterly wasted on “Hood Go Bang!”, and also, you managed to get Reggie Noble for three days but couldn’t convince actual founding member GZA to give you more than eight bars? However, when Math fires on all cylinders, and his collaborators are game, what we mostly end up with is an awfully entertaining album that captures the overall spirit, if not the sound, of early Wu: “Pearl Harbor” is a keeper, along with “Lesson Learn’d” (which should have been one of the songs our host remixed later – more on those below) and “My Only One”, which is, no lie, really fucking good. Method Man is on fucking fire throughout The Saga Continues, as is the Rebel INS and Reggie: everyone else is just kind of there, providing verses of varying degrees of quality. Fans of Raekwon and Ghostface Killah will likely walk away from this project disappointed, as Mathematics couldn’t convince either man to give it their all. The RZA’s verses are decent enough, as though outsourcing the music allowed him time to write. And the other Clan members not named U-God also appear, although he isn’t exactly missed. Overall, The Saga Continues contains a few fun songs, but this is a victory lap for the Clan, not a reunion, and anyone who picked this up hoping for a throwback to the days of olde will find it sorely lacking. I recommend this to folks who simply like the idea of having most of the Wu on the same project again, as who the fuck knows when that will happen again outside of a Logic album.

B-SIDE TO TRACK DOWN FOR WU STANS: HOOD GO BANG! (REMIX) (FEAT. REDMAN, METHOD MAN, RAEKWON, & U-GOD)

Released shortly after The Saga Continues hit store shelves, this remix to “Hood Go Bang!” features the same Method Man verse and Redman hook over the original beat, but now includes a U-God performance, as he had at least temporarily squashed his beef with the concept of the Wu-Tang Clan (if not RZA directly) long enough to record. (Raekwon also now appears for some reason.) Press releases sent to my inbox tried to incorporate this remix into the narrative of The Saga Continues, claiming that it was a true Wu-Tang Clan album now that Golden Arms had provided a verse, conveniently forgetting that he still doesn’t appear on the actual album. He sounds fine over the Math beat, though. So does the Chef. I wouldn’t be shocked if a re-release quietly replaced the original take with this remix, and I also wouldn’t be terribly upset, as the entirety of the album version appears on this remix, so you wouldn’t be missing anything.

B-SIDE TO TRACK DOWN FOR HIP HOP HEADS: PEARL HARBOR (REMIX) (FEAT. GHOSTFACE KILLAH, METHOD MAN, SEAN PRICE, PHAROAHE MONCH, & TEK)

For whatever reason, Mathematics felt the need to tinker with “Pearl Harbor”, cutting Method Man’s verse down to a fraction of what it once was and eliminating The RZA entirely, choices made in favor of adding contributions from Pharoahe Monch and Tek (of Smif-N-Wessun) alongside Ghostface Killah’s original hook and the late Sean Price’s verse. The song still bangs, though: its bones are apparently sturdy enough to withstand personnel changes of all sizes. Allah Math should drop a new remix to “Pearl Harbor” every year, just for the hell of it.

-Max

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