The 12 Hours of Wu-Tang: #5 - Not Available In Stores! Deadly Venoms - Pretty Thugs (2000)

Fun fact: this write-up for the second attempt at a debut album by the Wu-affiliated group Deadly Venoms, Pretty Thugs, was written five years ago, which will become very apparent at one specific point of the review that I chose to leave in just because it amused me to do so. Click here to find out more!

The Deadly Venoms are (or were, it’s hard to tell these days) a group whose chances at success were disrupted by record label executives due to pure unadulterated sexism, although they will likely claim otherwise. They suffered from the same setbacks as every other female emcee fighting for their place within the phallocentric world of hip hop: regardless of however hard they may have been spitting, listeners unfairly judged them based on their looks. Some female emcees have used this to their advantage – Lil Kim, Foxy Brown, Nicki Minaj, Trina, and Cardi B. have all seen varying amounts of success in the game by weaponizing their sexuality. Others who focus squarely on their skills have been met with greater critical acclaim but weaker sales, creating a correlation that corporations are more attentive to than actual talent.

And then there was the Deadly Venoms. The quartet, made up of veteran rappers N-Tyce, Champ MC, and Finesse alongside then-newcomer J-Boo,  lucked into the exact combination of events that resulted in them becoming the first (and, to date, only) female-centric group in the Wu-Tang Clan extended family. (They were supposed to be a quintet, but Lin Que, formerly of the X-Clan, left the group before they really made a name for themselves.) The novelty of a female rap group (which is still rather rare within our chosen genre today) wasn’t lost on record labels, who quickly bid on the right to fund and distribute their debut album. Antidote, in 1998. A&M Records ultimately won out, and the ladies set about recording with assistance from their manager Storm (who ran the company Rocks The World, who the ladies were signed with), along with cameos from the likes of Method Man, The RZA, Inspectah Deck, GZA, and the late Ol’ Dirty Bastard both behind the boards and in front of the mic. The Wu were huge back in 1998, so Antidote was poised to hit the scene at just the right time to capitalize.

Except A&M had a change of heart, shelving the project permanently and dropping the ladies from their label home. Antidote ultimately leaked in its entirety to the Interweb, so Wu stans can track it down and make up their own minds about Deadly Venoms. One party that heard the finished product was Dreamworks Records, who quickly signed the ladies to a new deal but were unable to secure the rights to Antidote, leaving N-Tyce, J-Boo, Champ MC, and Finesse to start from scratch on their debut. Their second first album, Pretty Thugs, was scheduled for release in 2000, which was still enough time to jump on the Wu train, which was still chugging along consistently.

Dreamworks also did an about face, burying Pretty Thugs underneath their corporate offices shortly after, once again, the entire album leaked to the Interweb. The Deadly Venoms were, once again, without a label to call home.

Pretty Thugs is a Wu-affiliated project, but the support system the ladies had in place during the recording of Antidote no longer existed. There are no members of the proper Clan who appear in any capacity: instead, production is mostly handled by Storm himself. The guest list is rather small, only including acts who were also signed to Rocks The World management, although they were also loosely Wu-Tang affiliated, so Pretty Thugs still counts toward the Clan’s expanded discography. It was engineered and mixed by Nolan “Dr. No” Moffitte, a dude who had also worked on numerous other Wu-Tang projects, in addition to those of other artists within our chosen genre, so at least all of the pieces existed for these ladies to have a sure shot at success, at least of the underground variety.

Was Dreamworks right to bury the lede, or were the Deadly Venoms victims of the sexist-as-shit rap game? Let’s find out once and for all.

1. CHEDDA INTRO

A poorly-acted interlude that barely sets up the alleged heist the Deadly Venoms are plotting, let alone Pretty Thugs.

2. PARTY CHEDDA (FEAT. ILL KNOB) / VENOM INTERLUDE

Storm’s instrumental is a riff on my favorite Lionel Richie song “All Night Long” (I know, given my love of cheesy 1980’s shit you two were expecting it to be “Hello”), and, appropriately but also annoyingly, the hook on “Party Chedda” (which is where guest star Ill Knob jumps in for a bit) follows suit, as does some of the off-key singing toward the end. N-Tyce, J-Boo, Champ MC, and Finesse all go through with the heist planned during the intro, but the song itself is light on details of the actual robbery, either because these ladies were going for a specific Reservoir Dogs feel (there’s no actual on-screen heist in that film, either), or because the Deadly Venoms aren’t good enough writers to come up with those kind of specifics. Sadly, I suspect it to be the latter, although the interplay between the Venoms throughout the track was enjoyable enough.

3. VENOM EVERYWHERE

Unless I’m mistaken, and I’m probably not, “Venom Everywhere” was the only single released from this project. It should have been the first song on Pretty Thugs, too: the overlong film dialogue sample that ended the previous track could have served as a decent rap album intro if necessary, as “Venom Everywhere” reintroduces the Deadly Venoms to the listener in a fashion that “Party Chedda” could never achieve. Not that this song is any good, though: Storm’s beat is Wu-Tang lite, and while all four rappers have distinct voices, they don’t yet have distinct personalities, and most people don’t purchase group albums so they can hear the singular point of view that multiple solo artists talk about, the same shit in the exact same way. Bleh.

4. YOU DO THE THINGS

At least the Venoms have more content to offer than just “we’re better rappers than all of these other bitches.” Over Storm’s boring beat that never changes, Finesse, J-Boo, N-Tyce, and Champ MC all recite odes to the respective men who have had their back during all of this rap shit, whether they were officially dating or just boning them on the side. Weirdly, all of the verses on “You Do The Things” can also be interpreted as a metaphor for the Wu-Tang Clan supporting, and then ultimately abandoning, the Deadly Venoms, even though they don’t believe that it’s really over. I know, I’m reading far too much into this, but you’d have to in order to remain interested in such a paint-by-numbers song.

5. WORLD WIDE

Although Storm’s beat is alright, my main takeaway from “Worldwide” was N-Tyce’s verse, where she succumbs to the trend of ending each bar with a gimmick, hers being the actual word “her”. That was annoying as shit, but still, kudos for actively trying to stand out from the rest of the crew. Everyone else does okay with their braggadocio (although J-Boo’s insistence that Pretty Thugs deserves five mics in The Source “because the album is tight” made me laugh out loud, which probably just gave away the end of this write up, so, well, fuck), but “World Wide” was never more than “shrug?”

6. SUNRISE

Yes, it is a bit too early in the review for me to dismiss an entire song with my usual “meh”. Why do you ask?

7. DON’T GIVE UP

The biggest problem with most Wu affiliates, regardless of gender, is that they never go the extra mile to sound different from every other Wu affiliate out there: for instance, the Deadly Venoms sound pretty much like the Hillside Scramblers on “Don’t Give Up” (and yes, I know, the Hillside Scramblers weren’t technically Wu affiliates, shut up). The interchangeable nature of the artists isn’t as appealing as one would think, and that lack of identity robs this track of its overall positive message: if some rando told you to follow you dreams and not to give up, the advice doesn’t hold quite as much weight as it would if it were provided by someone you respect. I’m just saying. But what do I know? I’m just a dick with a blog.

8. WRONG PLACE

An intriguing attempt at  a storytelling rap that starts off straightforward enough, but grows crazier as the track goes on, coinciding with the investment from the Deadly Venoms waning at an equal rate., Only N-Tyce sticks the landing, mainly because she handles the first verse and quickly bails on the proceedings. Storm’s instrumental isn’t terrible, but also isn’t a natural fit for an obligatory crime saga such as this. Still, this could have been a lot worse.

9. ROCKS THE WORLD (FEAT. ILL KNOB, LIFESTYLES, & GEMS)

It’s appropriate that a song named after the record label the Deadly Venoms were attached to at the time to would effectively double as a sampler for said label, as “Rocks The World” is a collaboration with Ill Knob (part of the only other act signed to the imprint, K.G.B.), along with guests Lifestyles and Gems. Storm’s beat is awful, commercial when it’s trying so so hard to sound hardcore, but the verses were all pretty engaging. Every artist involved takes to the microphone naturally, so at least the actual rap portion of this song is enjoyable, even though everyone on here sounds like they’re trying real hard to prove their Wu-Tang credentials.

10. WHO GOT YA BACK

The Storm beat is a muddled mess, and the vocals from our quartet of hosts sound wholly disconnected form the song as a whole, thanks to an apparent error during the recording process where the track was mixed by someone who couldn’t have cared less. No thank you.

11. THIS IS FOR / BREAKER

Songs such as this accentuate just how goddamn fucking boring a lot of hip hop tends to be. And for those of you who brand me a hater and not a true head because of that last sentence: fuck you. You know I’m right. It’s okay to admit it.

12. PILLOW TALK

You know, I don’t typically buy it when street-hardened male rappers turn in a love rap or a rhyme about making sweet creamery love, especially when they spend the rest of their album verbally beating down their partners, their adversaries, or both. That rule applies to women as well: none of “Pillow Talk” sounds genuine when compared to the rest of Pretty Thugs. Then again, this song was just corny as fuck, so perhaps it wouldn’t have ever really worked.

13. PRETTY THUGS

Storm’s beat uses the same sample source material as Mobb Deep’s “Still Shinin’”. That move lends this title track a sense of credence, which, in an even stranger development, the song completely earns, as Champ MC, N-Tyce, J-Boo, and Finesse all deliver entertaining performances. The braggadocio even works, since these ladies are all supposed to be talking mad shit about being “Pretty Thugs”. It’s sad that it took me this long to find an undeniably enjoyable track on here, but so be it.

14. PUBLIC SERVICE

A corny interlude that the ladies clearly had a lot of fun recording, but man, they cannot sing for shit.

15. WHAT’S THE DEAL

The instrumental is fairly Wu-esque in a generic manner, so it’s too bad that the Deadly Venoms use it as a vehicle for a song about hooking up with dudes. Men do the exact same shit, obviously, so I’m not trying to push forward any sort of double standard: it’s just that Pretty Thugs feels about six hours long already by the time we get to “What’s The Deal”, and to revisit subject matter at this point only comes across as self-serving. (Says the guy writing twelve Wu-Tang Clan-related reviews today for no real reason.) Does anyone actually find “What’s The Deal” to be a worthwhile way to spend four-and-a-half minutes of your life? Serious query.

16. BLACK OUT / GOODNIGHT

The Deadly Venoms tend to excel (relatively speaking) on straightforward posse cuts where the goal is simply to outshine the previous artist. Storm’s beat works well for this type of song: it’s a simple loop, but it’s not so frustrating that it becomes unpleasant. All four emcees unleash their verses with fury, but it’s too little, too late for the project as a whole. As absolutely nobody will ever read all the way through to the end of this write-up, however, I’ll use the rest of this paragraph to defend the much-maligned fourth season of Community. Look, I realize that the new showrunners focused too much on fan service instead of attempting to replicate creator Dan Harmon’s vision, but, with the exception of an episode of two, I found myself entertained enough, and that’s all a sitcom is supposed to do in the first place: entertain. And I guarantee that everyone who claimed that season four wasn’t funny actively avoided finding actual funny stuff due to some sort of weird allegiance to Harmon, who I guarantee doesn’t give a fuck about you. If you didn’t know about the showrunner situation, you wouldn’t have even found the transition to be that jarring. Every show slips up in quality in its fourth season, unless your show is either The Simpsons or Breaking Bad, in which case, oh look, I’ve just run out of room.

SHOULD YOU TRACK IT DOWN? Unfortunately, Dreamworks had this one pegged correctly – Pretty Thugs is pretty boring. The skills of these ladies is never really in question, as N-Tyce, J-Boo, Finesse, and Champ MC are all capable artists who should have moved to random cameos on other Wu-associated projects, and their respective deliveries are just as hard, if not more so, than their male counterparts. But the music itself is what tanks Pretty Thugs: Storm just wasn’t a very good producer, unable to create inspired instrumentals for his charges to destroy. As a result, although a few of these songs aren’t that bad, ultimately nothing on here is engaging or entertaining, and who would listen to an album that isn’t entertaining on purpose? (Aside from me, obviously.) Antidote was a much truer picture of what these ladies could do with the full support of the Clan, whereas Pretty Thugs is the equivalent of being transferred to a satellite office where there is little to no contact with your superiors. Wu stans who have gone out of their way to track this one down are already aware of its lesser status amongst the group’s megacatalog of projects, and any of you two who have yet to listen, and yet read through this entire review anyway for some reason, need not bother at all. There is a mildly happy ending, though: the Deadly Venoms did eventually manage to drop their debut album with their third attempt, Still Standing, two years later. At the rate I’m going, you should expect to see my critique of that roughly two lifetimes from today.

-Max

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