The 12 Days of Wu-Mas #2: 9th Prince - Prince of New York (March 14, 2008)

This Boxing Day, I invite you to join me in a discussion about the Killarmy member who was voted “Least Likely to Release a Solid Debut Album”, Terrance “9th Prince” Hamlin, whose sophomore project, Prince of New York, was released on two wildly different dates in 2008 by two different record labels: 9th’s own Armyourself Entertainment, and the actual known company Babygrande Recordings, which reissued it with additional tracks after it managed to pick up some traction underground.

No, seriously, look past 9th's strange attempt at recreating the album cover for Bobby Digital's Digi Snacks (also released in 2008, weirdly) and keep reading. It'll be worth it, I promise.

9th Prince’s solo debut, Grandaddy Flow, was the direct result of his Killarmy crew essentially disbanding, albeit not purposefully: some of the six members wanted to try other things (see: Dom Pachino’s prolific solo career, Beretta 9 moving behind the boards alongside Wu-Tang kingpin The RZA), while others found themselves unable to record new songs due to ongoing legal issues (see: the rest of the group). Hamlin took it upon himself to keep the Killarmy name active within the music industry, and as such, an inadvertent solo career was born, one that wasn’t entirely unexpected, given the nature of rappers who feel confined when within groups, but was still a bit of a shock, mostly because the only dude any of us Wu stans wanted to hear a solo album from was Killa Sin, whose string of incarcerations eventually killed that dream.

Not that we're still bitter.

Grandaddy Flow was a modest success, in that it was actually pretty fucking entertaining for everyone who heard it, but “everyone” is relative when compared to the literally billions of people on this planet that have no idea who 9th Prince even is. The fact that the man was able to craft an engaging Wu-affiliated project with only a handful of ringers (most notably The RZA, who just so happens to be 9th Prince’s brother) but without relying solely on nostalgia for the then-recent past is a blessing in and of itself, and the music was just cake.

Five years later, 9th Prince decided to give it another shot, unleashing his sophomore effort, Prince of New York, in the spring of 2008. This time around, he kept things short and sweet, limiting the guests to a toddler’s handful of close friends and keeping the production at a lower cost (read: there are no RZA beats to be found here). Unlike his debut, Prince of New York only consisted of twelve tracks, ten of which were actual songs, brevity not necessarily being a strong suit of the multi-syllabic 9th Prince, but it’s easy to look over given how short this project was.

At least until Babygrande Recordings got a hold of it, offering 9th a deal to reissue Prince of New York in a deluxe package with five additional tracks, which is where all of the project’s bloat can actually be found, interestingly enough. On the complete package, guest features come in the form of a couple of Wu-Tang’s go-to songstresses, some fellow Wu affiliates from TMF (the precursor to Ghostface Killah’s Theodore Unit), one single member of the Wu-Tang Clan proper, and all of the rest of Killarmy, including producer 4th Disciple, who happens to be the biggest name behind the boards on here.

I’m not saying that last part to disparage any of the work the lesser-known producers provided here, at least not until I get into the body of the review, but merely to prepare you two for what you’re about to get into here.

1. INTRO

Sure, whatever.

2. THE WRITER

Terrance kicks off Prince of New York with an ode to his writing skills, which is all well and good until you realize that he also has to recite these bars, and he does so with an awkward flow and cadence that suggests an Inspectah Deck so off-beat that he doesn’t even share the same galaxy as the instrumental. Said instrumental is provided by the unfortunately-named Gooch, and it sounds fine, if a bit Killarmy-lite. 9th Prince isn’t a terrible rapper, but not every syllable he writes on “The Writer” absolutely needed to be spoken into existence: lines such as, “My automatic’ll lift your back like a Craftmatic” are such well-worn clichés that you’ll see them coming from a mile away even if you aren’t familiar with what was just referenced there. 9th also makes some puzzling, damn near laughable choices here: at one point he floats the idea of calling Staten Island “Gaten Island”, which falls with a loud thud to the pavement, while at another he claims, “…no matter the producer… my lyrics, the beat’s executioner,” explaining how he’d slaughter either a Neptunes instrumental or a Dr. Dre prescription (all while being inspired by his big bro, The RZA). The problem, of course, is that he’s never been offered a Neptunes or a Dre beat of his own to wreck, so it’s a moot point. I could easily make the same claim, and it’d be equally as true for me, and I don’t rap at all. And so. The fact that “The Writer” ended with a sound bite from the film Patton seemed pretty on-brand for Terrance, though.

3. SNIPER CHALLENGERS (FEAT. ISLORD)

The audacity of “Sniper Challengers” is also its biggest strength, as producer Monster chops up a version of Modest Mussogorsky’s composition “Night on Bald Mountain” into a pretty good hip hop instrumental. The epic sweep of the beat is a bit of a cheat, given the source material, but heads not stick reminiscing about Fantasia (or, if any of you two are like me, “Night on Disco Mountain” from the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack – hey, fuck you, that shit was flames) may find themselves nodding along. 9th Prince teams up with fellow Killarmy recruit Islord to declare that their group is totally still a thing and that they shouldn’t be fucked with, our host coming across much more polished with his verse than the guest, who adopts a slower cadence that just barely avoids being drowned out by the operatic scope of the beat. Even with that, I still found “Sniper Challengers” to be appropriately grandiose and also pretty fucking engaging, so.

4. AIN’T PROMISED TOMORROW (FEAT. TOMMY WHISPERS)

The hook on “Ain’t Promised Tomorrow” builds off of a 9th Prince reimagining of a Prodigy bar from Mobb Deep’s hall-of-famer “Eye for an Eye (Your Beef Is Mines)” but never gets anywhere near the level of what is likely my absolute favorite song from Havoc and the late Cellblock P. Instead, this Gooch production consists of D-level boasts-n-bullshit, all of which takes place over a shitty instrumental. Terrance’s voice doesn’t shift in any fashion when transitioning from a verse tyo a hook or vice-versa, so this sounded like an overlong, monotone performance… at least until TMF’s Tommy Whispers steps into the booth, his mere voice being so different from that of our host’s rendering his contribution much more memorable by contrast. 9th’s bars sound like he recorded them after having fun a half-marathon, catching his breath in between info dumps. Le sigh.

5. VANDALISM (FEAT. TEKITHA)

The Freedom Productions instrumental is simplistic, but it keeps the Prince of New York train chugging right along the track with its Wu-lite sound, so I can’t be that mad at it. The rest of “Vandalism”, however, is still fair game. Guest crooner Tekitha, seemingly brought aboard only because of the nostalgic cache her very name carries with it, delivers a chorus that is mixed so far beneath the instrumental that it sounds like she’s barely speaking in any discernible Earth language. (She becomes much clearer toward the end, but that doesn’t suddenly translate what it is she’s actually saying.) Terrance, however, unleashes two verses (plus some) of barely-measured nonsense, drowning in a stream of consciousness. (“Anthrax, tracks on wax, crack cocaine raps”; “Today’s forecast is raining cats and dogs / Open up the catalog”; “Spill more blood than Crips, my penmanship these battleships.”) 9th is all over the fucking place here, but unfortunately his unorthodox methods never lead to a destination worth the visit. A guest rapper may have been key here.

6. NEVER FRONT (FEAT. BERETTA 9)

The other Freedom Productions, er, production unites our hoist with Kinetic Beretta 9 (of Killarmy and co-productions with The RZA fame) for a quartet of verses where they each try to one-0up the other in the name of proving that they aren’t to be fucked with (or “front[ed]” upon, I suppose). Beretta 9 plays it safe by comparison, claiming that he’s “out to murder Satan” whilst talking his shit, but 9th Prince pretty much breaks his own brain with cherry-picked, nonsensical boasts such as, “Vocabulary tear gas, Shaolin Vikings / Buck wild like Hitler, drunk off German Heinekens”; “I’m nasty like Cinemax porno sex”; and, weirdly, “I’m hazardous like a virus from Osirus”. He goes at it for two full verses, and the sheer amount of words he crams into his bars left me concerned for his well-being. It’s okay, 9th: you’ll get to record another album. Relax, bud. “Never Front” wasn’t great, but it wasn’t awful, and it’s nice to hear members of Killarmy rapping together, so.

7. PRINCE OF NEW YORK

Monster’s pretty good instrumental for this title track incorporates dialogue from the Christopher Walken film King of New York (you know, the one The Notorious B.I.G. found inspiration for one of his many nicknames from) mostly because there is no movie out there called Prince of New York, and if there is, it’s more likely to be about knockoff Disney royalty than anything. 9th treats this song with a callous, yet aggressive, energy that one wouldn’t suspect from someone inheriting the throne by pure nepotism (see: “Prince of New York”), and besides, the ‘Prince’ of the song title refers to… you know what? I’m not doing this today. Our host runs wild with the comparisons, at points claiming to be about the “thug life like 2Pac”; that he “black[s] out like Red and Meth”; that he’s “’Criminal Minded’ like KRS”; and that he is “a hardcore version of the pretty boy Mase”. (At one point he even kinda-sorta brags about yanking Jay-Z’s chain off of his then-girlfriend Beyoncé’s neck, just to give you an idea of how old this shit is.) Drawing such comparisons isn’t actually necessary, though, since I found this track to be pretty entertaining regardless. 9th Prince’s verbose shit-talking, along with his failure to pay attention to how many syllables will actually fit into a single bar, makes him come across as an overeager puppy, albeit a violent one, and that earnestness serves him well on this title track. Not bad, Terrence.

8. STREET PHARMACISTS (FEAT. PARADOX, TOMMY WHISPERS, & TRIFE DA GOD)

A highlight of any Wu-Tang Clan project, both official and by association, is the posse cut, a barely-there excuse for three of more Wu affiliates to, as the kids used to say before they grew yup and had kids of their own who mystify them with how confusing today’s slang can be, “catch wreck” on the mic. “Street Pharmacists” serves this function on Prince of New York, aligning 9th Prince not with his Killarmy brethren (weirdly), but with two members of Theodore Unit/TMF, along with some guy named Paradox. Gooch’s instrumental keeps the momentum high but isn’t very memorable in its own right, leaving the hard work to the artists themselves, and 9th, Tommy Whispers (making a repeat appearance), and Trife da God don’t disappoint. (Paradox, on the other hand, sounds fucking awful, wrongly believing that scoring a cameo on a Wu-Tang affiliate’s solo album is the perfect opportunity to deliver a verse where each and every bar ends in the syllable “-ooh”, a gimmick that only grows more aggravating with each new iteration.) Our host sounds downright restrained on “Street Pharmacists”, sticking to the basics during his verse and not giving in to his performative whims, while Whispers and Trife Diesel, who I’ve referred to as being one of the best Wu-Tang weed carriers of all time, kill it with violent braggadocio. Paradox notwithstanding, this was… it was very good, actually.

9. FAN VOICEMAIL

An unnecessary interlude that serves to only feed 9th Prince’s ego.

10. BOTTOMLINE (FEAT. TASH MAHOGANY)

Producer William Cooper gives our host an objective banger, one that even guest Wu crooner Tash Mahogany’s weirdly shitty vocals can’t ruin completely. Hell, her contribution starts off terribly, but works its way back to earworm status, that’s how great this instrumental is. 9th Prince uses “Bottom Line” to deliver two verses of the usual boasts-n-bullshit, but his tendency to live life off-beat and out of pocket is put on hold, because, for the most part, he spits as though he fucking belongs here. “Underground forever like Stretch and Bobbito,” he says early on, and you’re inclined to agree with the man, even though later in the track he claims that, “on rainy days, I walk with a nine tucked under my umbrella,” which is very silly imagery (and would likely make things much harder for him than they should be, but I digress). Still, “Bottom Line” was engaging as fuck, and Cooper’s beat could have easily been shared with the rest of Killarmy, or maybe some other Wu-affiliated crew such as Sunz of Man, Royal Fam, Black Knights, or, fuck, even actual Clan members. Good for you, 9th.

11. TELL A FRIEND

Prince of New York ends the early evening show with the Gooch-produced “Tell A Friend”, and I must admit that I will not. Okay, that’s a lie, we’re all friends here, so I will tell you this… (*scoots closer so as to whisper*)… this song sucked. Hell, the only mildly fascinating “boast” comes at the beginning, when 9th Prince mentions that “half my ‘Army’ doin’ time,” which certainly explains away the lack of a proper follow-up to Killarmy’s third album Fear, Love & War (at least so far – I know something’s been in the pipeline for months now, but until it’s on my hard drive, it may as well not exist at all). The rest of this song is shake, though: Gooch’s beat is weak and weakly commercial-adjacent, our host’s chorus makes no goddamn sense, and the two verses here shuffle around with no true form or function. I just can’t. This is how 9th Prince chose to end his album? Especially after “Bottom Line”?!

The following tracks appear on the deluxe reissue of Prince of New York released by Babygrande later in 2008. Oddly, aside from a single A-list guest star, apparently the label wanted to keep all of the cameos a secret during this portion, as nobody receives proper credit for their contributions.

12. SHUT YOUR MOUTH

So am I supposed to “Tell A Friend”, or are you demanding that I “Shut Your Mouth”? I’m getting mixed signals here. Anyway, this track is silly, inconsequential, and most definitely was recorded after the first pressings of Prince of New York has been shipped out. Spanish Jose’s instrumental isn’t bad: it’s inappropriately anthemic, but still kind-of works as a vehicle for 9th’s loosey-goosey boasts-n-bullshit, which are reigned in a tiny bit here, as though he had just recently learned the value of adhering to a beat. He also realizes that it would benefit his career to at least mention his blood relation to The RZA, even though Prince Rakeem (or “Robbie”, as he’s referred to here) had fuck-all to do with Prince of New York (unlike 9th’s solo debut, Grandaddy Flow, which RZA did contribute to). “N----s inhale the carbon but can’t copy,” 9th Prince says at one point. That could be the cleverest line uttered on the entire goddamn album, to be honest.

13. WE SUPREME (FEAT. DOM PACHINO & BERETTA 9)

In an odd bit of self-awareness, 9th Prince figured out that his second solo album should have been used to promote the Killarmy narrative, so at least on these bonus tracks he brings in every member of his crew for guest cameos. “We Supreme” not only features verses from Dom Pachino (who is, in the present day, on the outs with the group, apparently, but in 2008 everything was copacetic enough for our host to say, “N----s thought me and P.R. (Terrorist, Pachino’s other stage name) would never get back together” – hmm…) and Beretta 9, but also includes an instrumental from the seventh member, producer 4th Disciple, and folks, it… isn’t good? That instrumental, with its tricky, deceiving tempo that reminded me of the beat from Killah Priest’s “The Professional” except I like that song, doesn’t ultimately work – it’s as though 4th understood the significance of the song itself, but blew past several deadlines and wound up handing over a half-finished beat from his hard drive. Ugh. And those of you two hoping for proof of remaining chemistry between the Killarmy troop members: nope. Yes, three members appear on “We Supreme”, and yes, all three reference the existence of the group multiple times, but they never interact with one another, so this could have been compiled in a library’s quiet room after each participant e-mailed their verses in. Also, Kinetic says “bong” in The RZA’s cadence, which, what? This should have been much better, folks.

14. LIKE LIKE (FEAT. SHOGUN ASSASSON & DOM PACHINO)

“Like Like” is even more of a Killarmy family reunion than the previous track, as a returning Kinetic 9 tags in for 4th Disciple while Shogun Assasson and a barely-there Dom Pachino help our host complete his task. And Lord, is it a dumb one: “Like Like” is fucking unlistenable flaming garbage thanks to Shogun’s gimmick of using the word “like” thirty-seven goddamn motherfucking times, rendering his verse indecipherable. He also jogs the spotlight here: 9th Prince only gets a short verse in toward the end, while Dom receives even less screen time than 9th somehow. To add insult to injury, 9th uses Beretta’s shitty instrumental to praise his partnership with Pachino (“Me and P.R. is like Batman and Robin”), never once addressing the presence of Shogun Assasson. Groan. If every Killarmy reunion is going to sound like this, they can fucking keep them.

15. STAND PROUD

There sure are a lot of songs on Prince of New York where the chorus extols the virtue and greatness of 9th Prince, huh? At this point it’s less ego-driven and more “the insecurities have taken over”. As such, “Stand Proud” plays like our host is reading from a list of boasts as though that’s the act that will prevent his anxiety from finally winning. The uncredited female vocalist crooning during the hook somehow gives Tash Mahogany a run in the “oh wow, this is bad, you sure we don’t have time to re-record this?”-department, although the chorus on here isn’t so bad that it loops back toward sounding great, and 9th’s two verses don’t feature any standout bars. Rebel Dainja‘s instrumental is also your standard Wu-esque copycat clone shit: there’s nothing here that would help “Stand Proud” distinguish itself in any manner.

16. HOOD LIFE (FEAT. MASTA KILLA, KILLA SIN, & DOM PACHINO)

This bonus addition is the most Killarmy-ish song on Prince of New York, what with it featuring three group members (9th, obviously, alongside a returning Dom Pachino and the oft-imprisoned Killa Sin) over a 4th Disciple beat. “But wait,” you may think to yourself, “wasn’t that the same general genetic makeup of “We Supreme”?” Sure was, you, but “Hood Life” also leans heavily into its Wu origins, so much so that fucking Masta Killa delivers the opening salvo. “Hood Life” is ostensibly about different characters living the, um, “Hood Life” as helpfully described by an uncredited guest during the chorus, but while Masta Killa (meh), P.R. Terrorist (slightly better), and Killa Sin (the best of the lot, bar none) fall in line with the theme, our host pretends that he wasn’t aware of any narrative, choosing instead to rap stupid shit about criminal lifestyles. Yes, some could argue that 9th Prince is actually speaking on “Hood Life” by following that specific path, but nah: his bars, which never connect with the instrumental even by accident (which is fucking terrible, by the way – have we all been overrating 4th Disciple?), mine the same material as the rest of his work on Prince of New York. Bleh.

17. WE WRITE THE SONGS

Say what you will about 9th Prince, and throughout this write-up I sure as shit have, but an underrated aspect of his solo career is his willingness to involve various Wu-affiliates while seeking out the classic Wu-Tang sound, as he does on album closer “We Write The Songs”, produced by African killa bee Leggezin Fin (credited as “Leggzin” because why bother fact-checking, am I right?). The instrumental is fucking solid. But 9th Prince also has a gift for rendering even his best beats unlistenable, as he spends a good chunk of your valuable time singing the chorus, and he sounds terrible. The two verses were fine: perhaps it’s in the spirit of the collaboration, but our host pays greater attention to the craft on here, adhering to the beat and delivering bars that aren’t scattershot for once. (He also continues his odd obsession with Jay-Z on here.) If the hook had been outsourced (my exact thought: “Oh, now you don’t want to pay someone to perform the chorus for you?!), “We Write The Songs” could have been a fine way to cap the evening, but goddamn it, 9th, you could never leave well enough alone.

The original pressing of Prince of New York contained the following song, which appears on the back cover of the Babygrande re-release, but not on the actual album for whatever reason.

BANNED FROM THE RADIO

Just because it was chopped from the Babygrande release shouldn’t grant “Banned from the Radio” any sort of mythical quality. The track is fine: okay, even. Monster’s instrumental isn’t bad: the piano keys don’t mesh with the programmed drums, but they keep the trains running on time. Our host doesn’t say anything on here that would prevent his music being played over the airwaves, unless one counts his admission that he’s “still fuckin’ with that yae yo” during the hook. What it boils down to is this: “Banned from the Radio” is a song that exists. It’s better than some tracks on Prince of New York, and it’s worse than the others. It’s perfectly average. At least 9th Prince stays on beat throughout.

FINAL THOUGHTS: Dom Pachino may be the most prolific Killarmy member when it comes to the solo album game, but god damn it, 9th Prince has somehow cracked the code, having now given Wu stans two entertaining solo efforts in a row. Prince of New York isn’t a perfect album, but when it clicks, our host is on fire, his ear for beats only letting him down occasionally: if someone let him executive-produce an album for Nas, I guarantee you that it would be the hardest-sounding Nas album ever recorded. 9th’s performances are an entirely different matter: almost as though he’s convinced that each verse he raps will be his last, he oftentimes spits alongside his idea of the given instrumental, as opposed to what he’s actually been presented with, and your mileage will vary as to whether his flow is your thing. It isn’t exactly polarizing, as he has a general sense of what he’s doing, but readers looking for a more straightforward experience may only find themselves enjoying roughly half of Prince of New York. Then again, if you want to hear cookie-cutter hip hop, there are millions of other artists to choose from: at least 9th Prince is trying to be different, right? (I’m only making that argument because of how engaging this project ultimately was, of course – if it sucked, it would have been solely 9th’s fault. Luckily, that’s not the case here.)

BUY OR BURN? Wu stans will have already picked this one up, but if for some reason it slipped past you, it’s worth your time, and yes, I realize it’s so weird that I’ve said that about two 9th Prince solo albums in a row. Everyone else, well, this isn’t a great gateway into the world of Killarmy, but you may dig some of the beats.

BEST TRACKS: “Bottom Line”; “Sniper Challengers”; “Prince of New York”; “Street Pharmacists”

-Max

RELATED POSTS:

Catch up on 9th Prince’s solo career by clicking here, or, if you’re so inclined, Killarmy’s work was reviewed here.