The 12 Days of Wu-Mas #12: Zu Ninjaz - Now Justice (2005)

The final day of the 12 Days of Wu-Mas this go-round is dedicated to the type of weirdness that I easily could program for the full stunt next time (if there is a next time, hint hint, better up those page clicks): Zu Ninjaz’ Now Justice, a Wu-affiliated album from friends of friends of Ol’ Dirty Bastard that likely slipped under many a radar, mostly because one has to treat it like eight full-time jobs to keep track of everything the Wu-Tang family tree manages to release.

Fair warning: Now Justice is far deeper into the Wu forest than anything else I’ve written about over the past eleven days, not unlike that Moongod Allah project from last time, so proceed at your own risk, lest you get “rap nerd” on your clothes that can’t be washed out.

The 12 Days of Wu-Mas #11 - My Gut Reaction: Cappadonna - The Cappatilize Project (July 22, 2008)

Darryl “Cappadonna” Hill released his fourth solo album, The Cappatilize Project, in 2008, four years after his previous effort, The Struggle, floundered about in the underground. This was quite the downshift from where the man was just a few years prior: as one of two acts signed to The RZA’s Razor Sharp Records (the other being Ghostface Killah) that ever managed to release albums, Cappadonna was moving tons of units (his debut, The Pillage, sold over five hundred thousand copies in the United States alone), was touring with the Wu-Tang Clan, and was basically on top of the world.

So what the fuck happened? Why did he vanish from the mainstream for so long? Short version: money troubles. Slightly longer version: money troubles caused by The RZA. 

Allegedly.

(Although if more than one person has made the claim, there's likely some truth to it, right?)

The 12 Days of Wu-Mas #10 - My Gut Reaction: Various Artists - Wu-Tang: Of Mics and Men (EP) (May 17, 2019)

2019 was a fairly busy year for the Wu-Tang Clan. Aside from the group’s ongoing tour schedule, which featured them performing their debut album, Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers), in its entirety as a way of celebrating its twenty-five years of existence (even though, again, 2019 marked twenty-six years), they invited the rest of the television-watching public to join in the festivities with two separate projects that told the story of how the Clan came to be in the first place. The second of these efforts, the Hulu series Wu-Tang: An American Saga, was a Brian Grazer-produced fictionalized version of the group’s formation, focusing largely on the events in the lives of eight of the nine original members (U-God chose not to participate) that led to the Wu as we know it.

The 12 Days of Wu-Mas #9: Shyheim - Manchild (June 22, 1999, at least originally)

Shyheim Franklin’s third album, Manchild, was released in 1999, five years after his debut, A/K/A The Rugged Child, which dropped when the guy was only fourteen years old. Or at least that was the plan: Manchild was distributed by Wu-Tang Records, Shy’s first with the label and the very first opportunity he ever had to flagrantly show off his Wu ties (his previous two projects featured a tiny bit of Wu involvement, but he had never officially been a part of the Clan’s label roster before), but its release was recalled almost immediately.

The 12 Days of Wu-Mas #8 - My Gut Reaction: Ghostface Killah - Ghostface Killahs (September 13, 2019)

Since roughly 2011, Dennis “Ghostface Killah” Coles has been just plain bored with what you and I generally refer to as “hip hop”. Even with his standing as one of the most popular and most critically acclaimed members of the Wu-Tang Clan, he grew tired of turning the same type of album in to the label every couple of years, so he forced a paradigm switch, challenging himself to write cohesive narratives while opting to work with like-minded artists who could help him see his vision through to fruition. This is how we ended up with a run of projects like the two Adrian Younge-assisted Twelve Reasons To Die albums (still waiting on that trilogy capper, buddy), the Revelations-backed 36 Seasons, his joint effort with Czarface (Czarface Meets Ghostface, which was produced entirely by the Czar-Keys and totally counts here), and the BADBADNOTGOOD collaboration Sour Soul, all of which featured our host working closely with a single producer or production team to give the listener seamless audio stories to enjoy.

The 12 Days of Wu-Mas #7 - My Gut Reaction: Inspectah Deck - Chamber No. 9 (July 12, 2019)

Jason “Inspectah Deck” Hunter hasn’t released an album in nine years. You two are forgiven if you think I’m wrong there, even though I’m not: aside from some mixtape appearances, the last project from Deck that hit store shelves was 2010’s Manifesto. Since then, he’s focused almost exclusively on his Czarface side project (alongside underground duo 7L & Esoteric) that has since dominated his time, primarily because Czarface has captured hip hop lightning in a bottle multiple times in their short time on this Earth, although Deck always makes time for his friends in the Wu-Tang Clan as needed.

As such, Chamber No. 9, his apparent favorite number or favorite chamber (you’ll see what I mean in a bit), is merely Inspectah Deck’s fourth solo album since 1999.

Again, I know that doesn’t sound right, but feel free to fact-check me.

The 12 Days of Wu-Mas #6 - My Gut Reaction: Method Man - Meth Lab Season 2: The Lithium (December 14, 2018)

Clifford “Method Man” Smith’s sixth solo album, Meth Lab Season 2: The Lithium, dropped in December of 2018, just before my ridiculous Christmas Day Wu-Tang stunt posting session, which meant he had just missed my arbitrary cutoff date for inclusion. It is a direct sequel to his previous effort, The Meth Lab, and is most notable for not just the sheer number of guest features included within (which places it in the same category as its predecessor), but for the fact that it still isn’t the album Method Man had been promising fans since roughly 2007: a mostly RZA-produced effort entitled Crystal Meth, which, at this point, if you truly still feel like that project (a) even exists, and (b) will eventually see release, welp, you’re far more optimistic than I, an Interweb-based music critic known for cursing excessively and for writing “meh” whenever I can’t come up with anything remotely positive to say about a song.

The 12 Days of Wu-Mas #5: Deadly Venoms - Still Standing (June 25, 2002)

The Deadly Venoms are possibly the most cursed group in the Wu-Tang family tree. Their 1998 debut, Antidote, never hit store shelves (although bootlegs exist, of course), a casualty of label mergers where their new bosses at A&M had no fucking idea what to do with the quartet. Attempt number two, 2000’s Pretty Thugs, died a similar death at Dreamworks Records, although the second try featured no direct influence from the Wu-Tang Clan, unlike their other debut, which sounded like it had been recorded in the twenty-sixth chamber alongside The RZA himself.

Now down to three members, the Deadly Venoms tried one last time, their third “debut”, Still Standing, managing to make it to store shelves in 2002, only four years after the group had first tried to introduce themselves to the world, and only four years after most hip hop heads had moved on.

The 12 Days of Wu-Mas #4 - My Gut Reaction: Czarface - The Odd Czar Against Us (November 29, 2019)

On Black Friday this past November, Czarface, the hip hop supergroup comprised of the Wu-Tang Clan’s Inspectah Deck alongside underground duo 7L & Esoteric, released a surprise vinyl project entitled The Odd Czar Against Us!, advertised as a new full-length album. This was a shock mostly because Czarface Meets Ghostface, an album-length sparring match with Deck’s bandmate Ghostface Killah, had dropped earlier this year – Czarface was a group that seemed to enjoy taking their time with their work. And yet here we were with another album, and not just another instrumental effort, which these guys also love doing.

The project lost its exclamation mark when it hit other platforms the following week, but The Odd Czar Against Us remains an anomaly in the catalog of the trio (which really should be a quartet at this point – hey, 7L isn’t producing these songs by himself), who aren’t really known for their spontaneity.

They’re also not known for putting out inferior product, but there’s a first time for everything.

The 12 Days of Wu-Mas #3: Sunz of Man Presents 60 Second Assassin - Remarkable Timing (June 22, 2010)

Way, way back in the early 1990’s, the rap crew Sunz of Man, the most popular iteration of which included the artists Killah Priest, Hell Razah, Prodigal Sunn, and the late-game addition 60 Second Assassin, became the first Wu-Tang Clan-affiliated crew to sign a deal with a record label. At the time, their rankings also included Shabazz the Disciple (who left the group but then returned), 7th Ambassador (who has since vanished from the rap game as far as I can tell), and producer Su-Preme, but when the time came for the Sunz to finally release their 1998 debut, The Last Shall Be First (after an aborted first attempt entitled Nothing New Under the Sun), the collective were trimmed down to the above-named quartet.

As is what tends to happen in the rap world, especially with groups affiliated with the Wu-Tang Clan, the various Sunz of Man members eventually longed for solo careers. The singer-slash-rapper 60 Second Assassin was the last of the four to manage this feat, releasing what is to date his lone solo effort, Remarkable Timing, under the Sunz of Man banner in 2010.

Which is weird, because I don’t remember clamoring for this to happen. Did you?

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.

The 12 Days of Wu-Mas #1 - My Gut Reaction: Czarface + Ghostface Killah - Czarface Meets Ghostface (February 15, 2019)

The fifth album from the Czarface collective (comprised of Inspectah Deck and the rap/producer duo 7L & Esoteric), or at least the fifth one featuring actual rapping (so, not including First Weapon Drawn), followed the side project’s comic book-esque narrative to its natural next step. After having collaborated with like-minded producer-slash-rapper MF DOOM for the crossover event of 2018, Czarface Meets Metal Face, the Czars looked to Deck’s own colleague, his fellow Wu-Tang Clan cohort (and one-time Czarface guest-star) Ghostface Killah, for a spiritual sequel, the conveniently named Czarface Meets Ghostface.

It’s hard to get mad at they went to the well so early on in their lifespan when the idea is so brilliantly obvious, though.