The Twelve Days of Wu-Mas 2022 - Day #12

 

The final gift of The Twelve Days of Wu-Mas 2022 is the following write-up, which is for a relatively recent Wu-related project that would up sounding much better than it had any right to, especially in 2022. I remember sitting in a hotel room in Chicago jotting down my notes this past summer (my wife was attending a conference and I was taking advantage of some of that rare “quiet time” that never seems to occur on my vacations), and I found myself enjoying this project so much that I was tempted to break my own self-imposed rule and run the review right then and there. Obviously I got over that sentiment pretty quickly, but that just means I had something I couldn’t wait to share with you two over this holiday season. Enjoy!

The Twelve Days of Wu-Mas 2022 - Day #11

After a nineteen-year absence, not counting a mixtape released in 2010 that promised an altogether different third album that never came to be, Ross "Remedy" Fuller finally released a new project in 2021. Titled Remedy Meets Wu-Tang, it was the culmination of everything the man had been working toward his entire career, as it finally offers the man the one thing he had been demanding since his debut in the music industry: for the Wu-Tang Clan to treat him as a peer. You may not have gotten that message from the provocative album artwork, which could be read a number of different ways, each more problematic than the last, but rest assured Remedy was just as much about his Wu-Tang affiliation in 2021 as he was when he popped up on that Killa Bees compilation The Swarm way back in the day.

One thing Remedy Meets Wu-Tang has over all of the man's other work is, in fact, the actual Wu-Tang Clan, as the majority of the group makes at least one cameo appearance on here, and the folks that don't appear are mostly members who aren't very active these days to begin with (the exception being Raekwon, whose absence is noticeable considering just how often Ghostface Killah pops in). Other Wu-affiliates appear as well, along with, of all the rappers in the world, Conway the Machine, who continues to build his ties with the Clan by destroying any beat he appears on with them. The exciting guest list paired with the solid production throughout is why Remedy Meets Wu-Tang is, as I wrote last year, "the best Wu-affiliated project in recent memory".

Click here to read my thoughts on Remedy Meets Wu-Tang, a former Patreon exclusive that is now available for everyone to enjoy!

-Max

The Twelve Days of Wu-Mas 2022 - Day #10

The producer 4th Disciple, born El-Divine Amir Bey, is one of the earliest known Wu-Tang Clan affiliates. He's the only member of the Wu-Elements production crew to have provided any assistance on the group's debut, Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers), and he quickly took the musical reigns for Killarmy, one of the first Clan spinoffs whose six members focused more on a military aesthetic rather than the martial arts the core group idolizes. But while he's certainly racked up production credits throughout the years, both with the Wu and through his own artists, he was still the one Element voted most likely to remain in the shadows, staying in his lane and keeping to himself.

That all changed in 2020 when he released The Algorythm, his attempt at a Pete Rock Soul Survivor-type producer project, one where he provided all of the beats while guests pulled from random sources laid down rhymes. It's a little weird that he hadn't done something similar in the past, at least with various members of the Wu family, but what makes The Algorythm more unique in this regard is how he deliberately looks past his familial connections in order to create more of a challenge for himself. The Algorythm, an album title which pains me to look at every time I have to write it out because of its blatant misspelling, features verses from artists such as Rah Digga, Vinnie Paz, Sadat X, Peedi Crakk, and the late Sean Price, most of whom are on friendly terms with the Clan, but none of whom you'd expect to see appear on a proper Clan project. Because he isn't crazy, 4th Disciple also included Solomon Childs, La the Darkman, and Shabazz the Disciple (no relation) in the mix, because he knows what the Wu stans want to hear.

Click here to read my thoughts on The Algorythm, a former Patreon exclusive that is now available for everyone to enjoy!

-Max

The Twelve Days of Wu-Mas 2022 - Day #9

In 2020, the Twelve Days of Wu-Mas took on a different form, with all written reviews appearing over on the Patreon instead of here. There was a reason for that: instead of merely chastising the stuff I didn’t like on various projects that had very little chance of ever measuring up to the golden era of the Clan, I wanted to share with readers the songs I actually enjoyed a great deal. That's how I ended up compiling several special episodes of the Max-Approved Mixtape dedicated to the Wu-Tang Clan and their affiliates.

These mixes, each featuring ten tracks handpicked from the vast Wu catalog and a random movie sound bites that started off following the group's overall aesthetic but quickly shifted into more bizarre territory in an effort to make myself chuckle, were a pretty big hit over on the Mixcloud site, bumping up the follower count and listener stats, so in 2021 I recorded a few more, since there is an endless sea of the Wu for us to navigate. The only criteria used was that I had to personally believe the song was fire. That’s it. Simple, right? I figured that, if I loved the song, then there was a great chance that you two may also enjoy the shit out of it, and sharing songs I actually like with folks is one of my favorite things to do, hence RandoMax Radio existing in the first place.

I haven’t recorded any new episodes of the Wu-Mix for this year’s holiday run, but if you’re a newbie or just need to get on my level, below is a list of every episode released, in addition to a couple of extra-special one-offs that acted as “best of” mixes just because I thought they would be fun.

2020:

Wu-Mix #1 (Original article)
Wu-Mix #2 (Original article)
Wu-Mix #3 (Original article)
Wu-Mix #4 (Original article)
Wu-Mix #5 (Original article)
Wu-Mix #6 (Original article)
Wu-Mix #7 (Original article)
Wu-Mix #8 (Original article)
Wu-Mix #9 (Original article)
Wu-Mix #10 (Original article)
Wu-Mix #11 (Original article)

2021:

RandoMax Radio Presents: Wu-Mas 2020 Mix (Original article)
RandoMax Radio Presents: Wu-Mas 2020 Mix - The Other Guys (Original article)
Wu-Mix 2021 - Day #3 Mix (Original article)
Wu-Mix 2021 - Day #5 Mix (Original article)
Wu-Mix 2021 - Day #7 Mix (Original article)
Wu-Mix 2021 - Day #9 Mix (Original article)
Wu-Mix 2021 - Day #11 Mix (Original article)

These special entries in the Max-Approved Mixtape canon work best when you’re zoning out to the music, so run them back on your commute, while working out, cleaning your apartment, or simply relaxing with the indulgent intoxicant of your choosing. Share this with your Wu-stan buddies, as every little bit of exposure helps the cause.

Enjoy!

-Max

The Twelve Days of Wu-Mas 2022 - Day #8

Ross "Remedy" Fuller, a man who will forever be seen as the first white rapper underneath the Wu-Tang umbrella to release a solo album, which is an accurate statement but also entirely discounts his commitment to both the Wu aesthetic and the culture as a whole, was in a much different headspace when his sophomore effort, Code: Red, dropped in 2002. His debut, The Genuine Article (which, like everything he's ever put out, included "Never Again", his song about the atrocities committed during the Holocaust that remains the best writing he's ever done), was released a year prior, but in between projects the 9/11 attacks happened on United States soil, which left the man both humbled and now fully aware of how some parts of the world viewed his country. Code: Red is where the man began to dabble in politically-conscious material ("Never Again" being more of a personal account from his elders), but that new perspective on the fragility of life didn't shift his focus that much, since this is still a Wu-affiliate album filled with boasts, bullshit, and the requisite cameos from his more famous friends.

Click here to read my thoughts on Code: Red, a former Patreon exclusive that is now available for everyone to enjoy!

-Max

The Twelve Days of Wu-Mas 2022 - Day #7

In the realm of Wu-Tang-related projects that probably shouldn't exist, The Hell EP, a joint effort between trip-hop god Tricky and hip hop quartet Gravediggaz (I realize I made the argument very early in the blog's lifespan that the Gravediggaz were originally more of a Prince Paul project than a Wu spinoff, and I stand behind that statement, but The RZA had something to do with this so just let it happen, people) that likely only happened in the first place because both musical acts shared a parent label in Island Records at the time. 

1995 was a wild time in our chosen genre, folks: it was around this time that label executives finally started to realize that this here rap shit wasn't going to fade away anytime soon, which then turned into trying to find any and every way to capitalize on the genre in whatever form they could, including mashing musical styles together. It's how Method Man remixed one of his songs with the Chemical Brothers, it's how Kool Keith guested on The Prodigy's The Fat of the Land, and it's how we got The Hell EP, a four-song project where approximately half of the tracks are legitimate collaborations between Tricky and three-quarters of the Diggaz (because Prince Paul, perhaps wisely, chose to sit this one out, which could be seen as foreshadowing for his eventual departure in 1997, but maybe we shouldn't read into stuff like that, that's how rumors start).

Click here to read my thoughts on The Hell EP, a former Patreon exclusive that is now available for everyone to enjoy!

-Max

The Twelve Days of Wu-Mas 2022 - Day #6

 

Today's gift for the Wu stans is a quick reminder of the Producers Guild mix show series that I'm trying to bring back in 2023. I know what you're thinking: "Wait, didn't you just publish a catch-up post about this very subject right before Christmas?" And you're right, I did. However, I'm quite proud of the last three installments (so far, anyway), as they focused on three different members of the Wu-Elements production team: True Master, 4th Disciple, and Allah Mathematics, and I'd like them to reach a wider audience, or at the very least I want you two to realize that there's more to these guys than their Wu-Tang affiliations (or, in Math's case, the fact that he created the goddamned logo).

What follows is a repost of those Wu-centric episodes, which I hope you will enjoy and share with anybody that enjoys good music. 

The Twelve Days of Wu-Mas 2022 - Day #5

In what might be one of my more nonsensical ideas over on the Patreon feed, back in 2020 I decided to write about a one-off The RZA did in partnership with Tazo Tea. Tazo's whole deal is based on the concept of mindfulness, whether one is talking about the environment or their own mental health, and given Prince Rakeem's previous ventures into the space (see: his philosophical musings in both of his books, The Wu-Tang Manual and The Tao of Wu), at least this shit made much more sense than the man being propositioned by Dr. fucking Pepper.

Guided Explorations is not a traditional hip hop album in any way, especially since it features no rapping. Still, The RZA produced every instrumental featured, each one designed to help listeners unlock all seven chakras while listening to our host's ASMR-like line readings. If that sounds somewhat appealing to you even though this remains primarily a site which reviews rap albums, then are you in for a treat.

Click here to read my thoughts on Guided Explorations, a former Patreon exclusive that is now available for everyone to enjoy!

-Max

The Twelve Days of Wu-Mas 2022 - Day #4

A few days ago I referred to the Twelve Days of Wu-Mas as the site's annual holiday tradition, which has been true for at least a few years. Since 2018, if we're being specific. Longtime followers who stuck around through the lengthy hiatuses may recall a time when the site was just as known for its focus on the Wu-Tang Clan and their affiliates as it was for its snarky hip hop commentary. If you take a gander at the sidebar, you'll see that the tag "Wu-Tang Clan" remains the most populated to this day (although I'm sure "RandoMax Radio" will soon take the title, but whatever, life goes on). During one of the many times where I was feeling burnt out from constantly writing about our chosen genre and not really enjoying listening to our chosen genre (before I started working on my time management skills, which are still a work in progress), I decided to challenge myself by not immediately dropping everything for any new Wu-related release, choosing to instead focus on literally everybody else in hip hop. I quickly realized that there were a significant amount of readers who looked forward to the Wu shit, however, which led me to grouping everything together as an end-of-year treat.

Which is how we ended up here.

The Twelve Days of Wu-Mas 2022 - Day #3

Super What? is the second full-length collaborative project from the hip hop supergroup Czarface (comprised of Boston-bred underground duo 7L & Esoteric alongside the Wu-Tang Clan's pinch hitter Inspectah Deck) and the late producer-slash-rapper MF DOOM. It follows 2018's Czarface Meets Metal Face, which drummed up a considerable level of excitement given how much of each act's overall aesthetic has been derived from comic books - it truly felt like a match made in heaven. Given DOOM's passing in 2020, Super What? came as a bit of a surprise, but I suppose it shouldn't have - the man fond of his metal mask had many unreleased songs and verses banked up, and the Czar-Keys production team was among the few within our chosen genre who could conceivably do right by the man's sound and form, given past experience.

Click here to read my thoughts on Super What?, a former Patreon exclusive that is now available to everyone!

-Max

The Twelve Days of Wu-Mas 2022 - Day #2

Day #2 of this year's Twelve Days of Wu-Mas aims to cast some light onto a project of mine from 2019, one that was fairly well-received in 2019 but has since been lost in the dark hallways of the Interweb. Until today, anyway. And I realize that previous sentence implies that the project was buried by sinister forces and not simply that there's been a ton of content added onto the information superhighway since its original publication date, but people believe what they want to believe. I'm proud of the project, even though all I can see and hear are mixtakes and the corrections I would make today, but you have to let your kids out into the real world at some point.

Anyway, today let's revisit my fake concept album, Wu-Massacre 2, which stars three members of the Wu-Tang Clan that deserve much more shine: Inspectah Deck, Masta Killa, and the GZA/Genius. Perhaps this will be the nudge the universe requires to make this fantasy into a reality.

The Twelve Days of Wu-Mas 2022 - Day #1

If you're a longtime follower of the blogs, or if you're simply a very observant reader, you might have noticed that the holiday season at HHID tends to be handed over to the Wu-Tang Clan. I still consider myself a Wu stan, although the output from the primary nine/ten/eleven members of the group has dried up significantly over the years and I will admit that I've lost track of the myriad projects their affiliates of affiliates drop seemingly every week, so these year-end posts are my attempt at playing catch-up withe the group, who, as a whole, still constitute a huge percentage of space on the site. So for the next twelve days, let's chat about the Wu like we used to.