Saw somebody post this on the Wutang-corp board, had a high school flashback, couldn’t resist the urge to post it here. I can’t fucking wait till 2012 so I can finally fulfill my destiny of being a post-apocalyptic head hunter/philosopher roaming the wasteland in search of fertile tri-breasted mutant women to mate with.

Newest Deck single by Beverly Hill’s finest producer. Peep the t-list for Manifesto below. –Philaflava

The Champion (prod. Alchemist)
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INSPECTAH DECK – MANIFESTO
IN STORES MARCH 23rd

TRACKLISTING:

1. Tombstone Intro (Prod. by J.Glaze)
2. The Champion (Prod. by Alchemist)
3. Born Survivor ft Cormega (Prod. by Moss)
4. This Is It (Prod. by Dtox)
5. Luv Letter ft Ms. Whitney (Prod. by INS)
6. P.S.A (Prod. by Lee Bannon)
7. T.R.U.E ft. MeShel (Prod. by INS)
8. We Get Down (Prod. by INS)
9. The Big Game ft Raekwon & AC (Prod. by Mental Instruments)
10. Tombstone Interlude (Prod. by J.Glaze)
11. 9th Chamber (Prod. by INS and Khino)
12. Really Real ft. Carlton Fisk & Fes Taylor (Prod. by INS)
13. Serious Rappin ft Termanology & Planet Asia (Prod. by Mike Cash)
14. Do What U Gotta (Prod. by Flip)
15. Crazy (Prod. by J.Glaze)
16. Gotta Bang ft Kurupt and Billy Danze (Prod. by Shorty 140)
17. The Bad Apple (Prod. by K.Slack)
18. Brothaz Respect ft Cappadonna and Fes Taylor (Prod. by Cee the Architech)
19. 5 Star G (Prod. by Moss)
20. The Neverending Story ft Pleasant (Prod. by Agallah)

If I were to ask you “Where’s my killer tape at?” you would undoubtbly know that “Shameek from 212 got bust in his head two times and he was laying there like a new born fucking baby god with all types of fucking blood coming out”

Or if in passing I said “torture muthafucker torture” you might inform me that you would indeed “stab my tongue with a rusty screwdriver”

Let’s say you were hungry and wanted to get some food that was best described as “some marvelous shit to get your mouth watering” you would know who to see.

How is it that we would all know this?

Well from our number four album Enter the 36 Chambers by The Wu Tang Clan.

Released in 1993 it revolutionized production and offered up a bevy of styles from GZA’s traditional rhythms and cadence to ODB’s madman with a mic style, it was unlike anything that any of us have heard at the time and since then artists have been trying to replicate it with expectedly boring and lackluster results….I’m looking at you white people.

My first experience with the Wu was at the Wiz on Central Avenue in Yonkers. I spent my summers working on a Coors truck and every Tuesday I would go to the Wiz and by all the new releases whether I heard them or not. Towards the end of that summer I bought the cassette single for Protect Ya Neck b/w Method Man. The art work could best be described as non-descript, basically plain white cover with a logo. I never heard them, but I read about them and people suggested I check them out. I went back to my car, at the time a Colt Vista Wagon, aka a piece of American shit that Detroit has become famous for, and played the single for a good 45 minutes before pulling out of the parking lot. It was that good and different. Even U-God came off, which is usually the case when he limited to 8 bars or less.

Needless to say I was stuck. I waited and waited until the album came out that fall. The wait was worth every second. The album dropped and it felt like everything changed, at least it did for me. Production now had to be moody and cinematic, lyrics had to be strong and layered and flows had to be insane. The album feature 3 of the greatest songs in the history of rap (Protect Ya Neck, CREAM, and Can It Be All So Simple) and I guess you can argue for a fourth with Method Man, which for my money was a great song for the 90s but not all time.

Everything about the album (with the exception of the song Tearz) is perfect, even the skits are enjoyable to this day. What other album has had skits that spawned hours of conversations and inside jokery, t-shirts, Youtube clips, etc. There are none.

I can’t believe I considered leaving this album off the list.

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I spent a lot of time trying to fill this slot. I was torn between two albums that I absolutely love, Breaking Atoms by Main Source and Whut? Tha Album by Redman, but the more I listened to those albums the less I could justify including them in the top ten-est rap albums of all time based on the criteria laid out in this space two weeks ago.  So I pondered, and tried to figure out what I could put in this slot.  I already had every album I wanted to include on this list plotted out and ready to go.  Then it hit me I needed to move Ghostface Killah’s Iron Man from its previous position which was so high because it was going to be the de facto Wu album to the number 8 slot and move Enter the 36 Chambers into the slot held by Ghostface.  After all Enter the 36 Chambers is a monster that has earned its right to represent itself. 

So here we are at number 8 with what I consider to be the best of the Wu Tang solo records and one of my favorite records of all time.  One could argue that any of the first round of Wu Tang solo records could claim a top spot on this list, but you would be wrong.  Tical was very good for its time, but Meth’s style on the record has become dated; Liquid Swords aged horribly mostly due to Gza’s anti-personality; and Return to the 36 Chambers while fantastic was just a little too uneven.  That leaves Raekwon’s Only Built for Cuban Linx and Ghostface Killah’s Iron Man.  I feel like you can make an argument for either of these albums being the high point of mid 90s NYC street rap perhaps only being matched by Mobb Deep’s The Infamous and Hell on Earth, but I can’t give any credence to an album where Havoc is prominently featured on the mic.  So I went with my personal favorite of the two.  Iron Man.

There is something special about this record, I wouldn’t say it is the high point creatively for Ghostface and the Rza, that would be Supreme Clientele, and it isn’t even the high point for ghost as a lyricist.  But there is something about this album that makes me revisit it for weeks at a time.  It has a cohesiveness that the others lack, still holds to the signature Wu sound which you could easily argue was the last sound out of New York that really mattered.  Sorry Jay-z’s The Blueprint was cool and all but it was not redefining shit.  Where Supreme Clientele and Bulletproof Wallets highlight the verbal ability of Ghost they are lacking in a constant that tethers you to the music, causing the albums to lose urgency as time goes on.  Pretty Toney, while enjoyable was the start of the downfall of Ghost as a creative entity eventually leading horrifically boring projects like Fish scale and More Fish. Sure they had moments but they were few and far between.  I think what makes Iron Man so special is the emotional core and the rawness of the sound.  It resonates through time and the music throughout the record is phenomenal, with a perfect mix of Wu Tang battle raps, street revelry and introspective genius that I think I will still be revisiting well into my latter years.   

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Recently Fredro Starr has been releasing about 5-6 minute episodes of a series titled “Tales of the Industry” where he goes into depth about stories inside the industry that many may know about, and some most never knew about. All of them have been VERY entertaining and interesting, and worth the time to watch. So below, are all the ones he’s done so far (4), he has filmed 12, expect the next one, next week

Peace to Philaflava’s Comedy Quaddafi for putting in the work and creating this much needed mixtape.

01) Killa Sin – Dressed to Kill (Verse)
02) Killa Sin – And Justice For All (Ft. RZA & Method Man)
03) Killa Sin – Burning Season (Ft. 9th Prince)
04) Killa Sin – Soul In The Hole (Ft. Timbo King & Tekitha)
05) Killa Sin – Soldiers Of Darkness (Verse)
06) Killa Sin – Universal Soldiers (Verse)
07) Killa Sin – Have Mercy (Ft. La the Darkman)
08) Killa Sin – Real Live Shit (Ft. Ghostface & Cappadonna)
09) Killa Sin – Moaning (Ft. Killah Priest)
10) Killa Sin – Full Moon (Verse)
11) Killa Sin – Swinging Swords (Verse)
12) Killa Sin – La Rhumba (Ft. RZA & Method Man)
13) Killa Sin – Young Godz (Verse)
14) Killa Sin – War Face (Verse)
15) Killa Sin – Heist of the century (Ft. La The Darkman)
16) Killa Sin – Fair, Love, War (Verse)
17) Killa Sin – Spazzola (Ft. Method Man, Raekwon & Inspectah Deck)
18) Killa Sin – Wake Up (Verse)
19) Killa Sin – 9th Chamber (Ft. Inspectah Deck, Streetlife & La the Darkman)
20) Killa Sin – Dart Tournament (Ft. Blue Raspberry)
21) Killa Sin – The Cookout (Verse)
22) Killa Sin – Galactics (Verse)
23) Killa Sin – The Shoot Out (Verse)
24) Killa Sin – Wu-Tang Line Up (Ft. Method Man, Raekwon & Inspectah Deck)
25) Killa Sin – 5 Stages of Consciousness (Verse)
26) Killa Sin – Hood Life (Ft. Masta Killa)
27) Killa Sin – Framed (Ft. Inspectah Deck & Kool G Rap)
28) Killa Sin – Monster (Verse)
29) Killa Sin – Where I Rest At (Verse)
30) Killa Sin – Feel It (Verse)
31) Killa Sin – Giant Size (Ft. Raekwon)
32) Killa Sin – Wu-Renegades (Verse)
33) Killa Sin – Pain (Verse)
34) Killa Sin – Whatever We Want (Verse)
35) Killa Sin – Strawberry (Ft. Ghostface)
36) Killa Sin – Lay Down (Verses)
37) Killa Sin – The Worst (Ft. Raekwon)
38) Killa Sin – Street Monopoly (Verse)
39) Killa Sin – The Bronzeman (Verse)
40) Killa Sin – East MC’s (Ft. Masta Killa)
41) Killa Sin – Murder Venue (Verse)
42) Killa Sin – Gunz N Razors (Ft. Ghostface)
43) Killa Sin – The Rule (Verse)
44) Killa Sin – War Games (Verse)
45) Killa Sin – Fools (Ft. RZA)
46) Killa Sin – Serving Justice (Ft. Dom Pachino)
47) Killa Sin – Not Enuff Godz (Verse)
48) Killa Sin – Power Cypha Freestyle (Ft. Inspectah Deck)
49) Killa Sin – Flame Throwerz (Verse)
50) Killa Sin – Pete Rock & Marley Marl Freestyle (Verse)
51) Killa Sin – Killarmy Freestyle (Verse)
52) Killa Sin – Stop The Breaks (Ft. Raekwon, KRS-One & Notorious B.I.G.)

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Dearest Ghostface Killah aka Ghostdini aka Tony Starks,

What happened in between:

and:

On behalf of the Steady Bloggin’ team, I ask: Rap or retire?

Peace,
Employee

P.S.: This comes from Steady Bloggin’s own Suge Knight himself, Mr. PhilaFlava -

“At first Dennis is gonna HATE us but after the smoke is clear he’ll thank us.

The man who saved the Wu and possibly hip-hop for many of us has gone a different direction. Who can blame him? Def Jam was suppose to take him to the next level but despite releasing 4 albums, this will be his 5th, he hasn’t had the same success since his Epic days. There hasn’t been an album comparable to either Ironman or Supreme Clientele. That’s not to say PTA or Fishscale didn’t have its moments. In retrospect,you could make an argument for those being the top album of their respective years. Still, Ghost needs to eat and who are we to stop him?

The problem is Dennis Coles is approaching 40 soon and there is no telling how much is left in the tank. Discouraging sales after sales can really take a toll and even though he can cake off the Wu catalog or catch a gig with his infectious charm, the fact remains Ghostface Killah took a turn for the worst sometime ago.

Nobody from his core wants to hear “The Wizard of Poetry in Emerald City” and nobody outside of it will care to hear a 39 something rapper do Al Green.

This album will most definitely tank. It will been non-existent on any chart and practically unheard on most airwaves. It’ll be yet another Ghostface Killah effort that falls short. We know he still has it because heard OB4CL II but the question is when will Ghost do Ghost on Ghost album. Rap or retire?”