You'll see if this whole 'dropping a post every month' thing blows over. You'll just have to see.
I don't know how you can absorb the black hole that is the Wu-Affiliate discography without suffering a few seizures. Because covering this shit is taxing. And so far, I'm attempting to cover dudes who are 100% confirmed to have direct ties to the Wu-Tang Clan. Obviously, I bit off more than I can chew, but I'm sticking with this run to its bitter end, no matter how long I'll take.
Back in 1998, Killarmy, made of Steubenville, Ohio's Terrance Hamlin bka Wu creative mind RZA's younger brother 9th Prince, Jamal Alexander bka Shogun (hands down my favorite Steubenville MC from the collective), Samuel Murray tka Beretta 9 nka Kinetic 9 and Rodney Stevenson bka Islord (the Cappadonna of the group), along with Staten Island, NY's Jeryl Grant bka Wu manager& actor Oliver 'Power' Grant's younger sibling Killa Sin (the Method Man of the group) and Domingo Del Valle tka PR Terrorist nka Dom Pachino, were in a situation that many a rap act found themselves in throughout the years: How will we ever follow up our debut? (Insert the whiniest emoji you can think of here.) Now granted, it ain't like people treat Silent Weapons For Quiet Wars as a goddamn timeless piece of music, even though it's way more deserving of a spotlight than albums like the friggin No Way Out vanity project by Comby Combs with his mainstream-whoring ways. Nevertheless, enough people listened to it, and more importantly, enough people liked it. Naturally, a sequel is expected that still retains whatever said fanbase liked about the original. So it's probably a pretty good idea that Steubenville's Selwyn Bogard bka revered Wu-Element 4th Disciple remained as the group's main producer.
For 4th, my SWFQW review mentioned that it was his "proving ground as an album crafter", to which I believe I said that "he passed that particular test with hella flying colors". Now, people (read: Wu stans) know to associate him with minimalist beats with quite the affinity for classic music. His retention for this album as well boosts the chance that maybe the crew will repeat their previous feat. Keep in mind that these dudes are attempting this after losing their manager & leader, Steubenville's late General Wise, . Listening to them speak about him, you get the feeling that he was pretty goddamn prevalent in their lives and that his death hit them fairly hard. RIP General Wise.
Side note: I don't really remember when it was that I was convinced to give these Killarmy albums a go. Maybe it's after the constant stream of awesome performances by Killa Sin I was exposed to. Scratch that, I believe I can pinpoint the exact verse from him that forced me to check these dudes out: It was his performance on the Real Live Shit remix. He blew everyone else away on that shit, even a very in-form Ghostface Killah.
And with Dirty Weaponry, you're here to see if these guys can do the same.
GALACTICS
We set the album off with the revelation that this album will host not one, but two guest producers. Granted, it's on 3 of 13 songs, but it's still worth mentioning. The first guest producer is Queens, NY's Ronald Bean bka Wu-Element DJ Mathematics and straight out the gate, you can hear his audacious challenge to 4th Disciple in the Mad Lads-sampling beat he's provided the group, preceded by a sample describing their MO yet again: They're militant in their pursuit of greatness in this game. The dialogue sample opening the song kind of drags a bit, until the relentless loop forming the beat emerges from its depths to engulf you in a sense of foreboding. This might be another triumphant showing from these guys after all. You first hear Dom's boring-ass hook (read: he delivers it as if there's a carrot stuck in his teefers. Thanks for that word, Mef!), and I must admit my initial frustration at hearing friggin' Islord spit the first verse. However, everything after that is nothing short of hip hop bliss. You're treated to three blistering verses from Beretta, Dom & 9P respectively, and surprisingly Dom blew me away. No lie, this is straight up the best verse I've ever heard from the guy! Not even 9P's gibberish flow can fill the gaping hole he incinerated in the beat. Very nice! The song ends with a sample from the Spawn HBO TV series, for better or worse.
ALLAH SEES EVERYTHING (FEATURING KILLAH PRIEST)
I'd've figured that, given it's title, Priest would contribute more to this track than hook duties, but here you go. So, Dom's on fire now. I'm serious, something happened to this guy after the first album, because he damn sure ain't playing around with performances like this. 9P and Islord (Ugh) pale by comparison, although I get the feeling that you'll tolerate 9P's shit here more than that of the personality vacuum. 4th accepts DJ Math's challenge on the earlier song and elevates the sweeping feeling Math brought with his own sweeping take on the samples here. 2 for 2.
5 STAGES OF CONSCIOUSNESS
To date, this is the lone track to in Killarmy's entire discography to feature all the members on one song. Does it fulfill expectations, you ask? Well sure enough, 4th Disciple brings you his signature minimalist mesh of obscure samples that might be combined with some keyboard play from him. The group fittingly responds, no question: We begin with the Shaolin, NY duo of Killa Sin & Dom bringing magnificent offerings that effectively set the bar high enough for the Steubenville crew to shine. Except Islord, of course. He's that annoying to me.
UNITE TO FIGHT
The Steubenville duet of Shogun and 9P fail to impress over this 4th beat that deserved more. That's really all I got. Next!
MURDER VENUE
You first hear Islord's fucking grating voice on the hook over yet another appropriately minimalist 4th creation. It is here that Beretta 9 chooses to surprise the fuck outta everybody by lyrically besting the three most well known members of Killarmy: Dom, 9P and most surprising of all, Killa Sin. B9 accomplishes this through sheer conviction alone on an otherwise OK song.
DOOMSDAY (FEATURING HOLOCAUST)
After his showings on vanity Wu sampler The Swarm earlier that year, the Wu family's raging collective hard-on for Anthony Brown fka Holocaust nka Warcloud, temporary figurehead of West Coast Wu-Affiliates the Black Knights, continues as he guests on not one, but two songs on Dirty Weaponry. And as I mentioned in the previous post, the attention here is very much warranted. This guy rides 4th's blood-pumping custom beat as if it was his sole purpose in life while dropping some undeniable heaters in his verse. You can almost hear B9 & Dom throwing in their respective towels midway through their respective verses.
RED DAWN
OK, now the blame is solely on Selwyn for this song being dead on arrival. He's obviously aiming to recreate the whirlwind of a journey that his production on SWFQW took you in here, but his keyboard display is just too goddamn paint-by-numbers. Too bad, as this track also features another standout B9 showing, while Dom and especially 9P fall by the way side. I mean, I know that Dom was clearly trying, but it is what it is.
THE SHOOT OUT
The lone single from the album that got the video treatment, and the fall in budget was noticeable to say the least. Oh, and by the way: Every single member of this group should've bitchslapped whomever came up with the video's asinine concept of them competing in obstacle courses for RZA's approval. And maybe smack him, too, because it seems like the shit he'd use in his own videos. Back to the song, though: I'm pretty surprised that this was the song these six chose as the one that represents this album best when I can think of at least four more deserving cuts, especially 5 Stages Of Consciousness. (Once again, the one song in the group's discography where, you know, all the members share the track together?!) The beat may very well be 4th's worst on this entire album. Pretty unfortunate that, as this song features some magnificent performances from Killa Sin and B9 despite its brevity, including what may very well be the only performance from Islord that I find tolerable. Still, the beat ruined this song for me. Oh and don't go looking for The Cook Out, the accompanying b-side to this song's 12": It's grade-a materialistic manure.
BASTARD SWORDSMAN (FEATURING HOLOCAUST)
DJ Math is back, and so far his beats for the album have been stellar. The integration of the various Al Green samples splattered throughout the beat sets the mood of paranoia off right. Dom comes correct this time, recapturing his form from the first few songs on Dirty Weaponry, only to be completely disintegrated by Holocaust's contribution. The following 9P verse never really stood a chance. The real mystery, though, is how the hell did Shogun drop in quality so fast, notably after being a star contributor to SWFQW. His verse here is pretty good, though. Especially his closing line.
LAST POET
Selwyn sits this one out as well, as in comes Russell Presley aka Russ Prez, main producer for female Wu-Affiliate crew Deadly Venoms, to continue DJ Math's endeavor to make up for Selwyn's atrocious showing on The Shoot Out with a Cilla Black loop that's pretty darn redeeming: He manages to wring every last drop of melancholy from said loop, then hands the resulting beat over to Killarmy. In turn, they assign Dom, Islord (groan) and 9P to do it some sombre justice. To that end, only Dom succeeds, as Islord is being Islord and 9P's prattling flow fails to suit this slow beat. Ultimately, this is yet another misfire.
RED DAWN
OK, now the blame is solely on Selwyn for this song being dead on arrival. He's obviously aiming to recreate the whirlwind of a journey that his production on SWFQW took you in here, but his keyboard display is just too goddamn paint-by-numbers. Too bad, as this track also features another standout B9 showing, while Dom and especially 9P fall by the way side. I mean, I know that Dom was clearly trying, but it is what it is.
THE SHOOT OUT
The lone single from the album that got the video treatment, and the fall in budget was noticeable to say the least. Oh, and by the way: Every single member of this group should've bitchslapped whomever came up with the video's asinine concept of them competing in obstacle courses for RZA's approval. And maybe smack him, too, because it seems like the shit he'd use in his own videos. Back to the song, though: I'm pretty surprised that this was the song these six chose as the one that represents this album best when I can think of at least four more deserving cuts, especially 5 Stages Of Consciousness. (Once again, the one song in the group's discography where, you know, all the members share the track together?!) The beat may very well be 4th's worst on this entire album. Pretty unfortunate that, as this song features some magnificent performances from Killa Sin and B9 despite its brevity, including what may very well be the only performance from Islord that I find tolerable. Still, the beat ruined this song for me. Oh and don't go looking for The Cook Out, the accompanying b-side to this song's 12": It's grade-a materialistic manure.
BASTARD SWORDSMAN (FEATURING HOLOCAUST)
DJ Math is back, and so far his beats for the album have been stellar. The integration of the various Al Green samples splattered throughout the beat sets the mood of paranoia off right. Dom comes correct this time, recapturing his form from the first few songs on Dirty Weaponry, only to be completely disintegrated by Holocaust's contribution. The following 9P verse never really stood a chance. The real mystery, though, is how the hell did Shogun drop in quality so fast, notably after being a star contributor to SWFQW. His verse here is pretty good, though. Especially his closing line.
LAST POET
Selwyn sits this one out as well, as in comes Russell Presley aka Russ Prez, main producer for female Wu-Affiliate crew Deadly Venoms, to continue DJ Math's endeavor to make up for Selwyn's atrocious showing on The Shoot Out with a Cilla Black loop that's pretty darn redeeming: He manages to wring every last drop of melancholy from said loop, then hands the resulting beat over to Killarmy. In turn, they assign Dom, Islord (groan) and 9P to do it some sombre justice. To that end, only Dom succeeds, as Islord is being Islord and 9P's prattling flow fails to suit this slow beat. Ultimately, this is yet another misfire.
SERVING JUSTICE
Here, after a short and indifferent dialogue bit, 4th finally redeeming himself by bringing us the best beat on the album bar none, as he samples the famed Lonely Shepherd piece to masterful effect. After a hook from Dom and 9P, Dom and Killa Sin engage in a lyrical duel where they bounce off each other effortlessly, with Jeryl absolutely slaughtering Dom. Also, big shocker here, 9P contributing another of his prattling verses was a highlight instead of a drawback because, again, this beat was not a snoozefest. A definite album highlight.
WHERE I REST AT
It's finally official: Shogun has fallen off. You will realize that on this track if you enjoyed the fuck outta his shit on the crew's debut. He's still serviceable, of course, but he's nowhere near where he was lyrically on SWFQW. But I'll be damned if I don't enjoy the hell outta this track regardless. Why? Because this song houses the absolute best lyrical performance on this album, courtesy of (who else?) Killa Sin. Seriously, the fucker goes in on Selwyn's equally-epic Gladys Knight-sampling beat. One more criticism, though: I loves me some wordy hooks, but they need to be crafted right. Which, sadly, wasn't the case with B9's contribution here. Still, a very enjoyable song, nonetheless.
PAIN
The final song on this album doesn't sound like a Killarmy song in the least, This is more of early Sunz Of Man territory, as their unreleased material reveals they were serious about their dark imagery. This isn't supposed to be a knock on this track, as the grim dialogue between Spawn and the Violator from the HBO series is sampled perfectly here by 4th Disciple, who then proceeds to build the entire beat, keys and strings and all, around said sample. The Steubenville team plus Killa Sin close out the album with performances that are worthy of such haunting surroundings. Well, except for Islord, as he sounds goofy as fuck talking about how he'll cause ruckus to "weak motherfuckin' analog n****s". Trust me, he sounds this annoying almost every. Single. Time you hear him spit.
FINAL THOUGHTS
OK, this is where I lay the barebone facts on this album: I've actually come across many opinions stating that this album was a vast improvement on the first, going on and on about how the beats and rhymes were stepped up noticeably by all involved. To be honest, I find that to be too much of a stretch, as the only ones whom efforts at improving themselves clearly show are Beretta 9, by far the most consistent member on this album, and Dom Pachino, whom still fails to impress sometimes. The rest were either simply coasting on their earlier styles, which in Killa Sin's case is mostly pretty damn great, or in 9th Prince' case is too dependent on the energy of the beat. Because he sounds pretty goddamn shitty on the slower instrumentals. As for Islord and Shogun, one was Islord and the other was the most disappointing member from the group, bar none. We're talking about a guy who went toe to toe with a very in-form Killa Sin on the first album. And if a true Wu stan ever heard that form, he'd know how glowing a compliment that's supposed to be. Speaking of instrumentals, 4th is the most glaring drawback of the entire project. Don't get me wrong, he's still mostly phenomenal. But comparing his showings here with the gargantuan accomplishment he's done on SWFQW, and he just comes up short. Even though the guest productions by DJ Math and Russ Prez were pretty goddamn knee-slapping. It is what it is.
WORTH IT? Only if you loved the first one, as there are still some straight jewels on this album, as well. Just don't get your hopes too high on this album surpassing the first. As I've said, that just ain't happening.
Your destination for more Wu-Affiliate shit. You masochistic bastard, you. For more from Killarmy, check this.
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