Album Review: Wu-Tang – Legendary Weapons

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Artist: Wu-Tang

Album: Legendary Weapons

Label: E1 Music

Date: July 26, 2011

Although Legendary Weapons isn’t exactly an official Wu-Tang album, it still offers all of the raw lyricism, kung-fu samples and familiar faces that you would expect from any other clan project. The GZA and Masta Killa are the only original Killa Bees aside from the late Dirt McGirt that do not make appearances on the album, however features from other NY MCs such as AZ, Sean Price and Action Bronson do a solid job of making up for their absence. Legendary Weapons is by no means a legendary body of work, but out of the fifteen tracks (four of which are skits) there are definitely a couple of gems that the Wu-Tang faithful are bound to enjoy.

The first that comes to mind is a song called “Diesel Fluid” which opens with Method Man spitting a verse that contains an array of emotions.   Starting with his laid back How High persona, Meth raps, “Im in the weed spot pounds of purp / Bowl of cereal cartoons is on my favorite sh*t is the Smurfs.”  However, Meth quickly switches over to a deeper more introspective tone with lines like “now I don’t slip when I’m down in the dirt / Cuz by this time I done seen life and figured the amount that it’s worth.” The song goes on to include verses from Capadonna and Trife Diesel but neither of them can touch Meth on this one. “Diesel Fluid” also features some of the best production on the album despite the fact that the beat is very simple, revolving around the repetition of a synthesizer A-minor chord.

Another song that Wu-Tang fans are sure to enjoy is the title track, which sounds somewhat similar to the Clan classic “Triumph.”   Unlike “Triumph” however, the only Wu member on “Legendary Weapons” is Ghostface Killah.  New York legends AZ and M.O.P. join Ghostface on the rugged track and grace the mic for some of the most entertaining verses on the album. AZ pokes fun at the hit “Racks on Racks” by saying that he’s got “Plaques on Plaques” and Lil’ Fame keeps the jokes coming with lines like “I’m hard bodied, I keep a John Gotti / You keep it Bon Jovi, you wear a thong probably.”  In addition to lending his mic skills to the track, Lil’ Fame also produced the track “Legendary Weapons” alongside Noah Rubin and Andrew Kelley, both of whom produced the majority of the entire project.  The controversial Wu-Tang affiliate Killa Sin makes a couple of appearances on Legendary Weapons, most notably on the solo track “Drunk Tongue.” Killa Sin stays true to his name by killing the track with an arsenal of multi-syllable rhymes as he spits for nearly two minutes straight. On “Black Diamonds” he shares the mic with Roc Marciano, who is a regular on Wu-Tang compilation albums, which in a sense is really what Legendary Weapons sounds like at the end of the day.

One of the more disappointing beats on the album is “Meteor Hammer.”   However, while there is nothing captivating about the production, it is interesting to hear the remarkably similar flows of Action Bronson and Ghostface Killah together on one track. Action Bronson’s verse starts immediately after Ghost is finished and as soon as he comes in it feels like someone flipped a time travel switch taking you back to ’93 as Bronson’s flow creates the illusion of a young Tony Starks.

Unfortunately there aren’t any cuts that feature more than two original Wu members all on one track, so if you’re looking for Wu-Tang to bring the ruckus as a whole you’re straight out of luck.   The closest you’re going to get is “225 Rounds” which features U-God, The RZA and Wu-affiliates Capadonna and Bronze Nazareth. However, even without the unity of all of the Killa Bees, Legendary Weapons still provides listeners with that Wu Tang brand of sound that their hardcore fans never seem to get tired of. I would recommend this album to someone who is heavy into the WTC, but for those who aren’t it’s probably best to leave this one alone.

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Purchase Legendary Weapons on iTunes