If anyone was confused about what I meant when I said Ghostface should start trying again, witness the staggering title track off Raekwon's forthcoming album Shaolin vs. Wu-Tang. It's no coincidence that Raekwon name-checks Supreme Clientele in his verses here - these densely packed, internal-rhyme-laden lines are going after the same kind of ferociously vivid, jackhammer-paced abstraction that fueled Ghost's old masterpiece. Note that there is nothing new about the subject matter here, nor does there have to be - the value is in the precise, intricate construction of the wordplay over a classic horror-film beat by Scram Jones. It's been pretty surprising to see just how well Raekwon and his talent have been aging, and between this and previous leak "Butter Knives", I'm more than a little pumped for the proper release.
Raekwon - "Shaolin vs. Wu-Tang"
Raekwon - "Butter Knives"
*A note to our thousands of readers - I'll be on hiatus for a few weeks for travel, but keep checking in for all kinds of other assorted BZNZ. I'll be back with a review of the follow-up to what was probably my favorite album of 2008.
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