A Better Tomorrow has actually been promised for a while now, delayed to the point that it was inching ever so close to the category of Detox and Loso's Way 2 (I am, apparently, the only person that really cares about that album. Its more of a principle thing, though, I could really give two shits if I never hear another Fabolous song in my life). The album, which's title is taken from a John Woo film of the same name, is only a thing because RZA is the worlds biggest Wu-Tang fan, and simply would not settle for an unacknowledged twenty-year anniversary. Thats admirable as a fan, getting eight people rappers and Cappadonna is the same room is a difficult task, but that also gave RZA the level of creative control that basically makes it a RZA solo album that consistently features members of the Wu.
And a RZA album is what we get. For the all the drop in quality through Wu-Tang albums (I'm a Wu-Tang apologist, but its hard to deny that their albums got progressively worse; 8 Diagrams was still good, though), the members never got that much worse. They're still masters of rhyming, who have been able to remain entertaining with their relatively similar subject matter over the course of two decades. The only member to go through a drastic evolution was RZA, which is actually a huge deal considering each one of their album has been directed by his production. On 36 Chambers, he was a master of atmosphere, crafting some of the most disgusting, grimy, and bad ass instrumentals to have ever been released. In 2014, he's writing compositions, scoring films, and making music that has been described as "psychedelic hippy shit". He's got his own headphone brand, he's written movies, and has more or less morphed into a complete entrepreneur. His image has become every bit as grand as his music.
Here's the thing: the rest of the Wu always trusted RZA, and went along with his visions of what they should be. On their debut, they were given incredibly easy surfaces to spit fire over, but to their credit, they made the necessary adjustments when RZA expanded upon his production style for their double-disc follow up, Wu-Tang Forever. Its common to praise an artist for not following current trends, but RZA truly did that, and as a result, even the lesser of Wu albums hold up a hell of a lot better than most rap albums.
His leadership wasn't called into question until the turn of the millennium, when The W and Iron Flag received gentle, but firm criticism (at least more than the group was accustomed to), and 2007's 8 Diagrams was flat-out torn to shreds by fans and critics for basically sounding nothing like a Wu-Tang album (as an early believer in the album, I'm glad to see the albums has grow in status over the years since its release). Many members, Raekwon especially, bashed the final product and made almost everyone call into question the future of the Wu. As a result, new ideas were presented, the best being an album featuring all members rapping over entirely non-RZA produced instrumentals. Since it's 2014 and this is their first album in seven years, its obvious that the album never came to fruition, but hey, it was a decent idea. (The closest thing we ever got to this was Chamber Music and Legendary Weapons, two Fizzy Womack-produced side projects that no one other than Wu stans heard. They're worth a listen, though.)
Without spoiling anything, it was announced that A Better Tomorrow would feature two key production elements/influences. Perhaps most important is the emphasis on live instrumentation. That's nothing new for the group, but they've never done it for an entire album. Even producers not named RZA (4th Disciple and Mathematics) got in on the action, which is admittedly surprising. Secondly, and probably more encouraging, is that RZA has vocally acknowledged the influence Adrian Young had on the creation of this album. Young is most notable for helping Ghostface craft a miniature Italian gangster story, which was pretty damn good. And hell, Adrian even stopped by the studio, and if that doesn't get you exciting, I'm not sure much will at this point.
As I already touched on, the delays made for A Better Tomorrow were more or less necessary. There's eight living members in the group, and at least half of them are successful solo rappers that have lives outside of solely pleasing their fans. This is different than only being one person and making an album that's been promised for several years (*cough* Fabolous *cough*). Some of them are still rapping really damn well too, and have careers worth attending to. That's not to mention the fact that RZA recently announced Man With the Iron Fists 2, which had to have taken up at least some kind of time. Basically, what I'm trying to say is, cut these guys some slack.
And that about brings another one of my classic long-as-shit-but-incredibly-maybe-overly-informative-intros to a close. I feel like I heard half the damn album before it was released, but "Keep Watch", "Ron O'Neal", and "Ruckus in B Minor" were the only songs officially release as singles. Considering none of them really caught my ear, my expectations were low to say the least, buy hey, singles were never their strong suit. (Disclosure: that's a motherfucking lie, their singles are always amazing, but I'm trying to stay positive)
1. Ruckus in B Minor
I mean, I guess this is alright. Its is great, though, that all ten members (including Cappadonna and O.D.B., whose short intro is pieced together from various sound bites. Kinda like that South Park episode where Chef comes back) appear. That, along with the track title and use of kung-fu samples, shows that there was at least some effort to evoke memories, but the instrumental sounds like nothing you'd expect to hear from the Clan. That doesn't necessarily mean its bad: it's certainly grand, and I appreciated how it slightly switches up for each member. Still, I can talk about how great it is that they're not living in the past for paragraphs, but at the end of the day, I kinda wanted to hear something a little more threatening. I can let this slide, but it's going to be a long day if "Ruckus in B Minor" is indicative of what is to come.
2. Felt
Alright, fuck it, let's just go back to the sound of "Ruckus in B Minor". Seriously, this is just terrible. The instrumental practically drowns memorable turns from Ghostface and Meth in unnecessary drum-n-bass flourishes. I just finished praising their ability to look ahead, but here they are asking us how we felt the first time we heard the Wu. Yeah, I do. And that's why I'm so disappointed right now. Shit better pick up fast, or A Better Tomorrow might find itself in a whole it can't get out of.
3. 40th Street Black/We Will Fight
Almost any kind of logic would point to this being composed of two songs, but that's not the case. Allah Mathematics' instrumental isn't great (it sounds like a high school marching band trying, and failing, to cover "Gravel Pit"), but it at least seems to bring the members of the Clan to life. All of the members aside from Rae and Ghost (which is probably for the best, no point in having one but not the other) appear on here and seem to be having a little bit of fun with the ridiculous beat they're given. But I'd like to hear something truly Wu. I mean, maybe just once guys. Not everything has to be live instrumentation.
4. Mistaken Identity (Feat. Streetlife)
God damn it, RZA. Live instrumentation is a tough thing to nail if you're trying to please a group of rappers, and regardless of how much you spend (RZA apparently put half a million into the production), you can't just expect them to go along. "Mistaken Identity" just sucks, though. The concept is good (each rapper is performing from the perspective of someone who has been imprisoned for a crime they didn't commit), but none of the rappers are given enough time to actually spread knowledge on the topic. And Streetlife (haven't heard of this dude since Method Man's sophomore album) provides a shitty hook. I at least would've liked to hear a verse from a classic Wu weed carrier.
5. Hold the Heater
The first five seconds were enough to make me want to just put the album down, but RZA finally gets his shit together and delivers what is likely the best beat on the album thus far. Again, the verses are pretty good, but that's hardly been the problem. No amount of corny production is going to take away the rapping ability of the Wu Tang. I also enjoyed the way the instrumental gradually weaved itself around the guitar sample. Not bad, guys.
6. Crushed Egos
Well, RZA may have listened to Twelve Reasons To Die, but I guess the rest of the group never bothered to give it a spin. This is clearly one of the instrumentals inspired by that album, but Raekwon, RZA, and GZA all came across incredibly soft, and when you take into consideration the fact that the Ghost album was about him being melted into a vinyl and then coming back from the dead to mercilessly kill twelve people, this just doesn't do. I mean seriously, are they even trying?
7. Keep Watch (Feat. Nathaniel)
Well, this was the first single that emerged from the album. I guess you could say that most fans were a little let down to find out that the crew was far from peak-capacity. Its great to hear Method Man, Inspectah Deck, Cappadonna, and GZA all on one track at the same time, and they all get off some nice lines. But the beat from Mathematics is a bit antiseptic and low-energy, and features a hook that I genuinely hate with every fiber in my being. I have no idea what kind of black mail this Nathaniel man has on RZA, but that needs to be taken care of immediately, because he ruins everything he touches.
8. Miracle (Feat. Nathaniel)
Oh, man. Any type of momentum A Better Tomorrow had is officially brought to a halt by what is easily one of the worst songs the Wu-Tang Clan have ever recorded. The overall shittiness of the record centers around a Nathaniel hook (this one is so much fucking worse than the last song) that twinkles in every minute or so. The instrumental, truthfully, isn't bad, but all four rappers (aside from maybe Ghost) drop uncharacteristically cheesy verses (especially Masta Killa). As the intensity increases, the songs finished in a Linkin Park style climax that's every bit as bad as it seems. I say this shit all the time, but I can seriously promise you that I'll never listen to this song once again.
9. Preacher's Daughter
The song isn't anything great, but it's admittedly clever. As a way of I guess paying homage to his friend Quentin Tarantino, RZA crafts his instrumental around a sample from Dusty Springfield's "Son of a Preacher Man", a song played when Mia Wallace is introduced in Pulp Fiction. And to his credit, RZA got Meth and Ghost, easily the two best suited to write love raps, to contribute. The song seems completely out of place on a twenty-year anniversary celebration, but part of me really appreciates this. Deal with it.
10. Pioneer the Frontier
I'm pretty sure I get what RZA was going for on here: a throwback song that takes elements from "Protect Ya Neck" and "Careful (Click, Click). The result is a song with a menace that can't even be killed when RZA signs off, "Holla at the moon, my goons at Coachella". RZA is unmistakably going back to his Bobby Digital persona for this song, but it isn't bad, and everyone else handles the beat as well as you could expect. Hell, for a second I started to remember why I was anticipating this album in the first place. Maybe the best song on here so far, and it might earn a place in my regular Wu-Tang rotation. But that just might be me wanting this album to not be a total waste.
11. Necklace
One of my favorite parts of the album is that 4th Disciple is credited with his birth name on this song, but "4th Disciple" is written all over the credits of "Miracle". Seriously man, if there was one song you should want to hide, its "Miracle", not this. This is pretty good. Off all the songs heard before the official release of A Better Tomorrow, his easily hit the hardest, thanks to the previously mentioned 4th Disciple beat. Cappadonna, Rae, Ghost, and GZA all sounded pretty damn good, and this is probably the closest we'll ever get to hearing that classic Wu sound. My only real complaint is that the movie sample is way too long, and it plays all the way out in between every goddamn one of the verses. Like, that really wasn't all that necessary. Perhaps its a bit ironic that "Necklace", one of the album's best songs, is relatively RZA-free. Maybe that's a sign.
12. Ron O'Neal (Feat. Nathaniel)
The second official single from A Better Tomorrow, and the second one that left me disappointed thanks to a terrible R&B hook from, you guessed it (O.G. Maco voice is optional), Nathaniel. I'd do anything to figure out what this fucker did for RZA, or what kind of info he has. I hate Nathaniel. I really fucking do. The rest of the song is alright, though. I especially like how Ghost claimed to have seen "niggas sniff coke through a Krazy straw". The beat grew on me too, but the song as a whole remains a pretty big meh.
13. A Better Tomorrow
I don't know if RZA was trying to pull a fast one on us or legitimately forgot, but 1997's Wu-Tang Forever already featured "A Better Tomorrow", a song that's much better than literally anything on this album. The entire song is engulfed by a sample from Harold Melvin's classic "Wake Up Everybody", as Meth and RZA deliver suitable socially conscious verses, but right as you start to hope they're not going to play the actually chorus of the original, they do, and you're disappointed. Look, I like that all the positive messages sprinkled throughout the album all built up to this incredibly positive title track, but at the end of the day, I don't really care for this all that much.
14. Never Let Go
This is actually a very well executed positive track, as it runs with all the good qualities of the last song, and provides some better rapping. The live instruments work on this track much more so than on the rest of the album, and the verses reflect some actual effort put into what could have easily been the album's centerpiece. Ready for the biggest surprise? U-God's verse is probably the best on the song. Things have finally come full circle. Anyways, its admirable that all members were able to naturally weave what we should "never let go" of into their first four bars. I'm glad we could at least end on a positive note. (I know there's another song and all, but whatever)
15. Wu-Tang Reunion
The Wu-Tang Clan's final song of their final album is...a previously released song once called "Family Reunion". You'd thing that, of all the songs, this one would include every member of the group, but that's not the case: we only get a few. Still, I like the song. RZA's production is necessarily up beat, and all the verses are pleasant. I just can't get past the fact that they chose to end the album with a song that we've been able to hear for over a year now. Oh, well.
Rating: 2.5/5
The first review I ever wrote on this site was for Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers), and the Wu-Tang is probably the main reason that I care so damn much about music. They're my favorite group of all time, but I won't sugar coat this: A Better Tomorrow is, without a shadow of a doubt, the worst album they've ever recorded. This album is likely what most people believe 8 Diagrams was: 8 phenomenal rappers being pulled down by the control of the RZA. Does that mean you should completely give up on the Wu? Absolutely not. Raekwon, Ghostface, Method Man, Inspectah Deck, and even GZA, show that they still have the ability to be entertaining behind he microphone. They just seem bored with the majority of the material they have been dealt, a problem that won't exist on solo albums. But that's why A Better Tomorrow fails so often. The chemistry simply isn't what it once was, and they all seem pretty fed up with the situation. Take for example the fact that neither Rae, Ghost, or Meth, all of which are fairly active on Twitter, have mentioned the album on their accounts. That alone is a better review than anything I could hope to write. And its hard to blame them. Its hard to even wrap your head around the idea that this is the same Wu-Tang Clan that bursted onto the scene in 1993. Then again, this version of the RZA seemed to complete the full evolution that he initially started on Wu-Tang Forever when he introduced his "digital orchestration". A Better Tomorrow is product if Robert Diggs through and through, and even though his creative control is a bit aggravating, it easily could have been forgiven had the music actually been good. And yeah, the same was said about 8 Diagrams, but even that album was creative enough to warrant a few years to reflect on. In 2014, I can completely say that A Better Tomorrow is a really bad album that won't ever become good. Even though they're are a few good songs ("Necklace", "Pioneer the Frontier" "Never Let Go"), I'm not the type of person that's going to let "a few good songs" be good enough for my favorite group. As I write this, I know I have a shit load of posts to write before the end of the month, but allow me a few days to listen to some of my favorite Wu-related project while I try to forget that A Better Tomorrow happened.