My takeaways after finishing Raekwon's new book, From Staircase to Stage.

[Billy Ocean]

That's not an argument I'm making. Rae's 2nd album was trash. We all know this. And he wasn't making classic albums. That's not the argument here.

This thread is about Rae complaining about RZA. nikkas is pointing out that it's funny that he would shyt on RZA beats yet he's rapped over mostly lackluster beats on his albums since Forever. Immobilarity, Lex Diamond Story, FILA...all filled with weak ass beats.

 

[get these nets]

your post is only proving me right. I clearly stated he made dope shyt, but for every dope song he did, thee was a lot of wack shyt. You named 33 tracks for 10 years in the 2000s. How much did he produce in that 10 year time period? he had a LOT of wack shyt. For all of the dope shyt you named(and I even named 2 of them initially), we have whole albums like Digi Snacks, Afro Samuari, Civilringz, Birth of a Prince, The World according ot Rza.. These are WHOLE ALBUMS!!!! hahhaa. Do you really want to put those 33 tracks up against everything Rza did in that 10 year period percentage-wise?

Agree.
RZA's early run is UNMATCHED. But even then, I thought he was stretching himself too thin with all those projects.
In my opinion, and I've said this before, RZA's true genius is in producing AND sequencing/arranging albums. He didn't do most of the beats on Supreme Clientelle, but his signature is all over the album, and is part of what makes it a classic album.
Side projects, film scores, and maybe raising a family AFTER Forever took RZA's focus away and the falloff is clear as day.

 

[Tommy Gibbs]

This thread is about Rae complaining about RZA. nikkas is pointing out that it's funny that he eould shyt on RZA beats yet he's rapped over mostly lackluster beats on his albums since Forever. Immobilarity, Lex Diamond Story, FILA...all filled with weak ass beats.

I fully agree the beats on those albums weren't hot, but what I was saying is that Rza did indeed fall off. Regardless of Rae's shytty album beats, Rza just wasn't hitting it like that once he became a millionaire and started buying keyboards.

 

[Stuckinthe90s]

Are you implying Rza had the hottest beats of all producers from 2000-2009?????? Is that the statement you're willing to stand by with those 33 tracks you posted? 33 hot tracks in 10 years? PRIMO HAD ABOUT 25 HOT TRACKS ALONE IN THE YEAR 2000!!!!!! And you're talking to a Rza fan so don't come in here with this "hating on Rza" bullshyt. Fro 93-97, there aren't too many guys in hip hop history that had a 4 year run like that. Someone like Marley Marl is comparable, but not many produced whole album classics in a 4 years time frame. The fact of the matter is, Rza did fall off, and it started with the Bobby Digital album. He still produced quality songs here and there, but the last classic great album he carried was probably Wutang Forever.

Of course he fell off, so did everybody else. Hip hop fell the fukk off.

 

[Billy Ocean]

I fully agree the beats on those albums weren't hot, but what I was saying is that Rza did indeed fall off. Regardless of Rae's shytty album beats, Rza just wasn't hitting it like that once he became a millionaire and started buying keyboards.

Rae got no business bytching about RZA beats. He doesn't have the best track record of picking beats and RZA has told them years ago they can pick the beats and make the next Wu album years ago. If he's so confident about what's hot why don't he just shut up and craft the next album instead of shytting on RZA for all the world's ills and fukking up the Wu brand?

 

[Stuckinthe90s]

Wasn't just a dope Pete rock beat. It's one of his greatest beats ever. And maybe top 5 Rae track ever. Dude floated on that shyt. Him and Pete shoulda made a whole album together back then. Their styles went together perfectly.

What the fukk was Pete thinking for this shyt though?`What was Jamal smoking when he accepted it?



Horrendous..

There was no way that he didn't have 100 better beats sitting in his vault....

 

[mindgawn]

RZA'S a sharer. Let all his disciple producer produce on his albums, and they provided his old formula. Let 9 mc's eat off albums and all the group Wu related music and Hulu show.

Dukes quick to back bite.

Divine 20% management fee, label fee, RZA production and MC fees may look like overtouching the bread but it is what it is.

Rae get his piece then gotta bust down his % after seeing the gross gotta hurt.

Sound like the Roy and Mal let me see the books. I wonder how many times he brought the book to Ice Water or his cream Team to chop down where the money is going?

 

[Ziggiy]

your post is only proving me right. I clearly stated he made dope shyt, but for every dope song he did, thee was a lot of wack shyt. You named 33 tracks for 10 years in the 2000s. How much did he produce in that 10 year time period? he had a LOT of wack shyt. For all of the dope shyt you named(and I even named 2 of them initially), we have whole albums like Digi Snacks, Afro Samuari, Civilringz, Birth of a Prince, The World according ot Rza.. These are WHOLE ALBUMS!!!! hahhaa. Do you really want to put those 33 tracks up against everything Rza did in that 10 year period percentage-wise?

nikka are you trying to say the Afro Samurai soundtrack is wack

 

[Zero]

What the fukk was Pete thinking for this shyt though?`What was Jamal smoking when he accepted it?



Horrendous..

There was no way that he didn't have 100 better beats sitting in his vault....

Yuck




Had to clean my ears with a better flip

 

[ℒℴѵℯJay ELECTUA]

Cilvaringz album production wise was amazing!!!!!

 

[Tommy Gibbs]

nikka are you trying to say the Afro Samurai soundtrack is wack

more like 50% . There were some good cuts on it. It's a hell of a lot better than Ghost Dog, but that was in the 90s so we won't discuss that.

 

[Billy Ocean]

more like 50% . There were some good cuts on it. It's a hell of a lot better than Ghost Dog, but that was in the 90s so we won't discuss that.

Ghost Dog and Afro Samaurai soundtracks are topnotch and filled with dope RZA beats.

Also, nikkas need to put respect on 8 Diagrams name. RZA ran a production clinic on that mothafukka.

 

[Billy Ocean]

Also @Tommy Gibbs ...RZA gave c00nye 3 gems:

 

[Rhyme 4 Rhyme]

Plan to read it but few points that everyone else mentioned.

- Wasn't it always rumored that RZA's brothers were laundering money through Wu-Tang? Rae's asking for receipts for this?

- Rae's unreleased/mixtape catalog is among the best.

- Rae can bytch about RZA's beats post Forever, but the only reason he got that second wind in 09-11 was due to Cuban Linx II, which RZA EP'd.

 

[BuddahMAC]

You right, but you gotta admit he does not fukk with Divine at all. He said nothing positive about Divine the whole book and painted him as a thief and liar. He said Divine tried to make them sign contracts when they were distracted with a photoshoot.

But on 'Vine's side of it, when are you going to get most the members in person to physically sign paperwork except at a photoshoot or show or event?

Rza would have 1 or 2 dope beats for every 10 he'd do in the 2000s. He was done by then. Every now and then he'd give us something like "run" or "new wu", but how often did that happen?

He's barely produced in the past few years but somehow people like Flatbush Zombies & Snoh Aalegra & Kanye & Game & Masta Killa's kid pop up w/ stray dope RZA beats and Rae can't? That's b/c he's not asking at all for RZA stuff and only talking about RZA producing for Wu albums (which he has a legitimate gripe about) but he still talks like he's walking through RZA's studio every other month or being sent beat tapes when he really has no clue. Meanwhile Rae's best album remains 100% RZA and his second best started as RZA's rough draft (including the Dilla cuts).

Wasn't just a dope Pete rock beat. It's one of his greatest beats ever. And maybe top 5 Rae track ever. Dude floated on that shyt. Him and Pete shoulda made a whole album together back then. Their styles went together perfectly.

Never understand why Wu didn't take more advantage of using more Pete Rock in that overlap when they were both signed to Loud & it made all the financial & cross label promotion sense in the world to link up more (probably b/c it was short lived until the label blew up, but still...)