Average Rating: 5.8/10
Overall Rating: 5.5/10
2. Laced Cheeba Ft. Sean Prince & Trife Da God (6.5/10)
3. Diesel Fluid Ft. Trife Da God (6.5/10)
4. The Black Diamonds Ft. Roc Marciano & Killa Sin (5.5/10)
5. Played by the Game Interlude
6. Legendary Weapons Ft. AZ & M.O.P (5/10)
7. Never Feel This Pain Ft. Tre Williams (5/10)
8. Drunk Tongue Ft. Killa Sin (5/10)
9. The Business Interlude
10. 225 Rounds Ft. Bronze Nazereth (9/10)
11. Meteor Hammer Ft. Action Bronson & Terminology (4.5/10)
12. Live Through Death Interlude
13. Only The Rugged Survive (4/10)
14. Outro
Since there return in 2007, Rap collective Wu Tang Clan hasn’t been able to exactly put there music back the way back to the way it used to be through the 90s and early 2000s. There 2007 return, 8 Diagrams was pretty much mediocre, 2009’s Chamber Music wasn’t any better and there third attempt in 2010, Wu Massacre was pretty much nothing but a passable album, but nothing compared to what they could do, or to what they used to do. In the last few years, there was nothing that would have convinced me that they can still make a great album, so after there last three shots for redemption where all misses, so can there fourth album after their return, “Legendary Weapons” convince me that they still got it?
Legendary Weapons was something really similar to their last three albums, I’m not sure why though, I mean, it’s like they lost their creativity. It’s always a huge mistake to have four straight albums with the same concept, because like that a group gets old and played out, that’s exactly what happened with this album, it was really played out. For the last five years and four albums Wu Tang’s music sounded a lot like the same itself, hardcore flows, underground New York style production, and generally music that’s just metaphors and punchlnes, given that it would be hard to love this album, but did they pull off something decent at the very least?
Legendary Weapons had 14 tracks in total, and to be honest, none of those tracks bring anything different. Somehow almost all 14 of the tracks here sounds somewhat the same to me, and that’s a huge issue because that was exactly the problem with their previous albums. I mean, what made this issue worse wasn’t just that most of their album sounded the same on each track, but it sounded like a lot like their previous few albums, I mean you got most of the album, from “Start The Show” to “The Black Diamond” to ”Metro Hammer” all the way to the outro sounding a lot like the same stuff but just with some really minor differences, that didn’t do it for me, in fact all it did was get me bored of the album really quickly.
Another issue with the album was the large amount of guests. The whole album was 14 tracks, and it was an album for an entire rap collective, why fill the thing up with guests? I mean, Chamber Music had a lot of guests but not to this extent, this album had more guests than Wu Tang appearances. Having a lot of guests is okay for something like a Travis Barker or Dr. Dre album, but it’s not okay here because last time I checked Wu Tang Clan are an entire rap collective and not an entire production collective.
Despite the album’s difficulties, it did have some ups. Lyrically the album was an improvement from Wu Tang’s previous few albums, there flow here was more consistent as a group and generally they seemed like they knew more on what they were talking about, plus there was one really strong track on the album, “225 Rounds” which really felt like a Wu Tang track, I mean, thank god it was the longest song on the album, because it was truly the best song on the album, and one of Wu Tang’s best tracks since there return.
Legendary Weapons definitely wasn’t a bad or terrible album, but at the same time it wasn’t good, or even great. Like Wu Tang’s last few albums, Legendary Weapons was nothing special, the tracks where listenable, but overplayed. There were too much guests and generally this album, making it a step back from last year’s “Wu Massacre”. Overall, the album surely won’t be remembered as a great album this year, or remember as a great album at all, while this was somewhat a lyrical improvement, this album just brings Wu Tang back to square 1, back to where they started when they returned in 2007.
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