Afro Samurai: Resurrection (The Soundtrack)
By RZA
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Track listing
- 1 RZA & P. Dot - Combat (Afro Season II Open Theme) 2:50
- 2 Kool G Rap, Inspectah Deck & Suga Bang - Already Know 2:48
- 3 Reverand William Burk, Sly Stone & Stone Mecca - Blood Thicker Than Mud "Family Affair" 3:33
- 4 Kool G Rap, Ghostface Killah, Tash Mahogany & RZA - Whar 4:25
- 5 Rah Digga & Stone Mecca - Girl Samurai Lullaby 3:21
- 6 Thea Van Seijen - Fight for You 2:01
- 7 Rah Digga - Bitch Gonna Get Ya' 3:37
- 8 Prodigal Sunn & Thea Van Seijen - Bloody Days Bloody Nights 1:47
- 9 Rugged Monk - Kill Kill Kill 2:44
- 10 Boy Jones - Nappy Afro 3:36
- 11 Black Knights, Dexter Wiggle & Thea Van Seijen - Bloody Samurai 3:34
- 12 Killah Priest, Prodigal Sunn & Shavo - Dead Birds 2:22
- 13 Ace & Moe Rock - Arch Nemesis 2:48
- 14 Reverand William Burk, RZA & Infinite - Brothers Keeper 3:42
- 15 Ace & Moe Rock - Yellow Jackets 3:04
- 16 60 Second Assassin, Leggezin, Crisis, Christbearer, Rugged Monk, Tré Irie, Kinetic, Reverand William Burk & RZA - Take the Sword pt. III 10:50
- 17 RZA, 9th Prince - Number One Samurai (Afro Season II Outro) 2:56
- Total length: 59:58
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5 Reviews
Appreciating a soundtrack like this one, is always a difficult thing. To me at least, because it often lacks cohesiveness and covers a wide variety of feelings. It often results in just a collection of songs instead of a proper album. I thought RZA's first soundtrack to Afro Samurai was a decent piece of music, but in general I just didn't really care for it. It also ran into all the troubles I just described.
So expectations are exactly high for this second Afro Samurai soundtrack, but this needs to be checked out since it's done by the RZA and he gave me some of the best music I heard, even though his current shit has been less then stellar. I'm one of those people who actually like 8 Diagrams, but that Digi Snacks album was one of the worst things comming from the Wu since Cappadonna and U-God. On this soundtrack I think he actually stepped his game up from Digi Snacks. The beats are way more interesting to listen too. Unfortunately the end result doesn't add up. There are still some songs which are flat out boring like 'Whar'. Which is a waste of a line up with Kool G Rap, Ghostface and RZA himself. A straight up horrible beat is the alarm clock sounding beat of 'Bitch Gonna Get Ya'. The rockbeat for 'Dead Birds' (this is the highly publicised track with System Of A Down's Shavo) is just not spent on Killah Priest and Prodigal Sunn. I have trouble thinking of anyone sounding good on this, but whoever thought this was the perfect beat for Killah Priest is a fucking idiot.
There are some moments where RZA still shows he has some real hip hop creativity in him (the beats for 'Arch Nemesis' and 'Yellow Jackets' for example, just a shame Ace, Moe Rock don't do it justice), but it just gets dragged down by the lackluster moments of the release. In other cases it's absolute horrible MC's that drag things down. I couldn't stand the contributions by Rah Digga, she sounded fucked up. Fortunately for her, she isn't the only as their are hardly any performances on the mic that are worthy of more indepth listens. I wasn't even feeling the verses by Kool G Rap. 'Take The Sword Part III' takes way too long at almost 11 minutes with lots of horrible rapping and the occasional screaming in the hook is mad annoying. The beat is kinda cool, but after 11 fucking minutes it gets kinda redundant. Ultimate moment of fuckery is 'Nappy Afro' by Boy Jones. Not only is the beat sub par at best, but that guy sounds like there is a whole bag full of cats being tortured somewhere.
I don't even blame RZA for this mediocre listen experience, since it's just a soundtrack and I still have faith (probably misguided) that whenever he drops The Cure, it will be his best solo work. May be this release, sounds a whole lot better to people who actually know and watch the show. I'm not one of those people and I find it hard to enjoy this. There are just too many downs and way to little ups.
So expectations are exactly high for this second Afro Samurai soundtrack, but this needs to be checked out since it's done by the RZA and he gave me some of the best music I heard, even though his current shit has been less then stellar. I'm one of those people who actually like 8 Diagrams, but that Digi Snacks album was one of the worst things comming from the Wu since Cappadonna and U-God. On this soundtrack I think he actually stepped his game up from Digi Snacks. The beats are way more interesting to listen too. Unfortunately the end result doesn't add up. There are still some songs which are flat out boring like 'Whar'. Which is a waste of a line up with Kool G Rap, Ghostface and RZA himself. A straight up horrible beat is the alarm clock sounding beat of 'Bitch Gonna Get Ya'. The rockbeat for 'Dead Birds' (this is the highly publicised track with System Of A Down's Shavo) is just not spent on Killah Priest and Prodigal Sunn. I have trouble thinking of anyone sounding good on this, but whoever thought this was the perfect beat for Killah Priest is a fucking idiot.
There are some moments where RZA still shows he has some real hip hop creativity in him (the beats for 'Arch Nemesis' and 'Yellow Jackets' for example, just a shame Ace, Moe Rock don't do it justice), but it just gets dragged down by the lackluster moments of the release. In other cases it's absolute horrible MC's that drag things down. I couldn't stand the contributions by Rah Digga, she sounded fucked up. Fortunately for her, she isn't the only as their are hardly any performances on the mic that are worthy of more indepth listens. I wasn't even feeling the verses by Kool G Rap. 'Take The Sword Part III' takes way too long at almost 11 minutes with lots of horrible rapping and the occasional screaming in the hook is mad annoying. The beat is kinda cool, but after 11 fucking minutes it gets kinda redundant. Ultimate moment of fuckery is 'Nappy Afro' by Boy Jones. Not only is the beat sub par at best, but that guy sounds like there is a whole bag full of cats being tortured somewhere.
I don't even blame RZA for this mediocre listen experience, since it's just a soundtrack and I still have faith (probably misguided) that whenever he drops The Cure, it will be his best solo work. May be this release, sounds a whole lot better to people who actually know and watch the show. I'm not one of those people and I find it hard to enjoy this. There are just too many downs and way to little ups.
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13
Ace & Moe Rock - Arch Nemesis
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15
Ace & Moe Rock - Yellow Jackets
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16
60 Second Assassin, Leggezin, Crisis, Christbearer, Rugged Monk, Tré Irie, ..., Reverand William Burk & RZA - Take the Sword pt. III
The first song is "Combat" and I think it manages to trace the path for the whole project very well, clearly marking its destination: skit, then boom bap with drum midtempo. Nothing exceptional, nothing too bad. It's honest, but in rapping there are two of the worst performers of Wu-Tang: one is the founder of the Clan, RZA, the other is P. Dot, the new moniker of P.C. of Ice Water, the Raekwon group that a couple of years ago it harassed the entire underground circuit with one of the worst releases of the decade, any genre. While The Abbot pulls out bars with a slow and cumbersome, raw and rough style, P. Dot delivers a bad mellow pop rap hook. After three minutes, "Already Know" arrives: it should be a much better cut than the previous one, indeed, it should be one of the best songs of the edition. There are Kool G Rap and Inspectah Deck, plus Suga Bang, they can't fail. However, RZA fails behind keyboards: boom bap with skinny pounding drum and extravagant sample, Diggs creates a rhythm so messy and confused that no one could be able to express themselves at their best, not even two of the best rap performers of the nineties. G Rap has a smooth, flowing style, but his bars can't come out well on this bad noise and the same can be said for Rebel INS: it seems that the producer made this rhythm to limit the technical skills of those present. Suga Bang executes a hook, without stand out.
Track number three features Reverand William Burk, who with Bobby Digital was a member of the flop group Achozen, Sly Stone and Stone Mecca: this trio performs on a fast and frenetic rhythm, creating a mediocre piece. G Rap returns for his latest spot in "Whar": Bobby Steels raw boom bap, slow tight drum, decent sample, now the Juice Crew's legendary MC isn't inspired. Tash Mahogany performs the hook, then there's room for Ghostface Killah's slow and fluid energetic rapping, before RZA's rough close. After four cuts, the best performers have moved on: the Wu-Tang Clan and G Rap leave room for scarce minor affiliates and unknown guests who arrive unassuming. Your listening could also end with this abundant dozen minutes of listening, if it weren't for the fact that these minutes were painful and ridiculous: two tracks with Kool G Rap, there was Inspectah Deck, there was Ghostface Killah, but the cuts were average, almost-good at best, none classic, no hits. You may think it might be worth searching and digging some more to find a hidden gem within the disc, but I've to anticipate that there's nothing here.
The disc continues, continuing to jump half-naked and cold between the muddy pond of mediocrity and the cold pool of monotonous indifference. Rah Digga gets a choice that looks like a solo: simple, light and calm beat, midtempo drum, decent and accessible samples, there's a hook sung by Dionna Nichelle, uncredited, while to the exact opposite Stone Mecca is credited, but I didn't understand what his contribution is in this passage. The boom bap sounds like one of the few decent rhythms on this CD, however, Rah Digga's voice is weak, she sounds bad, slow, rough, completely out of tune with the vibe of the cut and spoils it. Two more solos follow, Thea Van Seijen sings on light strings ("Fight for You"), while Rah Digga shows up again ("Bitch Gonna Get Ya'") on a ridiculous rhythm of RZA: dark and messy production, tight skinny drum, mediocre sample, the girl delivers with a slow and raw style, in another forgettable song.
Bobby Digital brings out a decent beat for "Bloody Days Bloody Nights": on an energetic bap boom, with slow pounding drum machine and backing strings, Prodigal Sunn is summoned to this cut to put an end to the horror of mediocrity of the whole project. The Sunz of Man leader's slow and smooth delivery style is accompanied by Thea Van Seijen's singing hook. This pretty discreet piece is followed by two bad solos. Black Knights' Rugged Monk spits bars with weak rapping on a crunchy and scratchy production, with bad sample and aggressive, slow, hard and heavy drum. "Nappy Afro" is the debut in a studio album for Boy Jones, the son of ODB who in the same year RZA brought to his new Wu Music label: cheap boom bap, messy and noisy drum, the rhythm doesn't help the young rookie who can't sound well above this random noise. No one can sound well on top of this random noise, but Bobby Digital may not have understood it.
In "Bloody Samurai", Prince Rakeem perhaps remembers the past and places a beautiful female soulful sample to create the background of the song: boom bap shrill almost to the point of annoyance, slow and tight drum, good samples, the performers let the rhythm breathe, then opens Thea Van Seijen singing. Crisis and Rugged Monk of Black Knights, bring out two rough verses, the Wu-affiliated Dexter Wiggle closes the song with a decent rapping. "Dead Birds" is practically a Sunz of Man cut with Shavo, bassist of System of a Down, who together with Kinetic (Killarmy), Reverand William Burk and RZA also make up the Achozen group. Steelz boom bap, guitar riffs, chaotic messy drum, decent sample: it should be a rap rock rhythm, the usual cumbersome and messy noise typical of the post-1998 RZA comes out. It's far from excellence, but it seems to be the best thing about the album by far, thanks to the inspired interpretation of the two MCs, Killah Priest & P Sunn.
Tracks 13 and 15 are performed by Ace & Moe Rock: I don't honestly know if they're hidden affiliates or friends of RZA/Wu-Tang or something like that, in any case, it shouldn't be coincidental to have two tracks in what, however it goes, is an LP cataloged in the discography of the founder of the Wu-Tang Clan. The beatmaker offers them a worse rhythm than the other: "Arch Nemesis" has a messy beat with a confusing snare drum and an annoying sample, while "Yellow Jackets" features a clearly cheap, listless and lazy soundscape, with an almost acceptable sample and another snare drum. Unfortunately, on both of these bad productions, the two performers sound very badly, in a clumsy way. Between these two choices, Bobby Steels carves out a song for his Achozen group: he and Reverand William Burk deliver bars with rough rap on a cheap beat, heavy, dry, slow drum, while the opening pop-rnb hook is provided by Infinite (a Canadian singer; not Ghostface Killah's son). The whole piece is musically unlistenable.
After about three quarters of an hour, you come near the end of the product: before the end, however, there's a practically insurmountable listening, a posse of eleven minutes. The performers are: 60 Second Assassin of Sunz of Man, Leggezin, hidden affiliate, Crisis, Christbearer and Rugged Monk of Black Knights of the North Star, Tré Irie, another hidden affiliate, ..., Reverand William Burk and RZA of Achozen. The skit from the kung-fu movie at the beginning of the song is the most interesting part, followed by eleven minutes of pure boring on a light boom bap with cheap drum midtempo. All these folks churn out generic bars with generic, soporific, amateur, listless, indecent rapping: I personally only distinguish RZA at the end, mediocre like everyone else, and perhaps Christbearer with a hardcore raw delivery. The others struggle: it's certainly one of the longest, most exhausting and worst Wu-posse ever. The soundtrack ends with "Number One Samurai", a choice that sees the brothers RZA & 9th Prince spit something on dark and dystopian samples.
The album is [the first one] distributed by Wu Music Group, with the blessing of Sony. 17 cuts, one hour of listening. RZA decides to give space to his new group Achozen, bringing in the disc Kinetic, already part of Killarmy, Reverand William Burk and Shavo. In addition to them, members of Sunz of Man, Black Knights of the North Star, his brother 9th Prince, a couple MCs from Wu-Tang Clan, Boy Jones and other virtually unknown affiliates and guests also perform. Kool G Rap stands out, but neither of his two tracks is something you would want to hear again. The choice of guests is very questionable, but it's always the rhythms that make his LPs sink. Extremely similar to its previous records, RZA continues to bang his head on a production that is as minimal as possible, far too skeletal to be genuinely appreciated, and with which he combines bad sounds, difficult to accept: these are other steps back from his previous works. I think, broadly speaking, what I wrote for his official solo album "Birth of a Prince" can be carried over to this soundtrack as well. Strongly not recommended, avoid it.
Rating: 3.5/10.
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Track 1's okay, then it's aaaall downhill. Makes DIGI-SNACKS sound like LIQUID SWORDS.
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"Afro Samurai: Resurrection" is one of the worst works of RZA I have yet encountered. While the first Soundtrack to Afro Samurai was enjoyable and had some very interesting songs, this is basically awful. I'm glad that hardly anyone noticed this release!
Favorite Songs: "You already know", "Blood thicker than Mud (Family Affair)"
Favorite Songs: "You already know", "Blood thicker than Mud (Family Affair)"
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RZA, just retire. Or stick to film scoring. He's at that experimental stage where he's too much of a "musician" to just make some raw sample-based beats and has to drop all this eclectic live-instrumentation that just sounds like shit. And who the fuck are all these horrible singers he gets to butcher all these songs that might be passable without em? A couple random guys Ace and Moe Rock get two standout classic grimy Wu beats for their tracks, and the two G Rap tracks stand out, but most of this shit will never get listened to more then once.
Lyrics: 3.0
Beats: 2.0
Choice tracks:
"Arch Nemesis"
"You Already Know"
"Yellow Jackets"
"Whar"
On the fence:
"Bloody Samurai"
"Brothers Keeper"
"Bitch Gonna Get Ya"
"Bloody Days, Bloody Nights"
"Kill Kill Kill"
"Dead Birds"
Skip:
"Take the Sword Pt. III" (11 minutes long? lil ridiculous)
"Blood Thicker Than Mud"
"Girl Samurai Lullaby"
"Fight for You"
"Nappy Afro" (what the motherFUCK is this?)
Lyrics: 3.0
Beats: 2.0
Choice tracks:
"Arch Nemesis"
"You Already Know"
"Yellow Jackets"
"Whar"
On the fence:
"Bloody Samurai"
"Brothers Keeper"
"Bitch Gonna Get Ya"
"Bloody Days, Bloody Nights"
"Kill Kill Kill"
"Dead Birds"
Skip:
"Take the Sword Pt. III" (11 minutes long? lil ridiculous)
"Blood Thicker Than Mud"
"Girl Samurai Lullaby"
"Fight for You"
"Nappy Afro" (what the motherFUCK is this?)
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