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No Country for Old (Rap) Men: The Wild review

A track-by-track breakdown of Raekwon's new album

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Will the arrival of Raekwon’s seventh official solo album provide redemption for the lacklustre previous LP or will it be just another case of wasted potential? Let’s get this over with, shall we?


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01. 'The Wild (Intro)'

Our host rambles on about forests, water, and fruits like this was the opening of a new season of Survivor. Come to think of it, that would be a pretty sweet concept for a rap-related reality show – gather up every third-tier Wu-Tang weed carrier and dump them in the middle of the Chinese jungle and see who’s left standing. Potential contestants include token white guy Remedy, GP-Wu, Killarmy, Sunz of Man, Wu Syndicate, and sore-throated songstress Blue Raspberry.


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02. 'This Is What It Comes Too'

Great song, as Raekwon continues the tradition of rapping over the legendary ‘Synthetic Substitution’ breakbeat, just as Ghostface did on his classic ‘Mighty Healthy’. Still not sure why he added the extra ‘o’ onto ‘too’, maybe it’s related to how Method Man used to yell ‘Suuuuuuu!’ at random all the time. Perhaps it’s all explained in the Wu-Tang Manual.


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03. 'Nothing'

Fuck yes. This is exactly what I want to hear from a 2017 Raekwon record – blunted, moody production, and razor-sharp ‘darts.’


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04. 'Skit (Bang Head Right)'

I’m sure this was hilarious at the time. Guess you just had to be there.


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05. 'Marvin' feat. Cee-Lo Green

This is a masterfully executed biography of the late, great soul singer from the title, boasting lush production and an appropriate hook from the former Goodie Mob bloke. Well played, sir.


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06. 'Can't You See It'

Another winner, featuring a breezy vocal loop that conjures images of summer BBQs. Four for four so far – this has to be a new record for Wu-related rap from the past five years. Can the winning streak continue?


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07. 'My Corner' feat. Lil Wayne

Buzz officially killed. A horrible, hollow instrumental which resembles the title screen of a PS1 sci-fi game and rubbish Lil’ Wayne verse where he’s so spaced-out he can’t even stay on beat. I can still recall the seemingly endless stream of bloggers proclaiming Wayne as the best rapper alive at some point. How did that work out for you, fellas?


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08. 'Skit (Fuck You Up Card)'

Raekwon hits an unexpectedly high note when he says “the truth!” in what can only be explained as a case of Staten Island up-talking, for all you linguistics students out there.


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09. 'M & N' feat. P.U.R.E.

Rae and his mate impressively trade stanzas using only words that begin with ‘M’ and ‘N’, similar to how Saigon and Kool G Rap did on ‘The Letter P’. Unfortunately the beat resembles something they purchased from a teenagers MySpace page in exchange for featuring him as one of Raekwon’s ‘Top ten friends’ for a month. Please remix immediately, if not sooner.


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010. 'Visiting Hour' feat. Andra Day

Wait a minute, is that ‘Substitution’ again? Except this time run through a filter in the hope that no one notices? Who am I kidding, I’d gladly listen to a whole album of this guy rapping over the same classic drum break. Rae and Ghost have always had a soft spot for some melodramatic stuff since the glory days, so I can’t fault this, and Andra Day sure has better pipes than poor old Tekitha.


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011. 'Skit (Bang Fall Down)'

Uh, what? This must be documenting that part of the evening where the really heavy hydro arrived and everybody in the studio had an entire bottle of Henny in their bloodstream.


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012. 'The Reign'

Musically confusing, as if the producer just put thirty filters onto the loop and was left with some kind of malfunctioning android choir effect. Maybe it will grow on me. Bonus points to the Chef for bringing back the flower pot heads reference though.


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013. 'Crown Of Thorns'

The mixing on this song is rather subpar, in that I can barely hear Rae’s raps over the background track. Otherwise I have no specific complaints about what’s happening here as he activates Brag Rap mode to pleasing effect.


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014. 'Purple Brick Road' feat. G-Eazy

G-Eazy appears to be one of those clean-cut Macklemore types who I’m supposed to care about because he has such enormous ‘respect for the culture’. There’s a reason that white rappers have traditionally faced an uphill battle in hip-hop – they’re almost overwhelmingly total cornballs. In this case, Mr. Eazy spends a large portion of his allotted time shamelessly jocking (I mean, ‘paying tribute’) to his esteemed host. The hook is beyond sickening as the vocalist tries way too hard to sound cute and bring the feels but comes off more contrived than an Eminem stadium tune from 2013.


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015. 'You Hear Me'

You clearly didn’t hear me when I yelled out “Please don’t try and do that triple type flow!”


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016. 'Bang (Outro)'

More drunk singing! Bully for you, Bang, if that is in fact your real name.


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017. Verdict:

“The Chef is pictured as the King Kong of the rap jungle, which provides an apt metaphor for the sound of The Wild, where Raekwon frees himself of the shackles that is the legacy of Cuban Linx. Rather than attempt to make Only Built… Part 3, Raekwon Shallah embraces his appreciation of classic soul and sounds conceptually reinvigorated. No signs of struggling to sound ‘modern’ or fit in with the kids here – this is contemporary Wu-Tang Slang on its on terms.”

That was the conclusion that I began to write in my head while I listened to the first four full length tracks on the follow-up to 2015’s F.I.L.A. Of course I was deluding myself, and it all came crashing down to earth as soon as the Lil’ Wayne song came on, completely flushing all that goodwill down the crapper. Rae is still stuck with a couple of unfortunate mid-90s mindsets, such as the concept that people buy albums just because their favourite rapper made a guest appearance, and even more ridiculously, that skits have any purpose at all in a post-CD world.

This is made all the more frustrating since Raekwon comes so close to really nailing it. Take off the Weeze-Bag, G-Eazy and the triple hi-hat song, remix a couple of the beats and turn up the vocals on a few songs and you’d have a really good album on your hands. Here’s hoping for The Wild 2.1 in a couple of months, or at least a 12″ with ‘Nothing’ and ‘Marvin’ on it.