“Ason Jones”, the ODB-canonizing cut from Raekwon’s recent album contextualizes the late, great Wu member as a caring, thoughtful, but crazy guy. A story well mirrored by his infamous stage-storming at the 1998 Grammy Awards, which was an act much more warmly received than a similar incident in the same month as that Rae drop. Whatever the story, the truth is that craziness is the one quality we can nail to him without any questions, as evident here.

Seconds in and we’re listening to insane spoken word from a man who sounds like he’s on the brink of a mental collapse and that’s how ODB likes it. He pulls the rug away from the joke after over four minutes, and it’s obvious then that he stood apart from his Wu peers by pursuing fun and games over flawless technicality and crafted rhymes. Again, not a complaint, as this stands as a very unique album in the Wu catalogue. When those drunken keys kick in on “Shimmy Shimmy Ya” you know RZA isn’t about to drop the ball on the third leg of the greatest production stint in a genre’s history, lacing the tracks with wonderfully slurred, messy productions to perfectly compliment ODB’s madcap antics.

On “Damage” even the usually meticulous GZA sounds strangely frenzied, like ODB’s blood-thirst has rubbed off on him. Nobody is likely to forget the perverse storybook of “Don’t U Know”, ODB’s hilarious but excruciating intro to “Goin’ Down” or the way he randomly breaks into song when he feels like it, including throughout the barmy serenade “Drunk Game”. Of course the jokes have become thin by the last few tracks, but the joyous “Cuttin’ Headz” makes sure the record ends strongly and emphasizes the deadly combination of RZA’s versatile genius and ODB’s refreshingly relaxed take on rapping. It proves to be a record so off the wall that it’s tough to deduce whether its creation was as painstaking as other first-wave Wu efforts appear to have been to make, or was so avant-garde that no preparations were laid at all.

by Michael