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Tonight: Method Man & Redman

Cliff Parks — Thu, 07 Jun 2018 15:59:11 +0000

This year’s less than spectacular Thursday at Canalside season begins with one of the true bright spots on the schedule when Wu-Tang founder Method Man and early 90’s New School Hip hop legend Redman bring their classic team-up to Buffalo’s waterfront tonight. These muy simpatico cats have been collaborating and getting up to no good for almost twenty years since the first Blackout album, with a third edition currently in the works, so yes the jams always come in hot and heavy when these two come together to keep it nice and gritty. No word on opening acts but expect a few to get the party warmed up. Tickets are $5 and gates open at 5pm.

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Tonight: GZA

Cliff Parks — Sat, 25 Feb 2017 18:02:51 +0000

Tonight Wu-Tang original GZA aka The Genius will be breaking it down at The Waiting Room with special guests Mayhem Lauren and Short Moscato. A true legend, GZA is the realest of real deals whether it’s with the Wu-Tang, unleashing Liquid Swords, being strong on STEM research and opportunities for students of color or using his rhymes to decode the universe on the long awaited Dark Matter, possibly out later this year. Joining him will be Queens MC, Viceland star, sensualist and bon vivant Mayhem Lauren and Buffalo’s own Short Moscato, who dropped the first single of his upcoming debut earlier this week.

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Ghostface Killah and BadBadNotGood – Sour Soul

Tim Fenster — Tue, 03 Mar 2015 16:21:22 +0000

After the needlessly complex, multi-sectioned production on A Better Tomorrow, Wu-Tang fans probably want another album of live-instrument production about as much as the MidEast wants another W. Bush administration. But where the RZA’s work on Tomorrow was too often flowery and excessive, Sour Soul’s sparse, brooding beats mesh perfectly with Ghostface Killah’s trademark intensity. In fact, it’s some of the best production on a Wu-Tang record in years.

For that we ought to thank BadBadNotGood – a superb instrumental trio out of Toronto, discovered first by Tyler, the Creator (who, interestingly, has his own jazz aspirations). Their work on Sour Soul runs the gauntlet from post-bop jazz to soul to trip hop and electronica, sometimes all in the same track. More importantly, they prove themselves masters of tone and texture: it’s some of the most head-spinning production this side of Portishead.

As for Ghostface, it could nearly go without saying he’s straight on point here. The emcee has long proven himself the most consistently excellent (sorry Raekwon) member of Wu-Tang, and deserves to mentioned in the same breath with any of the other GOATS. On Sour Soul, he plays up his stressed-out Mafia don shtick while dropping Wu slang, drug references, comic namechecks and positively absurd boasts at mini gun pace. “With the strength of ten midgets I’m a murder you son,” he raps dead serious on the titular track, before reminding us, yet again, that he does indeed have his swagger back.

Ghost definitely isn’t trying to reinvent himself anywhere here (queue the Ironman references), but whether he’s dropping healthy living tips (“Food”) or bemoaning the pitfalls of pimping (“Tone’s Rap”) his delivery is consistently stunning.

But, make no mistake, this is a challenging record. There’s only one hook in the whole thing, and so much Wu vernacular that non-Clan-fans probably won’t understand half of this shit.

You may need to keep open Rap Genius and Urban Dictionary while you’re streaming, but when he says “how to walk amongst the evil and smile in the face of death / to speak knowledge and wisdom till my last breath” on “Nuggets of Wisdom,” you know you want to believe him.

Grade: A-

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