Wu-Tang Killa Bees: The Swarm Volume 1

On A Swarm
by: tom reiter

The Wu family is back at it again with another one of The RZA’s ingenious ideas, an album featuring up and coming Wu artists that will be releasing albums in the future.  It also features some solo and duet songs with some of the veteran Wu-Tang Clan members.  It doesn’t look like it’s much of a CD by it’s cover, but once you pop it in the deck get ready for a surprise.

The cd includes several songs, so it is hard to critique each one.  But there are several tracks that really stand out.   The first song that does is "Concrete Jungle" by Sunz of Man.  The beat they sample sounds like it is one from the 36 Chamber album.  The Sunz of Man fit the Wu family perfect, they have the raw voices and rugged beats over smooth samples.  They finally released their own album (after several years of waiting).

Shyheim, aka The Rugged Child, makes an appearance on the cd as well.  His voice has grown up a bit since his last album, but his style hasn’t changed.  He’s part of the Wu family, but doesn’t have the same sound.   His style is more like the common New York sound. His song is ok. "Execute Them" is a phat track.  It features seasoned veterans Raekwon, Inspectah Deck, and Mastakilla, as well as newcomer Street Life.  It’s based on a piano sample with some mean sounding base tones fading in at the appropriate times and the phrase "execute them" inserted periodically.  Of course, the "execute them" sample comes from an old martial arts flick, as is the Wu style.

Listeners get a good taste of new group A.I.G. with their two songs, "The Legacy" and "Bronx War Stories."  This is aight ‘cause they are very talented.  After "Bronx War Stories," RZA, who goes by Bobby Digital on the album, gets his chance to lay down some of his intellect on "And Justice For All," which also features Killarmy and Method Man.  Killarmy’s familiar chants add support as the chorus.  A few other tracks that stick out are "Cobra Clutch" by Ghostface Killa and "Where Was Heaven" by Wu Syndicates.

Fans of the original 36 Chambers album will love this cd. It reaches back to the original styles of the Wu. 27-Aug-1998 11:30 AM