Meth, Ghost & Rae
Wu Massacre
(Def Jam)
The Wu-Tang Clan web can get so tangled it’s hard to distinguish the U-Gods from the Inspectah Decks. All you really need to know about Wu Massacre is that the Wu’s three greatest living rappers — Method Man, Ghostface Killah and Raekwon — are the top-billed stars. Deck, Cappadonna and producer RZA also show up, essentially making Wu Massacre a follow-up to the group’s 2007 album, 8 Diagrams. And it’s almost as good. Rae — still blazing after last year’s terrific Only Built for Cuban Linx … Part II — spits the slipperiest lines, with Ghost a close second. The best tracks are the ones where the trio goes guest-free: opener “Criminology 2.5,” the woozy “Miranda” and “Our Dreams,” which is built around a 35-year-old Michael Jackson sample. No new ground is broken here (a Scarface sound bite is the first thing you hear on Wu Massacre), but 17 years after their landmark debut, Wu’s MVPs still slay on the mic. —Michael Gallucci (follow me on Twitter @mgallucci)
