This was very refreshing after listening to the sequel and much more consistent. I loved this a lot. I literally loved pretty much every song on this album. Going back to what I was saying about song length, it really feels like each songs fits it's length like a glove and like each song was fleshed out to it's full potential. Even the skits felt so much more earned and natural. I found myself settling in and just laughing and smiling when a skit would come on. Each one feels so real, like we're actually hanging out with a pack of loud mouthed fellas at a party, nearly on par with the world building interludes on 36 chambers. And they were so textured and flavoured. That's really it. This whole album is so flavoured and charismatic and just creatively put together in every sense. This album got my mouth hurting from smiling bro it's just so fun. Enough beating around the bush, I'm actually gonna go track by track on this thing. Nutmeg is a song that I only on this listen really came around to. I initially felt it was a bit too one note. Literally, it's a lot of the same note on the instrumental, but I really let the tension build and release while paying attention to the warm bass tone and light tappy drum which are really the elements that brought the song far past one note like I originally thought. It's also just a ton of fun lyrics smoothly blasted through to make a great opening track. One is a very iconic track which is another song that could feel repetitive if it wasn't for all the flavourful sauce put into each aspect that makes up the sound of the song. Ghostface rolls off rowdy party bars along with RZA throwing in his underrated mic presence with a very off kilter, but confident verse before closing the song with one of my favourite song endings in hip-hop. I LOVE when rappers interact with the sample of the instrumental and play around like that. Saturday Nite is another great case for my points on song length. It doesn't feel unnatural to have a minute and a half track with just one long verse because it's not crammed between a bunch of other songs like it and it feels like it said all it needed to say, spinning a story song about being investigated and harassed by some feds. Not to jump around too much, but later in the tracklist, Star True is a song with the exact same track length and again, it doesn't feel like thet just ran out of juice, it feels like they simply added the perfect amount of song to the song. Since I'm already jumping around, I'm now gonna breeze past some tracks that I do love, but I don't have too much to say on them. Ghost Deini is a classic wu banger with a sick gloomy beat and a beautiful sung bridge from Ghost. I feel similar about The Grain, a simply well made classic wu tang sound to some great verses from Ghost and RZA along with some complex textured production. Mighty Healthy is a very gritty gloomy track with some incredible energy and the inclusion of the iconic Melvin Bliss drum break. Finally, We Made It is another example of simply great song making with an immaculate song structure built around this beautiful string sample. Now back to the regular tracklist order. Apollo Kids, the 6th song on the album includes one of the hardest beats on the album by far. It's just Ghostface and Rae going back and forth, rapping bars that feel very suited to the wu-tang brand, very communal, like they're hyping each other and the whole crew up over this insane and gritty horn sample on the beat. Buck 50 is one of a few grand posse cuts. The beat is perfect for this type of gritty group track with a great sense of tension and gripping composition with this rattling wobbly sample that demands your attention with each verse. Naturally, they brought on Method Man, Capadonna, Red Man and switching up the format by closing with another hype verse from the Iron Man himself. This is also one of many tracks produced by RZA. RZA is really the mastermind behind the wu brand and the wu sound and while this album has many producers, RZA does keep a steady DJ hand in the background throughout which feels especially at home on these posse tracks. Stroke of Death is another track helmed by the creativity of RZA with this incredibly off putting and dizzying beat. One of those beats that really challenges you to flow perfectly to make it pop like the tempo changing masterpiece, No Snakes Alive on Take Me To Your Leader, MF DOOM's most underrated album. This all concludes in RZA slaying his own beat with so much grace, like a swift sword movement or a stroke of death to kill off the song. Malcolm is one of the most compelling songs with a revolutionary theme, weaving a story song about progress within the streets and bad actors who muddy the message in between samples of Malcolm X himself. All of this over a very versatile and ever-shifting beauty being this gritty beat by Choo the Specializt. This track relates to a big theme of black empowerment and politics which seems to be a combined artistic effort of Ghostface and RZA who has many political references and historical references throughout his career. Child's Play is another story song. A very charming love ballad about adolescent love and Ghost just reminiscing about his childhood in general over this light and fluttery sample. The drums and sample progression to go along with a switch in Ghost's tone halfway through the song before going back to the original beat is really effective, especially. WuBanga 101 is last real rap song on the album before one last skit and a little musical wrap up. This is the other big group track with verses from GZA, Raekwon, Masta Killa, Capadonna and of course, Ghostface. It's a great sendoff before the last few minutes of the albums with this group of guys simply going bar for bar over this soul sampled beat by Mathematics who also produced Mighty Healthy. It's really just a ball of joy in album form, plenty of quantity, plenty of quality, plenty of charisma. Now, for what stops this album from being perfect. I have intentionally avoided talking about this during my track by track section and I hate to bring this up again, but it's still insane to listen to such a talented artist talk about these progressive ideas and calls for black liberation in between these crumby dirtbag lines thrown in every once in a while. I just had to roll my eyes at a certain point after hearing another problematic bar. Weird line about gay marriage, casual use of the f slur, creepy moment on One about snatching girls' clothes off. It's just something I can't ignore. It's so close to perfect and I still do absolutely adore this album. I'll just have to live with the eyebrow raising lyric here and there each time I come back to this. It's a 9/10 for sure.