Invisible College Homework

I’ve decided to do a little project this week…I’m going to re-read the entire Invisibles series in sequential order, and I’ll be logging my thoughts and observations here as I go along. I’ve already started on the first storyline of Series 1, Book 1 (Say You Want A Revolution), “Down And Out In Heaven And Hell”. I’m very fond of that story, but getting through the remainder of volume one might be a bit tough. Nearly all of Apocalipstick has bored the hell out of me each time I’ve gone through it, and even though things pick up a bit in Entropy in the UK, there was a damn good reason why I quit buying the series when it was originally published after the first volume ended. Of course, in retrospect, that was very silly of me – volumes two and three are where the story gets moving, and that’s in no small part due to the replacement of the dull, bland Jill Thompson with the more stylish and technically skilled Phil Jiminez. So… notes on Say You Want A Revolution shall follow shortly. But in the meantime…

Hit Hit New Release Rhyme Rhyme All The Time

U-God “Wildstyle Superfreak”

I have no idea where this song is from. I’m guessing that it is a single. I wouldn’t even have known about it were it not for Nikon Driver’s recommendation. This is damn great, easily the best solo U-God record I’ve heard by quite some distance. As evidenced by his performances on The W and Iron Flag, U-God is the only Wu Clansman who appears to be still working on changing and evolving his style while the rest of them seem to have found their particular niches. U-God’s style is very distinct, he does that…um…thing with his voice, a vocal style which I can at best awkwardly describe as ‘side to side’. He reminds me of a boxer, for some reason – maybe it’s because on one Wu track he convincingly quotes Mohammed Ali’s “float like a butterfly, sting like a bee” line, and it’s stuck in my mind. He’s great at just firing off images, he’s more into being rhythmic rather than going for rhymes, and it has a very unique effect that I think people tend to underrate and/or overlook. It’s understandable, lord knows I tended to tune him out while paying more attention to Ghostface, Method Man, GZA, RZA, and Raekwon in the past.

As for the song – the beat is very strong, I’m especially fond of the bongos and the occasional isolated piano chord and bass note that recur in the track. U-God’s creepy repeated whispering of the word “freak” over the chorus is a nice touch, and his guest MCs, none of which I can positively ID though one sounds a lot like Inspectah Deck though I’m not confident about it. Click here for an audio clip of the song. It’s too bad this track wasn’t saved for the next full Wu album, all told. This song is too good to be obscure.