The Long and Winding Road to 'Wu-Massacre'

The latest Wu-Tang-related album is dropping (we are almost certain, though this is the Wu we're talking about, so insert proverbial grain of salt here) on March 20th, and the names on the cover--Ghostface, Method Man and Raekwon--are promoting Wu Massacre in their expectedly eccentric way.

Method Man to MTV News: "Def Jam put a rush on it," Meth said. "We didn't have a lot of time to work on it. We recorded with no budget. It is what it is. We did this for the fans. It felt good to get in the studio with Rae and Ghost. The future looks bright."

Not very many artists have the balls to call the album they are promoting a rush job, but that's why we love the Wu--no BS.

So, what exactly is Wu-Massacre?

Wu Massacre seems to be the final incarnation of Shaolin vs. Wu-Tang, the angry response to the RZA-centric 8 Diagrams, from late 2007. As Wu lore has it, Ghostface, Chef and the others were angry with the Abbot for making a Pitchfork-ready hipster masterpiece, and were going to retaliate, rogue monk-style, with a splinter album.

Sometime later, the multiple collaborations that were supposed to anchor Shaolin vs. Wu-Tang were rumored to have ended up in a Rakwon solo project, but now it appears that the anti-8 Diagrams will be billed as a trio effort with the participation of the RZA himself on some tracks.

We liked 8 Diagrams stoney, LA-canyons poetry and we'll like the grittier Wu-Massacre, rushed or not. A happy ending then for the almost-beef of two years ago.