1. POISON RING CHAMBER (INTRO)
Of course Cilvaringz would begin his solo debut album with a sample from a kung-fu flick. All of the references to the Abbott (a nickname The Rza adopted for himself a long time ago) only add to my theory that Cilva is/was a crazed Wu stalker that snuck into the Wu Mansion and hid in a closet for days without food or water while masturbating furiously to Wu-Tang Clan liner notes, though.
2. WU-TANG MARTIAL EXPERT (FEAT PRINCE RAKEEM "THE RZA")
Don't get too excited: The Rza only shouts some ad-libs in the middle of the track, but the album credits (and yes, that's how he is credited) lead you to believe that he spits a verse, so they served their purpose. Cilva's flow comes off as a combination of Contribution X and RA The Rugged Man, and he drops more names on here than The Game, but the song does actually sound like the type of thing Wu-Tang stans like myself have been missing, so I have to say: nice work.
3. THE WEEPING TIGER (FEAT SHALLAH RAEKWON, GHOSTFACE KILLAH, & PRINCE RAKEEM "THE RZA")
Cool title, but the credits are misleading (this is a recurring theme, by the way). Ghostface and The Rza don't rhyme on here: they seem to have been inserted after the tail was pinned on this donkey. Cilva and Raekwon are the only two on here that spit verses, and Rae sounds surprisingly alert, decimating the verbal attempts of his host: maybe those clinical sleep trials he had been attending have produced decent results (at least, until he recorded his verse for Blackout! 2). Sadly, this track as a whole just doesn't sound very good. Oh well.
4. SHEHEREZAD, MY BELOVED (THE GREATEST LOVE STORY EVER TOLD – CHAPTER 1)
You see, it's easy to tell that Cilvaringz is a Wu-Tang stan (albeit one who managed to get a record deal) because he begins his first verse by repeating some older Method Man lyrics, bending them to his will. The title is too long for its own good (it's approaching Fallout Boy-levels of ridiculousness), but the song itself isn't bad: some of it is awfully sweet. Take note of the fact that it isn't listed below under “Best Tracks”, though.
5. “D---H TO AMERICA”
You're motherfucking right I'm censoring the title of this track, also known as “the main reason I wasn't really marketed in the United States”; I'm not looking for any issues with Homeland Security. Cilva oversimplifies the issue a bit, but it is very interesting to hear a completely different point of view, one which most of the anti-war protestors would have adopted, had they listened to this spoken-word track first. Listen at your own risk: America is still a free country, after all. By the way, Cilvaringz does not actually condone the title threat, which is why he put it between quotation marks. Feel better?
6. IN THE NAME OF ALLAH (FEAT PRINCE RAKEEM "THE RZA", METHOD MAN, MASTA KILLA, SCIENTIFIC SHABAZZ, & KILLAH PRIEST)
An interesting take on what used to be a Wu solo album prerequisite: the posse cut. (There are too many projects these days on which the Wu-Tang Clan seems to have forgotten that the fans they have left look forward to collaborations like this.) Method Man only drops the intro, and Masta Killa's verse treads that fine line between preachy and annoying (as most of his verses tend to do, admittedly), but as a whole, this song isn't bad. Killah Priest, especially, turns in the best performance I've heard from him in a long while. (Scientific) Shabazz the Disciple only briefly appears, but it's still pretty cool to hear Method Man say his name, essentially acknowledging the man's existence. Bobby Digital is, well, you've heard Birth of A Prince already. (Or maybe you haven't.) The song is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too long, though.
7. JEWELS (FEAT GZA/GENIUS)
Hearing this a little more than four months removed from the Bush administration, I'm shocked, appalled, and embarrassed that a man that inarticulate was once the leader of the free world. However, I'm supposed to talk about the song, so let me do that. Cilva's verse is decent (I never said the dude was without skill behind the mic), and the Gza (who should have been credited as only "The Genius", in order to fit in with the rest of Cilva's theme) sounds as good as always, but they both perform over different beats: I'm still not fully convinced that the men ever shared studio time, or that Gza/Genius is even aware of his inadvertent contribution to I. Otherwise, the track is alright, I suppose.
8. BROTHERS AIN'T BROTHERS
Cilva acknowledges the fact that he seems to say The Rza's name in all of his songs, all while explaining to the Wu stans exactly how he (either officially or unofficially, it's hard to tell with the Clan, as they don't hold press conferences or anything) became the tenth member of the Wu-Tang Clan. The Bronze Nazareth beat is pretty engaging, except for the beatbox break near the middle, and having The Rza speak at the very end smacks of narcissism, but otherwise, this isn't bad.
9. BLAZING SADDLES (FEAT KILLARMY)
This song is only two and a half minutes long, so there is no possible way it can include every single member of Killarmy, but that's how the song is credited, so whatever. Cilva's beat is pulsating in a “you would expect it to be used for a throwaway Ghostface Killah song” kind of way, and Killa Sin, Shogun Assassin, and Beretta 9 compensate for the environmental switchup by ripping the shit out of it. Not bad at all.
10. CARAVANSERAI – CHAPTER 1 (FEAT SHALLAH RAEKWON)
This is just a skit, and it's unnecessary, as most hip hop skits tend to be.
11. DAMASCUS
Sounds decent enough, but I found my mind wandering at an alarming pace during Cilva's quasi-religious babble over some True Master production that should have hit harder.
12. CARAVANSERAI – CHAPTER II (FEAT SHALLAH RAEKWON & SALAH EDIN)
Refer to the comments from the other similarly-titled skit.
13. TWO MISSED CALLS (SKIT)
A skit right after a skit? What the fuck? I'm not sure what Cilva was trying to prove by including alleged voicemails from the likes of Pharrell and Ne-Yo, but whatever it was, it ddn't take.
14. DART TOURNAMENT (FEAT KILLA SIN & BLUE RASPBERRY)
Cilva's version of “Meth Vs. Chef” fails in its attempt to bring listeners a compelling Wu-sounding treat, mainly because his beat is too busy to follow coherently. Lyrically, though, Cilva and Killa Sin (who's always been the best rapper out of Killarmy and really deserves to be upgraded to a better group) put in work (Cilvaringz even manages to take a shot at Remedy, the resident Jewish member of the Wu-Tang Clan's extended family, which is weird, considering that the two connected for a song previously; I'm sure there's more to that beef, but I don't care enough to look it up). The inclusion of Blue Raspberry's vocals seem to be more about evoking nostalgia than anything else, though, since she sounds awful on here.
15. THE SAGA...
Lyrically, Cilva is all over the map, hitting upon topics such as the importance of bling, how rap music sucks (save for a handful of artists that he names), and how he discovered the Wu to begin with, all while making damn sure he mentions The Rza's name yet again. His beat is rather interesting, though, so the package works as a whole.
16. FOREVER MICHAEL (WACKO TABLO)
I love early Michael Jackson as much as the next guy (Thriller is the shit, and I still love “Smooth Criminal” from Bad, even though it constantly reminds me of Michael Jackson's Moonwalker, the movie with the giant statue/robot thing of himself at the end), but this is still a questionable subject to write a rap song about (essentially defending an “alleged” child molester: what's next, an homage to “alleged” child rapist R. Kelly?), especially if you're part of the Wu-Tang extended family – and you definitely should not have wasted a Rza beat on this. I'll never listen to this shit again (although the man makes some fair points about MTV, a station he will never see any play on), and you'll probably skip this one too, so we'll move on.
17. ELEPHANT JUICE
Features another potshot aimed at Remedy, alongside insults thrown at Britney Spears, George W. Bush, Madonna, Whitney Houston, and, curiously, Robert DeNiro. This is exactly the type of song that takes Cilvaringz from the Wu forefront and places him into the bargain bin alongside all of Dom Pachino's solo efforts, a few of the Hell Razah projects, and Bronze Nazareth's album.
18. DEAF, DUMB, & BLIND
Meh. (Yeah, I said meh. It's just music, Cilva: if you're trying to get your message across, it would help if the undelrying 4th Disciple-produced music was actually good.)
19. WARRIORS & POETS (SKIT)
…
20. VALENTINE DAY MASSACRE (FEAT 60 SECOND ASSASSIN, 9TH PRINCE, SCIENTIFIC SHABAZZ, & BLUE RASPBERRY)
The hook (Blue Raspberry again) is completely useless, but otherwise, this long-promised track (which has come up off and on ever since Cilvaringz was first introduced on Wu-Tang Clan fan sites) lives up to its high expectations. This is actually a better Wu posse cut than “In The Name Of Allah” in terms of sheer energy level alone, even with all of the Wu benchwarmers on here. Even Killarmy's 9th Prince sounds pretty damn good, and that never happens.
21. POISON RING CHAMBER (OUTRO) (FEAT METHOD MAN)
Couldn't convince Method Man to spit a verse on I, huh? Having him appear on the outro is a cool consolation prize, I suppose. (I'll admit it would be cool to have Meth on my album outro, if I were an actual rapper) He's worked alongside waaaay too many commercial artists to say no to Cilvaringz, though: maybe the money wasn't right?
