[louder]

apparently Andrew Kelley (A&R at Soultemple Records) has heard chunks of the "secret" Wu-Tang album before it was announced:

Recently I had the opportunity to hear Cilvaringz’ new Wu-Tang album that is, as of yet, unfinished and unreleased. I listened through FaceTime on my iPad during a 2hr conversation. We talked about the Clan, touring, working with RZA, RZA’s vault of unreleased Wu tracks & the Wu album Ringz has spent the last 6 years laboring over. At first he said he’d like to play me a couple records…which lead to him playing a huge chunk of his double disc album. So yes Wu fans this album exists, and from what I heard it is incredible.

Let me backtrack a minute… I grew up in Ft Lauderdale, FL in the early 90’s and everywhere we went we drove. Ft Lauderdale & Miami spawned a huge custom car culture. This was the era of lowered cars with 18 inch gold rims, limo tinted windows, big sub-woofers in the trunk and lights under your car. At the very least, you had to have a great speaker system. Even if your car was a piece of shyt, it had to have that bass drop so heavy everyone could hear you coming a mile away. I had a Jeep Cherokee. My friend Chad installed a speaker box in the back with two 20 inch sub-woofers with a stolen Hercules Hifonics amp and a kill switch under the steering wheel for when the cops pulled me over. My car had that knock. Songs like Raekwon’s “Incarcerated Scarfaces” & ODB’s “Brooklyn Zoo” had that low end that had my rear view mirrors vibrating and heads turning. “Who does that @sshole think he is??” People would think when I pulled up next to them at a red light. I didn’t care. Everywhere I went I had a car load of friends & the beats banging. Sometimes rolling out to parties, the club or the beach with a caravan of cars with the systems cranking at obnoxious volume levels. The first place I listened to a newly purchased cd was in my car. This is where I heard some of the greatest hip-hop albums of all time: Cuban Linx, The Infamous, Illmatic, 36 Chambers, Liquid Swords, Dah Shinin’ & Ready To Die (to name a few.) They were all new releases in heavy rotation in my jeep. When I went to college in Rhode Island I still had the jeep, but had to lose the speaker setup. I had to make room for the crates of records & dj equipment I needed to haul to gigs. When I moved to Brooklyn in 2000 I got way too many parking tickets, my jeep was towed, and that was that. I sent it back down to Ft Lauderdale so my little bro could have it (which he totaled in a car accident 6 months later) thus ending its glorious run.

The reason for the jeep back-story was because as I sat there listening to Ringz’ new Wu-Tang album, it took me right back to those days of driving around in Ft Lauderdale. Song after song he played gave that old feeling we have missed from the Clan in the last 10 years or so. The beats, the rhymes, the skits, the interludes… The posse cut single… He did it. He got that time machine working and really captured the spirit & essence of those days we lived so many years ago. Every Clan member is present spitting some of the best verses you have ever heard from them. Also included are some of the best Killa Bees and even ODB! I really just wanted to pop the cd into my old red Jeep, pick up some of my old friends (especially the ones no longer with us) and drive down to Ft Lauderdale beach on a sunny day, with a quart of OE in my lap, the windows down, the AC on full blast and the volume all the way up…

The next time I sit down with RZA I will definitely be speaking with him about this album. Finish it up Ringz, all Wu-Tang fans deserve that “time machine” moment.