8 / 10
The youngest member of Wu-Tang Clan’s extended family has now grown up. As befits a former child star whose life has taken a tragic turn, Shyheim has a story to tell. Recently released from jail, and with both parents currently in upstate New York prisons, his sad tale shows the horrible flipside of all the usual boastful hip-hop gangsta talk. ‘The Bottom’ is just that – as low as you can go – where, according to Shyheim, the 13th Amendment means felons can be treated like slaves. ‘Carry On’ and ‘Pardon The Noise’ also vividly depict a cursed crime-life, the latter bringing home the grimness of life in a cell with a scratchy beat that sounds just like rain.
Shyheim is also lyrically gifted – as the third-person recollection ‘His. Story’ so clearly proves. All this and he airs Wu-Tang dirty laundry on ‘New Producers’ and imagines he’s woken up in a coffin on the extended hip-hop RIP ‘After All These Years’. Listen and learn.
Dele Fadele
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