By Robert Rossi, Assoc. Culture Editor – (Photo courtesy of blog.mercurynews.com)

“Long live the W,” Method Man proclaims on “John 3:16”, the seventh track off Return of the Wu and Friends, and 17 years after the release of the group’s seminal debut, rap’s greatest dynasty remains as relevant as ever. 2009 saw the release of six Wu-Tang-affiliated albums, the most successful of which were Method Man and Redman’s Blackout 2 and Raekwon’s Only Built 4 Cuban Linx… Pt. II, both of which debuted in the top ten of Billboard’s Hot 100. Return marks the first release of 2010 for the Wu-Tang Clan.

The full title of the Wu’s newest release is Mathematics Presents: Return of the Wu and Friends. Return is not an “official” Wu-Tang Clan album, but rather a compilation of remixes and previously unreleased verses recorded between 2000 and 2008, similar to last years Chamber Music. DJ Mathematics, no stranger to diehard Wu fans, produced the beats on the album and matched them to the verses provided by the nine original members, and, as the title would suggest, some of their closest collaborators.

The album kicks off with two remixes of previously released tracks (not new recordings as some publications have mistakenly claimed). “Clap 2010” features the verses from “Clap,” the hidden track at the end of the 2000 Wu-Tang Clan album The Wu set to a new, and unfortunately inferior, beat. The rhymes that Raekwon, Ghostface Killah, and especially Method Man provide are top-notch; Mathematics’ musical backdrop, in a sign of things to come on the remaining fifteen tracks, does not do the lyrics justice. “Respect 2010” is a remix of “Respect Mine”, originally on Mathematics’ own 2003 release Love, Hell or Right, does not even match the quality of its source.

Things pick up with “It’s What It Is”, one of the disc’s definite highlights. Masta Killa and Raekwon deliver typically strong, if unremarkable verses, but Ghostface Killah hijacks the track when he declares “It’s the verbal boss, Wu-Tang holocaust/F*ck around leave you with a mouth full of murder sauce.” Ghostface’s only competition for best performance on the album comes from Method Man, and the tracks on which neither of them appears generally fall flat. Ironically, of all the Ghost-and-Meth-less tracks, it is “Da Way We Were”, the only track without a Wu-Tang member and featuring Mathematics on the mic that stands out as the strongest.

The aspects of Return that separate it from official Wu-Tang albums are, unsurprisingly, what keep it from matching the quality of those releases. Method Man brings his A-game on “All Flowers”, one of the album’s best tracks, but Wu-Tang fans can only imagine how much better he’d sound with a RZA-produced beat behind him. Mathematics may be a serviceable producer, but he has no hope of touching the skill of the RZA, who produced nearly every track on the classic Wu-Tang discs of the 90’s. Equally disappointing is GZA’s limited presence on Return. Limited to only two tracks (the forgettable “Station ID Break”, a solo track, and “Rush”, where he gets completely outshined by Method Man), the muted appearances of the Wu-Tang emcee with the best flow and cleverest lines is bizarre.

The closing track of Return opens with the line “Wu-Tang, we always in the spotlight”, but Return of the Wu and Friends is definitely not for anyone who hasn’t memorized the kung-fu excerpts from Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers). In fact, if you haven’t played Cuban Linx II all the way through at least a dozen times, there’s no need to spend any time acquiring Return. But if you own and eight or nine of your closest friends own matching Wu-Tang t-shirts and refer to each other as “Inspectah Deck” or “U-God”, you will not be disappointed (nor amazed) by this album. Most likely, it will get you amped up for the release of Wu-Massacre, the upcoming CD by Method Man, Ghostface Killah, and Raekwon, set to drop on March 30 according to Raekwon’s Twitter feed.