2017's
The Saga Continues is billed as a Wu-Tang album, and plenty of major and minor members of the Wu-Tang family are on board for the project, but it's not until you read the liner notes that you find out who the real star of this show is.
Mathematics, the MC-turned-DJ who learned the ropes of production from
RZA and is said to have designed the Wu-Tang's W logo, produced and co-wrote all 18 tracks on
The Saga Continues, and he's learned to replicate the sound of Wu-Tang's classic era with impressive accuracy. He doesn't quite equal the scratchy tension of
RZA's peak-period work, but
Mathematics fills
The Saga Continues with dark, moody beats, atmospheric keyboard patches, snatches of classic soul sides, and samples from vintage kung-fu movies. If this isn't quite a brother to
Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers), it at least seems like a first cousin, and
Mathematics brings his A game on
The Saga Continues. Too bad that can't be said for all the MCs on the album. While the cast includes
Method Man,
Ghostface Killah,
Raekwon,
Killa Priest,
Redman,
RZA, and
Cappadonna, it often sounds like they were saving their best verses for one of their own albums, and the rhymes often seem scattershot, without giving the album the sharp focus it needs. And though many of the skits on
The Saga Continues deal with the raw deal regularly handed to African-American men in the black community as well as in American society at large, the standard-issue braggadocio of most of the lyrics undercuts whatever message
Mathematics and executive producer
RZA had in mind. As a Wu-Tang album,
The Saga Continues is good but not great, but it's a fine calling card for
Mathematics, and makes the case that he should be given an album of his own more often. ~ Mark Deming