WU-TANG CLAN - BLACK SAMSON, THE BASTARD SWORDSMAN (Official Discussion)

[Sccit]

is there an actual reason why Kurupt is claiming DPG and its members on the intro track (which i thought was cool  )

kurupt just talkin bout whatever comes to his mind .... if u know kurupt u know lol


and m80 put the album together .... he's been kickin it a lot wit kurupt lately .. so he just put him on there randomly im assuming

[gfunk2024]

Just listened to this for the first time and I like it a lot!

[The Predator]

Black Samson, the Bastard Swordsman (Review) is a dense, often exhilarating return from Wu-Tang and longtime collaborator Mathematics, with all nine living members trading verses over a rugged set of beats rooted in vintage Kung Fu grit and blaxploitation flair. From the boom-bap snap of “Mandingo” to the dramatic soul textures of “Claudine,” the album moves with precision, balancing chaotic cipher energy and polished structure.

Mathematics drives the project with a sharp ear and full control. His production is textured and tightly constructed—grimy drums, dust-coated loops, and well-placed vocal samples give each track a cinematic charge. “Roar of the Lion” lurches forward with a heavy, stomping rhythm, letting Kool G Rap’s gravel delivery cut through U-God and RZA’s snarls. “Executioners from Shaolin” is lean and aggressive, with a stripped-down beat that leaves space for the verses to swing like blades in a dark hallway.

There are moments where the structure wobbles. “Dolemite” and “Shaolin vs. Lama” suffer from low vocal mixes that bury strong verses in muddy layers. And while the features—RJ Payne, 38 Spesh, Willie the Kid, KXNG Crooked—bring skill and energy, not every collaboration lands with the same weight. Still, the sense of collective presence makes the record feel like a full-circle moment. The Clan doesn’t chase trends here—they double down on what they built, making space for the next generation without letting go of their own identity.

“Charleston Blue, Legend of a Fighter” is a fitting closer: reflective and personal, with Cappadonna’s letter to his mother and Crooked’s verse on fatherhood carrying the kind of emotional clarity that cuts through the album’s heavy stylization. At its best, the record moves like a late-night martial arts flick scored by cracked vinyl loops and street sermons.

Black Samson, the Bastard Swordsman digs deeper into a sound and mythos the Clan helped shape, with Mathematics refining it into something focused, theatrical, and fiercely alive. Not flawless, but absolutely worth hearing loud.

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WU/Mathematics - BS Review

After the video dropped a couple of months ago, fans of the legendary Wu-Tang Clan were rightfully anticipating a new album. Like a lot of recent Wu-Tang Clan news, it’s best to curb your expectations (particularly after the poor Ghostface album last year) and true enough, there was no Wu-Tang Clan album. Instead, we saw an album released under the “Wu-Tang” brand, much like fans witnessed in 2009 with “Chamber Music”, and then in 2011 with “Legendary Weapons”; 2017 also saw “The Saga Continues” which was fully produced by long-time Wu-Tang producer Mathematics. 2025’s “Black Samson, the Bastard Swordsman” is also produced by Mathematics, highlighting how strong the Wu-Tang brand remains, while names like Mathematics would have released albums in the past under his name.

My biggest reservation with the video for “Mandingo” was that it was created with AI tool Veo2. The Wu are no strangers to adapting and adopting the latest technological innovations, whether it be videogames like Wu-Tang: Taste the Pain, CGI special effects in their videos for “Triumph” or “Gravel Pit”, or even their official website being built around a community forum (Wu-Tang Corp); recent ventures have felt noticeably dirtier. Shifting from releasing an album with only one copy in 2015 to making it an NFT in 2024; releasing exclusive music on Bitcoin, and now embracing generative AI for creative purposes. It’s a far cry from RZA’s rant at the start of 1997’s “Wu-Tang Forever” where lines like “stop biting my shit, ya know what I’m sayin’? Come from your own heart with this shit” and “Wu-Tang gonna bring it to you in the purest form” feel like a lifetime ago. Despite this, a Wu-Tang album is always welcome no matter how underwhelming it inevitably ends up being, and “Black Samson, the Bastard Swordsman” is worth checking out for some of the individual performances.

After being hit with some verbal abuse by Tha Dogg Pound’s Kurupt, the aforementioned “Mandingo” song kicks things off nicely with a Raekwon/Method Man/Inspectah Deck combination. The Chef sounds like he cooked up his verse on a Fisher Price microphone, so he is immediately forgotten about once the other two take over. The most impressive member of the Wu on this whole album is easily Cappadonna; he’s borderline vitriolic, as if someone pissed in his cornflakes the colour of Sunny D. The lengthy tirade on “Executioners from Shaolin” demonstrates this:

“Catch you coming out the gate and swinging my sword
I cut rappers in half choke ’em with the cord
They’ll never try to step to my written dimension
I smash your whole set, kick your head in the trenches
You know I’m fit n****
I slapped you out your flip-flops
You flow on the ground I dragged you for six blocks
You can’t escape from the king of this hip-hop
Rappers can’t avoid my spit, they just get chopped
36 chambers, killing the vampires
N****s suck dick, your whole camp is liars
Fake ass n****, your beard is fake
You wear tight clothes, wear a skirt for the devil
You don’t know wearing that, you search for my level
Stupid motherfucker, you ain’t nothing but an idiot
Cartoon character, all your shit illiterate
Should’ve stomped you before, but I was considerate
It’s that man, my alligator jumped your homeboy
Violate n****s, smack ’em with the chrome toy
Keep talkin’, put the hammer on your teeth
Pitbulls eating your balls, you little thief
Can’t fuck around, n****s’ll get slumped
Throw you off the roof, hit your dog with the pump
Your little posse, just a room full of roaches
You leader a bitch, he just food for my vultures
As soon as you come out the building, you dead meat
Drown in the water, n****s is lead feet
I ain’t finished with you, I’m just getting started
Your mother a tomboy, your father’s retarded
Your big brother, he always wearin’ Pamper
Your little sister, got her head in my hamper
I’m the king in this shit, don’t you ever try and spit
I heard you do it before, you sound like shit n****”

Given there’s only an 8-bar contribution from GZA, he didn’t want any part of Cappadonna that day. U-God holds down “Roar of the Lion” over an authentic Wu-Tang style instrumental that is ripe for the whole crew to stomp all over, but instead we get Kool G Rap and RZA. I never found RZA’s scruffy flow ever warrants being the final verse, particularly when you have flippin’ Kool G Rap on there. It happens again on the aptly titled “Let’s Do It Again”, which sees RJ Payne, 38 Spesh and Willie the Kid sparring over the Ghostface classic “Mighty Healthy” before Bobby Digital enters to derail the momentum.

I liked the slower style of “Claudine”, with vocalist Nicole Bus supplying the killer hook, and it’s clear Method Man and Ghostface Killah are masters of the R&B guest verse because their contributions here are pitch perfect. Meth’s flow is as tidy as his shape-up, describing the stages of a relationship before Ghostface goes for the emotional jugular, detailing the raw pain of his mother’s death, crying out for her to “come back for a couple of days so we can hug and kiss you”.

Masta Killa’s horizontal stance lends “Cleopatra Jones” a similarly satisfying blend of soulful, almost retro rap that’s not far off of the blaxploitation vibes that ran through records like “Iron Flag”. Before you think the album is leaning too far into the vulnerabilities of the crew, the last few songs on the album remind us what the Wu originally stood for: hardcore cyphers.

It’s been a while since I’ve enjoyed Benny the Butcher, as there was a time when you simply couldn’t move without hearing another Benny verse. His schtick became a little diluted, but his brief appearance on “Warriors Two” was just enough, before Method Man duly manhandles Mathematics’ moody beat. “Dolemite” with U-God, Masta Killa and Cappadonna should be B-tier, but Cappadonna’s still reeling from the cornflakes incident, and sounds energised compared to his lacklustre solo output of late. U-God’s playful with his flow, Mathematics came with some lively horns, and Masta Killa actually teases a verse but immediately steps aside because Cappadonna remains on the warpath. In fact, MK gets faded out for inexplicable reasons, one of the album’s continued shortcomings: mishandling the final verse.

After a brief interlude from the singer Kameron Corvet, we get a slick duet between KXNG Crooked and Cappadonna. The fact that “Black Samson, the Bastard Swordsman” ends with Cappadonna is an apt metaphor for this album – he’s the main thing you’ll remember from this surprisingly good 39-minute LP. What’s here is better than I thought it would be, and other than a verse from ODB, you’ve got the whole crew here. It could have done with more GZA, because it feels wrong that guests have more time on the mic than a core member, and one Ghostface verse (as good as it is) feels like it’s not enough to please the more casual Wu-Tang fan. Method Man is on fine form as ever, Inspectah Deck has never really dropped his levels, Raekwon (when he has the right mic) puts in a solid shift; I enjoyed the U-God and Masta Killa verses too, but it’s Cappadonna that lifts this album from decent to good, and it’s worth the price of admission just to hear him let loose on anyone that has doubted him in recent years.

7.5

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Mathematics and Wu-Tang Clan Are Making History with Their Record Store Day Edition of Black Samson

Along with Ruffnation’s Chris Schwartz and Macroverse’s Bennett Phillips, the producer breaks down the new RSD release and its one-of-one original artwork for each of its 5,000 individual copies.



Mathematics and Wu-Tang Clan are making history. The exclusive Record Store Day version of their forthcoming Black Samson, The Bastard Swordsman: From the Wu-Tang, the Saga Continues Collection album is being limited to a 5,000-piece vinyl run and is due in stores for the annual event this Saturday, April 12. What makes the release distinctive, though, is that each of the individual vinyl copies of the album contains one-of-one album art. “We’re in a business now of collectables,” says Chris Schwartz, co-founder of Ruffhouse Records—home to Cypress Hill, The Fugees, and Lauryn Hill—and whose Ruffnation Entertainment is distributing the Black Samson LP in conjunction with Virgin Music Group. “Whether it’s a catalog item or a new, cool project like Math’s, you can go and create a whole new audience for it and make something really interesting by offering it as a print variant.”

The idea for the distinctive packaging originated after Schwartz worked with Macroverse’s Mixprint, a multi-format entertainment company best known for its work with comics, in July 2024 to create one-of-one covers of the playbill for Cypress Hill’s performance with the London Symphony Orchestra. Through his work making vinyl versions of RZA’s Bobby Digital projects for Ruffnation, Schwartz had also been working within the Wu-Tang ecosystem. As longtime Wu-Tang show DJ and producer Mathematics was putting the finishing touches on the group’s forthcoming LP, Alan Grunblatt (whose DNA Music Group partnered with Schwartz’s Ruffnation through Virgin) suggested that Mathematics share the album art he’d drawn for the release with Bennett Phillips at Macroverse. 



Mathematics gave Phillips his drawings, which depicted his vision of the character and a dragon, both of which are in sync with the kung-fu element of the Wu-Tang Clan’s mystique and which reflected Mathematics’ vision for The Bastard Swordsman. In turn, Phillips delivered Mathematics’ work to Mixprint artist Steven Perkins, who came up with sketches (without using AI) that served as the building blocks for the 5,000 Black Samson album cover variants. “As an artist who understands how other artists are, when somebody has that fire, that idea, you’ve got to let them run with it,” Mathematics says. “When [the initial images] came back, I was very happy—tremendously happy.”

The process was complicated by a few factors, though. For one, making one-of-one artwork had never been done before for an album cover, so Macroverse had to explore its printing options. “We had to reinvent the packaging, because the type of printer that this gets printed on is a $2 million printer,” Phillips says. “It’s bigger than the minivan that my family had, and it’s not designed to print album jackets. But the machines that can print album jackets can’t do the variable printing. Since you can’t teach those printers to do variable printing, you have to redesign the packaging. We recreated it from scratch.”



“As an artist who understands how other artists are, when somebody has that fire, that idea, you’ve got to let them run with it. When the initial images came back, I was tremendously happy.”

Although Mathematics realized that the album art would be a selling point, he’d long been focusing on making what would become Black Samson a noteworthy project on the music front. He aimed to combine the great music and positive messaging he got from Blaxploitation films such as Super Fly with the drama and tension inherent in karate flicks. Thus, several Black Samson songs have the same titles as classic movies within that former genre (“Cleopatra Jones,” “Dolemite”) as well as the latter (“Shaolin vs. Lama,” “Executioners From Shaolin”). “I wanted to make something that was cinematic from beginning to end, a journey that you can travel on,” Mathematics says. “It’s reflective of my growth and where I came from. I also wanted to test the waters.”

In doing so, Black Samson features a bevy of live instrumentation backing the rhymes of Wu-Tang Clan members Method Man, Ghostface Killah, Raekwon, and Inspectah Deck, as well as such featured guests as Kurupt and Benny the Butcher. “I wasn’t surprised or shocked, but when I was looking at the credits, I noticed there were all these musicians on there,” Schwartz says. “I’d always thought of Wu-Tang Clan as more straight hip-hop production, so when I was listening to the album, I was thinking the music was full of samples. But it isn’t. It’s live musicians, and the production is phenomenal. It’s one of the best hip-hop records I’ve heard in a long, long time.”

“I played a lot of stuff, and what I wasn’t good at or wasn’t hitting the mark on, I brought in the musicians,” adds Mathematics. “It all came together because I wasn’t trying to be like anybody else, any other sound out there. I wanted to give you a piece of me, something original.”

As Ruffnation and Virgin Music Group began reaching out to retailers to gauge interest in Black Samson, the response was enthusiastic. Indeed, participating RSD shops purchased the 5,000 vinyl units quickly. Given that each country that participates in Record Store Day is its own organization, and in order to meet the RSD guidelines, each of the 1,000 units of the album sold in the UK say “UK Edition” on the back jacket below the identifying number of the print run. On each of the UK copies, the yellow and black on the central label have also been transposed from the United States version. Black Samson is also slated to have a standard wide release, but that release date has yet to be determined. That standard version of the LP will have a single Blaxploitation-inspired cover.







With a groundbreaking artistic approach and stellar music, Schwartz says that he expects Black Samson, The Bastard Swordsman: From the Wu-Tang, the Saga Continues Collection to be an in-demand release among fans. “Wu-Tang has a disproportionate number of what we call ‘completists,’” he says. “Those are the people who buy any- and everything that’s even remotely related to what the group does. This album is a must-have for them.” The creator of the project has a similar feeling. “It seemed like everything fell into place,” Mathematics says. “I really can’t wait for the world to get a hold of it. If you’re buying this, you’re purchasing something that gives you the whole experience. You get the music, the feeling, the personalization of your own album cover.” FL