A Better Tomorrow

**noel411** · 06-16-2023, 09:22 PM

The actual song. Off Forever.

I realised when I was listening to Forever recently that this is an all time top 10 hip hop track. Up there with shit like The Message, Sound of Da Police, and That's How I'm Livin'.

If that scene from the shitty Wu-Tang tv show was based on reality (and I feel like it was, since it was one of very few non Rza self aggrandizing moments in the show), then this track was Deck, Masta, and U-God's creation. Pretty cool that those 3 lesser celebrated members (apart from Deck, in actual hip hop circles) cooked up one of the all thyme great hip hop songs in a group of such hip hop heavyweights.

Funnily enough it was Rza who brought the track down a little, though I think all in all his verse is a good contribution. Just should've kept the first half of it for another, more appropriate track.

Also this track leading into 'It's Yourz' to finish disc one was one of the greatest track sequencing moves ever in hip hop.

That's all.

**David Daniel Davis** · 06-16-2023, 10:40 PM

That song would have been an excellent choice for a single/video

**ShaDynasty** · 06-17-2023, 01:46 AM

Great song.

RZA is actually good at "self aggrandizing". He does it in a way where its interesting.

As far as the TV show, RZA founded and managed the groups career at least for the first 5 years. Why would he give others credit for putting in all that work?

Anyway TV shows are always dramatized and sensationalized to make it more exciting. Its not necessarily because RZA is an egomaniac, probably a lot of writer-producers would have came up with a similar take for the show.

**Jet Set** · 06-17-2023, 04:21 AM

That track was always insane to me. So when they said they were naming their new album the same, I was like WTF. You are really not aware of the legacy you have with this track, are you?

The line, One flew astray, and then caught my little seed, is a direct reference to the bullet U-Gods son caught the 1-2 years before that. That is also in the documentary, only Meth showed up when he held a bbq to celebrate that the Intell was better and walking again. U-God was clearly hurt by that. Later he would make

The Meth verse is also beautiful. It makes one think though, because these could have been verses that they could easily have dropped 10 years later. Meth especially speaks with the cadence & swagger of a 40 year old that has seen it all.

I always liked RZA's verse, mostly for the ending. In retrospect, you might have point that it could have been used better elsewhere. The ending when he starts taking drags of his blunt just give this high school stoner vibe where you suddenly know everything.

Regarding the sequencing, again beautifully executed. They actually were trying this throughout the whole album. (And I am sure people were listening.) It is a shame this is not utilized more nowadays, because it really strings everything together into a single product.

**noel411** · 06-17-2023, 07:34 AM

Yeah meth, uey, n masta's verses were all excellent, even if masta did use the word 'worryations', lololololol.

Deck's verse is off the charts.

@ sha, I just thought the whole thing was enormously self indulgent on rza's part. I understand he was n should have been the central character, but everything about it to me was just so ridiculously self aggrandizing n rza-centric.