60 Second Assassin - Remarkable Timing

[jokostyle]

this type of rapper/artist hasn t enough substance to carry alone a LP but he can do this if he works with someone who can expand him. i m talking about these guys who has musical culture, inventivity, creativity, who can handle a whole project whith huge artistic input; who can imagine a new sonic land for a specific person, who can bring some subject ideas, some concepts (like tragedy for CNN). For sure, RZA and probably 4th are some of them.

But he worked with some followers...

[Chris Stylez]

i wonder if shabazz even knows his old ass verse is even on this. even if you didnt know it was old it still sounds really dated anyway. shit has me angry as fuck

[trinking]

i dunno what some of you nerds are smokin but put that shit down. album is ill and i think bronze is getting better with every album he produces.

[dapo]

^ straight up

[the silencer]

i dunno what some of you nerds are smokin but put that shit down. album is ill and i think bronze is getting better with every album he produces.

co-sign... people are whining as they skip through the album on their first listen.. THIS IS MUSIC, chill out and listen to it for fuck's sake



since this is a review thread I'm gonna put up my own enormous track-by-track review in a minute

[the silencer]

60 Second Assassin – Remarkable Timing

The Wu is back. When an OG Killa Bee and senior Sun of Man who we haven’t heard from in a long time can suddenly spring up with an album this musically rich, it’s official that the Wu-Tang Renaissance is upon us.

This is not just another in the long line of dope Wu Killa Bee albums (the Killarmy catalogue, Killah Priest and Sunz of Man’s albums), it’s a bit bigger than that. This is a Wu patriarch, first cousin of Ol’ Dirty Bastard, and one of the more vocally blessed and harmoniously gifted members of the Wu-Tang family collaborating with not just the freshest-sounding Wu Element producer but also a live jazz band to create long-lasting hip hop music with depth. It’s similar to the direction Rza is trying to bring his brand’s sound towards, with plenty of guitars and live drums but it sounds A LOT better on this album than anything Rza has produced so far. It’s a perfect blend of hip hop, soul, jazz, and funk.

Accompanying the beautiful beats and instrumentation is a swarm of dope features who almost seem to compete for dopest verse on the album. Seriously, there’s at least half a dozen guest verses on here that’ll blow you the fuck away from Prodigal Sunn and Hell Razah’s dartsmanship on M.O.A.N., to Timbo King’s confident spittin on Clockz and Kingz, Planet Asia continuing to KILL verses on The Throne, and Phillie’s stealing the show on Love Burns. And of course, the emcee, the host, the master of ceremony 60 Second Assassin shows us a whole range of styles that I didn’t even know he was capable of. This is of course his debut album and we really never heard all that much from him in the past aside from his presence on “The Last Shall Be First” but I honestly didn’t like his style for most of that album. Here he’s totally different though, spittin rapidfire at times, flowing both beautiful and funny (reminiscent of ODB), and rippling his vibrating vocal chords throughout the entire album like a flowing river.

At only 13 tracks, the album is not as short as you’d think. This isn’t the “dazzle them with artwork and baffle them with briefness” approach of the disappointing (for me) Wu-Massacre album. More than half the tracks are over 4 minutes long and with all the guest verses and instrumental exclamation points all throughout the album’s standout tracks, it not only has replay value but it feels like a real ALBUM, an LP.

1. Words from the Assassin
prod by Bronze Nazareth

A very brief speaking intro, 60 speaks his peace over a Bronze violin loop explaining very calmly his approach, how he’s “giving the energy back to the universe through the music”

2. Sword Style
prod by Shawneci Icecold

One of only two non-Bronze beats on the record, it’s still sounds like a Bronze beat and is a very good track to start off with. Funky, fast jazzy beat with 60 flowing rapidly as well as a dull-voiced chorus that’s actually pretty funny. Great way to open the album and introduce what we’re gonna hear from 60 Second Assassin on his debut record.

4/5

3. M.O.A.N. ft Sunz of Man
prod by Bronze Nazareth

“Take a breath cuz we livin in sequels”
Realignment of the Sunz over a Bronze banger. It sounds like vintage Sunz of Man, they all spit fast and with energy, 60 Sec is especially wild on here: “I spit pure ecstasy when the mic land next to me”
Prodigal Sunn (continually one of the most underrated dartsmiths in the whole Wu universe) sets it off with one of my favorite verses on the whole album. When you listen to this record it seems like the guest artists are trying to outdo each other or prove something and Prodigal’s verse is a perfect example. If I’m not mistaken, it’s been a LONG time since we’ve heard Hell Razah and Priest together on a track and they both BRING IT on here, again: like they’re trying to prove something. Razah’s verse gives me the chills. “May I shine til the day that I die through sun beams” And it’s eerie to hear him alongside a scratching in the song of Guru’s voice sayin “it’s time to raise the stakes again”
The beat features, as you would imagine, a moaning voice but also violins and BANGIN drums that roll like the drums on “Meth vs Chef pt 2” (and also like the drums on the song in this video here) and there’s also ill DJ scratches of “Sunz of Man/Wu-Tang Clan” that serve as the chorus which will no doubt get Wu heads hyped.

5/5

4. Clockz and Kingz ft 12 O’Clock, Chi King, and Timbo King
prod by Bronze and Project Lionheart

One of the greatest songs on the album, many pieces involved and they all work in perfect harmony: a bangin beat, elaborate live-instrumental support from Project Lionheart bringing guitar strings and saxophone sounds into the mix along smooth, knocking drum kicks while 4 prominent Killa Beez spit increasingly dope verses culminating in Timbo King’s spotlighted (“Bo King rule again”) dart show:

“I’m Sittin Bull wit a peace pipe, want a pull?
Got timberwolves dressed in all sheep’s wool”

60 is the host here, providing a catchy emphatic chorus that’ll stick in your head as well as the opening verse and then Brooklyn Zu’s 12 O’Clock flows confidently followed by a great verse from Chi King for two of the more memorable guest spots on the album. This record is loaded with great guest performances. When Timbo comes in the whole song freakin explodes, the beat flips, the saxophones riff and Bo King just puts the exclamation point on a WU BANGER.

5/5

5. Remarkable Timing ft Masta Killa, M-Eighty, and Popa Wu
prod by Bronze and Project Lionheart

Our first taste of the album was a tiny snippet of this song:

Although it’s not the best song, this is the heart of the album. It’s the title track with a Wu general placing the official stamp of approval on a “Bronze Naz classic chamber music rapture” as MK says and even the great Popa Wu comes on and waxes about Remarkable Timing and “bringing back the degrees of knowledge” while the music plays. I love MK’s verse, 60 is a little offbeat at times but still good and in his brief verse, M-Eighty honestly sounds better than I’ve ever heard him rap before. I don’t think the 80 haters should have anything to complain about because he definitely doesn’t “ruin” the song (plus the beat is so good that somebody would have to really be off if they were to sound bad over it)

I love the beat (awesome drums), the smooth guitar strings, and the DJ scratches of “when I rap with Remarkable Timing” but I have to nitpick about one tiny little thing: I wish they’d have given the original beat a bit more attention and shine because it’s a wonderful violin loop and I’m annoyed by what seems like the replacement of the sample voice with live singers intoning “ooh ooh ooooh” in the background. Just doesn't sound as good to me. Great track though.

4.5/5

6. Warzone (Remix) ft La the Darkman, Prodigal Sunn, Timbo King, Division and Rza)
prod by Rza

My least favorite song on the album, it interrupts the flow of tracks with an abrupt beat that doesn’t seem similar to the tracks surrounding it and Freemurda (I think it’s him) blurts a chorus that makes my brain hurt. Rza’s participation, aside from the beat, consists of a brief interlude in the middle of the song where the beat flips to a smooth, slow violin as Rza introduces “60 Second Assassinnnnnnn”

2.5/5

7. Cloud 9 ft Hell Razah, Son One, and Shabazz the Disciple
prod by Bronze Nazareth/Project Lionheart

Again, I emphasize the features came hard as FUCK on just about every track and Son One’s verse here is yet another gem. The same dude who ripped every song he was on for the Almighty album, he spits with a polished flow describing his growth as an emcee “designin a timeless art” while the drums crack and a smooth horn wails. A lengthy chorus from both Hell Razah and 60 surrounds his awesome verse and then the beat suddenly flips to a slowly strumming electric guitar with grimey drums and Shabazz goes bananas. His verse is a familiar one but it’s a fucking classic and he delivers it with a fresh approach. The fact that it’s “recycled” doesn’t bother me at all because it’s an otherwise obscure 16 bars that get a chance to shine here.

4/5

8. No Face
prod by Bronze Nazareth/Project Lionheart

When this was released on the Academy compilation last year I raved about it:

this song is strong, loud, powerful, funky hip hop..this is really Wu at it's best right here..i am nothing short of AMAZED at 60 Second Assassin on this song, not only is his energy and flow excellent and attention-grabbing but his LYRICS ARE SICK..

this is not the singing 60, this is just crazy-flowing Wu-to-the-grain (60 Sec is ODB's first cousin) rappin' and it's refreshing to hear:

"Some people call it searchin for the Lord,
we call it sharpening our sword"

in some of his lyrics, you can almost detect where Killah Priest got that Heavy Mental influence from, most likely his elder fellow Sun of Man who spits galactic mystic shit on here..


that's the lyrics....now the BEAT, oh my god the beat is nuts...pure bangin, emotional music right here it really gets your heart thumpin with the combo of a strong emotive saxophone, bangin drums with a seemingly unconventional tempo and kick and of course that gloriously smooth sample "Nobody knoooooows my faaaace".....i haven't felt a hip hop chorus this much in a very long time

the combo of the gifted beatsmith Bronze Nazareth, a live instrumtentation band in Project Lionheart, and the energy and sick lyrics 60 brings (i swear the end will give you goosebumps when he's practically channeling ODB) work to perfection here..

After having months to listen to the track over and over again, soaking it in, now hearing it in the midst of “Remarkable Timing,” I feel a little differently about it. The live instrumentation is great but the beat isn’t amazing. 60 brings lots of energy and surprisingly great singing at the end where he strums his vocal chords almost like they’re reverberating guitar strings but I don’t consider this one of the best songs on the album.

4/5

9. Paradise ft Timbo King, Killah Priest
prod by Bronze Nazareth/Project Lionheart

There’s no doubt that a familiar sample kind of waters down the enjoyment of a track and here they use a sample that was used to arguably better effect on a different Killah Priest song ("The Rain" feat Main Flow off the Black August Revisited album, an amazing Priest song). The original sample is also what Bronze used for his Sinuhe’s Impasse. A familiar sample doesn't exactly ruin it though, as it’s still a smooth track and Project Lionheart’s contribution really sounds good. 60 shares the chorus with Kristina Green who sounds nice except for the weird line she keeps repeating “It make no never mind” which doesn’t sound like English to me. Bo King goes in with a quality flow as always (but lyrics that took me a few listens to get what he's saying) and KP makes rapping sound easy, not sure whether that’s a good thing though.

3.5/5

10. Love Burns ft Prodigal Sunn and Phillie
prod by Bronze Nazareth

These next three songs in a row represent my favorite part of the album, just behind the trio of tracks 3-4-5. To merely describe this beat as “smooth” doesn’t quite capture it. “Heavenly” is more like it. Both here and on The Throne, Bronze chops up a Marvin Gaye sample accentuating the legend’s amazing voice and using it as an instrument, in the process producing two of the best beats on the album.

60 and Prodigal Sunn flow nicely tell stories of being spurned by women and P-Sunn provides the chorus. Phillie steps up to the plate with a different approach and it’s clear that he’s not only improved but that he’s really adapted to pouring his heart out over his fellow Wisemen’s sweet-sounding beats. He starts off by describing the rough lifestyle he got stuck in very early on in life (“caught a few cases, a true felon been jailin since my youth stages/you name it, I’ve done it and seen it first hand, my homie was murdered in cold blood it hurts man”) and then describing his maturity which was a necessity when he had a child, his daughter who is the focus of his excellent verse: “Had a dream she lost me to the streets and so I stopped slingin, became God’s son instead of son of Satan/Virtue, married the woman that birthed you/Yeah, I came full circle there’s nothin I can’t work through.” I gotta say, with his verses on Kevlaar’s mixtape (Blood Diamond especially), the Detroit Taliban track, and now here, I’m very impressed with Phillie compared to what I’d heard from him earlier. He’s got one of the best verses on an album loaded with dope guest verses.

5/5

11. The Throne ft Planet Asia
prod by Bronze Nazareth

My favorite song on the album. The beat is an absolutely BANGIN, head-nodder with hard drums and a heartstring-plucking sample. 60 Sec and Marvin Gaye share the chorus which has a ton of emotion and 60 spits a couple verses along with Planet Asia. 60’s style of rap here is extremely entertaining, similar to ODB’s “singin rapping” but closer to what somebody like Lil Wayne tries to do nowadays: spit a rap verse but venture away from it at times and then come back. He’s got an unbelievable amount of energy which goes perfect with the beat and he carries that into the chorus where he’s practically screaming. Planet Asia absolutely KILLS his fucking verse, just tears this song to shreds: “Nondescript emcees report to the altar so I can decide/Which one of you to take a heart from/ I spit with an infinite dart gun, I’m serious, the microphone you niggas should part from” I hope we get some kind of album from him this year because he really owned shit both on here and also with his many guest verses on the Strong Arm Steady album earlier this year.

5/5

12. Dead Flowers Pt 2 ft C-Rayz Walz and Bronze Nazareth
prod by Bronze Nazareth

I have to call this my second favorite track on the album. I was really curious to hear this one because the first Dead Flowers track on the Almighty album was the best song I heard all year (in 2008) and it remains one of my favorite tracks. They take a very different approach here musically but it came out amazing.

The transition from The Throne into this track is perfect as 60’s voice flows straight through into here right before the beat and his melodic, funny, perfect chorus kicks in: “If you don’t want me, let the doorknob hit ya where the good Lord split ya” This is the longest track on the album, clocking in at almost 5 minutes and three emcees tell their stories of dealing with a “dead flower” over a some crazy Bronze chops that have a sample saying “cuz the woman I was with…” before each one tells their story. The drums are STRONG on here and the beat has many different things going on, voices, violins, and heavy kicks that draw out the cathartic emotion of the emcees spitting over it.

60 leads it off and then closes it out, his verses on here might be his best performance on the whole album and he delivers them well, slowing down at one point to say to his woman “In the beginning, you used to call me boo/Now all I’m hearing through the grapevine is ‘fuck that dude’/Damn girl, that was low, what the fuck and who came to visit you, Aunt Flo?” C-Rayz Walz complains about his girl in two verses overloaded with dope lines like “She was super good at head, deadly bad at thinking/Swallowing my pride a lot, prelude to her drinkin” And in between Walz’ verses Bronze makes his only lyrical appearance on the album with a strongly delivered verse about a crazy, gun-toting, crack-dealing, stripper-pole riding bitch who was “Simply devilish…and horny” but still he was caught up in her gravitational pull “exploring her globe, won’t love you in the morning!” The song fades out in the end with a sample quickly repeating “fuckin love” over descending piano keys. Definitely a worthy sequel to the first classic track and a song I know I’ll be blasting on my stereo for a very long time.

5/5

13. Fizza Funky
prod by Bronze Nazareth/Project Lionheart

A nice track to close out the album, you can envision the movie credits rolling while 60’s slowly and smoothly talks at the end. He lets loose three verses with a few dope lines like: “Like Freddy I’m in ya wildest dreams, Nightmare on 60 Street, Seconds from the Assassin’s reach” The beat is good, nothing spectacular while the Project Lionheart folks provide some smooth horns to liven things up a bit.

3/5


BEATS 4/5
LYRICS 4.5/5
OVERALL: 8.5 outta 10
Overall, it’s hard not to give a very high rating for this album. The only negatives are the Warzone Remix track which doesn’t really belong and isn’t a very good track to begin with and maybe one or two beats that needed a little bit more life. Otherwise, it’s a great musical experience with a rare mix of bangers, jazz, soul and funk---plenty of quality music and sounds. Just about what you would hope for from an album that’s basically a 60 Second Assassin/Bronze Nazareth collabo. Lyrically, with all the amazing guest verses and 60 bringing a wild energy and flow and occasionally awesome lyrics to the table, I give it a 4.5 out of 5 which I think is pretty goddamn good. I already made my pre-order for it and can't wait to get that the Instrumentals for it ....

PS: if anybody cares to read such things, I started a blog a few months ago. Mostly about sports and literature so far but i will be posting alot about hip hop, especially Wu in the very near future, starting this week. Here's the link

[trinking]

^ warzone is def the weak link on the album but i think fizza funky is a 3.5 track and paradise to me is 5/5. im lovin that joint. and dead flowers is a 3.5 outta 5 to me. but good review regardless.

[the silencer]

Dead Flowers pt 2 takes a few listens before the unconventional beat makes sense to the ears...once it does it's one of the tracks (next to Clockz and Kingz) that demands to be played at an extremely high volume. The drums are crazy on there

[trinking]

Dead Flowers pt 2 takes a few listens before the unconventional beat makes sense to the ears...once it does it's one of the tracks (next to Clockz and Kingz) that demands to be played at an extremely high volume. The drums are crazy on there

i could see that happening. only listened to the album twice so far..i was never a big fan of walz tho..dont get me wrong he's got skills but he's just on of those emcees i respect but cant enjoy because of his voice

[dafran]

Fuck what i said...this shit is bangin!! it tokk a while but it took and look good.

good work 60 and props to M-80 for giving this jewel.

[the silencer]

"You can't talk and listen so LISTEN BEFORE YOU TALK!"


-Chi King on Clockz and Kingz

[dafran]

"You can't talk and listen so LISTEN BEFORE YOU TALK!"


-Chi King on Clockz and Kingz

word.

[CL2coming]

This album gets better with more listens - it's real dope!!!!

8/10

[claaa7]

listening to the album now, "Paradise" uses the same samples as OC kicked over on the excellent "Memory Lane". i love that sample so great to hear Timbo King and Killah Priest rip that shit.

i smoked a blunt earlier today and this album is sounding good in my headphones right now, for me it's probably Bronze's best production work yet. I usually can't stand him over an entire album ("Great Migration", "Wisemen Approach") but this works, plus it's great to hear all the ill Killa Beez together again. M-80 did a great job with the A&R direction on here, he should collaborate with RZA to make the real "Swarm III" imo.

60 Sec is far from the best MC but his style is definitely aight so with all the guests surrounding him on here it works well. also i must say i don't mind "Warzone" at all on here, since the joint never got a proper release either way, La The Darkman, Timbo and 60 on a rugged RZA beat (yeah beat is fire imo). dope album

[Kutman]

Great work. 4.5/5 right now, future classic.