U-God's Resume #22: "Diesel"

--Official Stats--
Artist: Wu-Tang Clan
Song: "Diesel"
Album: Soul In The Hole: Original Music From And Inspired By The Motion Picture
Release Date: July 29, 1997

I know what you're thinking besides "what's the point of this" and "why ru wasting you life with this"...you're thinking "you're taking this too seriously." You know what? We're not taking this seriously at all. If we were, this whole blog would be about how hip hop was hit or miss even in its glory days and now it's an absolute disaster. I'll be serious, if you happen to catch a rap song on the radio today it's going to be awful unless you're tuned into some weird college station or some satellite trash, and even then you can bet your ass that besides yourself, the only other person listening is the disc jockey. Nobody listens to good music.


"But what about the internet?" you say, "you're always talking about all the good hip hop you find there." Yeah that's true, but do you know how many people are listening to it? None. Zero. If I put up a post about the dopest hip hop song out right now it will get zero hits. If I just put up a picture of Rick Ross it'll get a thousand hits a day. High interest. That's the truth. People would rather look at a fucking picture of Rick Ross than to even be introduced to one track that's actually decent. That's you. You do that. Yeah there is a ton of good hip hop coming out all the time but you'll never hear it because you're too busy looking for fucking pictures of the Ying Yang Twin's gross tattoos. YOU'RE THE WORST.


So what does that have to do with the song Diesel by the Wu-Tang Clan? I DON'T KNOW, WHY DON'T YOU ASK YOUR FRIEND AKON? That's what you care about. ALL OF YOU. You know what? Just leave the blog. Do it. I don't want to review this for you. I'll even make it super easy for you:

CLICK HERE FOR SOMETHING YOU'LL LOVE AND DON'T COME BACK 

Well I hope my anger doesn't spill over into this review (spoiler alert: it will). So this song is from the pandering money-grab soundtrack to the movie "Soul in the Hole". The cover points out that some of the songs were just "inspired" by the movie. I'm sure that the Cocoa Brovaz went out and saw "Soul in the Hole" and were so inspired that they rushed home to make "Won on  Won" (which was a good song actually). I bet their inspiration had something to do with dinero. Fuck whoever put this soundtrack together. Cross marketing. I can just hear some rich fat-cat executive saying "Hey! That Soul to the Hole movie is gonna flop since it's a piece of junk so let's get a bunch of rappers on the soundtrack, those heathen consumer morons will buy the CD to hear their favorite rapper then they'll see the movie. They're dumb! People who like basketball like rap as well. We'll all be richer!"


All that aside, I did buy this soundtrack AND I seem to remember liking it. I had a giant CD case and for some reason this CD was in the front and I got a good look at the Basketball themed CD all the time (even though I didn't listen to it that much). I also remember this song as being good (probably thanks to its inclusion on some Killa Bee's album or Wu greatest hits album or mixtape or whatever). WHO CARES. Let's hear the track...


"Diesel"



There is nothing better than starting a song with ODB talking nonsense, actually it's not nonsense. It's ODB literally asking for help: "They already did 2Pac in...Biggie Smalls..someone help me. Someone help me please!" That's heavy. ODB's verse is understated but perfect. Rae is next and the odd sound leaves on the vocals are what makes this track work so well. Sure the beat is okay (not great) and the lyrics are banging throughout, but the sound levels kind of level the playing field for the featured MCs and put the focus on the lyrics themselves rather than the personalities involved. It's almost like the RZA is trying to pull people into a trance. It's great. Anyway, after Rae, ODB gets raw again for a few lines, then Meth comes in (grimy Tical Meth, not polished Meth). ODB is back just to usher in the RZA and holy shit, can it get any better than that? Meth to ODB to RZA over a raw beat. No.


So then U-God comes in with this:

Thirty-six anger, dirty language is the stranger
The mangler, the honor roll singer righteous finger
When we shine-a, we always find a never minor major
Hard to spot we dangerous with our behavior
Then it's back to the RZA for a few lines, then back to U for this:

I aim slang I maintain, through the main vein
The answer came clever, when we do greatness through trial and error
Mile of terror motormouth, let the odor out
Fumin greater, the temper in my spine huminator
The super grass childish blast sleepy eye stash
The hashish masterpiece, Osirus is the virus
This split second splash, severe drop is near pop
There's fallin teardrops, now is it worth your career?

You know what, I think this was an ODB song, maybe for a future (and unmade) ODB album. Let's look at the evidence: (1) ODB is heavily featured (2) Raekwon, Method Man and U-God each mention him specifically (3) it sounds like an album track (not a soundtrack song). That's it. I rest my case.

So I feel like I've had nothing but good things to say about this song specifically. The truth is that it's not that good. I mean it's solid but I think it's missing some ingredient. Energy maybe. I don't know, it's nothing that I want to repeat anytime soon. Despite ODB really knocking it out of the park. As for Baby U, I think he (once again) did the worst of all involved. You can take that to the bank. Word 'em up.

Track Score: 6/10

U-God’s Score: 3/10

Impact on Rep (+,-,=): None

Next Week: U-God helps Cappadonna out with his debut album on the track  "Supa Ninjaz"

About this series: U-God’s Resume" is a series of posts which looks at each line of U-God’s entire career to determine if his status as ‘wack’ is justified (as labeled by internet morons). I think it is not. U-God is dope. We'll prove it. Leave it to the Tort Team.