As for the rapping, you can’t ask for much more than an album full of dense lyrics from the whole Wu crew, bar after bar crammed onto hyperkinetic and foreboding tracks with few rote choruses and almost no real hooks at all. If you like radio rap or club jams, this probably isn’t the album for you, but if you love grimy rap, stripped of all its pretense and nonsense, I don’t see how you could NOT love 8 Diagrams.

To prove my thesis (which is impossible because ultimately the appreciation of music is about individual taste, but whatever), I’m going track by track, breaking down every beat and every verse. Maybe I have it all wrong and maybe I’m just too old to get it anymore, but I defy someone to set aside the Ghostface drama, listen to this album, and tell me it's not awesome.

Anyway, here are the tracks:

1. "Campfire:" The Kung-Fu movie dialogue intro speaks to the way one should digest music in this day and age: “We must be patient.” This is followed with a gorgeous singing intro which leads to a rattling and rumbling beat and an immediate Method Man verse. This is the Method Man we haven’t heard in years, the one that I watched on Season Three of The Wire and wished would someday rap with the same passion he was displaying in his acting.

2. "Take it Back:" This is probably the biggest throwback track on the album and what it lacks in obvious creativity it makes up for in simplicity. The beat just bounces along and stays out of the way, giving guys like Rae, Ghost, and Deck the chance to shine on the strength of their verses alone. Ghost in particularly absolutely murders this song and Deck goes back to his familiar role of “scene stealer” among the bigger names, providing a verse that will be worth listening to for years to come.

3. "Get Them Out Ya Way Pa:" The beat on this is almost impossibly slick. It just glides along with a pulsing bass line and sets up the aggressive call-and-response chorus, mixing in the occasional cymbal, guitar lick, and sprinkles of what sound like wind chimes. This is RZA giving a master’s course in the power of a subtle arrangement. No one is particularly good on the mic as Meth loses some of his momentum, U-God is only slightly above average, and Masta Killa is the star of the song (not typically a good sign).