I've been wanting to make an "all killer no filler" version of Forever since, well, forever lol. As much as I appreciate this album in its entirety, I always wondered if the "double LP" gimmick went a little too far, and now that I've cut this album down to a hot 60 minutes, I see how invincible this album could have been!
After analyzing this album very closely over many months and hundreds of listens, I started noticing the well-camouflaged padding... extended beats, use of hooks, loooooong intros and fade outs, tracks of talking or skits, two separate tracks with just one member rapping the entire song (Dog Sh*t ft. ODB and The City ft. Inspectah Deck), and an entire track without any Wu members (Second Coming).
Also, Street Life is on more than one track on this record; and there's nothing wrong with Street Life, but there are nine (ten including Cappadonna) members in the Wu in '97... do we really have room for multiple Street Life verses? I would much prefer those verses go to actual Wu members, like ODB or Gza, who are barely on this double album. Not to say these things are bad, I just question whether they belong on a Wu-Tang Clan album proper. So a lot of the bloat, including the Street Life verses have been excised.
On a lesser note, I always hated the stretched out picture at the top of the original album aesthetically speaking, so I've tried to re-size it on this cover to better reflect the actual photograph.
Anyway, I hope y'all like this version and it really serves to highlight just how great the great parts of this album are. WU-TANG FOREVER!
Side One - 30 minutes
1. Reunited
-Gza, ODB, Rza, Method Man
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