Wu-Tang Clan fans have become accustomed to waiting several years between the hip-hop collective's albums, but the group plans to break with that tradition by releasing an uncharacteristically upbeat new album way ahead of schedule, according to Wu-Tang mastermind RZA.
The group, which just released its third album, The W, in November, hopes to drop a fourth — which RZA said could be called WW2 — by summer. The album would be assembled mostly from tracks already recorded by the group during its sessions for The W.
"We recorded 20 songs in L.A. and then maybe 10 more in New York. But out of the ones we recorded in L.A., it was kind of sunshine out there and everything, so we had a very uplifting summer feel to the music," RZA said recently. "But due to certain delays ... we had changed a lot of the songs to a winter-feeling album. That's why this LP is not so danceable — it had a few dance tracks on it, but it feels more like drivin' through the snow with that New York frown on your face."
The L.A. tracks slated for inclusion on the group's next album include "about five hit songs [with] more of a summer feel," according to RZA.
No release date has been scheduled for a new Wu-Tang Clan album, according to a spokesperson for their label, Loud Records. However, if the group delivers a new album in 2001, the label will certainly release it, the spokesperson said.
