(MENAFN- Arab Times) NEW YORK Dec 2 (Agencies): As protests sweep the United States over the fatal police shooting of a black teenager some question whether racial justice will ever be attainable. For the Wu-Tang Clan the picture is grim but there may just be hope. The hip-hop icons have reunited for their first studio album in seven years 'A Better Tomorrow' in which they grapple forthrightly with police brutality and other social ills all set to a polished rhythmic backdrop laced with the New York ensemble's trademark samples from kung fu movies.
On the title track of the album which comes out Tuesday the Wu-Tang Clan invokes the slain Malcolm X as the band urges African Americans to 'stand up stand strong.' 'We want justice / Police supposed to protect and serve / And then they shoot us down like wild animals / The nerve of them cold-hearted killers / With blue suits slaying our black youth / The Earth cries from all the blood that's being spilled' the Wu-Tang Clan's Raekwon raps. Method Man another of the eight surviving members of the Clan condemns the quest for material wealth as 'just another trick to enslave us / Push the minimum wages / Put our fathers up in them cages.' For all the bleakness in the song the refrain is a disarmingly warm sample from an earlier generation's protest tune 'Wake Up Everybody' by the Philadelphia soul band Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes. The rich voice of Teddy Pendergrass from 1975 sings: 'The world won't get no better / If we just let it be / The world won't get no better / We got to change it just you and me.' The album similarly ends on an upbeat note with 'Wu-Tang Reunion' as band leader RZA gives a shout out to 'all my Latino brothers all my Asian brothers my Caucasian brothers / Wu-Tang Forever.' The album is made all the more poignant by the shooting death of unarmed 18-year-old African American Michael Brown in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson. Protests erupted nationwide after a grand jury declined to indict the white police officer Darren Wilson. Ferguson 'A Better Tomorrow' however was in the works well before Ferguson was in the spotlight. Wu-Tang Clan members have mentioned the album since 2011. They initially thought of releasing it for the group's 20th anniversary in 2013 but a feud between Raekwon and RZA helped hold up production. The album avoids the orchestral sound with which RZA experimented on the previous work '8 Diagrams' and opens immediately with a telling flashback a posthumous sample from Ol' Dirty Bastard an original member who died in 2004. Lyrical 'I will say that you will hear some maturity in our thinking process. It's a very lyrical album a lot of stories and vignettes of stories' RZA told reporters from AFP and other outlets at a listening session for the album at a New York studio. Other tracks on the album include a tale of a vengeful prosecutor in 'Mistaken Identity' and an ode to Ron O'Neal who played a cocaine-dealing tough guy in the 1972 Blaxploitation film 'Super Fly.' It remains to be seen if 'A Better Tomorrow' marks the final chapter from the Wu-Tang Clan. The ensemble has always encouraged side projects with RZA pursuing an acting career including a role as the rapper Samurai Apocalypse in the sexually-charged television series 'Californication.' But at least one more work exists: 'Once Upon a Time in Shaolin' a double album of which the Wu-Tang Clan recorded a single copy. RZA wants the album itself to go on tour with fans paying to listen in museums and other places and then to sell the copy for which he says offers are already in the millions of dollars. Also: LONDON: Just as his old bandmates Take That soared to the top of the British pop charts for the first time in six years former member Robbie Williams announced that he was releasing a 'surprise' new album. The album 'Under the Radar Volume 1' was issued without any advance publicity and made available only through Williams' own website. '(There are) loads and loads of songs that I've written that I'm incredibly passionate about' Williams said on a video which also features his pet cat. 'I want you to hear them otherwise they're just going to remain in my computer.' It will be competing with Take That's new album III which also went on sale on Monday. A single from the album 'These Days' was released ahead of time last week and went straight to the top of the UK Official Charts. It was Take That's 12th number one and came 21 years after their first chart success. Williams quit the band in 1995 to launch a solo career. He returned to the group in 2010 but local media said he dropped out again in 2012. He does not perform on III which does not feature another original member of the band Jason Orange who announced he was leaving Take That in September.
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