Adrian Younge Presents Twelve Reasons to Die

As a collective, Wu-Tang’s reputation always felt like it came from the strengths of a unified force, but it’s been pretty clear for a long time now that Ghostface is their breakout star — or at least the member most consistently out there finding strange new things to use his rep to bring into fruition. While the Wu’s always been a favorite of the live-band hip-hop-meets-funk fusion set — word to El Michels Affair and their own ’70s-noir take on RZA beats — Adrian Younge brought out something a bit more unconventional for Ghost, a triangulation of hip-hop, soul, and giallo-flick soundtracks that shifted the Ghost mise en scène from the Chinatown/Little Italy intersection to the studios of Rome. That adds a frisson of vintage weirdness to an album that otherwise features Ghostface in straightforward storyteller mode.