Dreddy Kruger Presents Think Differently Music Compilation

At first glance, Think Differently Music's liner notes could send even the most casual hip-hop listener into throes of excitement. How could an album featuring the Wu Tang Clan AND hip-hop's best underground rappers not be inspired? That's before you notice the conspicuous absence of the best Wu members — where's Ghostface? — and the fact that the album's producer (and longtime RZA acolyte) Dreddy Kruger basically cut 'n' pasted the tracks together, thereby robbing the collaborations of any in-studio immediacy. In addition, the pairing that reads most promisingly on paper — Del Tha Funkee Homosapien vs. Def Jux darling Aesop Rock — is confined to a clumsy two-minute blurt called "Preservation." This is a decidedly wasted outing for such prodigious talent and diehard fans of either the Wu or the album's distinguished roster of independent MCs will be thoroughly disappointed.