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Music

Holy Shit, the New Wu-Tang Clan Song, "Ron O'Neal," Is Out

After their "Daily Show" performance of the song, the Wu-Tang Clan has a new cut from 'A Better Tomorrow.'

At this point in their career, the Wu-Tang Clan exist almost more as an idea than a musical entity, so the mere thought of them showing up last night on "The Daily Show" was enough to prompt instant fascination as the rap media lit up with the news. Look! Nine rapidly aging guys sitting around with Jon Stewart! Look! Raekwon dancing goofily on the side of the stage and holding a microphone—by any measure a miraculous gesture of reconciliation, even if he didn't actually rap! Look! Method Man wearing an ASAP Mob sweatshirt!

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All the memeability and virality of it might have made it easy to overlook that, hey, here was some new music—specifically, new music that seems to hint very strongly at the possibility that the long-promised new group album, A Better Tomorrow, might actually be happening and might actually involve the whole current group lineup. They even say the words "a better tomorrow" in the song!

Look, Wu-Tang Clan is getting older, and they are never again going to be the game-changing act they once were. It would be beyond surprising if they could ever return to the intensity of their old raps. They're not 20-year-olds anymore, after all. But they still are fun as hell to listen to, and, as Method Man quickly points out, they're doing better than a lot of their peers ("these veterans are slipping/they ain't doing it the same"). Ghost bombards his way onto the track with the line "I've seen niggas snort coke with a crazy straw," and RZA sounds the most invigorated he has in a long time, even if he is just as far off the beat as ever. Wu-Tang is back, more or less, and you should pay attention to the music along with any hilarious tweets about Rae dancing. This shit is fun! Check out "Ron O'Neal" below: