Oct 10, 2026 · Album review · 11 min read

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Rakim, Kurupt & Masta Killa “The Godbody LP” Review: Tupac’s One Nation, 30 Years Later

The God MC, a Death Row original and a Wu-Tang killer on one record, produced by Rakim himself. Here is the story behind The Godbody LP, the truth about the Jay-Z and Eminem interlude, the best songs and where to get the vinyl.

Three corners of rap history on one record: Rakim, the God MC from Long Island; Kurupt, one half of Tha Dogg Pound and a Death Row original; and Masta Killa, the Wu-Tang Clan’s quiet killer from Brooklyn. Their joint album, DPG Wu-Tang, Wu-Tang DPG – The Godbody LP, arrived on September 18, 2026: 16 tracks, 53 minutes, every beat produced by Rakim and Nick Wiz except one.

On paper it is a dream: Snoop Dogg, Ghostface Killah, Raekwon, KRS-One, Kool G Rap, Buckshot and Daz Dillinger on the guest list, an interlude credited to Jay-Z and Eminem, and a mission borrowed from Tupac. On record it is something more specific, and more interesting to explain. Here is the story, the songs, what the critics said and where to get the vinyl.

How three legends ended up on one album

The seed was planted in 2024. Rakim opened his comeback album G.O.D.’s Network (Reb7rth), his first in 15 years, with “Be Ill”, a posse cut with Kurupt and Masta Killa. The chemistry was obvious: three MCs who grew up on Rakim’s calm, intricate style, each from a different coast and crew. According to Underground Hip Hop Blog, that single is what sparked the idea of a full album.

In June 2026, executive producer Matthew “M80” Markoff of Holy Toledo Productions posted a handwritten tracklist on Instagram, captioned “AOTY 2026”. DJ Mag and Rolling Stone picked it up within days. The album was first targeted for August 28 and later moved to September 18, with pre-orders on vinyl, CD and cassette through the official store.

Each of the three arrived in good shape. Rakim’s debut Paid in Full was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame this year. Masta Killa released Balance in 2025. And Kurupt, who has spoken openly about his health struggles and his time in rehab, is in the middle of a real comeback: this summer he also returned to Death Row Records with Tales from My Hood, produced by DJ Battlecat.

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Rakim – A Different Kind (Official Music Video)

Tupac’s “One Nation”, 30 years later

The whole project is framed around an idea that never got finished. In the spring of 1996, Tupac Shakur started working on One Nation, an album meant to end the East Coast vs. West Coast feud by putting rappers from both sides on the same record. Billboard and The Fader have documented the plans: sessions with Duck Down artists like Smif-N-Wessun and Buckshot, a handwritten wish list with OutKast, Scarface and E-40. Tupac was killed in September 1996, and the album never came out as he imagined it.

The Godbody LP openly presents itself as a 2020s version of that vision: New York (Rakim and Masta Killa) and California (Kurupt), Wu-Tang and the Dogg Pound, recorded on both coasts. There is a nice detail for the heads: Buckshot, who was on Tupac’s original One Nation list, raps here on “Thelonius”. As No Ripcord pointed out, the timing is also poignant: the album lands almost exactly 30 years after Tupac’s murder.

The Wu-Tang side carries its own grief. The album includes a posthumous executive producer credit for Oliver “Power” Grant, the Wu-Tang co-founder and executive producer of Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers), who died in February 2026 at 52.

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Rakim x Kurupt x Masta Killa – DPG Wu-Tang, Wu-Tang DPG (Official Music Video)

Jay-Z and Eminem: what “God Speak” really is

The headline that sold the album in June was simple: Jay-Z and Eminem together for the first time in 25 years, since “Renegade” on The Blueprint (2001). The reality is smaller. Markoff told Rolling Stone that “Em and Jay do not have verses on the interlude”. “God Speak” is a 69-second piece in which both pay homage to Rakim’s legacy and influence, placed right before Rakim’s solo track “A Different Kind”.

There was also some confusion at the time: a representative for Eminem told Rolling Stone that there had been no outreach to Eminem’s team about the project. The interlude is credited to both on the official release, and the press materials quote Eminem calling Rakim “probably the greatest rapper of all time”. Our advice: enjoy it as a tribute, not as a “Renegade” sequel.

Rakim the producer

The biggest surprise for many listeners is how little Rakim raps. He appears on five of the 16 songs, as Stereogum noted when the tracklist dropped. But he is on every track in another way: he produced the album with Nick Wiz, the New York producer best known for the Cella Dwellas’ 1996 debut Realms ’n Reality. According to Albumism, the two have worked together on and off for nearly three decades, and their sound here balances East Coast boom bap with West Coast G-funk.

That is why Albumism suggests the first half of the title tells the truth: in practice, DPG Wu-Tang, Wu-Tang DPG is a Kurupt and Masta Killa duo album, produced and curated by Rakim. Kurupt called the beats “hammer beats”, and on HOT 97 he explained that Rakim is his idol, which makes the whole thing feel like a student and a teacher closing a circle.

“A Different Kind” is the exception, and a big one: it is Rakim’s first solo, self-produced track in 15 years, and it trended twice on social media after its July release.

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Rakim x Kurupt x Masta Killa – Rabbit feat. Mac Shawn 100 (Official Music Video)

Track by track: the highlights

• “Goin’ Down” (feat. Kokane): a laid-back opener where Rakim leads with shifting rhyme schemes and Kokane adds West Coast funk to the hook. Stereogum called it “rock-solid boom-bap”.
• “DPG-Wu-Tang, Wu-Tang-DPG”: the mission statement. Kurupt and Masta Killa trade bars over a Rakim and Nick Wiz beat, pure barfest.
• “Rock Ya Body” (feat. Daz Dillinger, Ghostface Killah & Raekwon): the posse cut fans wanted, with heavy horns and the full Dogg Pound meets Wu-Tang summit.
• “Push the Button”: slower and more deliberate, with one of Masta Killa’s densest verses on the album.
• “Rabbit” (feat. Mac Shawn 100): early-90s G-funk synths on top of boom bap drums, with a direct nod to Snoop Dogg’s “Tha Shiznit”. The remix at the end adds Snoop himself.
• “A Different Kind”: the best Rakim on the record and, for Albumism and No Ripcord, the standout. Vintage boom bap and the God MC sounding as sharp as ever.
• “Thelonius” (feat. Buckshot, Rim & Trigga): cinematic, almost rap-rock, and the most direct link to Tupac’s One Nation through Buckshot.
• “Nights Over Brooklyn”: Masta Killa’s haunting solo about crack-era Brooklyn, the only beat not by Rakim and Nick Wiz (produced by Nick Price).
• “Upstate Introspective”: a short, bittersweet verse from Killarmy’s Killa Sin recorded from a prison phone.
• “Still Ill!” (feat. KRS-One & Kool G Rap): a sequel to “Be Ill” with two more legends. Same beat and same verses from the trio, plus new verses that some critics felt were tacked on.
• “Nine & Chrome Fiend”: Kurupt’s solo tribute to Eric B. & Rakim’s “Microphone Fiend”, with Rakim reworking the beat and digging further into Average White Band’s “School Boy Crush”, the same record the 1988 original sampled.

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Rakim x Kurupt x Masta Killa – Rock Ya Body feat. Daz Dillinger, Ghostface Killah & Raekwon

DPG Wu-Tang, Wu-Tang DPG – The Godbody LP tracklist

Listen to The Godbody LP

Spotify

Apple Music

What the critics say

• Underground Hip Hop Blog (8/10): the warmest review. It sees the album as a success in bringing Tupac’s One Nation idea to life and showcasing the range of all three MCs.
• Word Is Bond: calls it a landmark collaboration that “oozes diversity and unification of the coasts”.
• Albumism: entertaining and more memorable than Reb7rth, with strong Kurupt and Masta Killa interplay and solid production. But there is “not a whole lot of Rakim rapping”, and the remixes (“Still Ill!”, “Hallelujah”) make the seams visible. Notable tracks: “A Different Kind”, “Nine & Chrome Fiend” and “Rock Ya Body”.
• No Ripcord: the harshest take. It criticizes the conservative boom bap, at times amateurish mixing and a cover it describes as AI-generated, and concludes that big names do not guarantee success. Even so, it agrees that Rakim has aged best, with “A Different Kind” as the standout.

On the charts, the album reached No. 69 on the UK Album Downloads chart, according to Wikipedia.

Vinyl, CD and the official store

This is a record made for collectors. The official store sells a standard black 2xLP, two autographed swirl editions (a black and yellow Wu-Tang edition and a blue and grey DPG edition), a 24K gold CD, a standard CD, a gold and blue cassette and a 7-inch single, most of them with a free deluxe digital download. The black and white 2xLP signed by all three is already sold out.

A producer’s take

For beatmakers, the most useful lesson on The Godbody LP is how Rakim and Nick Wiz glue two regional sounds together. The East Coast side comes from the drums: dusty, punchy boom bap with sample-based loops and horns. The West Coast side comes from the top: whiny G-funk synth leads and funk-soaked hooks from Kokane, especially on “Rabbit”. Put a G-funk lead over boom bap drums and you get a third thing that belongs to both coasts.

“Nine & Chrome Fiend” is also a masterclass in flipping a classic without copying it: instead of looping the same part of “School Boy Crush” that “Microphone Fiend” used, Rakim digs deeper into the same record. If you sample, go back to the source and find the parts nobody used.

The criticism about the mix is worth hearing too. When guest verses are recorded in different studios and years, they can sound “tinny and out of place”, as No Ripcord said about KRS-One. Matching the tone and level of every vocal is what makes a posse cut sound like one room.

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Kurupt & Daz Dillinger talk The Godbody, Rakim and Death Row stories · HOT 97

Verdict

The Godbody LP is not the Rakim album its marketing suggested, and it is not a revolution. It is something warmer: a Kurupt and Masta Killa album produced by their hero, full of veterans rapping for the love of it, with a mission that means something to anyone who lived through the 90s. The remixes pad the runtime and the mix is uneven, but “A Different Kind”, “Rock Ya Body”, “Rabbit”, “Nights Over Brooklyn” and “Nine & Chrome Fiend” are worth your time.

If you grew up on Paid in Full, Dogg Food and 36 Chambers, press play with patience and grab the vinyl. If you want more of the God MC as a producer, this is the closest thing to a Rakim beat tape we have had in decades.