Rolling Stone (1/4/01, p.118) - Included in Rolling Stone's "Top 50 Albums of 2000". Rolling Stone (12/21/00, pp.169-70) - 4 stars out of 5 - "...A sonic gestalt that exists somewhere between the Queensbridge projects and OutKast's STANKONIA....reaffirming Wu-world order...as the best rap group ever..." Spin (2/01, pp.105-6) - 8 out of 10 - "...Call this music what it is: Blue Urban Dread Improvised Boo Hoo Limp. Nobody Wu's it better." Entertainment Weekly (11/24/00, p.82) - "...Utterly mellow...forgoeing innovation and simply revels in [the group's] stregths....Shifting easily from stark struts...to loose R&B...they're old pros, and they know it..." - Rating: B+ Q (1/01, p.113) - 3 out of 5 stars - "...Largely a return to murky idiosyncratic form....it plays to the group's main strengths: brutal hooks and scary ambience..." The Wire (1/01, p.34) - Included in Wire's "50 Records Of The Year" [2000]. The Wire (12/00, p.65) - "...THE W feels like some unbathed, 'grit the blade in your teeth, grim and bare arms' type s***..." CMJ (11/27/00, p.4) - "...Revisits the loose grimy methods that first propelled them to stardom..." Vibe (1/01, pp.137-8) - 4.5 discs out of 5 - "...A dense, demented, 15-song opus....going against the grain of everything that's going on in rap right now. If originality, innovation, and a mastery of the fundamentals of beats and rhymes still mean something to people, then THE W stands for 'winner'." The Source (1/01, pp.193-4) - 3.5 mics out of 5 - "...A sharp effort....it will make you dust off your copy of ENTER THE WU-TANG..." Melody Maker (11/28/00, p.50) - 3 stars out of 5 - "...They still rock....if you're genuinely interested in the myriad, spiralling noises that hip-hop can make...then get down to the record shop iommediately..." NME (Magazine) (12/30/00, p.78) - Ranked #21 in NME's "Top 50 Albums Of The Year". NME (Magazine) (11/18/00, p.41) - 8 out of 10 - "...With RZA in blinding form as Maestro Of Tension, THE W wades out impressively into a Fear Zone of guns, slums, cops and the kind of paranoid anxiety you get from smoking vast quantities of hydro and walking down Crackhead St. on your own at 4am..."

Rovi