Last week, I wrote that living legend The RZA has “lent their co-sign to a lot of questionable nobodies over the years.” This week, I am writing about Myalansky.
It’s interesting how much highly authentic cocaine rap came out of the Hampton Roads area of Virginia, right? You’d almost have to wonder if the US Navy was tasked with securing the cocaine supply for Washington, DC. I’m sure all of that is unrelated to the story of how Myalansky became a Wu-Affiliate way back when.
Iron Curtain leans heavy on his historical namesake, a collage of old audio clips about that architect of the modern world, Meyer Lansky. The production is dutifully RZA-esque darkness with some sweet, simple drum loops that boom. Weirdly, the only real dud here is the outro instrumental, which seems like a bad look.
I have to concede, this was overall much better than I expected. Problem is, my expectations were so low that’s still not much of a compliment. Myalansky’s career as a Wu-Footnote is no fluke of fate; he is simply not on par with any of The Nine. All of these beats should have been given to U-God.
As a rapper, Myalansky is in rough shape, leaning harder on his punch-ins than ever in 2026. Track after track, it wears on my ears, a constant reminder that he’s trying to emulate what Method Man does in one take but can’t. That aside, his pen game has been improving! He’s still a paranoid caricature of a 90’s boom bap dinosaur, but his meter & his structure are both far better than any of his earlier work on the Wu-Amateur circuit.
While this is not a glowing review, I do want to give the man credit for going hard on Iron Curtain. He did not lean on features, at least, and he took the opportunity seriously. Throughout this short LP, Myalansky was rapping his ass off, but there are hard limits on how capably he can do that. The result is a below average cheeseburger. Two Dickies.
