While Prince Paul had been the driving force behind the first Gravediggaz album, 1997’s The Pick, the Sickle and the Shovel is an RZA album in everything but name. Produced mainly by a team of Wu-Tang disciples, the album follows the pattern of many mid-'90s Wu projects: spindly, cerebral instrumental motifs paired with intense and verbally acute rhymes from a seemingly bottomless team of affiliates. The best songs are those that feature founding Gravediggaz member Frukwan, who provides an unhinged energy, unmistakable even among hordes of likeminded Wu-family talent.