I am now at the point in my hiphop history lesson that i am listening to some of the dopest shit from the early 90s: pete rock and cl smooth have been kicking my ass, main source have been wrecking me daily; the chronic is a masterpiece so closely tied to Doggystyle that they may as well have been a double disc album; and now, at long last, The Wu-Tang Clan.
The things i could say about Wu-Tang have all been said before. But for me, hearing them for the first time, hearing an album front to back (beyond just their awesome, super classic singles like Ain't Nothin' to Fuck With), has been a breath of fresh stale air. Everyone i talk to knows this shit; its never news to anyone. Its interesting how not one person has said "man fuck Wu-Tang Clan".. everyone loves their shit. Goddamned classics that ive missed out on, guys.
A huge bunch of producers and MCs, Wu-Tang debuted fucking strong as any other major artist had, releasing a sprawling debut as a bunch of chill ass motherfuckers with a strong love for 70s martial arts movies, and splitting 36 Chambers into a loosely constructed kung-fu fight theme, the first half being from the Wu-Tang side of the fight, and the second half talking about Shaolin style. It works so well for hip hop; freestyle rhyme battling has been around forever, and basically you just talk about how dope you are and how wack your opponent is. Adding a creative take on that idea, they just imagined trash talking some fool youre about to cut down with a kitana and wrote a brilliant album with that as inspiration. Fuck yeah.
This video sums 36 chambers up pretty well; the first track, Bring da Ruckus, set to some film of 70s kung fu battles.
I have also been enjoying Wu-Tang Forever, and figured i would add the link here anyways cuz if you dont have it you should. Ill be writing that one up soon.
enter the wu-tang
wu-tang forever
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