Album: Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)
Artist: Wu-Tang Clan
Born: Staten Island, New York City
Released: November 1993
Genre: Hip Hop
Bored by the stoned gangster stylings of Dr Dre, Snoop Dogg and Ice-T, and no doubt horrified by the success of MC Hammer, RZA (aka Bobby Digital) gathered together a group of off-kilter rappers who shared a love of martial arts films and comic books and, in the process, reinvented hip hop. My entry point to Wu-Tang's music came much later with the release of Jam Jarmusch's Ghost Dog: The Way Of The Samurai (1999), which features a brilliant soundtrack by RZA. For people listening at the time, Wu-Tang must have been deeply confusing; much of the standard hip hop furniture had been kicked out and the murky beats and menacing mood certainly didn't make for fun music to play at a party. As such a huge collective (including the likes of Method Man, Ol' Dirty Bastard, Ghostface Killah and Raekwon), many of their songs featured a sonic wall of overlapping rhymes containing slang and shaolin references that would have been largely impenetrable to all but a select group of devotees. RZA's own description of the group's unique sound was "the kick and the snare and the horn and the boom and the bap and the scream". Despite all these apparent commercial barriers, Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) was a moderate chart success, and eventually went platinum in 1995. Opening track Bring Da Ruckus is one of several to feature dialogue samples from kung fu movies, set against minor chords and dirty beats, which create a violent and nightmarish atmosphere; as Inspectah Deck says, the style is "hardcore ... Wu Tang slang'll leave your headpiece hanging".
Their approach was at odds with west coast G-funk and helped New York regain hip hop supremacy, influencing legions of rappers in the process -- in C.R.E.A.M.'s piano loop you can hear the inspiration for Nas' Illmatic, while producer RZA's speeded-up soul samples clearly influenced Kanye West. The lyrical inventiveness is something that hasn't been matched in hip hop since. Nobody can compete with Ol' Dirty Bastard for twisted humour and on Shame On A Nigga, he moves seamlessly from a Warriors reference to rhyming diarrhoea with gonorrhoea. There are some elements I'm not so keen on, such as the graphic details of a murder on Wu Tang: 7th Chamber and the torture threats at the start of Method Man, but the violence is often intentionally comic book. One of my favourite moments is Can It Be All So Simple, with its Gladys Knight sample and intermission during which Method Man introduces various Wu-Tang members ("RZA, he the sharpest ... always on point"). He also describes the group as forming like Voltron with RZA as the head, a reference to an animated TV series / comic book popular in America in the 80s. Other highlights on the record are Da Mystery Of Chessboxin' (The Prodigy would later steal the opening for their hit single Breathe) and Protect Ya Neck, the latter featuring catchy, sinister beats and taking rapping virtuosity to a whole new level. Follow-up album Wu-Tang Forever was an even bigger commercial success, while the various solo efforts (notably Method Man's Tical and GZA's Liquid Swords) are also worth checking out. Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) is one of hip hop's great achievements.
Bored by the stoned gangster stylings of Dr Dre, Snoop Dogg and Ice-T, and no doubt horrified by the success of MC Hammer, RZA (aka Bobby Digital) gathered together a group of off-kilter rappers who shared a love of martial arts films and comic books and, in the process, reinvented hip hop. My entry point to Wu-Tang's music came much later with the release of Jam Jarmusch's Ghost Dog: The Way Of The Samurai (1999), which features a brilliant soundtrack by RZA. For people listening at the time, Wu-Tang must have been deeply confusing; much of the standard hip hop furniture had been kicked out and the murky beats and menacing mood certainly didn't make for fun music to play at a party. As such a huge collective (including the likes of Method Man, Ol' Dirty Bastard, Ghostface Killah and Raekwon), many of their songs featured a sonic wall of overlapping rhymes containing slang and shaolin references that would have been largely impenetrable to all but a select group of devotees. RZA's own description of the group's unique sound was "the kick and the snare and the horn and the boom and the bap and the scream". Despite all these apparent commercial barriers, Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) was a moderate chart success, and eventually went platinum in 1995. Opening track Bring Da Ruckus is one of several to feature dialogue samples from kung fu movies, set against minor chords and dirty beats, which create a violent and nightmarish atmosphere; as Inspectah Deck says, the style is "hardcore ... Wu Tang slang'll leave your headpiece hanging".
Their approach was at odds with west coast G-funk and helped New York regain hip hop supremacy, influencing legions of rappers in the process -- in C.R.E.A.M.'s piano loop you can hear the inspiration for Nas' Illmatic, while producer RZA's speeded-up soul samples clearly influenced Kanye West. The lyrical inventiveness is something that hasn't been matched in hip hop since. Nobody can compete with Ol' Dirty Bastard for twisted humour and on Shame On A Nigga, he moves seamlessly from a Warriors reference to rhyming diarrhoea with gonorrhoea. There are some elements I'm not so keen on, such as the graphic details of a murder on Wu Tang: 7th Chamber and the torture threats at the start of Method Man, but the violence is often intentionally comic book. One of my favourite moments is Can It Be All So Simple, with its Gladys Knight sample and intermission during which Method Man introduces various Wu-Tang members ("RZA, he the sharpest ... always on point"). He also describes the group as forming like Voltron with RZA as the head, a reference to an animated TV series / comic book popular in America in the 80s. Other highlights on the record are Da Mystery Of Chessboxin' (The Prodigy would later steal the opening for their hit single Breathe) and Protect Ya Neck, the latter featuring catchy, sinister beats and taking rapping virtuosity to a whole new level. Follow-up album Wu-Tang Forever was an even bigger commercial success, while the various solo efforts (notably Method Man's Tical and GZA's Liquid Swords) are also worth checking out. Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) is one of hip hop's great achievements.
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