So the Wu-Tang Clan is my favorite music group. Their lyrical content is much deeper than people usually associate with most hip-hop. They confront a lot of societal issues in their rhymes, this is often done under layers and layers of slang, so it takes a trained ear to take it all in. I view this style of music as a novel and others as picture books, there is just soooooo much more content within this rap than in other music, many songs don't even have a hook, its just straight rhyming for 4 min. The use of metaphor is extremely prevalent, for example in the bible there is a passage where its describing Jesus speaking and it says that "Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations" This is of course not interpreted literally, but rather they interpret is as the sword it symbolic to the tongue, and that his words were powerful enough to "strike" a nation. And all members of the wu-tang clan are Muslims! That is another thing that draws me to this music, they are very spiritually diverse people. They are into Buddhism and other eastern religions as well as having a lot of knowledge about the younger religions, and all of this makes it into their music. Chess is another topic that is referenced a lot through the use of metaphor, Bobby Diggs and Gary Grice play a lot in particular.
The main thing that stood out to me after i purchased this album is that the majority of the clan isn't present. Clifford Smith(aka Method Man), Dennis Coles(aka Ghostface Killah), and Corey Woods(aka Raekwon) are the featured artists, other members may do one verse on a track but in large part they are not involved. This is different from most of their albums where all of the nine members are featured on tracks throughout.
Wu-Tangs music is important to me on 2 fronts, one its just awesomely crafted hip-hop, and two its very progressive in terms of social equality and moving the hip-hop genre forward. So I guess that is 3 fronts. A good example of the former is how Robert Diggs (aka Rza) crafts the beat around the sound of the voice of whomever may be rhyming at that particular time. He views the voice as an instrument also and adjusts the beat accordingly, for example, Ghostface has a higher pitched delivery than the rest of the clan, and Rza will change the beat up a little when he jumps in on a track to contrast with the sound of his voice better and make his lyrics stand out. For Ghost usually the base is amplified and the high pitch loop toned down, for Ugod (Lamont Hawkins), who has the deepest voice, the base will be featured less as to not clash with his booming voice. Its subtle aspects like that that gives the music a sense of depth not found in most hip-hop. Their target audience is almost always inner city kids, a lot of them came up in single parent homes and every album they have released there is always a part or verse where they express sympathy for all the single mothers out there. There music for the most part is rather uplifting, a stark contrast to the negative connotation that people usually associate with rap. There is one track of the album that is a great example of this, and plus they sampled a 17 year old Michael Jackson for the hook, which is just as classic as you can get for hip-hop.
I would say that this album is excellent, although, I am a proud member of the Wu-Tang cult, so I will admit that i am biased. My only critique would be that Def Jam record label produced the majority of this album so i would have to say that the beats aren't all up to the high standards that Rza imposes when Wu-Tang makes independent albums. The quality of the lyrics and the use of metaphor is an ever present aspect of the Wu's music, that I would say is the albums greatest strength, but you could apply that to all of their work. One thing that made it memorable for me is how they initially promoted the album. Its quite unique and creative and just adds to the splendor that is the wu-tang clan.
I should point out that all the members of the Wu have about 10 different aliases that they go by, Method Man is often called Tical, which is slang for marijauana on Staten Island, and he used to smoke a lot of weed. They call Ghostface Tony Starks after the comic book character Ironman. Starks is, as we all know now thanks to those awesome movies, a very savvy business man, as is Dennis Coles. Raekwon is called 'The Chef' by all the other clan members because, "He is always cooking up some marvelous shit that make your mouth water." Now this is a take on the movie seven, but they crimes commited are actually from a little skit they did on their first album from the 90s. WARNING EXPLICIT CONTENT AHEAD!
People tend to take stuff like that very seriously, however I was laughing the first time I heard it, and i wasn't the only one.
They fallowed this up with the only music video that they did for the album, and i must say you dont really see this quality amongst hip hop music videos. Although they did manage to get everything that you would normally see in a rap video in, but what can I say, they are giving the people what they want. Here is the video and a behind the scenes cut to help you all make sense of it. And this is actually about the same song as above, I just love the creativity that they display in all of this, I think its a great example of how the Wu is on another level in terms of the quality of what they put out there.
To me their music is so compelling and I really want to throw my support behind them so that they can continue to make it, and I have. I have purchased over 50 albums from them, each member of the clan has some sort of solo career, although other Wu-Tang members often appear on the album with them, even though it isn't under the Wu-Tang flag so to speak. What I'm getting at is these guys make music, a lot of music, and I buy every album as soon as they come out. To sum up how I feel about the Wu is that I have a lot of respect for people who come from a very poor background and rise up above all of it to make something great out of themselves.
I could explain further but why not get it straight from the clan!!! The guy standing up is ODB, he died in 2004 of a cocaine overdose. He is basically the Kirk Morrison of hip-hop.
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