Hip-hop is ever changing with the ebbs and flows of the world in an effort to stay relevant to ardent fans. Conspicuously, a select group of artists has managed to retain their creative vitality throughout the years, their careers persisting through the different eras that have shaped and re-shaped the contours of the hip-hop community. The Wu-Tang Clan is one such group. During their 20-year journey, their visceral tongue-lashings of the state’s apparatuses of coercion have formed a formidable canon, an angry protest against the status quo. The Wu-Tang Clan’s collaborative brilliance adds to its musical style and lyricism, and the group has aged from album to album, taking inspiration from the street and refining itself in the studio. While the group has failed to seize the spotlight the way it first did with its brash debut, its electric, Kung Fu-esque delivery did manage to lay the foundation for a venerable legacy, a cult-like following, and several successful individual careers. BAMP takes a look at the Wu-Tang Clan’s cornerstone contribution to the hip-hop world.
Enter The Wu Tang (36 Chambers)
November 9, 1993
The Wu-Tang Clan first came on the scene with the release of Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers). Produced and put together by the brain behind the Wu-Tang Clan, RZA, their first album deployed the vigor and wit that the young rappers possessed in a furious introduction to the national stage. Each rapper, through his unique style, contributed to their depiction of the harsh realities of life growing up in the Projects of New York.
Though the group’s frequent skits and sound clips from Kung Fu movies give a comedic air to the album, there is a palpable darkness underlying these tracks. Wu-Tang’s twisted sense of humor and grotesquely violent content shocked listeners while updating the old school. This album was dubbed a classic upon its release: Singles such as C.R.E.A.M., featuring Raekwon and Inspectah Deck, conveys the average man’s powerlessness in determining his direction in life. C.R.E.A.M. depicts the unadulterated reality of poverty and crime. The slogan, Cash Rules Everything Around Me, resonated with fans and ratified the Wu-Tang Clan’s analysis of a money-driven but decaying world. This album lent an uncouth and passionate voice to the projects and their residents: no longer statistics, they now claimed a spot in the national consciousness.
“A man with a dream with plans to make cream Which failed; I went to jail at the age of fifteen A young buck selling drugs and such who never had much Tryping to get a clutch at what I could not touch” -C.R.E.A.M. Inspectah DeckWu-Tang Forever
June 3, 1997
Four years after their first hit album, the Wu-Tang Clan released their second album, Wu-Tang forever. A noticeably more mature Wu-Tang received overwhelming praise for their most polished and conceptually planned-out album. Wu-Tang Forever, to this date, is their highest selling album and also received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Rap Album. While the Wu-Tang fundamentals still shone brightly through in this album, the production became significantly more refined, eschewing its grainy and dusty feel. RZA’s vision was to create a complete, movie-like experience, to do so he expanded his production techniques and began employing innovative techniques, such as chopping and speeding up vocal samples, and adding clips from Kung Fu movies for an extra, cinematic feel. Where 36 Chambers had an underlying dark tone, Wu-tang forever carried on the darkness to an entirely new level. The maturing lyricism of the Wu-Tang Clan was clearly visible as their words gained in complexity and analytical weight. Each member dug into himself and found an extremely moving, and detailed way of representing the despair in violence-ridden inner cities. A Better Tomorrow paints stark images of the daily misery faced by innocents born into poverty. The chorus of the song serves as a crutch for such people, a reminder to remain firm and rise above the despondency that marred their surroundings.
“Fifth brothers been slain from hails of gunfire It lights begins to rain screams of terror Are hidden by the passing trains” -A Better Tomorrow, Masta KillaThe W
November 21, 2000
Considering that not much of a hype surrounded the release of Wu-Tang Clan’s third album, The W, the album was a moderate success for the Clan. RZA relied on a 90s-esque scheme in his production, using his signature eerie beats with high-pitched sounds humming and creeping throughout the backgrounds of the album. There are many references back to 36 Chambers both in its overall production sound and through reminiscent song titles such as Protect Ya Neck (The Jump Off) and Chamber Music. The W is considered the most emotional album that the Clan pieced together. One of its most sentimentally moving tracks, I Can’t Go to Sleep, stirrs morose emotions in listeners. This sullen track features RZA and Ghostface Killah bemoaning ; the paranoia, sadness, and eternal fear implanted in the hearts of players of the game.
“I can’t go to sleep, I can’t shut my eyes They shot the father at his mom’s building seven times” -I can’t go to sleep, RZAI Can’t Go to Sleep featured Isaac Hayes’ voice in the chorus, a marked contrast to the solemn voices of Ghostface Killah and RZA with a stable strong voice of reason and hope. Although The W may not have made as big of an impact on the world as Wu-Tang’s previous two albums, it registered as a declaration about the longevity of the group itself. Every song presented listeners with a unique experience, emphatically delivered and with a still-improving RZA crafting more conspicuously modern Wu-Tang beats. The W was a demonstration that the Wu-Tang clan was not interested in confining itself to any niche, but still could harness its creative energy to present an evolving, but still authentic, sound.
“Don’t let the game make you lose your head You should be calling the shots instead The power is in your hands Stop all this crying and be a man” -I Can’t Go to Sleep, Isaac HayesIron Flag
December 18, 2001
Iron Flag raucously heralded the return of the Wu-Tang Clan, and its updated, but still true form. Wu-Tang’s second album in as many years, Iron Flag was a revivalist effort to assert the Wu-Tang Clan’s continued vitality. RZA once again doctored powerful beats, harkening back to his successful formulas and peppering the tracks with sped-up vocal samples, making subtle but smooth changes along the way. Lyrically, the Wu’s burnished style proved more than adequate, and the group dispensed with the trend of old-school groups featuring big-named modern artists to boost their profile. The decorated Wu-Tang roster could still recall the foundational passion that lent it so much success, their efforts culminating in the single, Uzi (Pinky Ring), which every member of the group contributed a verse to. The classic, scratchy beat, and the more polished instrumentation made for a well-rounded production that brought listeners back to the early breakthroughs of the group.
“This is a grown man talkin, coward I split your head I’m from the East where the streets run red from the bloodshed” -Uzi (Pinky Ring), Masta Killa8 Diagrams
Dec 11, 2007
Three years after group staple Old Dirty Bastard’s death, and six years after Iron Flag, The Wu-Tang Clan made another grab at the bygone glory of 36 Chambers and Wu-Tang Forever. Reactions to the album were mixed, and its critical reception was ambivalent. RZA drifted further away from Wu Tang’s old school, sinister, cinematic hip-hop sound. Aesthetic changes, such as the emphasis of orchestral stringed instruments and the guitar, crafted a softer ambience than what fans had come to expect. This divergent path cast a cloud over the album. Some fans were pleased with RZA’s versatility, and this latest stage of the group’s evolution. Others considered it a dilution of the effervescent rage that lent the Wu-Tang Clan its legitimacy, a tired-sounding and plodding album that lacked the spark that earned the group its dedicated following.
It has been an uphill struggle for the Wu-Tang clan to outshine their insanely brilliant and knowledge packed debut album. However, as individual artists, they have all gained immense respect from the community. The Wu-Tang Clan has defined modern day hip-hop down to its foundation. Wu-Tang set a standard for excellent verses by making it unacceptable for artists to simply rhyme words. They raised the bar for rappers by adding alternate, deeper meanings to words and presenting them a menacing, shocking manner. As their legacy grows and spreads to a larger fan base, their original mark in hip-hop history will remain, Wu-Tang Forever.
Bump Magazine 
awesome post!
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