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REVIEW:
Overall Rating:
Lyrics:
Beats:
Written By:
Sphinx
When the
Wu-Tang Clan emerged on the hip-hop scene in '92 for the
first time, it actually wasn't the first time. Wu producer
The RZA had already released a single one year earlier and
cousin GZA/Genius even a whole album, both with less success
than expected from their respective labels, Tommy Boy and
Cold Chillin' and both were dropped. RZA then mastered a
plan of bringing together a bunch of guys, who already had
been rhyming since the late 80's, charged 100 $ from
everybody, took them in a studio and produced an album that
had mad influence on the whole music world.
After sellin' their first single 'Protect Ya Neck' out of
trunks in '92, the 9 man, Shaolin-based rap crew put out
their heavily anticipated first full length release on LOUD
Records. On the business side they had signed a
ground-breaking deal with their record company. While the
Clan as a whole was signed to LOUD, each member had the
opportunity to move to another label for releasing solo
material.
The album itself can undoubtedly be claimed as one of the
pure classic hip-hop albums overall. More than that, it
brought a completely new sound to the surface. Dark and
gritty beats, laced with Kung-Fu movie samples and the
outstanding talent from each of its members quickly made the
Wu-Tang Clan a trademark as an explosive and hungry rap
squad. To be honest the album has not one standout track. In
actual fact, it has 13. When the 9 MC's get on the mic they
make sure that everybody knows that Wu is number one. From
GZA's smart lyricism and memorable metaphors to Inspectah
Deck's razor sharp lines to Ol' Dirty Bastard's insanity,
each member comes with the triple R sound: raw, rough and
rugged. All have the talent to shine alone but as a crew
they just cut heads. From auto-biografical street life
stories like in C.R.E.A.M. or Tearz to the in Wu-standards
almost commercial self-titled Method Man solo the album
covers a lot of topics wanted to be heard. When listening to
the album you can feel the seemingly endless amount of
unusual raw energy the Clansmen put into this project, it's
almost like a whirlwind that catches you throughout the
60min of superb music this LP offers. As I said the beats on
the album are pure gems: simplistic, yet still catchy; eerie
and at times dramatic; in RZA's unique style shaped as sharp
swords to the ear of the un-trained listener and most of all
matching perfect with the flows of Staten Island's verbal
acrobats.
In each track the Clan sparks the fire that's nowadays
hardly to find on a hip-hop album even besides the
commercial material. Nomen est omen on the first track,
Bring Da Ruckus; On Clan In Da Front The Genius blesses us
with lines that stand for its own like "I don't give a god
damn/ all the shows you did/ how many rhymes you got, or who
knows you kid/ Cause I don't know ya therefore show me what
you know/ I come sharp as a blade and I cut you slow".
Ghostface Killah and Raekwon reminisce how easy it was back
in the days on Can It Be All So Simple, while on the next
song Da Mystery Of Chessboxin U-God opens with one of the
rawest verses being heard on the album.
To make it short: this albums has everything a classic needs
and is definitaly one of the best hip-hop records ever.
Easily, every new LP can be measured by this output and most
likely every new LP will fail to top it. Hip-hop in its
purest form is what even critics call this album. That's why
it surely deserves a rating of 10.
P.S. If you like clean-as-a-bar-of-soap music this might not
be the album you're looking for. Be careful, it also may
cause damage to your ear and brain!
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