FEATURE:
Vinyl Corner
Wu-Tang Clan - Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)
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IN this excursion into Vinyl Corner…
IN THIS PHOTO: The Wu-Tang Clan. Clockwise from left: Ol' Dirty Bastard, the GZA, the RZA, Inspectah Deck, Masta Killa, Raekwon and Ghostface Killah. Center, from left, Method Man and U-God
I am featuring an album that I had never really thought of before. In many ways, Wu-Tang Clan’s 1993 debut, Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers), is the perfect album to own on vinyl. So extraordinary, boundary-pushing and mesmeric is the music, you need to experience it on vinyl!!The group have actually launched an exclusive book (only thirty-six are available) that links to the classic album. 2017’s The Saga Continues is the moist-recent album from Wu-Tang Clan. I am not sure whether they are recording music still. Formed in 1992 in Staten Island, New York City, Its original members include RZA, GZA, Ol' Dirty Bastard, Method Man, Raekwon, Ghostface Killah, Inspectah Deck, U-God, and Masta Killa. There is no doubt that Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) ranks alongside the greatest Hip-Hop albums ever. You can grab a vinyl copy of the album via Rough Trade. This is what they say about the 1993 album:
“Along with Dr. Dre's The Chronic, the Wu-Tang Clan's debut, Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers), was one of the most influential rap albums of the '90s. Its spare yet atmospheric production - courtesy of RZA - mapped out the sonic blueprint that countless other hardcore rappers would follow for years to come. It laid the groundwork for the rebirth of New York hip-hop in the hardcore age, paving the way for everybody from Biggie and Jay-Z to Nas and Mobb Deep. Moreover, it introduced a colorful cast of hugely talented MCs, some of whom ranked among the best and most unique individual rappers of the decade. Some were outsized, theatrical personalities, others were cerebral storytellers and lyrical technicians, but each had his own distinctive style, which made for an album of tremendous variety and consistency.
Every track on Enter the Wu-Tang is packed with fresh, inventive rhymes, which are filled with martial arts metaphors, pop culture references (everything from Voltron to Lucky Charms cereal commercials to Barbra Streisand's The Way We Were), bizarre threats of violence, and a truly twisted sense of humour. Their off-kilter menace is really brought to life, however, by the eerie, lo-fi production, which helped bring the raw sound of the underground into mainstream hip-hop. Starting with a foundation of hard, gritty beats and dialogue samples from kung fu movies, RZA kept things minimalistic, but added just enough minor-key piano, strings, or muted horns to create a background ambience that works like the soundtrack to a surreal nightmare. There was nothing like it in the hip-hop world at the time, and even after years of imitation, Enter the Wu-Tang still sounds fresh and original. Subsequent group and solo projects would refine and deepen this template, but collectively, the Wu have never been quite this tight again”.
I am going to draw in the usual selection of reviews and features. If you are a bit wary of an album that is quite hardcore, then launching straight into the album might not be the best first step. I would advise sampling songs to see how they sound to you. I am not a massive fan of albums like this, though Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) is one that I cannot resist. It is hugely important too. It was a landmark release in the golden Hip-Hop age known as the East Coast Renaissance. The album helped pave the way way for several other East Coast rappers such as Nas, The Notorious B.I.G., Mobb Deep, and JAY-Z.
In 2018, Albusim provided a retrospective on an album that still reverberates to this day. RZA's production on Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) had a significant influence on subsequent Hip-Hop producers. The album helped create a blueprint for hardcore Hip-Hop in the mid-1990s:
“The Wu-Tang Clan descended on the world of music like the proverbial swarm of killer bees. Or an invading horde of black-hooded, Timberland-footed ninjas. With their debut album, Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers), released 25 years ago, they struck fast, hard and without mercy. Hip-Hop heads didn’t know what was coming until it was too late.
On one of the album’s skits, over low growling buzz and deep bassline (aptly sampled from New Birth’s “Honey Bee”), Robert “RZA” Diggs makes his presence known by repeatedly chanting, “WU-TANG KILLER BEES! WE ON A SWARM!” He lists off the crew’s core members, and then starts name-checking their affiliates, shouting out an army’s worth of Wu-Tang soldiers. He bellows, “Killa Bees all over your fucking planet! Thirty-six chambers of death! Three hundred and sixty degrees of perfected styles! Chopping off your motherfucking dome!” It drives things home: the Wu is coming through, and the outcome? Critical.
Wu-Tang Clan’s background is pretty well-known by now. They were a group of anywhere between eight to ten highly skilled emcees, most born and raised in the rougher parts of Staten Island, New York. They were spearheaded by The RZA and Gary “GZA” Grice, both of whom were industry vets and victims of lousy record deals from Tommy Boy and Cold Chillin’, respectively. They gathered up the most skilled crewmembers and recorded and released the “Protect Ya Neck” 12” independently. Soon thereafter, Wu-Tang as a group signed with Loud/RCA records, but had a provision placed into their contract allowing each member of the group the freedom to negotiate their own record deal with whomever they saw fit.
Back then, the Wu was comprised of RZA, GZA, Clifford “Method Man” Smith, Corey “Raekwon” Woods, Dennis “Ghostface Killah” Coles, Russell “Ol’ Dirty Bastard” Jones, Jason “Inspectah Deck/Rebel INS” Hunter, and Lamont “U-God” Hawkins. Elgin “Masta Killa” Turner appeared on Enter the Wu-Tang but wasn’t a full-fledged member yet and Duane “Cappadonna” Hill, considered one of the best rappers in Staten Island growing up, was incarcerated when the album was recorded.
Regardless, Wu-Tang was unique in that for a collective of multiple emcees, each sounded distinctive. Each Clan member had their own style and identity: you could never confuse one for another on the mic. And all of them were dope in the own right. It would be very easy indeed to paper this tribute with wall-to-wall quotes from the Clan members on this album. Yet, even though each member was unique stylistically, they all perfectly coalesced around the rugged soundscapes to create something revolutionary.
Wu-Tang Clan was the music of the streets. It was the soundtrack to blighted street corners on bleak days and dark nights. Furthermore, it was infused with the essence of classic Kung Fu flicks from the ’70s and ’80s. All of Wu-Tang’s members were obsessed with the low budget, poorly dubbed movies of The Shaw Brothers, Gordon Liu, and others. As a result, the Clan’s rhymes were steeped in their slang and peppered with references to these films. Staten Island became Shaolin, and the Clan adopted the name after one of the grimiest crews featured in these films.
The musical side of Wu-Tang was equally important to its success. Enter the Wu-Tang was produced entirely by the RZA, who achieved a trademark dusty sound. He used samples that draw heavily from labels like Stax Records, music and soundbites from the aforementioned Kung Fu flicks.
“Protect Ya Neck” was the group’s opening salvo, a dark and sparse introduction to the group’s lyrical and musical stylings and a direct reminder to their peers to watch themselves when the Wu is in the area. It’s the only track on the album to feature all eight of the group’s core members at the time. Over fleeting piano notes and muted wails, each emcee delivers a potent 12 bars, giving the audience a relatively brief taste of what each member of the crew had to offer. Stand-out performances abound, whether it’s Raekwon vowing to “blow up your project, then take all your assets,” ODB threatening to “stick pins in your head like a fucking nurse,” or GZA tearing into his former “Cold Killin’” record label for “doing artists in like Cain did Abel / Now they money's getting stuck to the gum under the table.”
Though “Protect Ya Neck” may have been people’s first entrée into the Wu-Tang Clan, the group starts Enter the Wu-Tang proper with the appropriately raucous and dirge-like “Bring the Ruckus.” Ghostface’s first line, “GHOSTFACE! Feel the blast of a hype verse!” is one of the great album opening lines in hip-hop history, but the track is really held down by standout performances from Raekwon, Inspectah Deck (always the crew’s workhorse), and GZA.
The album finds its comfort zone in its faster tempo tracks, like “Shame On a N***a,” where Method Man, ODB, and Raekwon pass the mic back and forth over the horn-filled outro from Syl Johnson’s “Different Strokes.” “Wu-Tang Clan Ain’t Nuthin’ To Fuck Wit” has become an audience favorite over the past 25 years, as RZA, Deck and Meth also contribute memorable performances. The beat is also one of RZA’s best on the album, as he expertly chops the theme to Underdog and pairs it with the drums from Biz Markie’s “Nobody Beats the Biz.”
Enter the 36 does give some of the individual Clan members some time to shine. GZA, arguably the best pure lyricist in the crew both then and now, displays his expert verbal chops on “Clan In Da Front.” His previous album, Words From The Genius (1991), did a poor job of demonstrating just how good he was, as Cold Chillin’ pushed him to make a more accessible album. With the Wu-Tang Clan, he was free to keep it as raw as he likes, and he responded accordingly”.
I am going to source two reviews that pay tribute to one of the groundbreaking Hip-Hop releases. 1993 was towards the end of the golden age of Hip-Hop, I think. There was definitely a certain fatigue and decline., Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) reignited something. Even though its true impact would not be felt for a little bit, it was an album that changed the game. Consequence said this in their review of Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers):
“Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) has become such a standard — not only in hip-hop but in music, period — that imagining a world without it is nigh impossible. It’d be one where you don’t have Ol’ Dirty Bastard and Ghostface Killah as immediate points of comparison for Danny Brown and Action Bronson. It’s one where rap collectives have no golden standard to aspire to. It’s one where cream is relegated to being associated with Eric Clapton and dairy. It’s one without Wu-Tang Financial. It’s one where we’re deprived of one of the most important works of the 20th century, one which, even as it turns 25 years old, shows nary a wrinkle.
Knowing of 36 Chambers and Wu-Tang Clan’s legacy can make it easy to forget how unlikely its success was. Nine New York MCs, only a couple with any actual recorded material to their name, crammed into a studio to just spit absolute fire in all types of ways over beats with a cinematic quality unlike any other, with or without the kung fu film samples. RZA and the rest of the Clan weren’t matinee idols appearing in 70mm. They were the second part of the double feature, and if you found it unappealing or distasteful, the exit was thataway.
It could’ve ended up as a hugely influential album that launched the careers of some of the most important names in hip-hop (most notably RZA, GZA, Ghostface Killah, Method Man, Ol’ Dirty Bastard, and Raekwon) and contained a few classic singles while not being quite formed as an album that you want to hear all the way through very often. Finding cohesion with three MCs on a single track can be difficult enough, let alone nine on a single album. Not only does everyone in Wu-Tang earn their place on the album (Yes, even Masta Killa. What would 36 Chambers be without “We have an APB on an MC killer”?) but so does every single track.
In a genre that’s no stranger to bloat, even before streaming inflation, 36 Chambers moves like every track is a piece on a Grandmaster’s chessboard. It’s meticulous at every turn, not least of all on centerpiece “Da Mystery of Chessboxin’” with its introductory dialogue sample, comparing chess to a sword fight. From the moment Ghostface changes the course of hip-hop forever with the very first verse on “Bring Da Ruckus” (“I come rough, tough like an elephant tusk/ Your head rush, fly like Egyptian musk”) to when it cools down (in a sense) with “Wu-Tang: 7th Chamber—Part II”, Wu-Tang Clan make it clear that they “ain’t nuthing ta fuck wit,” whether in a battle of fists or a battle of wits”.
If you need more convincing to grab a copy of Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers), this glowing review from AllMusic should provide the final push:
“Along with Dr. Dre's The Chronic, the Wu-Tang Clan's debut, Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers), was one of the most influential rap albums of the '90s. Its spare yet atmospheric production -- courtesy of RZA -- mapped out the sonic blueprint that countless other hardcore rappers would follow for years to come. It laid the groundwork for the rebirth of New York hip-hop in the hardcore age, paving the way for everybody from Biggie and Jay-Z to Nas and Mobb Deep. Moreover, it introduced a colorful cast of hugely talented MCs, some of whom ranked among the best and most unique individual rappers of the decade. Some were outsized, theatrical personalities, others were cerebral storytellers and lyrical technicians, but each had his own distinctive style, which made for an album of tremendous variety and consistency. Every track on Enter the Wu-Tang is packed with fresh, inventive rhymes, which are filled with martial arts metaphors, pop culture references (everything from Voltron to Lucky Charms cereal commercials to Barbra Streisand's "The Way We Were"), bizarre threats of violence, and a truly twisted sense of humor. Their off-kilter menace is really brought to life, however, by the eerie, lo-fi production, which helped bring the raw sound of the underground into mainstream hip-hop. Starting with a foundation of hard, gritty beats and dialogue samples from kung fu movies, RZA kept things minimalistic, but added just enough minor-key piano, strings, or muted horns to create a background ambience that works like the soundtrack to a surreal nightmare. There was nothing like it in the hip-hop world at the time, and even after years of imitation, Enter the Wu-Tang still sounds fresh and original. Subsequent group and solo projects would refine and deepen this template, but collectively, the Wu have never been quite this tight again”.
A Hip-Hop icon that is still shaping and influencing artists through the genre, Wu-Tang Clan’s remarkable 1993 debut, Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers), is one to add to the record collection! Listening to the album is an emotional and moving experience. Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) is…
A mighty thing indeed.