A few thoughts on The Wu Tang Clan
The Wu Tang Clan's Ghostface Killah; aka Ironman,Tony Stark, Monster Don, Theodore Deini, Phat Ghost, The Ghost With The Most (amongst various 30+ other aliases listed at Wikipedia), pictured here 'flossing' what can only be accurately descibed as the Greatest Item Of Bling In The Entire History Of Pop Music. I mean, you can keep your soverign rings, your fat gold chains, your personalised Air Force Ones - Ghost's got a MASSIVE GOLDEN EAGLE. He's gone there. While you were out pimping your ride, Ghost's been out Blowing Your Mind. If you're really looking for some serious props from your peeps, you gotta be rocking a huge bird of prey themed amulet on your arm: except no substitute. "Oh, I gotta crate of diamond encrusted Kristal" - get outta here! Where's your ridiculous golden eagle, huh? I mean, you coulda at least made an effort, even a golden Pied Wagtail or something, y'know? I've already ordered my golden bird amulet: a GOLDEN ALBATROSS. Yee-uhh boyyy. That's right. A full size Golden Albatross. 20 pounds of bling. A wingspan of 9 feet. "Oh, hey Paul, how are you...OH MY GOD! What the hell is that on your arm?" "Oh, what, this? It's my MASSIVE GOLDEN ALBATROSS."

I've kept up a mild obsession with the Wu Tang Clan ever since I was first introduced to them 10 years ago as a skinny indie kid by a local hip-hop head called Matthew Brydon (shout out!) who also ran the local paper shop. Brydon never really dug The Stone Roses, and I was increasingly interested in discovering something funkier than Fools Gold, so one evening he was like 'check this shit out', and dropped The Wu Tang's Enter The Wu Tang (36 Chambers), the crew's debut LP. It hit me like an atom bomb. Lyrically it was like nothing I'd ever heard before, hip-hop or otherwise; martial arts, chess, blaxploitation, and Eastern philosopy re-mixed and spat out in wild, seemingly free-form spontaneous prose, delivered infact with such ferocity and so thick with obscure allusion and slang that I musta missed a good 50%. It was violent, certainly, but it was the vibe which threatened as much as the words. Where are "The Slums Of Shaolin?" What sort of drink is "Nighttrain?" (And where can I buy it?) I was pretty sure that I heard 'Chim chimmeny chim chim cherie' from Mary Poppins in there somewhere too...The music was super heavy - bassy, dark and deep -but peeking out of the grime were shards of great lost 60s soul 45s, Stax stuff in particular, sweet female vocals hanging like mist around the low-slung drumbreaks and ultra-obscure kung-fu movie samples. Where most bands I was listening to had 4 or 5 members, the Wu Tang had 9, each with many different aliases, and each bringing their unique styles and skills to the table - "coming together," as they say in one skit, "like Voltron." Method Man, Ol' Dirty Bastard, RZA, GZA, Ghostface Killah...I mean, it beat Graham Coxon, right? These guys were more like superheros than pop stars. The Wu Tang presented an entire alien culture...no, an entire universe, I actually learnt stuff from listening to them, stuff about the geography & psychology of New York, cult cinema, comic books, philosophy, and that's before you get to the crate digging education of being exposed to the canon from which they drew their beats, a history of dusty RnB 45s...sure, I could do without the 'torture' skit which pre-faces 'Method Man,' it's mildly ugly, video-nasty, childish stuff, but I figured then - as I do now - that the Wu Tang are not there to paint a pretty picture, and if I feel uncomftable listening to it then that's probably the point. You take from art what you want and leave the rest, and when the art is as rich and dense as the Wu Tang's '36 Chambers'; you can afford to leave a little.

Labels: Hip Hop

  ¶ 11:16 AM