cripper's Full Review: Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) [PA] by Wu-Tang Cl...
WARNING: This is going to be a long review of this album. Apparently I seem to be finding it difficult keeping recent reviews short. But I sincerely think I would not be doing this album any justice if I keep this review short. Anyhow, read and rate and see what you think (yes, I realise I have extended the length of this review by including this disclaimer).
Let me establish something before even going into this review: Enter the Wu Tang (36 Chambers) is undoubtedly one of the best hip-hop albums in existence. I do not care about what anyone else thinks but, to me, this is truly one of the best. The Wu Tang Clan, for those unsure as to who they are, are a hip-hop act from New York that consists of the RZA, the GZA, the recently deceased Ol' Dirty Bastard (rest in peace), Method Man, Inspectah Deck, Raekwon the Chef, Ghostface Killah, U-God, Masta Killa and the only non-vocal member of the group, the 4th Disciple (who is listed here as the one thats scratching). The album is produced by the RZA and his arrangements of the songs and the overall production is among the best for any hip-hop album. Still, you may ask why this is the best hip-hop album and why this is one of the best produced hip-hop albums out there. Read the review and find out.
Before I analyse each track on this album, there are a few things that I think need to be highlighted. First of all, as you can tell by the name of the group, kung fu is a heavy influence on the group and kung fu references are constantly referred to in the lyrics. This, in itself, is quite amazing considering the subject matter on most of the tracks on this album are not about kung fu. Secondly, I have no favourite rapper in the group. Fans of large troupes naturally prefer some in the group as opposed to others but I can honestly say that all the performers on this album are very, very good in their own way. Thirdly, the soul music loops used by the RZA strangely complement the kung fu sound clips and effects that take place throughout the album and is something no other hip-hop act would dare come up with. Fourthly and most importantly, the rhymes that the performers come up with on this album are completely original and are different to rhymes that are prevalent in hip-hop today. Once you read the review, you will see why this is the case.
The album opens up with Bring Da Ruckus. A sample from the film Shaolin and the Wu-Tang opens up the track and the most memorable quote from this opening sequence is when the dialogue states "the Shaolin and the Wu-Tang could be dangerous...do you think your Wu-Tang swords can defeat me". This gives us a taste of what is to come and soon after this is said, the RZA introduces a hard-hitting, menacing drum beat and chants choruses of "bring the motherf***in ruckus": a challenge for the rappers on this track (i.e. Ghostface Killah, Raekwon the Chef, Inspectah Deck and the GZA) to bring their A-game. Ghostface takes on the first verse, Raekwon takes on the second verse, Inspectah Deck takes the third and the GZA closes the song off with the final verse. Whilst the first and second verse are not particularly memorable, Inspectah Deck brings his A-game with these first few lines of his verse: "I rip it hardcore, like porno flick b**ches/I roll with groups of ghetto bastards with biscuits/check it, my method on the microphone's bangin'/Wu-Tang slang'll leave your headpiece hangin'". Those lyrics, along with Inspectah's delivery, is indicative of the type of game the Wu Tang Clan is bringing to its listeners. Despite a prospective beginning, the rest of the verse does not quite deliver what the first few liens deliver. However, even better than Inspectah Deck's verse, is the GZA's final verse which is full of really tight and solid rhymes that becomes beautiful poetry. Take this part of his verse, for example: "my Wu-Tang slang is mad f***in' dangerous/and more deadly than the stroke of an axe/choppin' through ya backs/givin' bystanders heart attacks/nigg*s try to flip, tell me who is him/I blow up his f***in' prism/make it a vicious act of terrorism". Add the GZA's ability to flow each of these rhymes freely along with the brilliant lyricism of his verse and it is clear that GZA clearly brings the ruckus with his aggressive contribution to this track. The instrumentation is bare and minimal but what there is of it (i.e. the odd piano chord and creepy sounding synthesizer) is haunting. The 4th Disciple shows off some of his scratching skills at the end of the song. This is a great way to open the album.
Shame on a N***a introduces the infamous Ol' Dirty Bastard and the famed hip-hopper Method Man to the listeners against the backdrop of soul-influenced, staccato-blaring trumpets (a sample from the ending of Syl Johnson's Different Strokes). After kung fu sword fighting effects, Ol' Dirty Bastard really makes his presence known with the chorus and first verse. His deep, raspy voice is crazy and intimidating especially when he spouts out, "blaow/how'd you like me now/don't f**k the style/ruthless wild/do you wanna get your teeth knocked the f**k out". The Method Man spits out a memorable second verse. He has an ability to control the flow of his verse and its full of laugh-out-loud rhymes like the one that ends his verse: "...the head from the shoulders, I'm better/than my compeda, you mean competitor, whateva/let's get together". This track ends with a quick cameo from Raekwon which includes a funny reference to Voltron and Navy Seals and Ol' Dirty Bastard's lyrical rapping style shines in the final verse. The song ends with a jazzy, minor-sounding, octave-descending piano melody from Thelonius Monk's performance of Black and Tan Fantasy.
Clan in Da Front features the GZA's finest moment. This number is split into two parts: the first part features a sliding bass sample along with general ruckus created by Clan members being chased by bees (created by sound effect of bees) in the background before a kung fu sound clip and sound effects introduce the second part which features an upbeat piano melody and a heavier drum beat. The GZA's style changes during these parts of the track: his voice is muffled amongst the other Wu Tang voices during the first part before he shines in the second part of the song. Whilst GZA's first verse full of references to "killah bees" is good, it is the chorus which kicks off the second part which makes this track memorable. The chorus of "clan in da front/let ya feet stomp/nigg*s on the left/brag s**t to death/hoodz on the right/wild for the night/punks in the back/come on and attract to..." is incredibly catchy and you will find yourself chanting this over and over again. The first few lines of the GZA's verse in the second part of this song and lines like "I gamed Ella, the bi**h caught a Fitz-like Gerald-/ine Ferraro who's full of sorrow" just highlights the lyrical genius of the GZA who, ironically enough, is also nicknamed the Genius.
Wu-Tang: 7th Chamber opens up with more sound effects from a sword fight before a skit with Method Man, Raekwon the Chef, Ghostface Killah and U-God is introduced. The skit is a quick 1-minute sketch about a friend getting shot to death. After the skit finishes a lone drum beat paves the way for a heavy beat to come in along with a pleasant piano melody that is sometimes accompanied by the sound of a lone trumpet. Raekwon, Method Man, Inspectah Deck, Ghostface Killah, RZA, Ol' Dirty Bastard and the GZA take turns on the microphone and the listener is familiarised with exactly who the Wu Tang Clan is and drop in references about the album. Raekwon refers to the killer bees that are referred to in Clan in Da Front. Method Man ends his verse by saying "so who's the f**kin' man? Meth-Tical/on the chessbox" hints at Da Mystery of Chessboxin'. The RZA and Ol' Dirty Bastard (who ends his verse with a high-pitched shriek that only he could get away with) drop in references about swords and samurais. The GZA, who takes the final verse of the song, talks about the solidity of the group and drops a word about his disciple, Masta Killa. Add some kung fu film samples and sound effects and it definitely provides a listener of even more of a taste of things to come on the album. Yet another great track.
One of the album's four singles (I often ask myself, why only four?!), Can It Be All So Simple, is one of many collaborations between Raekwon the Chef and Ghostface Killah. Both Raekwon and Ghostface hide nothing about their past in their verses with Raekwon revealing stories about his upbringing and his father and Ghostface telling his dream of "[making] hits with Rae and A". The instrumentation of a swamp-sounding bass organ, a chilling high-pitched synthesizer and drum beat plus the vocal sample of "can it be that it was all so simple then" from Gladys Knight and The Pip's The Way We Were/Try To Remember complements Raekwon and Ghostface's stories of growing up in the ghetto brilliantly and comes across as slightly disarming. The musical accompaniment itself is quite calm but, at the same time, there is something creepy about it. But I think this is what makes this track good. The RZA does a great job in arranging the music in such a way that a piece of soul music can become quite unsettling.
Da Mystery of Chessboxin', the next track on this album, starts off with dialogue from more dubbed kung fu movies stating that "a game of chess is like a swordfight...you must think first, before you move". And this track is like a chess battle with various members of the Wu-Tang Clan taking turns on the microphone. Some Asian-influenced synthesizer sounds and knockout-inducing drum beats provide much of the instrumentation for the song. U-God's opening lines of "raw, I'm gonna give it to ya/like old trivia/we live cocaine straight from Bolivia" represents the first move in this game of chess and its a great opening move (not sure if there is such a thing as a great opening move in chess). U-God's deep, booming vocal delivery is most suitable and its a pity this was the only real verse he got to contribute on this album (U-God shortly went to prison after the recording of his verse here). The tension keeps building up in this battle and some of the more memorable moments include Ol' Dirty Bastard's melodic yet absolutely absurd verse (who on earth can get away with using phrases like "vroom, vroom" and "duh-duh-duh-duh" and allow such a verse to still sound good?), Ghostface's uber-aggressive, anger-filled penultimate verse and Masta Killa's only contribution to the album with a free-flowing, hard-hitting final verse that clearly has been influenced by the GZA both in terms of the aggressive delivery style and the poetry of the lyrical content ("we have an APB on an MC killer/looks like the work of a master/evidence indicates that it's stature/merciless like a terrorist, hard to capture/the flow, change like a chameleon" sounds like something the GZA would come up with, for example). This is easily one of the best tracks on the album with most of the members making a vocal contribution of some sort (the RZA and the GZA are not on this track).
Easily the most aggressive track, Ain't Nothin' Ta F**k Wit, starts off with the RZA yelling out the infamous chorus of "Wu Tang Clan ain't nothi' ta f**k wit" supported by a hypnotic synthesizer melody and immediately after a piece of dialogue from another kung fu film just saying "tiger style". The full instrumentation of a heavy drum beat, occasional sound of a gong and pulsating bass line kicks in after the RZA's chorus who also produces the first verse that is full of the aggression informing the listener that you do not underestimate the Wu Tang Clan. The RZA, Inspectah Deck and Method Man, who take the microphone on this track, show an innate ability to allow their verses to flow with the music.
Probably their most recognisable tune, C.R.E.A.M. is one of the highlights of this album. It definitely has a very catchy piano melody that is looped throughout the tune after a short skit is performed to allow the chorus of "cash rules everything around me/cream get the money/dollar, dollar bill y'all" to start the musical proceedings. This short introduction contains a sorrowful trumpet playing in the background and the transition from the skit to the song is flawlessly done which shows RZA's skill as a producer. Even more impressive is the RZA's talent as an arranger of the music. As Long As I've Got You by The Charmels is the sample used in this track and, on the original track, its the piano melody that appears first before the horns come in. The RZA actually inverts these samples around so that the trumpet comes in at the beginning leading into the piano part. Not only is this inversion of the background music brilliant but the ability to invert these parts and make it sound like a different melody is impressive. However what I think makes this tune, apart from its instantly recognisable piano sample used, are the verses delivered by Raekwon and Inspectah Deck. Both tell remarkably similar personal tales of their difficult survival on the streets and resorting to find any sort of life that lead them to get money. In both cases, both resort to a life of drug trafficking to "get the money". The delivery of the verses are brutally honest as Raekwon describes how engaging in a life of drug trafficking did not improve his life ("my life got no better, same damn 'lo sweater/time is ruff and tuff like leather/figured out I went the wrong route/so I got with a sick a*s click and went all out") and Inspectah Deck wonders about the worth of being involved in a life of drugs just to get some cash ("though I don't know why I smoked sess/I guess that's the time when I'm not depressed/but I'm still depressed, and I ask what its worth"). Its not hard to see why this is often cited as one of Wu Tang Clan's more successful numbers and was one of four singles from the album.
Method Man is self-explanatory. This is all about M-E-T-H-O-D MAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!!!!! A skit of Method Man and Raekwon the Chef thinking of sicker and sicker methods of torturing each other starts the track off before the GZA introduces Method Man to the audience and allows Method Man to come in with the chorus of "M-E-T-H-O-D Man!". A driving piano line dominates most of the instrumentation. The first line of, "hey, you, get off my cloud/you don't know me and you don't know my style", warns Method Man's listeners that we do not yet know him. As the track progresses, Method Man's personality comes shining through and we learn more about his style in this one track. His unique sense of humour is also prevalent in this track with references to the Pat-A-Cake nursery rhyme, Dr. Seuss' Green Eggs and Ham and there is even time for a Fat Albert impersonation in the midst of the flow of his verse. Method Man's rapping style is laid back in comparison to other Clan members yet he has a phenomenal talent in that he is able to thread all these hilarious references together and attach a flowing vocal melody from all this. It is no surprise that this spawned one of the album's four singles and that he had a successful career after his stint with the Wu Tang Clan.
Protect Ya Neck is the first single from the album and its not hard to see why. The instrumentation starts off with a heavy beat before a hypnotic synthesizer riff is accompanied with some sweeping strings and a simple, jazzy piano. This relatively simple instrumentation provides the perfect backdrop for the Wu-Tang Clan to rap over. This track features all the Wu Tang Clan members except Masta Killa (who was not yet a member of the group at the time this track was recorded). Each member of the clan does a verse (bar U-God who does the chorus) and each member takes turns reminding us who the Wu Tang Clan are. The GZA captures this perfectly in his verse (the final verse of the track) when he says "but he don't know the meaning of dope/when he's looking for a suit and tie rap/that's cleaner than a bar of soap/and I'm the dirtiest thing in sight". Even though this is largely popular, I was slightly annoyed by the fact that all the curse words are censored on the track and the lyrical content loses some of its power with these words censored out.
The penultimate track, Tearz, is perhaps the Wu Tang Clan at its most personal. A skit of someone being killed opens this track before the music comes in. The musical sample, borrowed from After Laughter (Comes Tears) by Wendy Rene, highlights that "after laughter/there'll be tears". Again, the RZA's skill as an arranger of music and producer come to the fore as he, yet again, takes the song's organ melody and vocals from the chorus and swaps them around. The RZA creates a flawless transition between these two samples. The verses themselves, taken by the RZA and Ghostface Killah, recall stories of dealing with personal tragedy: the RZA speaks about the death of someone who seems to be his younger brother and Ghostface's verse is about a close friend contracting HIV from a girl. The RZA's heartfelt delivery of his verse really strikes a chord particularly when he says "I saw the blood, all over the hot concrte/I picked him up, then I held him by his head/his eyes shut, that's when I knew he was/aw man! how do I say goodbye". Ghostface's verse does not quite invoke the same emotion as the RZA does but its still a very powerful verse. Its quite a change from Ghostface's usually extremely aggressive delivery and his reflection that "...after the laughter, I guess comes the tears" after realising the truth about his friend comes across as both very honest and profound.
Wu-Tang: 7th Chamber, Pt. II is the final track on the album and the RZA shows off some of his clever production skills and ties the album altogether by somehow implementing samples from the previous tracks. Some scratching from the 4th Disciple leads into GZA's chorus from Clan in Da Front before the verses come in. The verses are exactly the same as the verses on Wu Tang: 7th Chamber but the various freakish-sounding synthesizer parts and pounding of the drums on this track is quite menacing. A kung fu sound clip and a sample from Protect Ya Neck ends this track. In my opinion, this is not the best way to end the album but its still interesting hearing how the RZA mixes in bits and pieces from all the other tracks from the album into this one track.
Hopefully I have conveyed why I enjoyed this album so much. Enter the Wu Tang is easily one of the best hip-hop albums. The kung fu film samples and arrangement of various soul numbers create some of the best backing tracks for any hip-hop artist to perform to and the performers themselves perform at a very high level throughout this album. Plus one can feel that the Wu Tang Clan were never really taking themselves too seriously with this album and, because of this, the album becomes fun for the listener to listen to. However, be warned (but hopefully the review should have been indicative of this), there is a lot of foul language used and young children should not be listening to this. I would recommend this to fans of hip-hop because I think any fan who has not listened to this will learn a lot about what good hip-hop is about from this album.
Thanks for reading the review.
***************************************************** This is part of talyseon's Everybody was Kung Fu Fighting! writeoff.
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