Origin New York City, USA
Years active: 1993 – Present
Genre(s): Hip hop
Label(s): Columbia Records
Members:
RZA
GZA
Ghostface Killah
Ol' Dirty Bastard (d. 2004)
Raekwon
Method Man
U-God
Inspectah Deck
Masta Killa
The Wu-Tang Clan is a pioneering hip hop group, originally from Staten Island, New York, USA (Staten Island is referred to as "Shaolin" in their lyrics).
The crew is composed of nine MCs (now reduced to eight with the death of Ol' Dirty Bastard in 2004). All of the nine members have released solo albums, and the group has spawned many affiliate groups. This was the plan from the group's inception: Wu-Tang was designed to become an empire, to take over the hip hop community through saturation of like minded artists.
Though the group's style has evolved considerably over the years, and the solo projects of individual members differ in tone and content, the group is generally well-known for thumping, surreal beats and aggressive lyrics loaded with metaphor, references to life in New York City, and allusions to Chinese folklore and martial arts films.
Foundation
Cover of Wu-Tang Clan's 1993 debut, Enter the Wu-Tang
The founders of the Wu-Tang Clan were cousins GZA, Ol' Dirty Bastard, and the RZA who had previously comprised the by-then-defunct trio Force Of The Imperial Master, who became better known as All In Together Now after they had a popular single of that name. The group had attracted the attention of some in the industry, including Biz Markie [1], but had never managed to secure a record deal. Since the crew dissolved, GZA (then known as the Genius) and the RZA (then known as Prince Rakeem) had also embarked on separate unsuccessful solo careers with Cold Chillin Records and Tommy Boy Records respectively. The three cousins' frustration with the workings of the hip hop music industry would provide the main inspiration to the Wu-Tang's revolutionary business plan.
The Wu-Tang Clan was gradually assembled in late 1992 from friends and accomplices from around Staten Island, with the RZA as the de facto leader & the group's producer. The two cousins (GZA and RZA) created their new Wu-Tang nom-de-plumes by mimicking the sound that the words "genius" and "rakeem" would make when scratched on a turntable. The name of the group itself originates from the Wudang (or Wu-Tang) Mountains in the Hubei province of China, which are a traditional center of Chinese martial arts; RZA and Ol' Dirty Bastard adopted the name for the group after seeing the kung-fu film Shaolin and Wu-Tang, which features a school of warriors trained in the Wu-Tang style (many dialogue excerpts from the film were used on their debut album). The group have also developed various backronyms for the name (as hip hop pioneers like KRS One and Big Daddy Kane did with their names), including "We Usually Take All Niggas' Garments," "Witty Unpredictable Talent And Natural Game" and "Wisdom, Universe, Truth, Allah, Nation, and God". This is reflected by the teaching of the 5% nation of Gods and Earths. The group's now-famous logo was designed by long-time associate and graffiti artist Mathematics, who would go on to become the group's DJ and one of its most sought after in-house producers.
The Clan first became known to hip hop fans, and to major record labels, in 1993 (see 1993 in music) following the release of the independent single Protect Ya Neck, which immediately gave the group a sizeable underground following. Though there was some difficulty in finding a record label that would sign the Wu-Tang Clan while still allowing each member to record solo albums with other labels, Loud/RCA finally agreed and the debut album Enter the Wu-Tang: 36 Chambers in late 1993 was popular and critically-acclaimed, though it took some time to gain momentum. Though hip hop had long had a gritty texture, the surreal aggression and minimalist production of 36 Chambers nevertheless had a huge impact on the genre, and was to prove massively influential over the next decade. By the beginning of the 21st century, the album had become a regular fixture on "Best Albums Of The 90s" lists as well as a frequent choice for "Best Albums Of All Time" lists. [2]
The success of Enter the Wu-Tang: 36 Chambers established the group as a creative and influential force in early 1990s hip hop, allowing GZA, RZA, Raekwon, Method Man, and Ol' Dirty Bastard to negotiate solo contracts.
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Solo Careers
The Wu-Tang Clan. Left to right: Raekwon, Masta Killa, Method Man, Ghostface Killah (back) and Ol' Dirty Bastard (front), Inspectah Deck (standing) and GZA (kneeling), U-God, and The RZA
RZA was the first to follow up on the success of 36 Chambers with a side project, founding the Gravediggaz with Prince Paul (a producer most famous for De La Soul), Frukwan (of Stetsasonic) and Poetic (of the Brothers Grimm). The Gravediggaz released 6 Feet Deep in August 1994, which became the most famous work to emerge from hip hop's small sub-genre of horrorcore.
It had always been planned for Method Man to be the first breakout star from the group's lineup, with the b-side of the first single being his now-classic eponymous solo track. In November 1994 his solo album Tical was released. It was entirely produced by the RZA, who for the most part continued with the grimy, raw textures he explored on 36 Chambers. RZA's hands-on approach to Tical extended beyond his merely creating the beats to devising song concepts and structure. This approach would continue throughout the first round of solo projects from the Clan members. Ol' Dirty Bastard found success in early 1995 with Return to the 36 Chambers: The Dirty Version, which saw the 36 Chambers sound become even rawer and rough-edged.
Late 1995 saw the release of the group's two most significant and well-received solo projects. Raekwon the Chef's Only Built 4 Cuban Linx was a diverse, theatrical criminological epic that saw RZA move away from the raw, stripped-down beats of the early albums and towards a richer, cinematic sound more reliant on strings and classic soul samples. It also featured Queensbridge MC Nas on the song "Verbal Intercourse", the first non-Wu-Tang artist to appear on a Wu-Tang album. GZA's Liquid Swords had a similar focus on inner-city criminology to Only Built 4 Cuban Linx, yet it was far darker, both in GZA's grim lyrics and in the ominous, foreboding production that saw RZA more reliant on keyboards than ever before. The two 1995 solo albums remain widely regarded as two of the finest hip hop albums of the nineties.
Ghostface Killah released his own debut, Ironman, in 1996. It struck a balance between the sinister keyboard-laden textures of Liquid Swords and the sentimental soul samples of Cuban Linx, while Ghostface himself explored new territory as a lyricist. It was critically acclaimed and is still widely considered one of the best Wu-Tang solo albums. Although the 1994-1996 albums were released as solo albums, RZA's presence behind the boards and the large number of guest appearances from other Clan members (Raekwon and Ghostface's albums only had two or three actual solo tracks each and both included tracks that only included other Clan members and not themselves) means they are usually considered as important to the group's evolution as the group albums proper.
With solo careers established, the Wu-Tang Clan came back together to release the enormous double album Wu-Tang Forever in June 1997. It was eagerly anticipated and entered the charts at number one after selling 600,000 in its first week—no mean feat for an album that made very little attempt to have wide commercial appeal, and which had a five minutes plus nine-MC "posse cut" with no chorus as its lead single ("Triumph"). The sound of the album mostly built upon the sounds of the previous three solo albums, with RZA increasing his use of keyboards and string samples, as well as for the first time assigning much of the album's production to his protégés True Master and 4th Disciple (known as the Wu-Elements). The group's lyrics were considerably different from those on 36 Chambers, with many verses on the album being dense stream-of-consciousness narratives heavily influenced by the teachings of the Five Percent Nation. However, the live tour supporting the album was cancelled halfway through amid rumors of internal disputes.
Wu-Tang Forever also marked the end of RZA's "five year plan"; at the group's inception, he promised the group members that if he had total control of the Wu-Tang empire, it would conquer the hip hop world within five years. After Forever's success, RZA ceased to oversee all aspects of Wu-Tang product as he had previously, delegating much of his existing role to associates such as Oli "Power" Grant and his brother Mitchell "Divine" Diggs. This move was designed to enable the Wu-Tang empire to expand further into the fabric of the hip hop industry, and in accordance with this an extremely large amount of Wu-Tang product (both musical and otherwise) was to be released over the next two years.
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Expansion
Cover to the 1998 compilation Wu-Tang Killa Bees: The Swarm
Immediately after Forever, the focus of Wu-Tang was on promoting emerging affiliate artists rather than its own members. The group's close associate Cappadonna, who first appeared on Raekwon's debut and was a large presence on both Ironman and Wu-Tang Forever, followed the group project with March 1998's The Pillage. Soon after, Killah Priest (like Cappadonna, a close associate of the Clan, though not an official member) released Heavy Mental to great critical acclaim. Affiliate groups Sunz Of Man (of which Killah Priest was a member) and Killarmy (which included RZA's younger brother) also released albums while a compilation album, Wu-Tang Killa Bees: The Swarm, was released showcasing these and more Wu-affiliated artists as well as including new solo tracks from the group members themselves.
The second round of solo albums from the Clansmen saw sophomore efforts from the four members who had already released albums as well as debuts from all the remaining members except Masta Killa (who would eventually debut as a solo artist in 2004). In the space of two years, RZA's Bobby Digital In Stereo, Method Man's Tical 2000: Judgement Day and Blackout! (with Redman), GZA's Beneath the Surface, Ol' Dirty Bastard's Nigga Please, U-God's Golden Arms Redemption, Raekwon's Immobilarity, Ghostface Killah's Supreme Clientele and Inspectah Deck's Uncontrolled Substance were all released (seven of them being released in the space of seven months between June 1999 and January 2000). RZA also composed the score for the film Ghost Dog - The Way of the Samurai, directed by Jim Jarmusch, while he and other Wu-Tang members contributed music to a companion "music inspired by the film" album.
As well as the releases from the nine Clansmen and the most high-ranking affiliates, there was a long line of mostly poorly-received releases from lower-ranking affiliates such as Popa Wu, Shyheim, GP Wu, and Wu-Syndicate, second albums from Gravediggaz and Killarmy, as well as a greatest hits album, a b-sides compilation, and Wu-Tang branded clothing and video games. The Wu Wear clothing line in particular was massively influential on hip hop culture; initially started as merely a way to make money from the demand for bootleg Wu-Tang shirts, it evolved into an extensive collection of designer garments. Soon, other hip hop artists were making similar ventures and by the mid 2000s a clothing line was almost a prerequisite for hip hop superstardom, with clothing lines launched by Ludacris, Jay-Z, Puff Daddy, Busta Rhymes, Nelly and more.
However, the avalanche of Wu-Tang product between 1997 and 2000 is considered by many critics, such as All Music Guide's Stephen Thomas Erlewine [3], to have resulted in an oversaturation that was largely responsible for the Wu-Tang's drop in popularity during the same time period. Reviews such as Melody Maker's writeup on Ghostface Killah's Supreme Clientele in January 2000 which began "Another month, another Wu-Tang side project" indicated the critical attitude to the Clan's overexposure. Whatever the case, the reception for the second round of Clan member solo albums was decidedly mixed if largely positive, and they did not live up to their pre-Forever forebears either critically or commercially. Occasional albums would still receive critical acclaim (Ghostface Killah's Supreme Clientele for one) while Method Man and ODB remained popular in their own right as solo artists, and the Wu-Tang remained generally well-known, but they had seemingly lost the ability to excite the music world in the way they had only three years previously. Many fans and critics also bemoaned the lack of RZA input on the post-Forever solo albums, which were mostly produced by the Wu-Element producers, other lower-ranking affiliates or by outside producers such as the Trackmasters or the Neptunes.
The Wu-Tang's fortunes were also not aided by Ol' Dirty Bastard beginning a long career of erratic behavior, landing him in both the headlines and jail on a regular basis. At the 1998 Grammy Awards, he protested the Clan's loss (in Best Rap Album) by interrupting Shawn Colvin's acceptance speech, albeit in a good-natured manner. ODB was also arrested several times for a variety of offenses, including assault, making terrorist threats, shoplifting, wearing body armor after being convicted of a felony, and possession of cocaine. He was also in trouble for missing multiple court dates. ODB's troubles would continue to blight him well into the 21st century.
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Recent History
Wu-Tang Clan on the cover of their 2001 album Iron Flag
In 2000, the group reconvened to make a new album, minus Ol' Dirty Bastard who was incarcerated in California for violating the terms of his probation. Almost finished with his rehab, Ol' Dirty Bastard escaped suddenly and spent one month on the run as a fugitive before showing up onstage at the record release party for The W, the group's new album. Ol' Dirty Bastard managed to escape the club, but was captured by Philadelphia police and sent to New York to face charges of cocaine possession. In April 2001, he was sentenced to two to four years in prison. The W itself was mostly well-received by critics, particularly for RZA's production [4], and also gave the group a hit single with the uptempo Gravel Pit (which was supported by an extravagant faux-prehistoric Flintstones-inspired video). 2001 saw the release of Digital Bullet (the second RZA album released as Bobby Digital), Bulletproof Wallets (Ghostface Killah) and The Yin and the Yang (Cappadonna). The group's latest album (as a group) was 2001's Iron Flag, made without the participation of the still-incarcerated Ol' Dirty Bastard, and which received mixed but mostly positive reviews.
After GZA released Legend of the Liquid Sword in late 2002, the following two years saw a spate of new solo releases, including new works by Cappadonna (The Struggle), Method Man (Tical 0: The Prequel), Raekwon (The Lex Diamond Story), Ghostface Killah (who, in his new contract with Def Jam Records, changed his pseudonym to simply Ghostface, and released The Pretty Toney Album), Inspectah Deck (The Movement), Masta Killa (No Said Date) and Wu-Element producer Mathematics (Love, Hell & Right). Ghostface's The Pretty Toney Album was critically acclaimed in the mainstream press [5], and Masta Killa's independently released No Said Date was well-received by the group's hardcore fanbase and critics for its unpretentious, back-to-basics approach and in-house production. [6] However, the albums by Raekwon, Deck, and Method Man received mixed reviews which were generally lukewarm. [7]
In early 2004 U-God, for a long time one of the least renowned members of the Clan, apparently left the group in disgust. A DVD titled Rise Of A Fallen Soldier was released detailing his problems, which were mostly with his treatment by the RZA, who he claimed had hindered his success as a solo artist. He also formed a new group of young proteges called the Hillside Scramblers, with whom he released the album Ugodz-illa presents the Hillside Scramblers in March 2004. The dispute culminated in a heated phone conversation between RZA and U-God on live radio, which ultimately saw the two reconcile. U-God later effectively rejoined the group.
2004 also saw the unexpected return of the Clan to the live stage, and minus Ol' Dirty Bastard and Method Man (who was filming the Fox sitcom Method & Red) they embarked on a short European tour before coming together as a complete group for the first time in several years to headline the Rock The Bells festival in California. The concert was released on DVD shortly afterwards, along with another greatest hits compilation. This renewed interest in the group fuelled rumors that another group album is on the way soon, and RZA confirmed towards the end of the year that the group did plan to release another album in the near future.
The group was hit by the Ol' Dirty Bastard's death due to a drug overdose on November 13, 2004; however, the impact of his death on the Clan's output is expected to be limited, given that his involvement with the group had been very sporadic for many years. ODB had been recently released from prison and subsequently signed to Jay-Z and Damon Dash's Roc-a-Fella Records label, and was preparing a new album while he recorded other new songs with the Neptunes and the Clan themselves. A posthumous official mixtape titled Osirus and featuring many new songs was released in March 2005 and ODB's unfinished Roc-A-Fella album is expected to be released in some form in 2005. Also in 2005, U-God released his sophomore album titled Mr. Xcitement, and GZA released an album-length collaboration with DJ Muggs of Cypress Hill titled GrandMasters. 2006 should see the release of Raekwon's long-delayed sequel to his 1995 debut Only Built 4 Cuban Linx (interestingly, the result of several LA studio sessions originally aimed towards creating a new Clan album), a new album from Method Man produced by the RZA, another album on Def Jam from Ghostface titled Fish Scale, and Masta Killa's second album Da East Is In The House. A collaboration album between Inspectah Deck and Pete Rock is also rumored to be in the works but not confirmed.
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TV & Film Appearances
RZA, Cappadonna and affiliate group Killarmy made an appearance in the "Adolf Hankler" episode of the HBO sitcom The Larry Sanders Show. In the episode, the group are booked to perform on the show-within-the-show by guest host Jon Stewart, who then comes into disagreement with the show's network over whether or not the Clan are "too urban" for the show's audience. In one of their two scenes, the group is seen rehearsing the song "And Justice For All" and in the other scene, they are awkwardly conversing with the show's sidekick character Hank Kingsley (played by Jeffrey Tambor).
Some members of the group have also appeared in several Comedy Central shows, most notably two appearances on Chappelle's Show. The first was in episode 107, in a sketch titled "Wu-Tang Financial", in which RZA and GZA run an investment firm. The second appearance was in episode 201, in the sketch "Racial Draft 2004", in which the group is drafted to become ethnically Asian. Various members have also appeared in episodes of Upright Citizens Brigade and Crank Yankers.
Members of Wu-Tang also have many notable film appearances. In 1998 RZA made a brief appearance in Ghost Dog - The Way of the Samurai, a film he also scored. In 2003, RZA and GZA appeared in the Movie Coffee and Cigarettes in the Sequence "Delirium" with Bill Murray. Method Man has the most successful acting career of any member in Wu-Tang with many credits to his name, including a stint on HBO's Oz, appearances on The Wire and The Twilight Zone, and starring roles in the feature film How High and the now-cancelled Fox series Method & Red. RZA also had a role in the 2005 film Derailed and won praise from Roger Ebert for his performance, though the film itself received mixed reviews.
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Discography
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Albums
1993 Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)
1997 Wu-Tang Forever
2000 The W
2001 Iron Flag
2004 Disciples of the 36 Chambers: Chapter 1 (live album)
2005 Legend of the Wu-Tang Clan (compilation)
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Singles
1993 "Protect Ya Neck"
1994 "C.R.E.A.M."
1997 "Triumph"
1997 "It's Yourz"
2000 "Gravel Pit"
2001 "I Can't Go To Sleep"
2002 "Uzi (Pinky Ring)"
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Appear On
1994 "Anything (Old School Remix)" (from the SWV EP Remixes)
1997 "Diesel" (from the Soul In The Hole soundtrack)
1997 "America" (from the America Is Dying Slowly compilation)
1998 "Put Your Hammer Down" & "Wu-Tang Cream Team Lineup" (from the Funkmaster Flex album The Mix Tape, Vol. 3: 60 Minutes of Funk)
1998 "Windpipe" (from the Belly soundtrack)
1998 "And You Don't Stop" (from the Rush Hour soundtrack)
2000 "Shame" (from the Loud Rocks compilation)
2000 "Fast Shadow" (from the Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai soundtrack)
2000 "Shaolin Worldwide" (from the Next Friday soundtrack)
2001 "The Abduction" (from the Tony Touch album The Piece Maker)
2001 "What You In Fo" (from the Oz soundtrack)
2004 "Rock Steady" (from the Tony Touch album The Piece Maker 2)
Wu-Tang Clan
9 core members
Ghostface Killah - GZA - Inspectah Deck - Masta Killa - Method Man - Ol' Dirty Bastard - Raekwon - RZA - U-God
Affiliated artists and groups
Cappadonna - Gravediggaz - Killah Priest - Mathematics (producer) - Others
Post je objavljen 26.05.2006. u 22:28 sati.