Wu-Tang Clan
The Wu-Tang Clan is a pioneering hardcore 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
The founders of the Wu-Tang Clan were GZA, Ol' Dirty Bastard, and RZA (who had also formed the by-then-defunct All In Together Now Crew) and the rest of the crew was gradually assembled from friends and accomplices from around Staten Island. The RZA is the de facto leader & the producer of the group's albums, as well as many of their solo projects. The two cousins (GZA and RZA) created their rap nom-de-plumes by mimicking the sound that the words "genius" and "razor" 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 "Witty Unpredictable Talent And Natural Game", "Wisdom, Universe, Truth, Allah, Nation, and God" and "We Usually Take All Niggaz Garments".
The Wu-Tang Clan first became known to hip hop fans, and to major record labels, in 1993 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.
Enter the Wu-Tang: 36 Chambers established the group as a creative and influential rap group in the early 1990s, allowing GZA, RZA, Raekwon, Method Man, and Ol' Dirty Bastard to negotiate solo contracts.
Solo careers
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 easily 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, producing successful results. Ol' Dirty Bastard found success soon after with Return to the 36 Chambers: The Dirty Version, which saw the 36 Chambers sound become even rawer and rough-edged. 1995 saw two significant and well-received albums from the group members.
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 heavily 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 these 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 lead single Triumph was a five minutes plus nine-MC "posse cut" with no chorus. 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 members also appeared much more ambitious lyrically than 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 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 music was to be released over the next two years.
Expansion
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 also released, showcasing these and more Wu-affiliated artists as well as including new solo tracks from the group members themselves.
The same year, 1998, Ol' Dirty Bastard began a long career of erratic behavior, landing him in both the headlines and jail on a regular basis. At the Grammy Awards, he protested the Clan's loss (in Best Rap Album) by interrupting Shawn Colvin's acceptance speech. He then announced he was changing his name to Big Baby Jesus, but he never followed through. 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. The whole Wu-Tang Clan also fell under suspicion as alleged leaders of a gun-running scheme between Staten Island and Steubenville, Ohio, though the investigation never found significant evidence for the allegations.
In the midst of such problems, the Clan released yet more solo albums. In the space of just three 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.
However, 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. Consequently, the market had been somewhat saturated with Wu-Tang products. This perhaps fuelled the mixed reception for the second round of Clan member solo albums, which did not live up to their pre-Forever forebears either critically or commercially. Occasional albums would still excite the hip hop world (Ghostface Killah's Supreme Clientele for one) and Method Man and ODB remained popular, but their sound was becoming heavily imitated by others, and they were no longer the superstars of hip hop they were a mere three years earlier. Fans also bemoaned the lack of RZA input on the post-Forever 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.
Recent history
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, 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, appearing on many prestigious end-of-year "best of 2004" lists, and Masta Killa's independently released No Said Date was well-received by the group's hardcore fanbase and hip hop enthusiasts in general for its unpretentious, back-to-basics approach and in-house production. However, the albums by Raekwon, Deck, and Method Man received mixed reviews which were generally lukewarm.
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, although nothing concrete has been announced by the Clan themselves. Ol' Dirty Bastard's death due to a drug overdose on November 13 2004 should have a limited impact on the Clan, given that his involvement with the group had been 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. ODB 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. The unfinished Roc-A-Fella album is expected to be released in some form in 2005. New albums are also planned for 2005 from Method Man (who early in the year announced a new RZA-helmed LP), U-God, Ghostface, GZA (who is releasing an album-length collaboration with DJ Muggs of Cypress Hill), and Raekwon (who plans to release the long-delayed sequel to his 1995 debut Only Built 4 Cuban Linx).
Trivia
The Wu-Tang Clan's famous logo was designed by Allah Mathematics, DJ and producer with the group.
The group (actually just 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 two sketches on Comedy Central's 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.
The Clan never actually released a track on which all nine original members rap. The closest they came was the hit single "Triumph" from 1997, on which all nine members as well as Cappadonna appear, but Ol' Dirty Bastard only speaks a short intro and bridge and does not rap.
Members and their aliases
- Ghostface Killah (short name: Ghost) (birth name: Dennis Coles)
- Sun God
- Tony Starks (from the comic Iron Man)
- Ghostface
- Pretty Toney
- Tone-Tanna
- General Tony Starks
- Starkey Love
- Wally Champ
- Ironman
- Black Jesus
- Ghost Deini
- The GZA (pronounced "The Jizza") (birth name: Gary Grice)
- The Genius
- Allah Justice
- Justice
- The Scientist
- The Head
- Maximillion
- Inspectah Deck (short name: INS (I-N-S), deck) (birth name: Jason Hunter)
- Fifth Brother
- Rebel INS
- Ayatollah
- Manifesto
- Charliehorse
- Rollie Fingers
- Masta Killa (short name: Masta) (from the film Shaolin Master Killer) (birth name: Elgin Turner)
- High Chief
- Jamel Irief
- Noodles
- Method Man (short name: Meth) (birth name: Clifford Smith)
- The Ghost Rider (from the comic Ghost Rider)
- Johnny Blaze (also from the comic Ghost Rider)
- Methtical (Meth-tical)
- MZA ("The Mizza")
- Shakwon
- The Panty Raider
- Tical
- Ticallion Stallion
- Hot Nixon
- John-John McLane
- John-John Blaizini
- Johnny Dangerous
- Long John Silver
- Iron Lung
- Hot Nikkels
- Ol' Dirty Bastard (short name: ODB, Dirty) (birth name: Russell Jones) (deceased)
- Big Baby Jesus
- Ol' Dirt Dog
- Joe Bananas
- Freeloading Rusty
- Dirt McGirt
- The Projessor
- The Bebop Specialist
- The Specialist
- Prince Delight
- Unique Ason
- Cyrus
- Dirt Schultz
- Joe Bannanas
- Ol' Dirty BZA
- Osiris
- Brother Osiris
- Ason Unique
- Raekwon (short name: Rae) (birth name: Corey Woods)
- Lex Diamonds
- Louis Diamonds
- Rick Diamonds
- Shallah
- Louis Rich
- Shallah Raekwon
- The RZA ("The Rizza") (birth name: Robert Diggs)
- Bobby Steels
- Bobby Digital
- The Abbot
- Chief Abbot
- The Scientist
- Prince Delight
- Prince Dynamite
- Prince Rakeem
- RZArecta (from resurrector, i.e. waking up the mentally dead)
- Ruler Zig-Zag-Zig-Allah
- Funny bone tickelah
- U-God (birth name: Lamont Hawkins)
- 4-Bar Killer
- Baby U
- Universal God of Law
- Baby Huey
- Four-Bar Killer
- Golden Arms
- Lucky Hands
- UGodz-Illa
Discography
- 1993 Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) (Loud)
- 1997 Wu-Tang Forever (Loud)
- 2000 The W (Columbia)
- 2001 Iron Flag (Columbia)
- 2004 Disciples of the 36 Chambers: Chapter 1 (Sanctuary)
- 2005 Legend of the Wu-Tang Clan (BMG Music)
See also
External links
- Official Wu-Tang Site
- Automatic Wu-Tang name generator
- Official Sony Music site
- Wu Wear fashion line
- CHAMBERMUSIK, site with radio, store, lyrics, forum and other info
- WuForever, fansite with image gallery and forum
- RIPODB.tk, the international memorial of Ol' Dirty Bastard
- Article on the Wu-Tang Clan's roots in Staten Island
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