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Syllabus: Wu-Tang Clan, Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)
- Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers): Amazon, iTunes
- Lyrics
- Wikipedia: Wu-Tang Clan, Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)
- Reviews: Rolling Stone, Christgau, The Source
- The Wu-Tang Manual
I’ve listened to this album dozens of times, and it never occurred to me that Shaolin was code for Staten Island. Either I’m dense, or it’s buried under *just enough* subtext so that if you’re not paying close attention to the lyrics, you’d miss it.
I don’t really have any kind of kung-fu movie knowledge to fall back on, but I do like the idea of Ol’ Dirty as the master of Drunken Style, which if Virtual Fighter taught me anything means that he was simultaneously giving a peerless and unique performance and, you know…actually drunk. Rest in Peace.
I am a little surprised that you didn’t talk about how this album is different than the West Coast Dre sound. All of the samples on this album are the movie samples, not music samples. There is no undertone of known music. They are not rapping over existing music. They made their own music to rap over.
I also think you miss the connection between C.R.E.A.M and the Wire.
The connection in terms of similar themes? Do go on.
We talked mostly about this vs. the West Coast sound in terms of slickness vs. shagginess. I’m not sure it’s accurate to say that all the samples are movie samples; I hear a lot of stripped-down, almost jazzy, soul grooves in RZA’s production, almost distorted-sounding—maybe by cheap equipment?—in a way that reminds me of listening to a scratched-up LP.