Sphinx's Music Blog - Wu Tang Clan: 36 Chambers
Welcome back friends to this week’s music blog. Today I am exploring the hip-hop album Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) by the Wu-Tang Clan. It was released on November 9, 1993, peaking at #41 on the US Billboard Chart and has gone on to sell over 3 million copies. This debut album introduces us to some of the biggest names in rap in the last 30 years: RZA, GZA, Method Man, Ol’ Dirty Bastard, Ghostface Killa, Raekwon, and Inspectah Deck. It’s such an influential album not only because of how it was produced and its origins, but the fact that these artists all branch out into their own successful solo careers while still operating as a unit under the Wu-Tang Clan name.
The mastermind behind all of it goes to RZA (Bobby Diggs), who after moving from Brooklyn to North Carolina to Ohio and then Staten Island, got family and friends together to create this infamous collaboration. All the members of the clan have their own backstories and places where they were in life, but for many of them, it was a life of crime and drug-dealing. The autobiographical nature of the Wu-Tang Clan can be seen on the well done Hulu mini-series Wu-Tang: An American Saga.
It’s amazing to think of these talented fellas all having their origins in the same place, under nearly the same circumstances. I’ve always found it in a rather strange way to compare the nature of this collaboration to be similar with The Beatles; the idea of fate that those 4 were in Liverpool, while here we have 10 guys together roughly in the same borough in New York City. They had their inner group fights, they had amazing solo careers, they were innovators in their genre.
Now let's get into the music. Wu-Tang obviously has a love of kung-fu movies (using clips from Shaolin and Wu Tang, Five Deadly Venoms, etc.) and comic books (with references to Spider-Man, Voltron, Iron Man/Tony Stark), and they incorporate that into each of their songs through musical tone/samples, rhymes, and lyrics. RZA is the master producer, borrowing heavily from R&B, Jazz, and Soul tracks that extend from Lonnie Smith to Gladys Knight & The Pips to Otis Redding to The Jackson Five to Thelonius Monk. But what makes RZA so talented and ahead of his time is that it’s hard to see where the sampling comes from. Sure, sometimes it’s obvious (but done intentionally), but throughout the tracks it's hard to truly hear where the source material is coming from. That’s a trick that so many modern hip-hop artists do today such as Kanye West and Drake. Earlier hip-hop from the 80’s deliberately used sampling in their songs so the listener easily recognized it, but RZA paves the way for change. In addition the way RZA incorporates his sampling into his beats make the hooks on these tracks alluring, and they offer something different each time.
So how does an album with 10 rappers even work? Well, RZA is the conductor and director of this modern orchestra. Like how business competition fuels the free market, the competition between the rappers for time on a track is all decided at the hands of RZA. With each of his tracks, he is looking for the best but also trying to create the best groove. Some verses work well with one song, but stick out like a sore thumb in another. It’s RZA’s role to figure out who’s rapping where and when. And it’s this competition and trying to outdo each other that creates such amazing work.
Everyone has a different flow in their rapping techniques. Some are smooth like Ghostface Killah and Method Man, while others play more staccato like GZA and Ol’ Dirty Bastard. But even depending on the track they can mix it up, and some like Raekwon and Inspectah Deck can kill it in any way. The rawness of this record is what does it for me overall, and what has made this debut the masterpiece it is. It lets anyone know that sure, you want to be a hip-hop artist? Two turntables and a microphone, and a drum machine, and you can do it. But at the same time, these 10 individuals use the English language in so many multifaceted ways like alliteration, onomatopoeia and hyperbole that you’d think they are teaching a class on English composition. It’s that wide use of the English language that keeps you engaged with each listen.
What are the highlights? On side one of the album it is the track Wu-Tang: 7th Chamber where nearly everyone has a verse to rap and gives a great look at what everyone is offering to the table. Can it Be All So Simple has a great beat, and is a very introspective track of the lives they’ve lived, the shit they deal with, and the dreams they hope to have.
Side two though is where this album really hits its stride. Da Mystery of Chessboxin’ is just a fast push through some incredible verses. The most famous track, C.R.E.A.M., is the song that got me into Wu-Tang (and probably many others too). Cash rules everything around me, the opportunities I’ve been given have fucked me over. This is where I was put into this world, all I know of. I can’t escape. It’s a super introspective track, and is why I love hip-hop, as some of it can be so sincere and emotional.
Also, it would be right if I didn’t share this Chappelle Show clip from the famous Method Man skit:
Konnichiwa bitches, lol.
Have your own thoughts on this album, or on The Wu-Tang Clan? Please share either on social media or on the Gamezilla Media discord. In addition, if you love gaming and movies, check out the five podcasts on Gamezilla Media, and consider being a patron on Patreon! On several episodes of the Last Action Podcast, LPJ, Hovercraft Joe and I mention the Wu-Tang Clan on our Killer’s episode and 5 Deadly Venoms episode.
You can listen to this album and the other albums I have reviewed here on my Spotify playlist. Please consider being a follower on Spotify, it’s easy, just click follow on the player!
Sphinx