Average Rating: 3.10 Rating Variance: 1.04 Objectivity Score: 96% (Very Balanced)
Sort by: Rating | Release Date | Rating Date | Name4.5 superbWu-Tang Clan Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)Wu-Tang Clan is like the best of everything. When you combine the flows of Das EFX, the anger of Onyx, the lyrical wizardry of KRS-One, the energy of Lords of the Underground, the innovative productions of Tribe Called Quest and the versatile rapping styles of Freestyle Fellowship you still don't have enough to describe the Wu-Tang Clan. It's more than that. A very ambitious project from the mastermind RZA, an album like this should have been a failure. No one had ever tried to make an album with 9 rappers, there were no rules on how to do it. The Wu-Tang Clan laid down the rules. This isn't just 9 ordinary rappers combined together, every single member has his own unique style and is very easy to tell apart one from the other. The first obvious star of the group was the Method Man, his flow and technique as always been one of the standouts of the group. Another instant star was the Ol' Dirty Bastard, easily the craziest rapper to ever grab a mic (R.I.P.). On all of his verses he really shines, he's just plain wild. The Cold Chillin failure "The Genius" is reinvented as the GZA, he's got powerful words and is wordplay is incredible. Inspectah Deck acts as the sniper, he just comes in and rips verses to shreds. On a technical level he's the most skilled MC of the group. Raekwon and Ghostface bring the street drug dealers aspect, Raekwon's just got a unique way of putting sentences together while Ghostface has got some creative slang and also very unique style. We don't hear much from the Masta Killa but his verse on "Chessboxin" ranks in the best of the album. He's like an inferior GZA but pretty good. U-God is usually the least favorite member of everyone, his minor appearances on here are allrigth. But the most important member of them is the RZA. While an excellent MC with his furious style, what makes him the best is his production work. The beats are totally insane, he took the rough and rugged sound of New York and made that *** 10 times more evil. The drums are perfect and some of the hardest ever made, just listening to "Bring Da Ruckus" will rip your head off. The choices of samples is incredible, RZA flips some things crazily. The castanet? on "Bring Da Ruckus" and "Wu Tang-Clan Ain't Nutin Ta *** With" is flipped into a hard ass clap, it still puzzles me how he thougth of that. That bump bump sound on "Can It All Be So Simple" is the freshest thing ever, how'd you come up with that? One of the most important things tho, is the piano loops on songs like "Clan In Da Front", "7th Chamber" and "C.R.E.A.M.". The dark drum/piano sound was born and we would hear it alot on future grimey albums from New York. RZA redefined hip hop and changed it in many ways, production-wise this is probably the most important album of the east coast from the 90's. The MC's deserve mad props too, as this was the end of the Das EFX era. Being hard was still a necissity but now you also had to rap as good as the rappers in 1988. Just look at the lyrical albums that this spawned in 1994: Nas' Illmatic, Biggie's Ready to Die, Jeru's Sun Rises In The East, Common's Ressurection, OC's Word Life just to name a few. All these rappers were listening to this and they know they had to step their game up if they wanted to compete with the Wu-Tang Clan. In someway, 36 Chambers killed the innocence in hip hop. It was never going back to the way it was before, hip hop was just getting rougher and rougher. I remember when I first got this album borrowed from a friend, I didn't think it was really good. My main complaints were the negative lyrics, it seemed like the songs were about nothing. I think I was just not ready for it because I was still into a whole other vibe when it came to hip hop. That was in 1998 still in my early days of hip hop adventures, but I clearly remember feelin' more "He Got Game" from Public Enemy. That album had a more positive vibe and the lyrics were way more intelligent and conscious. I got Nations shortly after and that completly became my favorite album of all-time. This eventually led me to more hip hop digging and has I heard more *** my tastes started changing. Eventually gave in to Ice Cube and now it was over, I had no prejudice on any sort of hip hop and became way more open minded. One day revisiting the 36 Chambers it hit me, like damn this is one of the best albums ever made. What surprises me the most is that after all those years the album still manages to surprise me even if I studied every detail and lyric to death, there is just that sort of magical energy that makes it so great even 10 years into it. I'm totally not sure if this is a good album for a hip hop beginner... It does scare away some people away from the genre but those who are in it for the hardness from the start will love it. Someone from a metal background will love this, but those who are more into that soft indie rock *** migth be traumatized by the agresivity and overall street hardcorness of the whole joint. In my opinion this is one best albums in music, not just hip hop, a classic for all times.3.5 greatWu-Tang Clan Wu-Tang ForeverWu-Tang Clan Iron Flag2.5 averageWu-Tang Clan The W1.5 very poorWu-Tang Clan 8 Diagrams
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