This week brought news of the final tour of the Wu-Tang Clan, at least as a group. Which makes sense, given that they haven’t been complete since the passing of Ol’ Dirty Bastard, regardless of how good his son Boy Jones was at cosplaying that role on stage. Time marches on, stopping for no one, so I suppose we should send the Wu their flowers while they’re still here.
At least the music will last forever, at long as the technology exists to broadcast music in the first place, since I’m sure we’re all on edge anticipating an Alex Garland-esque civil war to begin any day now. Instead of doomscrolling first thing today, I’d suggest you give this week’s edition of the limited-run Wu-Wednesdays series a try, as it might help offset your anger (or joy, I guess, although if the latter describes you, I’ll just assume you aren’t in the United States, because otherwise my political rhetoric would have warned you long ago that we aren’t on the same team).
A reminder: episodes one and two have been pulled from the server for spatial reasons, but the songs from both (at least the ones that were available at the time) remain on the RandoMax Radio Spotify channel, with older episodes being added when they get deleted from the website.
Enjoy!
-Max
I love Wu-Tang, but it's kinda sad, how they fizzled out over the years. Their first era is legendary and doesn't need any introduction. I like their second era, which is universally panned. I might be the only person in the world who actually likes it, as they did not want to repeat themselves and instead chose to be creative. Somehow, only Ghostface received respect. Their third era was diminishing returns and while at this point the Clan were basically has-beens, there were still some very good cds. Fourth and Fifth wave weren't even acknowledged, let alone listened to, but I would argue, that there were still some good stuff coming out. The thing is, people stopped at the first wave, including newcomers, and they never bothered to understand anything that happened later. It's a shame, because the Clan really grew and their music was really deep with substance. I could elaborate, and write an essay about it (including Killah Priest) - but, who cares? I'm some rando on the internet. The point is, either someone loves hip-hop and tries to dig the genre, or they only seek "fun" jingles that are catchy. That's not how music works, but that's how hip-hop fans think, and that's why they deserve scrutiny.
ReplyDeleteBut tl;dr
Wu-Tang Clan 1991-2007 has many beautiful gems that can change your life for the better.