Emily: Zack has been hyping Wu-Tang Clan to me for a really long time. Multiple conversations/explanations about the group, its members, and their various group and individual efforts. Various Wu-Tang related messages of things he found on Reddit like this. And a lot of time passing between the previous album and this one because he wanted to make sure he spent sufficient time documenting his thoughts and feelings about Enter the Wu-Tang so that he could sufficiently convey his love and respect for it. Through all this hype, however, Zack has steadfastly maintained that he didn't think I would like Wu-Tang at all. So when it came time to listen to this album, I decided to not read Zack's review, talk to Zack, or even listen to the album with Zack until I listened and wrote my review. So I listened the other day, after returning home from a Christmas visit with Zack's family, and after the hour I had no idea what I wanted to say. I listened to it again today, and still don't have much of an idea. I didn't hate this album as much as Zack primed me to think I would, but I didn't love it either. The idea of combining soul-based beats with both hardcore rap and samples from kung-fu movies seems insane on its face, but actually made sense when listening to it. I know now that Cash Rules Everything Around Me (dolla dolla billz y'all) and that you should protect ya goddamn neck. But do I really appreciate Wu-Tang, in a way that at least approaches Zack's appreciation? Not yet, but maybe that'll change once I see what he has to say about it.
Favorite Tracks: Da Mystery of Chessboxin; Bring Da Ruckus; C.R.E.A.M.
Zack: This album turned 20 a year ago, so there’s not
really much of a point saturating the internet further with a reflection piece
about what 36 Chambers means to rap music or anything like that. I can’t talk
about how it changed my life or anything dramatic like that since I was 2 when
it came out. I don’t even remember the first time I listened to it. What I can
say that it is one of the few hip-hop albums that I play in its entirety ALL
THE TIME. From start to finish, this is an absolute masterpiece. It sounds like
an entire Tarantino movie turned into rap. It’s grittier than a pile of grit.
And it has an incredibly ability to bring people together. A few years ago, I
moved into an apartment with a kid I’d never met before. The first night, he
and I got to talking about hip-hop and it came out that he’d never listened to
any Wu-Tang anything. I got my laptop, he got his stereo, and we blasted this
and organized the kitchen. Wu-Tang is for the roommates. Wu-Tang is for the
kids. Wu-Tang for president. Wu-Tang for everyone. Well, maybe not everyone. I
have no idea if Emily will like this at all. My guess is no. It has literally 0
of the elements she is usually drawn to in hip-hop music. At a certain point,
you start to think that maybe an album is sooooo good that it’s undeniable. But
the two other times I thought that might apply (Illmatic and Me Against the
World), the music was greeted with a resounding “meh,” and this album is a lot
rougher than either of those. I really hope this one is different. I can’t
speak for anyone, but the second I hear Ghostface on Bring da Ruckus, I change.
I. Get. Fucking. Amped. Happens every time, without fail. Maybe the same thing
will happen for her. Maybe she will be terrified for an hour. No one knows for
sure, with the possible exception of GZA. He is a genius after all. I should
mention that I’ve listened to enough Wu-Tang and affiliates to legally be
considered a Wu Tang expert. Raise your hand if you’ve listened to an entire
album by Inspectah Deck. How about Masta Killa? Hell, anyone here check out
anything by Killah Priest, the notable Killer Bee and almost-main-clan
stoner-religious zealot guy? Just me? Yeah, that’s what I thought. Because of
these excellent credentials, I’ve spent a lot of time contemplating what sets
this album aside from anything else, other Wu Tang albums included, and I’ve
come up with two distinct traits. First, pretty much every clan member,
Ghostface just barely exempted, has a bit of a penchant for burying 45 minutes
of great music into 70 minutes of an album. They’re hardly alone in rap music
for that little predilection. But that’s exactly what makes this album so
incredible. It is an hour of just nasty beats and razor-sharp lyrics. You can
feel a certain desperation in the way everything is done. It’s 9 guys who are
willing to do whatever it takes to be on top of the rap game, and there isn’t
any track where that isn’t palpable. Second, what they made is so impossible to
copy that no one could ever hope to imitate it at all. Seriously, other artists
are able to capture 80% of what makes other classic rap albums what they are.
There are those out there who can imitate that street scholar swag of Illmatic
or the ferocity of Straight Outta Compton. Who has ever managed to capture any
semblance of the vaguely unhinged, just plain rough-ness of 36 Chambers? No
one. So maybe we shouldn’t be too upset that the Wu hasn’t exactly been able to
replicate it either. Anyway, hopefully Emily will like this album, because it’s
easily one of my top-5 favorite rap albums of all time. We have another four
Wu-tang albums to go through for the blog (one each by Method Man, Raekwon,
Ghostface Killah, and Genius/GZA), and I’m with the listmakers in the ones they
choose (although I could easily be talked into Iron Man or maybe even Supreme
Clientele over Fishscale and the oversight of Method Man and Redman’s
incredible Blackout! is certainly acknowledged here). I’ll have plenty more to
say then, but for now perhaps it’s best that I wrap up this manifesto with the
impossible task of picking 3 favorite tracks from an album where I gave 10 or
12 songs 5-star ratings.
Favorite Tracks: C.R.E.A.M.; Wu-Tang: 7th
Chamber – Part II; Bring Da Ruckus
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