💿 How Good Is It Really 💿 Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)

Music
21

This is the only version I’ve ever heard any of.

Unfortunately it’s lockdown right now so I probably won’t get the chance to really get to listen before votes close.

22

still my favourite wu related album (and i love a lot of wu related albums). agree it’s fair to say that some of the constituent elements got refined / improved upon elsewhere - it doesn’t necessarily have all of rza’s best production, or all of the members’ best verses or all of their best songs - but i don’t think those elements all came together as well as this ever again. still find it completely thrilling, just 60ish minutes of pure excitement even after listening to it countless times

lightning in a bottle isn’t it

5 Likes
23

You wanna hear that Wu Tang joint?

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24

It’s a ten obviously, one of the greatest albums ever and arguably the greatest hip hop record ever. It stands up completely in 2021 and there never been a moment since it was released when it didn’t sound amazing.

For anyone who loves it or is curious about it can I recommend Will Ashon’s book Chamber Music? It’s a book about Wu Tang, loosely structured around the 36 Chambers, with chapters about the history the band and its members and the making of the record but also really interesting studies of some of the themes like king fu films, the illicit drugs market, the Nation of Islam and its arcane offshoots, mathematics and symbolism, chess etc etc. It over-reaches itself a bit at times and strays into pretension but over all it really enhanced my appreciation of the album.

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25

It’s hard to put into words how good this album is. The rawness of the beats. The delivery of nearly every line. The influence it had on hip hop in NY in the mid 90’s. Though there are probably technically better albums that most of the members have put out individually, this is still the best Wu-Tang album ever. Not many albums come close to what this one does.

And it started a run of near perfect NY hip hop. This in 93. Illmatic and Ready to Die in 94. The Infamous in 95. Reasonable Doubt in 96. Haven’t got the time to talk about 97!

Fuck, i’m going to have to listen to it now, aren’t I?

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26

Totally agree, I loved it, couldn’t put it down. Anyone who loves Wu-Tang should read it.

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27

large

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28

Yeah, I enjoyed that book. The Showtime documentary is also worth watching. Think I read Chamber Music and U-God books, and watched this around the same time.

https://www.sho.com/wu-tang-clan-of-mics-and-men

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29

That documentary was really good. May have to give it another watch.

30

enjoyed how masta killa doesn’t really get chance to say anything the whole series, and then right at the end he just casually drops in that he’s related to marvin gaye and nat turner and the documentary makers are like “wait what? fuck, we should have spoken to you sooner”

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31

Best bit of a really great documentary to be honest.

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32

There is some amazing stuff in the documentary but I think they could have shaved an hour off it and made it even better personally.

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33

that and them shitting all over that million dollar album thing and rza sort of just awkwardly sat there listening to it

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34

Haha. Yeah. That was great. Also the bit where they’re all slating Cilvaringz and RZA is sat there saying nothing :neutral_face:

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35

Just reminded me that this happened:

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36

“I heard it one time! TRASH!” from Ghost fucking cracked me up when I watched it.

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37

10/10! 1993 - 1997 was such a great time (retrospectively) for Wu Tang projects, always exciting to go back and listen to all those albums under the banner. RZA is an absolute master. This is the best album under HGIIR so far imo

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38

Probably my favourite hip hop album (although if Illmatic ever comes up in these threads, I’ll quite likely say the same thing there). The best track is clearly Chessboxin’ but really the strength is in the whole thing, the way it’s so brilliantly constructed it takes you into another world for the duration. The Clan are one of the great gangs in musical history, like the Clash or the Ramones. They’ve all got their own characters and their own thing going on, but their coming together takes it all to a new level. You might even say they form like Voltron.

It’s dusty, spooky, creaky, clever, stupid, kitschy, funny, scary and a ten out of ten all day long.

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39

10
Rugged and raw.

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40

Even the shite skits dont ruin it.

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