ENTER THE WU TANG (36 CHAMBERS) is the debut album by iconic hip hop collective, the WU TANG CLAN, released 1993. But is it good?
Well... I'm not sure. Let me explain.
I've never been massively into hip hop, new or old school. I was born in the wrong generation, man! I was listening to rock 'n roll while my classmates were listening to drake and little pump, dude! My biggest foray into contemporary rap or hip hop is probably Death grips or 100 gecs, and even then I don't like alot of The Money Store or NLDW. So to say I wouldn't have heard this album otherwise is an understatement. So what did I think about it?
To be honest, it just isn't really what I'm looking for when I sit down to an album. It's not that I even turned the album off half way thru listening to it either- I've sat thru the 58 minute runtime more than once- It just doesn't give me what I want to get out of music.
I'm getting ahead of myself. What did I like about the album? well, none of the tracks are bad, I didn't feel the need to skip any either. I liked the opener alot, I liked the melancholic and nostalgic sample on CAN IT ALL BE SO SIMPLE, I liked the storytelling of C.R.E.A.M alot, and I think what i liked most is that it feels real. When I heard people talk about "realness" in rap and hip hop I thought it was arbitrary but listening to this made me realise "oh, so this is what that means. On the aforementioned C.R.E.A.M "Inspectah Deck" mentions going to jail at 15, and there's an interview at the end where an interviewer mentions feeling "the realness", as well as a minute long excerpt of the various MC's just talking and shooting the shit. Some of the tracks have some really well chosen piano or bass motifs that really tie the whole track together.
That being said, the production is quite basic- for an album made in 1993 it's quite good but it certainly pales in comparison to modern production. It definitely has a charm in it's roughness but alot of it is still quite basic. Also despite there being quite a few rappers, the vocal ends up being pretty monotonous in terms of timbre and texture. The flows don't get repetitive however, but when the female vocal sample does hit in CAN IT ALL BE SO SIMPLE it really makes you realise how singular the vocals are.
Additionally, and perhaps inevitably, this album features rappers bragging about how good they are at rapping, which has always been something that pushes me away from the genre, as it adds literally nothing to the song. It's not prevalent but when it does occur it's just groanworthy.
Despite all of this I think the thing that most prevented me from enjoying it was maybe the setting I was listening to it in. Believe it or not, I doubt that wu tang clan intended for this album to be listened to in a suburban bedroom thru laptop speakers. I remember I was in a friend's car and he was playing some Dr Dre- and this is not music I would normally enjoy- but due to the more relaxed social setting, and hearing it with other people, it sounded better. Which could sound ridiculous, but who you listen to music with shapes how you hear it. Or it does for me, at least. So maybe if I relistened to this album with friends or at some kind of social gathering I'd like it more, but at the same time that is not something I do often, and again doesn't provide what I really want from music. So overall I guess this just isn't for me, but I'm still glad I listened to it.
suck my nuts