csberry

I wasn't expecting much when I came to this album. The Wu-Tang Clan emerged in the early 90's tidal wave of harsh, gangsta rap. The preening and posturing of the 80's got deadly serious at this point. At the time, I mourned that the work by De La Soul, Digital Planets, and Arrested Development were about to be wiped out just as grunge cleared heavy metal from the radio just a year or two before.

My memory of listening to the album when we got it at WVUA was that the album was jumbled and chaotic in sound and structure. Listening to this album over the weekend, I definitely still feel that chaos, though it doesn't seem quite as a distraction now. The MCs swap back and forth through the various tracks and I, personally, had a hard time keeping track of who was who. However, I gotta send some love out to the fact that there are references to kung-fu, Voltron, and Lucky Charms. The wide variety of MCs still can be a bit daunting, but RZA's sampling helps to make the album cohesive. The simple piano tracks, staccato rhythms, and movie samples don't sound overly spare and yet lay the foundation for the type of sampling I've heard in Jay-Z, Notorious B.I.G., and NAS while going through the Rolling Stone Top 500 Albums list.

As one can usually state with confidence when listening to 90's rap albums, the skits between tracks are potentially chuckle-worthy on the first listen, but just become annoying upon repeat listens.

Songs I knew I liked: While I didn't recognize any songs by title, "Bring Da Ruckus" sounded really familiar after giving it a listen.

Songs I didn't know but now like: "Bring Da Ruckus" and "Method Man" stuck out for me.

Songs I can go the rest of my life without hearing again: While I didn't dislike the album as expected, I can't say that I'm particularly eager to listen to the album again.