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New CDQ Wu-Tang track – should we be excited?
RnB/Hip Hop | Thursday 6th June 2013 | Alex
‘Family Reunion’ is out, and it’s difficult not to be.
I’ve always thought that I’d probably hate ODB. It’s not just the witlessness, it’s the racket and the witlessness. Still, he was fucking incredible on 1993’s ‘Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers).
I’d better not describe it as a chaotic album, because chaos means involuntary and 36 Chambers was self-inflicted – ODB was as robust and hyperactive as he possibly could be. It’s nothing like Run-D.M.C, but having said that it is very much like Run-D.M.C – it’s the closest we’ve got to that pass-the-mic temperament and those boisterous, laugh-out-loud slicks –“Charged by the system, for murdering the rhythm.”
Everyone thought the Kung-fu thing was gimmicky; it’s not. Sampling’s messy - free-standing things are thrown in from a solar-system of birthplaces but that they are thrown in shows organisation and precision, doesn’t it? And the things they’re sampling are the same – the martial arts, sword fights and things are messy, violent and improvisational, but sharp and strict.
What might be more important is that they’re all chess-playing, comic book-reading nerds and no one else is. 50 Cent probably doesn’t read much, in fact, he probably used to beat up the kids that did, but he’s heavily Wu-Tang influenced. How does that make sense? It turns out that if you’re into Wacka Flocka but not Wu Tang then you’re not a bit different, you’re just wrong. What’s even stranger is that if you like 50 Cent, you might have to like libraries, too.
It’s the 20th anniversary of 36 Chambers and RZA, Ghostface Killah, Method Man and Masta Killa are on ‘Family Reunion’, which might be taken from upcoming ‘A Better Tomorrow’, but might not. Expect the full thing in July.
Written by Alex Dean - @AlexDean94
