Disco de Wu-Tang Clan: “Enter The Wu Tang”

I listen to a lot of music. And, y'know, some albums get stale after a while. Some albums, you can only listen to for a few weeks, and then they sit on your CD rack for months before you go back to them.

But "36 Chambers" is icy-fresh every time you drop it into your stereo. It's everything hip-hop should be: raw beats, simple hooks and evocative samples intertwined with nine rappers' unique styles, all of which come together to build an hour-long assault on the body and mind.

I weep when I listen to this album. It showcases the Ol' Dirty Bastard when he was simply a purveyor of a brilliant style that was utterly his own, before the persona overshadowed the man. The price of the album is worth it for "Protect Ya Neck" alone--a concise, perfect summary of what it means to be Wu-Tang. You come to know the album, and then you come to know the rappers themselves, seeing them like a twisted set of Superfriends, finding yourself thinking, "Here comes Inspectah Deck; he's about to rip sh*t up."

You have to take most rappers' boasts with a grain of salt or two. But when the Wu-Tang say they're nothing to f*ck with, you believe them. They are, most especially on this album, an unstoppable force for hip-hop justice.

Where there is monotony and 2-D artists there will be the 4-D ingeniuty that break way from false contract images and dead end lyrics. This is the highest most praised and the utmost ultimate example of this. At the time of the early 90's rap had got too happy. With gold chains and laceless adidas sneakers putting smmiles on the world's faces, the rap artists had forgotten their roots where there was discrimination, random assaults and always the s£%! end of the stick in life. Where rap was the only exhalation in the suffocating enviroment of urban life. It seemed that the west coast picked up on this before the east, Ice Cube, Dre,2pac, Snoop, warren g and death row were dominating the rap scene with all the ferocity,originality and gangsta assertiveness that the rap audience hungered for. The east coast were dying although the quiet few were steadily rising e.g. nas, black moon they did nt reach the worldwide platinum sales the west coast had achieved, yet.....

'93: Rza, Gza, ODB, Meth, Rebel INS, U-God, Raekwon the Chef, Masta Killa and Ghostface Killah spelled earth shattering rap for the nation. THE group that would balance the scale of the West-East rap game. THE music that would bring forth legions of cult rap fans spewing forth highly intelligent hords of lyrics to backslap the commercial scene to h--l.

I aint got nuttin else to say except every artists were at they top game on this album, they were all starving so they had to put their heart and soul into this. It shows so much check C.R.E.A.M. where Rae and Deck bare their souls on life. And Protect Ya neck, without a doubt the best song on the album, HIgh voltage ryhmes and pure KUNGFUISM. This is the first album of Wu u should buy, believe me. DISGUSTING.

Rap never knew what hit it when the hooded swordsmen hit the streets with ENTER THE WU TANG: 36 CHAMBERS. If you need refreshment from bling bling, mercedes benz and gun toting strip club lovin' retards then

Fave songz: 4th Chamber, Protect ya neck, C.R.E.A.M., and Tearz.

I finish as usual with some words from the artists. The wise high exhalted Raekwon ".... The wu the WU got suttin that I know everyone wanta hear coz i know i bin waitin to hear, but straight up and now till we gotta go we gonna keep goin...."

Keep the Wu-Tang Dynasty alive my people and keep HIP HOP.

It's not often that you can pick up an album which is 100% raw talent. In fact, I could safely say that in the past decade I've found less than ten albums which deserve the above accolade. Wu Tang's 36 chambers take that down to 9.

36 Chambers was groundbreaking. It created a whole new sub-culture within the Rap and Hip Hop genre, and gave us more talent in one album that at the time could be found in a selection of twenty. I remember listening to it and knowing that this album had changed my perception of music, Rap and Hip Hop forever.

In seven years I still haven't found a place within 36 Chambers that makes me want to switch to another room. There's not one bad verse, one weak link. The chain is solid. How anyone could mix the bounciness of Shame on a Nigga, with the emotion of Tearz, and the threats of Bring da Ruckus, with the insight of C.R.E.A.M., it's beyond me. No wonder that the production force of the RZA is much coveted.

Of course it helps that the Clan's members all have their own unmistakable style. But remember - 36 Chambers was the beginning, the start of the whole thing. Look at Method Man, Look at the ODB, Inspectah Deck, Rza, Gza, Ghostface Killah. Lok at where they are, and what they're doing now. It's all on the back of 36 Chambers, when their talent was first brought to light.

They say, the birth of a new life is the most incredible thing one can ever see. With 36 Chambers, we saw a multiple labour.

Can you fight the Wu Tang sword style? Not a chance.

Popular music these days has become foul. Every thing is going downhill, with the birth of bubblegum pop. Even hip hop is at an all time low. It began after the deaths of both the Notorious B.I.G., and Tupac Shakur, with the un-originality of rappers like Puffy (Bad Boy), Will Smith, and the Cash Money crew. It seems they are into hip hop for money and/or fame.

The music of the Wu-Tang (back in the early to mid 90s) brought orginality and depth to hip hop. The release of 36 chambers allowed people to look at hip hop, not only as "talking over beats", but as an art form.

The production of the RZA is top-notch. He pulls in trippy melancolic piano melodies and dope beats. He also brings in cool backgrounds and a few rappers with "killer" lyrics. My point is, "give the man his credit". He is a musical genius.

36 chambers intends to bore the listener with the slow and steady track "Bring Da Rukus". It then wakes you up with "Shame on a Nigga". Watch out for the brilliant performance by ODB. It then introduces you to the clan with the third track. For the next 2-3 tracks, it puts the listener in a relaxed soulful mode. Half way though the album, it picks up and plays around with the listener by bringing in humor and gratifying hip hop music. Tracks like C.R.E.A.M., Method Man, and Protect ya neck are examples. Tearz is a hip hop ballad about bad choices in life, also a great one. The final track is a wrap-up of all the tracks. A good idea for a conclusion.

If anyone should own only one hip hop record in their life, it certainly should be this one. This is as good as hip hop gets. I have failed to find a hip hop record that bears comparison to this one. Till this date, it is the highest status in the evolution of hip hop.

The "36 Chambers" album is one of the few ever that completely revolutionized hip hop. I'm not going to say that it's the greatest ever, although it's easily in my top ten, but it's easily one of the most important, changing the face of the music genre for good. In 1993, hip hop was slowly drifting away from the Native Tongues, east coast mindset towards a gangstafied, lyrically simplistic style from the west coast. And then all of a sudden, "36 Chambers" arrived and produced something like hip hop had never seen before. 8 ultra talented MCs, simple yet intricate beats, metaphors, samples, hooks, something totally different. In fact, if it weren't for "36 Chambers", much of what is so prevalent in hip hop today would never have happened. There would be no posses the likes of G-Unit and Bad Boy, no skits in hip hop albums, no metaphoric raps the likes of Nas and AZ's mafioso or MF Doom's cartoon style, no movie samples, and no spinning piano beats like on here. Wu took over hip hop for the next ten years and beyond thanks to this album. "36 Chambers" is tough, funny, raw, amazing, entertaining, catchy, and head spinning all at the same time. Their style remains hard throughout, often metaphoric through kung-fu and such in describing a hard, distorted world of their hometown "Shaolin", aka Staten Island. The 8 MCs move in and out over RZAs production consistently, and it's easy to see why "36 Chambers" is regarded as such a classic album.

The album leads off with "Bring Da Ruckus", an introductory type of track that lets everybody know who the Wu-Tang Clan is, hard raps from all, a silly intro, and a great song all around. "Shame on a N**ga" is a funny, catchy, loopy song led by Method Man and RZA. After the classic "Clan in da Front", with its looped beat, comes "7th Chamber", a track with a crazy intro skit followed by a great story. On "Can it All Be So Simple", the Clan drops some raw philosophy over a classic beat and hook. "Da Mystery of Chessboxin'" is one of those tracks that exhibits everything we love about Wu, with a crazy silly theme that you really have to listen to to know what they're talking about. Of course, "Wu Tang Clan Ain't Nothin' to F**k Wit" is on this album, one of the classic tracks of hip hop history. One of the hardest and craziest songs ever, it has a creepy hook and is a straight classic. This is followed by what many consider one of the greatest songs ever, "C.R.E.A.M." It has a simple piano and bass beat, with a classic hook ("Get the money...dolla dolla bill y'all!") and storytelling lyric. "Method Man" is the first introspective track from the namesake that launched him to stardom, with a funny intro. The last three tracks, "Protect Ya Neck", "Tearz", and "7th Chamber Part II" are all classics in themselves that helped produce the legend that is "36 Chambers".

"36 Chambers" is an album that is so strange and amazing that you can listen to it a million times and find some new beat, lyric, metaphor, or skit that you love each time. It is an album that completely revolutionized rap and its tremors are still being felt today.