Step One: Wu-Tang Clan: Enter the Wu-Tang.

Artist:  Wu-Tang Clan
Album:  Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)
Release Date:  Nov. 9, 1993
Producer:  RZA ("Da Mystery of Chessboxin'" co-produced by Ol' Dirty Bastard; "Wu-Tang Clan Ain't Nuthing ta F' Wit" co-produced by Method Man)

Review:  Over 20 years on, Wu-Tang Clan's debut Enter the Wu-Tang has been studied and explored so much it's hard to find anything new to say about it.  They recorded their debut single "Protect Ya Neck" at Firehouse Studios for $300 - and they paid in quarters.  "Protect Ya Neck" features seven full verses - one from each member of the Wu-Tang Clan except U-God (who only tags the end of Method Man's verse with a couple quick lines) and Masta Killa.  "Protect Ya Neck" was backed with "After Laughter Comes Tears," which was renamed "Tearz" for Enter the Wu-Tang, in its first pressing - then backed with the song "Method Man" for its second pressing.

This first single may serve as a perfect microcosm of the Clan's discography.  On its A-side, RZA's trademark grimy sound of kung-fu samples, deep bass drums and chunky snares with soul- and funk-inspired samples that groove under boastful but brilliantly-written verses by several members of the group.  On the first B-side, this same production changes roles to sound somber and earnest instead of tough, while on top of it, hard-hitting rhymes about the deadly side of life in poverty in America remind us of the "eight million stories" in New York City.  On the second B-side, "Method Man" is a solo track showcasing one specific group member, like an artful commercial to be on the lookout for his own record to come out soon - and it did; Method Man's Tical dropped a year later as the first Wu-family release following Enter the Wu-Tang.  The production is consistently unique and enjoyable, the verses offer stories alternating between lives of ego and desperation and the solo track - which hypes Method Man's solo debut - is a reminder of the Clan's storied record contract that reads like a cross between a pyramid scheme and a self-contained sovereign nation's economic system.

So goes the album and so goes Enter the Wu-Tang.  The blistering opener, "Bring Da Ruckus," is as rugged on the outside as its rhymes are beautiful on the inside.  Ghostface Killah leads off with a legendary first verse that cites a metaphor of rhyming being likened to gunfire, the damage that the Nixon administration did to an entire generation of Americans and news items like the Palestine Liberation Organization and the ATF raiding the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas.  GZA's first line, "I'm more rugged than slaveman boots," recalls the African-American struggle in the United States since before the Revolutionary War - and all the seriousness of the first song is followed by the often goofy "Shame on a Nigga," which includes Ol' Dirty Bastard talking about getting an STD.  The flow from tough to silly is breakneck, but somehow it all works.

Serious stories of street life permeate "Can it Be All so Simple," "C.R.E.A.M." and "Tearz" - Raekwon's first verse for the band is his opener on "C.R.E.A.M.," which starts "I grew up on the crime side, the New York Times side, stayin' alive was no jive."  He means that he was born and raised in the places you only hear about in articles about drug busts and murder cases in newspapers and news shows.  The next line is "Had second-hands, moms bounced on old man, then we moved to Shaolin land," explaining that he had hand-me-down clothes, and he and his single mother moved alone to Staten Island when she left his father.  Tight lines like these, with their rhyme schemes, slang and narrative, have always been a staple of Wu-Tang.

And the entire album is peppered with samples from martial arts films like Shaolin and Wu-Tang and Ten Tigers of Kwangtung.  Kung-fu is as much a part of RZA's signature style here as the soul samples and lo-fi drum machines.  From a distance, the album is 12 songs, nine emcees, one legendary album.

Legacy:  How legendary?  Enter the Wu-Tang is credited alongside Nas' Illmatic as one of the defining albums in the East Coast hip-hop scene.  It helped revolutionize rap in the early '90s and RZA's influence has been felt throughout the genre ever since.  The revival of soul sampling is often credited to RZA, as is evidenced by acts like Kanye West.  This is also the first step on the Map of Shaolin, meaning that Enter the Wu-Tang was explosive and genre-defining to the rap industry that it has since led to over 60 albums related directly to it in one way or another, whether future Wu-Tang Clan releases or solo albums by any of its nine original members.

Recommended Tracks:  Enter the Wu-Tang is damn near perfect, so it pains me to pick a favorite few songs, but new Wu fans should check every song from this album that had a video: "Protect Ya Neck," "C.R.E.A.M.," "Wu-Tang Clan Ain't Nuthin' ta F' Wit," "Method Man" and "Da Mystery of Chessboxin'."  They represent the grimy, the brag-filled, the dramatic, the funny and the most lyrical sides of the Wu.

Coming Next Wu Wednesday:  Method Man's 1994 debut Tical.

Shaolin and Wu-Tang (1983).

This is a review of the film that inspired Enter the Wu-Tang, not the similarly titled Raekwon solo album Shaolin Vs. Wu-Tang.  The review for the Rae album will be up much later.  Also, forgive any misspellings of character names; subtitle translations and IMDb didn't want to agree on this one.




"Shaolin shadowboxing...and the Wu-Tang sword style.  If what you say is true, the Shaolin and the Wu-Tang could be dangerous."

One night in a brothel, a friendly martial arts sparring practice between the Shaolin student Hung Yung-Kit and the Wu-Tang apprentice Chou Fong-Wu leads a local Qing Lord to devise an evil plan to take down both schools of kung-fu.  His agenda and several misunderstandings lead Yung-Kit and Fong-Wu to see each other's schools as the responsible parties for deaths of their loved ones.  The Qing Lord schedules a tournament between the two kung-fu schools, which are already rivals, under the decree that the losing school must leave Hong Kong.  Traditionally, the schools are already rivals, and the friendship between Yung-Kit and Fong-Wu is already controversial - and their friendship is pushed to its limits when the two are trained under their respective schools and made to fight each other to the death.

This is the basic plot of the 1983 martial arts classic Shaolin and Wu-Tang (少林與武當]), starring and directed by Gordon Liu.  Liu plays the Shaolin student Hung Yung-Kit in this film, and keen-eyed viewers may recognize him as Pai Mei in Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill Vol. 2.  The martial arts on display are fantastic, whether showcasing Shaolin's bare-knuckle fighting or Wu-Tang's sword style.  The plot lends itself well to excellent cinematography too.  For example, it's stated in the film that Wu-Tang is an offshoot of the Shaolin school.  Thus, both disciplines are familiar with how to learn defensive techniques against each other.  This leads to plenty of tense close-up shots of Yung-Kit disarming opponents with his bare fists and Fong-Wu using the flat of his blade to shield his body from Shaolin's techniques of attacking the opponent's pressure points.  Liu confidently cuts from a medium shot of both opponents to a close-up of their handiwork and back without missing a beat.

There's also plenty to love in the plot - two friends-turned-enemies may seem a bit cliched in 2014, but it's pulled off so well in Shaolin and Wu-Tang that it's hard not to empathize with both men.  The Qing Lord's plot to learn both schools of martial arts then tear them down is incredibly entertaining at every turn, as is the third act which shows both students returning to their respective temples to master their combat.  Even the idea behind the yin-yang materializes as both schools start out separate, but by the film's final scene, viewers are rewarded with a demonstration of both Shaolin and Wu-Tang mixed together into one cohesive and masterful fighting style.  Admittedly, there is some difficulty with the subtitles and dub translations (Cantonese/Mandarin to English), resulting in a bit of missed subtext.  It actually seemed as though the version I watched was subtitled in English by the original Hong Kong filmmakers whereas the simultaneously-running English voiceovers were written by Westerners and recorded by American voice actors.

Speaking of American talent, what about the connection of this flick to the Staten Island hip-hop group Wu-Tang Clan?  First, this film is where the band got their name.  As if that weren't enough, the dubbed voice acting constitutes the majority of dialogue samples that RZA took for the band's album Enter the Wu-Tang, including most of the classic intro to "Bring Da Ruckus" and the first sample in the intro to the single "Da Mystery of Chessboxin'," which reads "A game of chess is like a swordfight...you must think first, before you move."  "Da Mystery of Chessboxin'" was not only a successful Wu-Tang single, but opens with the verse most people still know U-God for: "Raw I'mma give it to ya / with no trivia / we're like cocaine straight from Bolivia."  Finally, it contains the only verse on the album from Masta Killa, the ninth member to join Wu-Tang.  It can be said that this film not only gave Wu-Tang their band name, but is also responsible for some of the distinctive and unique sound associated with Enter the Wu-Tang.  Those points make this an absolute must-see for any Wu fan.

Definitely recommended.

Check back on Wu Wednesday for the first step on the Map of Shaolin - Wu-Tang Clan's 1993 smash debut album Enter the Wu-Tang.

The Map, the Plan.

Starting Wednesday, April 30, Map of Shaolin officially launches as a 16-month weekly blog project.  The purpose of Map of Shaolin is to discuss, analyze and review every studio album released by the groundbreaking hip-hop group Wu-Tang Clan and its original nine members: RZA, GZA, Ol' Dirty Bastard, Inspectah Deck, Raekwon the Chef, U-God, Ghostface Killah, Masta Killa and Method Man.  We're starting with the oldest Wu-Tang album - the 1993 smash hit Enter the Wu-Tang - and moving up from there.

First I'd like to show you the map (pardon the font size), then I have a quick FAQ after it to answer the questions that will inevitably pop up as you review the map.

Q: Are you associated with Wu-Tang Clan?
A: No.  Unless you count the cost of that map probably helping to put their kids through school.

Q: Why not Cappadonna?
A: No disrespect, but Cappadonna wasn't made an official member of the group until after their biggest two releases: Enter the Wu-Tang and Wu-Tang Forever.  Since Cappadonna is featured on Wu-Tang Forever left and right, as well as on solo albums, I'll still discuss his contributions, but I'm only looking at the careers of the first nine Wu generals.

Q: What about soundtracks, compilations, guest appearances, side projects etc?
A: This is a little trickier.  If I bought every album by every Wu-related act and every guest spot on every soundtrack and other artists' records, I'd end up with another 150 CD's to review with only a fleeting connection to this masterful group, so I'm running on a loose policy of "50% Wu or better."  I have to make some exceptions based on the heart though.  Afro Samurai: Resurrection has a soundtrack produced by RZA, but original Wu members only appear on about 30% of the tracks - but I'm gonna discuss it.  On the other hand, RZA produced the entire first Northstar CD but I'm not reviewing that.

Q: Will you review upcoming albums like GZA's Dark Matter and Wu-Tang's A Better Tomorrow?
A: I'll probably add most commercially available records onto the end, even if they come out during this weekly project.  However, since Wu-Tang's secret album Once Upon a Time in Shaolin is going to be listen-only and touring the country, I feel like anyone reading this would want to know about it ASAP to figure out if they should go listen...So if I get the chance to hear it in the middle of the project, I'll bump everything back a week and put my Once Upon a Time in Shaolin review up the day I hear it.

Q: So is this just gonna be ~65 album reviews?
A: Naw. No review scores, but a quick discussion of each album: favorite tracks, trivia, best rhymes, what it meant for that person's career, etc.  Also, not just albums; I have copies of related films like Shaolin and Wu-Tang, Five Deadly Venoms, Shogun Assassin, Ghost Dog, Afro Samurai and Man with the Iron Fists that I'll be talking about on the weekend before their related album's discussion (e.g. Masta Killa sampled Five Deadly Venoms to open his solo debut No Said Date, so my Five Deadly Venoms review will go up a couple days before I talk about No Said Date).

Q: Why did you rename the blog?
A: The idea of "Wu Wednesdays" predates this project, so I thought about it and realized it may cause confusion to name my blog after it - or seem like I was trying to capitalize off someone else's efforts, which I'm not. Nobody contacted me or asked me to change it; I just figured this would be clearer and less confusing.

Keep an eye out in coming days for my review of the classic kung-fu flick Shaolin and Wu-Tang, then my Enter the Wu-Tang discussion on April 30!

Inspectah Deck - Live at 5127 Lounge in Centreville, VA, 4/18/14.

Celebrity and controversy are certainly no strangers to each other, so between Christ Bearer's recent self-castration and suicide attempt and the possibility that Raekwon won't be on the new Wu-Tang Clan album, there was a tangible sense of confusion and hope last night leading up to the Inspectah Deck show at 5127 Restaurant and Lounge in Centreville, VA.  How would Inspectah Deck, aka Rebel INS sound?  What would the mood be like with all this riff-raff surrounding the Clan these days?

Doors opened at 8, with several local acts including COC and Warbucks getting the crowd hyped for Deck's arrival.  DJ Spinsane spun the music as emcees from around the way bobbed and rocked rhymes for the audience.

It was after 11:30 before Deck arrived at the club with a small entourage.  He moved through the back of the crowd with a silence and patient determination that camouflaged his presence entirely.  He walked towards a cordoned-off table in the rear of the room - had a waitress not told me he'd arrived, I don't think I would've realized he was even there.  Nor did the rest of the crowd; he must have edged his way through 30 people who didn't bat an eyelash.

Only one large young man walked up to Deck and greeted him as he neared his private table.  After he left, I asked him if he thought I could go say hey since he did.  "Ah, I used to tour with Deck; I was just saying what's up," he said.  "He's so down to earth; I'm sure he'd be happy to meet you after the show but right now is mind is so..."  He made the hand gesture for being focused, looking straight ahead, which looks like making blinders of your hands.  "Y'know?"

Deck sat at the table for close to a half hour, waitresses serving his friends while he waited for his set to begin.  More than anything, I was struck by the zen-like stillness and stoicism of the man.  He barely moved.  He eyed the opening acts seriously or looked down at his table.  In keeping with Wu-Tang's frequent martial arts film imagery, Deck was like a professional assassin waiting to strike - a modern-day samurai, hand on his katana's handle, imagining the killstroke playing out in his head an uncountable amount of times.  What the young emcee told me made sense - Inspectah Deck had thousands of words flying through his head and he was here to to lay them all out in a row and make them pop.

This is gonna be a good fuckin' show, I thought.

Colt Seavers was Deck's backup for the night, filling in lines with him and keeping the crowd hyped.  Colt got onstage and did a track before introducing Deck, who almost immediately launched into his verses from three 1993 Wu classics in a row:  "Protect Ya Neck," "Wu-Tang Clan Ain't Nuttin' Ta F Wit" and "C.R.E.A.M."

By the time he wrapped up "C.R.E.A.M." he said "Fuck the stage" and asked the crowd to make room for him.  He performed most of the rest of his set walking through the crowd.

Deck wanders the crowd, 4/18/14.

He came closer to the present by performing two tracks from Raekwon's 1995 classic Only Built 4 Cuban Linx... - "Ice Cream" and "Guillotine (Swordz)."  "Guillotine" is a personal favorite.  Deck's entire verse is an assault on the senses.  He opens, "Poisonous paragraphs smash the phonograph in half / It be the Inspectah Deck on the warpath."  Later he spits "First they criticize, but now they have become / Mentally paralyzed with hits that I devise / Now I testify, the rest is I, Rebel INS / Your highness, blessed to electrify."

Perhaps Deck's most famous verse is his opener for the 1997 Wu-Tang single "Triumph."  "Triumph" is an amazing song, partially because it manages to fit all 10 members of Wu-Tang (including the quasi-official member Cappadonna) onto a five-minute track, but also because of the rock-solid lyrics from start to finish.  Deck's first verse is often called the greatest opening verse in the history of hip-hop, and according to a 10-part article on Grantland, the rest of the Clan heard Deck's verse once it was recorded in the studio and were so impressed (or intimidated) they went back to their notebooks and rewrote some of their own verses.  Here are the first few lines [Note: "Killa bees" are a frequent nickname for Wu-Tang and their associated acts].

"I bomb atomically
Socrates' philosophies and hypotheses
Can't define how I be droppin' these mockeries
Lyrically perform armed robbery
Flee with the lottery, possibly they spotted me
Battle-scarred shogun, explosion when my pen hits
Tremendous, ultraviolet shine-blind forensics
I inspect you through the future see millennium
Killa bees sold fifty gold sixty platinum."

So, Inspectah Deck slammed through his verse of "Triumph."  He beat it with a brick stick and nailed it to the wall.  Admittedly, the one real problem touring solo (when people first know you as part of a group) is when a classic track comes up and the other emcees aren't there to do their parts.  Colt Seavers helped pad out some expected hooks in the big hits, but it just wouldn't be right for one member of the Wu to perform a 10-verse song by himself.  Instead, Deck opted not to step on his brothers' toes and mostly only do his own lines.  This is common enough in hip-hop - it's a tough choice to play crowd-pleasers but skip some of their verses, but one that the audience was wise enough to respect.  Unfortunately, that means some tracks (including "Triumph" and "Guillotine") could barely pass the 60-second mark.  However, that's the way it is and the alternative is not to play them at all or imitate someone else's style, which would be far worse.

Deck performs, 4/18/14.

Deck also did his verse from "For Heaven's Sake," which, like "Triumph," was released on the 1997 Wu-Tang double-album Wu-Tang Forever.  The biggest surprise to me was a performance of "Black Mozart" from Raekwon's Only Built 4 Cuban Linx II - I figured his rendition of his verses on Rae albums had finished after "Guillotine."  He also performed a song or two from his last solo album, Czarface, which he collaborated on with 7L and Esoteric.  My first thought going into the show would be that he'd pull out more tracks from his own solo records to help lengthen the set.  I was surprised not to hear "City High" from The Movement or the title track from his debut Uncontrolled Substance, but that doesn't mean the set was lacking in any way.

INS paid tribute to Ol' Dirty Bastard by doing a version of ODB's "Baby C'mon," which the DJ cut off prematurely and Deck had to yell at him to turn it back on.  In fact, the DJ was the only real low point of the night - besides the "Baby C'mon" incident, he played "Triumph" and "Black Mozart" twice each, and Inspectah Deck ended up laughing at him and telling him to play different records to perform.  At one point, somebody leaned over to me and said "That's it for that DJ, man - you get one chance and he just blew it."  Later, on another one of his blunders, I caught a young woman's eye and she was shaking her head and rolling her eyes at him.  I leaned over and said "Somebody's about to fire that DJ!" and she said "Oh he's already fired."  I don't know if she had some inside knowledge or was just guessing, but I wouldn't bet against her either way.  It went so poorly that INS actually joked "What's that DJ's name?  DJ Knife-in-the-Chest? Okay."  But he did his best to accommodate the DJ - when "Triumph" came back on a second time, Deck freestyled a verse over it and Colt performed one of his own verses too.

Between tracks, Deck also talked about Virginia being one of the first states outside New York to give Wu-Tang a chance back in 1992 or 1993, which was a nice touch, as well as downplay the rumors about the new Wu-Tang album that may or may not involve Raekwon.  He didn't call anyone out by name, but made it a specific point to mention that he didn't have any conflicts with anyone in the family, and people are hyping it up to sound like more than it is.

On his way out, Inspectah Deck thanked us all again and said to look out for Czarface II, which will drop "this fall."  Hip-hop is notorious for getting delayed - everything from sample clearance to red tape in the paperwork holds things up - but all we can do is keep our fingers crossed.  It's never bad to get another album from one of Wu's most solid and consistent rappers, so whenever it comes, it'll be in my shopping cart.

After the show I met Deck outside and he signed my copy of his second album, The Movement.  I told him I saw him I saw Wu-Tang on Maui in 1996 when I was 13 years old and it made a lifelong fan out of me.  He raised his eyebrows and said "On Maui?  Oh yeah, we had fun at that show."  It was the knowing tone my father gave me when he talked about his college days.  I have no idea the debauchery the Clan got into back on the islands, but apparently they remember it almost 20 years later.

At the end of the day, it was an airtight performance by Inspectah Deck and Colt Seavers.  They had energy, the rhymes were on point, I heard enough INS classics to keep me happy for life and the crowd was all positive, all enthusiastic.  Aside from a few issues with the DJ, for whom I honestly feel bad and hope he didn't get in too much trouble, it couldn't have gone much better.

Curious about Inspectah Deck?  Click here to listen to "City High" off 2003's The Movement and keep an eye out for our posts about all five of his studio albums in the months to come.

Stay tuned for more posts leading up to the April 30 launch of Map of Shaolin!

Introduction.

Currently listening:  GZA - "4th Chamber" (from Liquid Swords)

What up; welcome to Map of Shaolin!  My name is jonny Lupsha and I own a small publishing outfit in north Virginia called A Carrier of Fire.  I have no idea what makes Wu-Tang Clan so damn infectious - the beats, the rhymes, the kung-fu samples or something else - but I knew I was hooked from my first listen in 1996.  I got more and more into them, and I realized last month I had about 55 of their 65 or so group and solo albums.  I decided to round out my collection and start up this blog.

Every Wednesday, starting on April 30, I'm going to talk about a new album from Wu-Tang Clan or one of its original nine members (RZA, GZA, Ol' Dirty Bastard, Inspectah Deck, Raekwon the Chef, U-God, Ghostface Killah, Masta Killa and Method Man).  No disrespect to Cappadonna, but I want to look at the first nine guys.  You can call it a review, but I'm also aiming to educate as much as critique.  You'll find trivia, bizarre stories, recommended tracks and more about each album.  I'll start with 1993's Enter the Wu-Tang and work my way forward by release date.

This is a totally unofficial, fan-made blog project dedicated to The Wu-Tang Clan.  We're not in any way affiliated with Wu-Tang, and all the opinions on here are our own, not to be taken as official dialogue from the band.

The purpose is to take this unbelievable band and find out where they came from, what their releases said about the group and the scene at the time and what it led to.  I just wanna take this bag of snakes and lay it out straight for anyone down with Wu-Tang, answering some questions along the way, like...Is Shogun Assassin really that good?  What's up with the apocalyptic theme on Tical 2000?  How close to official retail release is that pirated copy of A Son Unique?  Is Think Differently: Wu-Tang Meets the Indie Culture, Masta Killa Presents: The Next Chamber or Legendary Weapons worth the money?  Ideally I'll even get a review of the super-secret album Once Upon a Time in Shaolin up at some point; I live outside DC so I'm hoping it'll tour the Smithsonian and I'll get to give it a listen with my pad and pen.

This will probably take about 15 months, ending in August 2015 or so.  I'll fully detail the plan next week when I get a picture of my entire library uploaded to the blog, but I'll answer one question you may already have:  Why start at Enter the Wu-Tang when a couple albums, like GZA's Words from the Genius and RZA's Ooh We Love You Rakeem came out before then?  I feel like once RZA, GZA and ODB started Wu-Tang in 1992, they had a mission and a philosophy in mind that wasn't present when they released their earlier stuff.  So I'm starting with Enter the Wu-Tang, when the world met all nine Wu generals.

So bookmark this page and check back every week.  Send me questions and comments at ACarrierofFire@gmail.com - I'll even post the best non-trolling ones.  So play nice; I'm committing over a year to only listening to one band.

Until next time?  Hip-hop is forever, Wu-Tang is for the children, and killa bees are most definitely on the swarm.