Who ever thought weגd see the day our beloved Wu Tang members would desperately cling for relevancy? There is no denying the Wu is one of the greatest, most influential and successful groups of all-time. Growing up there was point when every Wu release was met with tremendous excitement and copped with ease. Even the Wu affiliates were copped, every one from Shyheim to GP Wu to Killarmy all the way to Royal Fam.
Theyגve been responsible for a plethora of classics, both solo and collective efforts. But if weגre all being honest here, we know the last release that was truly worthy of its praise was the ג09 Only Built 4 Cuban Linx Pt. II. Way before that and certainly well after, there hasnגt been much and when I say before that, I meant for a long period of time. Once the dust settled and the hype dissolved, we later realized albums such as 8 Diagrams or the 11 year old Iron Flag were simply not up to par. They were not how we wanted to remember the Wu.
The internet is no stranger to the Wu phenomenon. Ever since the dawn of Al Goreגs creation, Wu Tang has had one of the most substantial followings to exist online. Kids all over the globe know Wu Tang is for the children. From Nova Scotia all the way to Slovenia, they come in droves to see them perform and if theyגre lucky they may just get half of them to appear. It has pained me to see what has become of their careers lately. Each passing year their careers dwindle, suffering from obscurity, inactivity, inconsistency and occasionally, embarrassing career decisions (desperation collabos).
The best analogy I can make of this is Michael Jordan to some extent. Michael Jordan was unstoppable, he was the greatest. MJ had quite a few hiatuses in his career. Several times he battled retirement until one day his ego got the best of him and then so did father time.
After some years off, Jordan decided the hunger was still there, but more importantly it was the need to prove to himself, as well as the naysayers he still was Michael Jordan. The game changed. The rules changed. The talent changed. Here were new kids coming right out of high school top billinג. It ate him up and while all the newbs were getting the shine, he felt he too could compete at a high level. It was important to reestablish himself and remind everyone he fathered their style.
He gave the comeback a shot and while he had some memorable moments, his return didnגt help keep his legacy in tact. In fact, many will argue it tarnished his career a bit. It was Rocky coming out of retirement to fight in his late 40′s.
It was Robert Dinero just taking any olג script these days. It was George Lucas messing with the Star Wars franchise. It was watching that late-50′s, once attractive woman squeeze into a pair of True Religions. We all desperately wanted Mike to be the same guy. We wanted him to drop 30 nightly, hit the game winner shot and just straight dunk on fools. Nobody likes to remix found memories, but the reality was Michael Jordan was a shell of his former self.
His body just would not do what his mind wanted it. He was disconnected for too long. He was just old. This is what happens with rappers too. The most important decision an athlete or musician has to make in their career is when its time to walk away.
Method Man was last been seen in The Sitter with Johan Hill and who can forget his latest hip-hop contribution, a Sour Patch Kids song?
Raekwon was last seen shouting out Mac Miller on Twitter before jumping on a Mac Miller golden era remix along side Posdnous, desperately hoping to once again revive his career.
Ghostface Killah recently gained a lot of weight and bleached his skin white. He is better known as Action Bronson. When in Black skin, he continues to tease everyone with this גitגs coming soonג MF Doom collabo and/or his wonderful R&B experimental albums.
Inspectah Deck has threatened to retire multiple times over the years due to his lackluster album sales. He blamed the fans but recently teamed up with lyrical assassin M.C. Esoteric for a project.
U-God can be found posting on Philaflava, or stalking ladies via social media dropping that גIגm the man behind Black Shampoo line.ג
Masta Killa is still making forgettable music with the indie Nature Sounds.
Olג Dirty Bastard died but still has unauthorized collaborations being releases sporadically.
GZA, when he isnגt beefing with 50 Cent can found putting somebody to sleep or performing Liquid Swords in full at a Rock The Bells concert nearest you.
RZA is perfectly content, filthy rich and is best friends with Quentin Tarantino and David Duchovny, which has now hired him to appear on Californication. Did I mention he gets to fuck Meagan Good on the show? RZA doesnגt feel the need to prove himself or carry the Wu anymore. Whom he also feels are a bunch of ingrates.
it's even more sad because a few years ago there was a brief period that looked so promising, like they might really come back
i still say that rae's last was a great ep compromised via padding with songs that had horrible features. big doe rehab had its merits too. but aside from that, they got nothing but an occasional good song and these days even those seem to happen more by accident then on purpose. i'm still gonna check whatever the more prominent members put out, but i expect literally nothing from them.
i'm actually kinda dreading the doomstarks thing, if it even comes out. that cassette thing was cool for a second but had no replay value at all. i don't want another nail in the coffin, especially one that big
the only new thing i would really look forward to is some sort of Rev Burke project.
The sad part is they've all still got the talent and potential to put a great album together, but they would basically have to set egos aside and give complete creative control to one executive producer (hell anyone on the :phila:could do it) who decides what beats and verses get used, and who the guests are. A good Wu album doesn't even really need guests.
because that description of him is fairly lazy and reactionary and only reflects a partial truth (there is similarity but it's nowhere near as cut and dry), and gloss is mostly falling back on it for a laugh and a way to stir up some shit
Ghostface Killah recently gained a lot of weight and bleached his skin white. He is better known as Action Bronson. When in Black skin, he continues to tease everyone with this גitגs coming soonג MF Doom collabo and/or his wonderful R&B experimental albums.
Truth. wrote:Raekwon was just here doing a show at a piano bar
I didn't go
I went to see ghostface recently and it was very underwhelming. one verse or half a verse from like 20 songs featuring a bunch of hype men yelling for about an hour and a half.
Is this was most rap shows are like though? I don't go to many. Are there rappers who do whole songs live?
I've seen GZA and Raekwon both inside of a year and they are still dope on stage. In fact I was astonished Raekwon managed to exert as much energy (nh) as he did without suffering cardiac arrest. He was hype as fuck. And GZA was a tactician with his shit: gliding from one side of the stage to the other all finessed out.
DLG wrote:
Is this was most rap shows are like though? I don't go to many. Are there rappers who do whole songs live?
there are some, not many but they're out there. sadly, rapping over full songs instead of instrumentals, as well as only doing one verse from a song and cutting it off are becoming more and more accepted.
in my experience, raekwon has been doing this for ages. every time i mention this the borks chase me around the thread with torches and pitchforks, but in the 10 or so times i've seen him do solo sets he NEVER played a good one. he always has 20 people on stage, he's always out of breath, he always does snippets. i've seen him stand on stage and nod along as the dj played songs from cuban linx and he only shouted out adlibs for them. it's that bad.
their group shows were always the best in my opinion. the solo shows vary drastically. obv emp's account of rae is very different from mine, maybe i just had bad luck or he struggles with NY crowds (this is a common thing). or maybe emp just got lucky and caught him on a good night
when I saw ghostface, he was all "we got a big surprise for yall tonight" and just when you thought it couldn't get worse, he brought out Killah Priest to do two of his own songs.
Raekwon didn't have a posse with him when I saw him so maybe that was a factor. Just two dudes (nh) and a DJ. It also was fairly early, maybe 11:00? Regardless, I wasn't disappointed.
DLG wrote:when I saw ghostface, he was all "we got a big surprise for yall tonight" and just when you thought it couldn't get worse, he brought out Killah Priest to do two of his own songs.
i've seen every member of the wu perform before (except odb). twice as a group & multiple solo shows by others
i would rank rae & gfk behind method man as the better performers in the group. i saw ghost in december w/ sheek louch/killah priest/trife & it was amazing. saw rae for the third time last month with la the darkman & he did his thing also (although not the best performance of his i've seen)
been to a lot.. so i have realistic expectations of rap shows tho. as long as they perform a lot of songs i want to hear (45mins to 1.5hours), have energy & are audible on the mic. that's a good show
complaining about listening to two full Killah Priest songs after an hour of half verses from ghostface when I came to see ghostface, my favorite rapper, rap at me.
complaining about listening to two full Killah Priest songs after an hour of half verses from ghostface when I came to see ghostface, my favorite rapper, rap at me.
complaining about listening to two full Killah Priest songs after an hour of half verses from ghostface when I came to see ghostface, my favorite rapper, rap at me.
stay afro-centric though, bro
As long as you promise to stay Miller's Outpost.
are you jelly that I saw 13 & God perform at an openair fest in Denmark?
complaining about listening to two full Killah Priest songs after an hour of half verses from ghostface when I came to see ghostface, my favorite rapper, rap at me.
stay afro-centric though, bro
As long as you promise to stay Miller's Outpost.
are you jelly that I saw 13 & God perform at an openair fest in Denmark?
DOSE ONE WAS WEARING WINGS, BRO.
SEEN HIM IN LIKE '98 WEARING REALLY SHORT SHORTS, BRO.
complaining about listening to two full Killah Priest songs after an hour of half verses from ghostface when I came to see ghostface, my favorite rapper, rap at me.
stay afro-centric though, bro
As long as you promise to stay Miller's Outpost.
are you jelly that I saw 13 & God perform at an openair fest in Denmark?
DOSE ONE WAS WEARING WINGS, BRO.
so you openly admit to going to 13 and God concerts in Denmark, yet you whine like a bitch when killah priest performs 2 songs during a ghost show...
i like 8 diagramz a lot better than iron flag & not much worse than the W. main dif is the W has better verses.
anyway who can expect a group to still be hot 20 years after their debut? they had a great run & the fact that one of em will still occasionally drop a dope record is a blessing.
complaining about listening to two full Killah Priest songs after an hour of half verses from ghostface when I came to see ghostface, my favorite rapper, rap at me.
stay afro-centric though, bro
As long as you promise to stay Miller's Outpost.
are you jelly that I saw 13 & God perform at an openair fest in Denmark?
DOSE ONE WAS WEARING WINGS, BRO.
so you openly admit to going to 13 and God concerts in Denmark, yet you whine like a bitch when killah priest performs 2 songs during a ghost show...
damn, that's a faggot...
I was at a festival bro, they were one of over 200 groups performing, chill out.
Also saw the Perceptionists that weekend and they were pretty great, full songs AND THEY FREESTYLED YO.
complaining about listening to two full Killah Priest songs after an hour of half verses from ghostface when I came to see ghostface, my favorite rapper, rap at me.
stay afro-centric though, bro
As long as you promise to stay Miller's Outpost.
are you jelly that I saw 13 & God perform at an openair fest in Denmark?
DOSE ONE WAS WEARING WINGS, BRO.
so you openly admit to going to 13 and God concerts in Denmark, yet you whine like a bitch when killah priest performs 2 songs during a ghost show...
damn, that's a faggot...
I was at a festival bro, they were one of over 200 groups performing, chill out.
Also saw the Perceptionists that weekend and they were pretty great, full songs AND THEY FREESTYLED YO.
Ghostface is the only rap show I have ever gone to as a solo show, all the other rap shows I've seen were at festivals. I took a 5 hour trip because he's my favorite rapper, that's why I was salty, I have nothing against KP and wouldn't mind if he did five songs if ghostface delivered the goods.
