Enter the 36 Chambers will always remain their finest work, but I think a lot of heads never gave this album a fair shot. Triumph and Runited are quite possibly the 2 best songs to ever kick off an album.
Impossible
MGM
A Better Tomorrow
Bells of War
Little Ghetto Boys
Heaterz
Reunited
Triumph
Older Godz
Its yourz
all of these can stand up to anything the clan has ever done as being their best. This is also where you can hear Ghost really becoming the future of the WU.
RZA changed up his style a bit from Enter..., but it was only a slightly more polished, less dusty version.
I know people who still write this album off as inferior. Appreciate!
I used to be one of those guys who wrote this album off - not as wack, but disappointing, I guess? Been bumpin' it a lot lately though - I still think a few tracks could've been shaved off, but yeah, there's a lot of ill shit on here.
MD wrote:I used to be one of those guys who wrote this album off - not as wack, but disappointing, I guess? Been bumpin' it a lot lately though - I still think a few tracks could've been shaved off, but yeah, there's a lot of ill shit on here.
yup, me too
and ^^^there was a poll recently, i voted for biggie but forever blew everything else out of the water...
A Better Tomorrow is my favorite track ever. Everyone absolutely murders their verses, especially Deck and Rza. The first time i heard the line about breakin down the flag i was :shock:
I also always thought that ghost was the only person in hip hop who could pull off a line like "rza hits me off lovely and i love him" and make it sound so dope.
RZA experimented with strings and polished beats and the end result was certified fresh. Not as raw and in your face as 36 Chambers but to me it's the best rap double album in existence.
its funny cause i just got into this album lately...I really dig like 10 songs on this album, reunited, for heaven's sake, cash still rules, as high as wu tang gets (one of gza's best verses), severe punishment, better tommorow, itz yours, triumph, bells of war (probably my favorite song off of the album), mgm are all really dope tracks...i thought the first disc was a lot better than the second though...definitely a different sound for the rza, but like it was dope because it was something you could really bump through good speakers...
I'd probably go with Life After Death over Wu Tang Forever...however the best songs from Wu Tang Forever overshadow the best songs from Life After Death, Life After Death was just a little more consistent as a whole
"Bells Of War" = best Wu-Tang track that no one talks about
"Motherfuckers
We be seeing y'all asses when we walk up in the club
Y'all all in the back
Scared to speak the speak cause you scared
PUNK MUTHAFUCKAS! We know what time it is"
and I love the totally random, impromptu conversation between Raekwon and Ghost about the boxing game - INTANGIBLY DOPE
Great verses from Rza, Meth, and Ghost plus a spine-tingling beat don't hurt either.
There's some unnecessary shit but it's a result of the concept. The best double albums don't try to be a "big single" album but branch out on some adventurous shit and that's what Rza did here. I appreciate it on some giant sprawling incomprehensible 5% prog-rap shit so tracks like "the city", "Black Shampoo", that first intro, the last outro and a couple of "ok" tracks on disc 2 get excused. Worth it for Reunited, Triumph, Bells of War, A Better Tommorow, It's Yourz, the MGM, Heaterz, Hellz Wind Staff, For Heavens Sake, Cash Still Rules, Severe Punishement and Impossible.
It ain't the grimy basement-mix-with-interviews-in-themiddle 10 track perfection of the first one but it ain't meant to be.
At the same time, I don't think Hiphop could have gone in that direction. Can you imagine if every emcee/crew started trying to match that level steez? I'd be ready for someone to just rip rhymes.
Nl5H wrote:just watched coffee and cigaretttes this morning, saw the delerium chapter with gza, rza, and bill murray ,and just pulled out this album, bong bong
Someone needs to re-up that scene, my copy isn't complete for some reason. I've been randomly adding 'Bill Murray' to the end of sentences recently.
As for Forever, I bought it on tape when it came out but now I only have one of the tapes. Saw it cheap yesterday but didn't cop it. Wish I had now. It'll bring back some shitty memories, though.
im studyin 120 right now
call me back at the god hour
i slept on this album as soon as it came out. there was no way it could match up to 36 chambers, cuban linx, liquid swords, tical, ironman, and return to the 36 chambers. it was a completely different direction and was incredibly dissapointing when it first dropped. i ended up selling the album, thinking it was total trash
then i decided to buy it again, after i found it for 8 bucks. i slept on it again, but after some time pulled it out and gave it a chance.
wu tang forever dropped in 1997, and i didn't really listen to it until 2003.
now i think its certified classic material. aside from the poppa wu introduction and black shampoo, this album is future material. rza was right when he said "people aren't even gonna understand this until the year 2G." there's alot of strange themes and black power undercurrents to this album, and the true knowledge that they approached this project with slowly unfolds as you listen to the album.
every time i pick up forever, i hear something new. its an incredible album, and handles the 2 disc format well. i don't think i could have appreciated it in 1997, but im definately appreciating it now.
i put it on par with 36 chambers. its a total revolution for the clan, and they still came crazy stupid fresh.
yeah...to me, both this double album and Biggie's were way too advanced for their time...
so much so, that I believe future generations (whether or not we agree) will probably universally view them as superior to their single disc predecessors.
and while I can't fully agree to this idea, I can't really argue against it either, considering the good shit on both double albums is :shock: to say the least.
