Wu-Tang Clan

Wu-Tang Clan, groundbreaking American rap collective known for its sharp lyricism, old-school rap influence, and gritty production. The group’s approach to business allowed members to pursue projects of their own and opened the doors for later hardcore rappers. Many contemporary musicians cite Wu-Tang as a stylistic influence and sample its beats in a variety of songs. The Wu-Tang Clan is considered by many in the industry to be one of the greatest hip-hop groups of all time.

Prelude

Wu-Tang Clan was the brainchild of Robert Diggs, who spent his early years hanging out with his cousins Gary Grice and Russell Jones in the housing projects on Staten Island, New York. They watched kung fu movies, participated in rap battles with other local MCs (a term for rappers) and studied the teachings of the Five Percent Nation, an offshoot of the Nation of Islam. In 1991 both Diggs and Grice attempted to break into the rap scene, Diggs using the name Prince Rakeem to release the EP Ooh I Love You Rakeem with Tommy Boy Records in 1991 and Grice recording under the name Genius and releasing Words from The Genius that same year with Cold Chillin’ Records. Neither album charted well, and both artists were dropped from their labels. The rappers, whose music reflected their tough upbringing, were trying to break through in an industry betting on artists such as Will Smith and Young MC and dominated by a sound that National Public Radio (NPR) referred to in 2013 as “rap-lite.” Diggs told NPR: “We were street kids. Guys that was more like felons, or high-school dropouts. Not saying this is a positive thing, I’m just saying this is the difference of our character.”

Formation and “Protect Ya Neck”

In 1992 Diggs persuaded his two cousins, as well as a group of friends who rapped in New York, to form Wu-Tang Clan, a name they took from one of Diggs’s and Jones’s favorite movies Shaolin and Wu Tang (1983), although some members have stated that Wu-Tang is also an acronym for Witty Unpredictable Talent and Natural Game. Diggs took on the name RZA, Jones Ol’ Dirty Bastard, and Grice GZA. With members Method Man (byname of Clifford Smith, Jr.), Raekwon (Corey Woods), Ghostface Killah (Dennis Coles), Inspectah Deck (Jason Hunter), and U-God (Lamont Hawkins), the collective recorded its first single, “Protect Ya Neck,” the same year. Wu-Tang drove from state to state, selling copies from the trunks of cars and asking local radio stations to play the song. “Protect Ya Neck” eventually became a regional hit, drawing attention from record companies.

Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) (1993)

Wu-Tang, which now included ninth member Masta Killa (Jamel Irief, born Elgin Turner), soon signed with Loud Records, a fledgling label founded in 1991. In exchange for a small advance sum of $60,000 for all nine members, Wu-Tang maintained creative control of its music and its members were free to sign solo deals with other labels while retaining the Wu-Tang name. RZA encouraged members to sign with labels that were not known for hip-hop. He explained to The New York Times in 1996, “I chose those labels [RCA and Geffen, for example,] because they didn’t have anybody we’d have to compete with.”

Wu-Tang released its first album, Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers), in 1993. The album is gritty, with a brash style recalling such old-school rappers as Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five and is laced with snippets from kung fu movies and soul songs. Pitchfork, in its review of the album, noted that “with nearly a dozen different voices populating these songs—many of whom had never recorded music beforehand—everyone’s personality and backstory is somehow given time to blossom” and that the greatest achievement of RZA, who produced the album, “was trusting his instincts to fit these wily and charismatic rappers onto just the right weird and wonderful beats.…Each piece of the album, no matter how incongruous, feeds back into a whole like the shattered fragments of an ancient medallion.”

The album’s biggest hit was its second single, “C.R.E.A.M.,” which features Raekwon, Inspectah Deck, and Method Man. The track samples the Charmels’ 1967 song “As Long as I’ve Got You.” The lyrics describe the rappers’ experiences growing up poor in the housing projects of New York City, addressing the grim realities of this lifestyle without glamorizing them. Although “C.R.E.A.M.” achieved only moderate commercial success, many music critics consider it to be one of the best songs on the album and even one of the best hip-hop songs of all time.

Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) peaked at number 41 on the Billboard 200 and sold 30,000 records in its first week (it reached platinum by 1995). It also laid the foundation for its members to release solo albums as RZA had planned. Method Man was the first with 1994’s Tical on Def Jam Recordings; GZA was next with Liquid Swords on Geffen Records in 1995; Raekwon with Only Built 4 Cuban Linx on Loud and RCA that same year; and Ghostface Killah with Ironman on Epic Street Records in 1996. Wu-Tang’s members were eventually recording with five of the six major labels of the time, fulfilling RZA’s plan to spread the collective’s sound widely. NPR remarked that “Sales from [solo] albums enriched each label—which meant [that labels] saw more potential in hip-hop made by street kids.” Wu-Tang consequently laid the groundwork for hard-edged rappers such as Nas, Mobb Deep, and The Notorious B.I.G. to land deals with record companies.

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Later work

Wu-Tang members came back together in 1997 to record their sophomore album, Wu-Tang Forever. A few tracks featured a collection of the group’s additional collaborators, known as the Killa Beez, including Cappadonna (birth name Darryl Hill), who eventually became a full member of the group. Wu-Tang Forever was noted for its more stripped-back sound, departing from 36 Chambers’ more hectic style while maintaining its edge. Lead single “Triumph” received critical acclaim, with Inspectah Deck’s verse receiving special praise.

Throughout the 2000s Wu-Tang Clan and its members continued releasing records, including the group’s third album, The W (2000), and its fourth, Iron Flag (2001), while pursuing other projects. Although the group faced internal issues at this time, the members never officially split up and came together in 2004 to headline the first Rock the Bells festival in southern California. Later that year, Ol’ Dirty Bastard died at age 35 from a drug overdose.

Wu-Tang Clan nonetheless continued to record, including the albums 8 Diagrams (2007) and A Better Tomorrow (2014). In 2015 the group released only one copy of its seventh album, Once Upon a Time in Shaolin (2015), as a CD with no option to download its contents. RZA explained, “Limiting the album to one copy will not immediately reattach value to all recorded music, but the debate that our approach has sparked might eventually lead to a change in the perception, value and appreciation of music as a work of art and that is why we feel the sacrifice is worth it.” The album was sold at auction to Martin Shkreli, founder of Turing Pharmaceuticals, for $2 million. Shkreli had gained notoriety in 2015 for buying the rights to Daraprim, a drug used by some AIDS and transplant patients, and then raising the price from $13.50 to $750 per pill. After learning that Shkreli had bought the album, Wu-Tang donated a significant portion of the proceeds to charity. In 2018 the album was seized by the United States government after Shkreli had been convicted of fraud the previous year, and in 2021 the album was purchased by a collective called PleasrDAO, which seeks to acquire significant items of digital culture.

Other projects

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In addition to recording albums Wu-Tang and its members have been involved in a variety of projects, including the clothing line Wu Wear, which comprises apparel often featuring the group’s trademark “W” logo, and music for a ballet, with which RZA experimented for the Colorado Symphony in 2023. RZA has also composed the scores for such movies as Jim Jarmusch’s Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999) and such TV series as Wu-Tang: An American Saga (2019–23). The latter was a dramatization of Wu-Tang’s formation that streamed on Hulu and was cocreated by RZA. Documentaries about the collective include Wu: The Story of the Wu-Tang Clan (2007) and Wu-Tang Clan: Of Mics and Men (2019).