REVIEW: Wu-Tang Clan, Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) (RCA)
- Martin Bate
Wu-Tang Clan are supposedly at the forefront of a new breed of rap called horrorcore, where hardcore's gritty realism is taken one step further into the realms of cartoon and horror-film violence. The moral majority will love them.
In fact, Wu-Tang Clan are *sooooo* hard they don't use guns. Nope, these guys will fuck you up with their martial arts sword skills.......
This album is being sworn up and down to be the best new rap album for ages by the press and paying public alike. So why am I not totally convinced ? Why, for the first few listens, do I feel like I'm witnessing the emperor's new clothes ?
Well, perhaps because this album doesn't make the progress of the genuine past innovators in the genre, like Public Enemy's "Nation of Millions", and the debuts from De La Soul, and Cypress Hill.
Maybe, its because a lot of this just sounds like *more* old-soul-and-funk- sampling, aggressive gangsta rap with hardcore beats. Its well above the average state of the art, sure - but nothing earth-shattering.
The best stuff is where they actually *make* something of the martial arts image and bring in kung-fu film samples, oriental chimes and strings, nun-chak clicks as percussion, creepy pianos and boasts of their sword skills. On those tracks the hype is justified. Couple those with their more than adequate, though less original, compositions and you have a good album.
The production is interesting, the bragging rhymes (with some nice touches of humour) and images of ghetto-life are all there, and the rappers flow well and hold the attention throughout.
The horror-core tag seems a little misplaced though as, with a couple of exceptions, there doesn't seem to be much more grisly violence than in the majority of gangsta lyrics.
So....a good album, but nothing incredibly ground-breaking.
