Independent Research

Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) was the Wu-Tang Clan’s debut album. The album’s name was inspired by a kung-fu movie called The 36^th Chamber of Shaolin. The group was made up of nine rappers known as RZA, GZA, Ol’ Dirty Bastard, Method Man, Raekwon, Ghostface Killah, Inspectah Deck, U-God, and Masta Killa. The RZA, a founding member of the group, produced, arranged, mixed, and programmed the entire album. The only thing he didn’t do was master it, which he later had the album sent of to The Hit Factory for mastering. The group was only able to record in a small inexpensive studio in the Firehouse Studio, in New York, which was a tight fit for a group of nine artists. The way that RZA decided who would appear on which beat, was by having rappers rap battle each other for the right to rap on the beat. This method of competing for the beats led to the song “Meth vs. Chef”. This was a battle between Method Man and Raekwon. The song was not released on the album but it appeared later on Method Man’s debut, Tical. The beats consisted of samples from classic soul and martial arts movie clips. The beats reflected their gritty, urban surrounding and the aggressive lyrics complemented the tracks perfectly. At the time this style of rap wasn’t very popular, hip hop music mostly consisted of jazz-influenced styles and west coast gangster rap styles. This album went on to be very successful, it went platinum, peaked at number forty-one on the US Billboard 200 chart, and was ranked number 386 in Rolling Stones magazine’s list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers), kick started the Wu-Tang Clans career and made it possible for the artist to make more music as a group and also as solo artists. This album influenced many artist and brought east coast hip hop more to the mainstream. You can hear influences of Wu-Tang’s music in the music of Nas, The Notorious B.I.G., Mobb Deep, and Jay-Z. They continue to influence artists to this day including a hip hop group I work with known as the Black Chain Gang (BCG) and they have an influence on the music I make as well. I really enjoy listening to the Wu-Tang clan and many of the artists that they have inspired. Without the Wu-Tang Clan hip hop music would not be the same.