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The sad irony is that I received this compilation
two to three days before the death of Wu-Tang member Old' Dirty
Bastard that represents another devastating lost for the hip-hop
community. Still Legend of the Wu-Tang Clan is an explosive
and now sobering reminder of this Staten Island crew's influence.
Wu-Tang Clan clearly reinvented the language of hip-hop both
in a musical way by incorporating a cinematic flavor (from their
affection for kung-fu movies) and in a business sense (DIY marketing,
the solo careers of each of the members). Naturally this chronicle
draws several tracks from their classic 1993 debut Enter the
Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) "Method Man," "Protect
Ya Neck," and "Wu-Tang Clan Ain't Nuthin' Ta Fuck Wit"-to
their most recent Iron Flag in 2001. The group's musings
on sex, violence, and the ghetto delivered in tag-team, call-and-response
rhymes sound more poetic to their West Coast counterparts; and
although they can slam it all home with their beats and braggadocio,
they were also innovative in melding samples from martial arts
movies and classic soul songs adding depth to their rag tag killer
beats. Certainly the solo careers of members such as ODB, the
RZA, GZA, and Ghostface Killah were successful in their own right,
but when you hear them together, it merely reaffirms the old
cliché of the sum being greater than the parts. Now with
the death of ODB, the music here takes on this set takes on a
greater significance.
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