Enter The Wu-Tang

'Crews be acting like they gangs anyway/Be like, ‘Warriors, come out and play?’/Hurry, I’m getting it on/I let it out like diarrhoea/got burned once but that was only gonorreah’. So sings the Wu-Tang Clan’s resident fruitcake Ol’ Dirty Bastard on ‘Shame On a Nigga’. Menacing, aggressive and slightly mental, the verse sums up the debut effort from the Wu-Tang Clan – Enter The Wu-Tang 
(36 Chambers) – the definitive hip-hop album of the 90s.

Founded by cousins Robert Diggs, Gary Grice and Russell Jones (RZA, GZA and ODB respectively), the Wu-Tang Clan were borne out of frustration with the record industry. Initially signed to Tommy Boy records, RZA had put together an EP, only to be dropped in favour of the more marketably white House of Pain. Undeterred, he decided to bin the record industry route, instead rounding up a crew of friends and associates to come to the studio with 0 and the best verse they had. The result was ‘Protect Ya Neck’, a full-scale riot of a debut single. With no chorus or obvious hook to fall back on, the track relies entirely on the frantic energy of the group’s individuals. A gamble for sure, but one that paid off. It’s fucking immense. 

Much more raw than the happy-clappy sound made popular by De La Soul, listening to 36 Chambers feels like RZA 
has given you a violent smash to the face. Put simply, it just sounds proper mean. And while anyone can pick up a microphone and start shouting swearwords, the Wu-Tang’s talent lies in taking that aggression and channelling it into some genuinely catchy rhymes. 

While some hardcore rap albums 
get a bit oppressive, the fact that no 
two MCs sound the same means things never get stale.From Inspectah Deck’s deep, rich delivery to ODB’s crack-addict yelp, there’s a constantly changing sound to keep you hooked.

Put together for a paltry ,000, the album boasts a kind of rag-tag charm, largely thanks to the ropey production kit RZA had to work with. Crowbarring as many of the nine MCs as he could into the shoebox-sized recording studio, RZA would get them to rap over the beats he had already laid down. Essentially a rap-battle to decide who got the most time 
on the mic, whoever’s verses were best ended up on the final cut.

The result is a collection of fiercely intricate vocals, backed up by RZA’s down and dirty production. Drawing on an incredibly nerdy knowledge of classic kung-fu flicks, his choice of samples is inspired, every other song opening with a chunk of cult dialogue before launching into a blur of off-kilter beats.

36 Chambers proved it was possible to make a hardcore rap album without the gangster posturing.Their sound was, and is, genuinely unique. As RZA said, ‘You couldn’t hear it nowhere else.’

We test all our albums on a NaimUniti stereo. If we were testing for sound quality, every album would get five stars. But we're good little journalists, so we can't. Check out more at www.naimaudio.com. They make good stuff, believe us.