thread for crowley's wu tang clan opinions and stories

CrowleyHead

Well-known member
crowley never liked rap. his dad was an orthodontist in ridgewood. he was bluffing the whole time. he though wu tang were one of those kpop bands he liked.

G-Dragon from BIGBANG has more good verses under his belt than Method man in this current millenium, quiet as kept.
 

CrowleyHead

Well-known member
Group Rza signed and produced that he force grafted together and then split up into two seperate groups because while both had access to Holocaust/Warcloud, both were from different sets and therefore couldn't get along ultimately. One guy's dead, another guy mutilated himself as we all know, Warcloud's had severe mental health issues resulting from doing way too many drugs while hanging out with Rza.
 

CrowleyHead

Well-known member
A pretty rudimentary case of Rza not understanding the superficiality of gangs/neighborhood dramas.

An outgrowth of the fact that he's a nerd from Ohio.
 

CORP$EY

no mickey mouse ting
'RZA was born in Brownsville, Brooklyn. He lived in North Carolina with his uncle from age three to seven, who encouraged him to read and study.[5] RZA was introduced to hip hop music at the age of nine, and by eleven, was competing in rap battles. He relocated to Steubenville, Ohio in 1990, to live with his mother. He spent weekends in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where his father ran a convenience store in the city's Hill District.[6]

RZA got involved with petty crime and drug-dealing, and was charged with attempted murder while in Steubenville.'

Attempted nerderer
 

CORP$EY

no mickey mouse ting
Taking the liberty of pasting in Crowley's post from COTD in here

Ran late.

Basically the fundamental problem with Wu-Tang was that they weren't supposed to exist as a group. This story has been told and informed in many incarnations but it essentially goes like this:

When Wu-Tang was organized it was initially dependant on the idea that their group organization would serve more as a vehicle for solo deals in the model of the Juice Crew (with Rza as the Marley Marl ofc; thus making Gza Craig G, ODB their Biz and you can keep extending the metaphor here but I'll get bored). To understand the structure it goes like this:

  • 1st Tier (Writing & Creation of records behind the scenes and administration over the group): Rza, Gza, Ghostface* (Ghost had not rapped before Wu-Tang Clan and most of his rhymes along with a majority of the group were in the mold of local Staten Island MCs like Scotty Wotty or Pop da Brown Hornet; Ghost's actual role was as 'treasurer' AKA co-founder and financial backer of the demos via money as a drug dealer. He was included in a lot of the copyrighting, trademarking and other agreements along with Rza and Rza's brother Divine, which is how he sued Rza and won later for rights to release under the Wu-Tang Clan name without Rza's authorial control, which would be the ultimate dissolution of Wu-Tang's mystique in the 00s but that's getting far ahead)
  • 2nd Tier (MCs who would be focus projects): Method Man, Inspectah Deck, Ol Dirty, Masta Killa
  • 3rd Tier ("Friends" to bulk up the roster to seem more impressive): Raekwon, Ghostface*, U-God (Because the details I'll use on Ghost will probably get protested I'll explain the caveat again; initially, GFK was creatively a 3 but administratively he was a 1)


I know people will protest this, but its not a form of ranking but rather indicative of the hierarchy within Wu-Tang. Killa, Dirty, Deck and Meth were essentially acts to develop by Rza and Gza as a focus group who they knew could sound good on record. A lot of the 3rd tier was brought in as 'muscle' for shows and because they sounded good on record but weren't necessarily people they thought would get deals. At the time of debut, Deck was definitely thought to have more value and commercial potential than Raekwon or Ghostface and Masta Killa was essentially Gza's disciple and protege (who had most of his material written for him by Gza himself at the beginning stages). In fact the majority of material for the whole group at the initial stages and for the majority of the debuts that saw the light of day in the early years (the exceptions being Rae and Ghost) was in fact written by Rza and Gza or at least edited by them from the 2nd tier artists freestyling.

Another aspect which is more rumor and hearsay territory is that in the formulation of Wu-Tang Clan a lot of people were brought in and out of the studio sessions who later became affiliates such as Killah Priest, Shabazz The Disciple and even people who maintained distance from them such as Freestyle of The Arsonists (who's actually kin to the Diggs brothers). If you listen to a few of their stories, guys would deliver their verses, return, and hear Raekwon reciting their verses over and shrug it off on some favor shit because the general idea was to comprehensively get Wu-Tang Clan as an umbrella over so that everyone could potentially eat down the line. So once the group would inevitably splinter after the follow-up album (which was literally how it was planned from the beginning) everyone could start their own new groups and proceed as they saw fit with their administrations. ODB was initially the personal overseer of Sunz of Man, Gza had a full team of producers and artists he was managing (*cough* including my father's group *cough*), Raekwon would eventually found American Cream Team, so on and such forth. Once WTC was concluded as a project, it would be over and done with.

PROBLEM.

No consideration was put into play for the fact that by Wu-Tang Forever, the hierarchies of the group would actually start to be dictated by success, both of the releases and in becoming stars. Raekwon became perceived as a top-tier talent despite not rapping before his inclusion in the group and (if you believe a lot of the popular hearsay) not writing anything by himself. Ghost was the beneficiary of 'business money' from Wu-Tang as well as his own personal success as an artist despite (again if you believe the hearsay) not being an 'actual' talent. Deck and Killa, at one point personal Gza proteges, found themselves put to the side and deemphasized as label politics made them become 'headaches'. Tical was infamously a 'botched' debut that despite great success had resulted in tension between Meth and the Rza/Gza camp. The initial unity had gotten left by the wayside long ago as egos got forged and Rza's initial goals fell apart in that the crew actually didn't need him anymore now that they'd gotten all of their solo money and could establish themselves. Hell some (like Rae and Ghost) had their own team of writers to support their brands! As a result, Rza's control was all but dissolved over the songs and in reality he was already trying to transition to living in LA and removing himself from administrating their careers (especially in the case of Dirty whose personal life was an absolute shit show).

I could go on but I'm already losing too much focus on illustrating the points I'd like and I'm trying to avoid the cliches of say, legitimizing Cappadonna or things like that.
 

CrowleyHead

Well-known member
Ghostface is a weird thing. You pull back the curtain on Ghost and people get upset, he has a personal magnetism, distinct voice and just endless appeal that the idea he's constructed utterly offends people. They have no issues admitting say, ODB's debut was mostly assembled by people dictating, but with Ghostface there's always that reluctance and resistance.

There's legitimately too many stories to prove the case, so I don't want to get too much into validating it. I just find it weird how readily people Want To Believe for Ghost.
 

CORP$EY

no mickey mouse ting
TOP 10 TANG

WT - C.R.E.A.M.
WT - Da Mystery of Chessboxin'
WT - Wu Tang: 7th Chamber
Raekwon - Knowledge God
Raekwon feat... Wu Gambinos (Hidden Chambers RMX)
Raekwon - Incarcerated Scarfaces
GZA - Gold
WT - It's Yourz
WT - A Better Tomorrow
GFK - Winter Warz


This isn't really it cos I've had to leave out loads of things FOLLY
 

CORP$EY

no mickey mouse ting
Tried to be more representative than the holy trinity of 36C/OB4CL/LS

never clicked with LS though which is why it's only got one entry lol
 
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craner

Beast of Burden
Very quick think but I probably go for:

Raekwon - Glaciers of Ice
GZA - Gold
Killah Priest - BIBLE
Wu Tang - Protect ya Neck
Raekwon - Rainy Days
GZA - Swordsman
Wu Tang - Bring da Ruckus
Killarmy - Fair, Love and War
Sunz of Man - Soldiers of Darkness
Method Man - Tical

A slightly eccentric list, I admit.
 
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