![]() ![]() Of course, another company took the idea, and the Wu-Tang’s technology division was bankrupted. After they made 50 of the things (and RZA invested a boatload of cash) the inventor excitedly took the Replicator to a trade fair, mistakenly showing it off before the technology had properly been patented. RZA explained that he developed a prototype with the Swiss inventor, and they called it the Replicator. According to his subsequent story, he was on tour in Switzerland in the late 90s and was introduced to a guy who possessed some rather interesting gear – notably a machine that could ‘scratch’ with digital files. In 2007 he offhandedly revealed to an interviewer that he “invented” the DJ technology behind Serato, and you know what – he might actually be telling the truth. RZA’s tall tales are legendary, and sometimes it can be hard to separate the fact from the fiction. “You gots to be kidding, you gots to be kidding” So is the title of Enter the Wu-Tang an oblique reference to Supreme Mathematics or a nod to the Shaw Brothers’ The 36th Chamber of Shaolin? We’ll let you decide. The group’s reliance on the Supreme systems has led to its fair share of navel gazing, wherein 36 Chambers represents the total number of heart chambers belonging to the group’s nine members, or where the 819 days between ODB’s death and the announcement of a Wu-Tang album has significance because the digits of 819 eventually add up to 9. ![]() RZA, a devout Five-Percenter, even takes his name from the Supreme Alphabet and dedicated a large part of his Wu-Tang Manual to the practice. The Nation of Gods and Earths ideologies of the Supreme Mathematics and the Supreme Alphabet are ubiquitous in hip-hop, but especially in the work of the Wu-Tang Clan. “Most of my team, Five Percent / check what the live said.” RZA’s machinations worked: just a few years later, Wu-Tang Clan members were signed to five of the (then) six major record labels. Plus, each member was allowed - and encouraged - to sign individual deals with other labels, although each solo project would kick in 20% back to the Wu-Tang Productions kitty. “If we smart, we can plunge at that moment,” he recalls telling the crew, “or we could gracefully make a safe landing to 20 years.” In 1993, the group signed with Steve Rifkind’s Loud Records for $60,000 in a deal inspired by George Clinton’s P-Funk groups: all Wu releases were to be 50/50 splits between Loud and Wu-Tang Productions. Licking his wounds, RZA developed the Wu-Tang Clan concept and a plan to infiltrate the record industry. Neither effort sold well adding insult to injury, Tommy Boy decided to focus on House of Pain rather than a Prince Rakeem album. “On the paper chase, like blood, my thoughts circulate”īefore they were RZA and GZA, they were Prince Rakeem and Genius, and in 1991, they released Ooh, I Love You, Rakeem EP on Tommy Boy and Words From The Genius on Cold Chillin’, respectively. Even back then, the three were martial arts nerds, and while they quickly changed their name to All in Together Now (to fall in line with their popular song of the same name), as the group grew they were renamed the Wu-Tang Clan, and the rest as they say is history. Gary Grice (aka GZA), Robert Diggs (aka RZA) and Russell Tyrone Jones (aka Ol’ Dirty Bastard) are cousins, and originally formed the group under the name Force of the Imperial Master. We’re sure the Wu-Tang Clan would argue that deep down they’re all family (hence 2013’s touching ‘ Family Reunion’), but the three founder members of the band are actually blood relatives. ![]() Or in the parlance of the Supreme Mathematics, “the completion of all in existence.” Seems fitting… Here are nine of those myths re-examined – one for each of the members (RIP ODB). Many legends sprung up around them as they star rose. A mastermind, a genius, a stoner, a psycho, a couple of street-wise storytellers, and - let’s face it - three guys in the right place at the right time: the Wu-Tang Clan rewrote the script for hip-hop, in New York and beyond, from the streets of lowly Staten Island.įACT’s second favorite album of the 1990s, 36 Chambers saw Wu-Tang become one of the most visible collectives in rap – without losing any of their sense of mystery. Just over an hour of soul samples, kung fu film samples, and hardcore East Coast lyricism, the album introduced the world to the Wu-Tang Clan, a nine-deep crew of Staten Island roughnecks that is arguably the greatest pound-for-pound collection of hip-hop talent ever assembled. Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) is a rare undisputed rap masterstroke. ![]()
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