Quote:
|
Originally Posted by SuchFriendsAreDangerous
Its why groups rarely can stay together for too long or even the fanbase gets divided. Rap likes bball analogies so its like "reloading" a team with a superstar player with a different cast of role players because roll players can only win you so many championships. You have to bring in new talent in the process shifting the playing style of previous rosters around the new talent. The superstar remains the focal point and continues to win championships. Wu is a rap group that failed to realize this and kept too many of their glue guys and role players and never reloaded the roster. The solo projects have been the better supported as well as lets face it, the better product, over the past ten years or so because those are essentially different rosters around the superstars from Wu. I mean, the Big Three of Wu would be RZA, Ghostface, and GZA and indeed all those guys solo shit has been solid gold. I dig the solo shit of the other Wu dudes, but Wu together just hasn't been championship caliber for some time now..
|
Sorry, I have to disagree with you on the Wu's “Big Three.” You're right that RZA, Ghostface & GZA are three of the core talents, but I'm afraid I'm gonna have to swap out GZA for
Raekwon, putting the Genius in the still highly respectable, but not-quite pyramid topping, #4 slot.
I don't know where you're getting your facts, but as far as solo albums go, despite Loquod Swords being (essentially) the ultimate Wu solo album, the rest of GZA's solo output is decidedly less iconic, less interesting and less, ah, good.
Raekwon, on the other hand, unleashed OB4CL, which I think is neck and neck with Liquid Swords. It's better as an album, though it has fewer baller single tracks. Swords has such a distinct sound, and it comes on like a hurricane, rarely letting up on the intensity for more than the length of a sound byte. It's a sprinter, and the album's length is just a little bit too long for Gza's 100 yard dash onslaught.
OB4CL, on the other hand, is in for the long haul. It's a distance record, much more like a lo-fidelity prelude to Wu-Tang Forever, while Liquid Swords is more of a follow-up to 36 Chambers. Does that make any sense?
Plus, Raekwon's mixtapes and other lower profile releases are always gold. Always. GZA has been far less prolific, because he's a cold and calculating mothetfucker, and constant overachiever. He spends too much time staring at the chess board. Raekwon represents the Wu-Tang sound more loyally, with several of his albums just sound more or less like full Clan albums.
But I agree for the most part. RZA, Ghostface, Rae & GZA are the heartbeat of the group... Or maybe each is a different vital organ... I'm not going to get than fucking specific though. Christ, Jim I'm a doctor not a music critic!
👾