classic Wu-Tang solo run poll

well, it did go into some more general "the current state of hip hop" territory

and even if yall hated the argument at least i was trying to talk about something more interesting than ppl just writing out lists with little carats designation superiority as if their opinion sans context is meaningful in any way

and yes gza is the old head 'dont u miss when lyrics were GOOD' corny NME reading choice

Cuban Linx>Ironman>getting into a stupid argument with deej about hip hop>>>>>>lurker voting

the argument was potentially interesting bogged down by butturtedness

One big reason I voted for Liquid Swords was that it was basically RZA's album; there's that famous MTV interview where RZA says, "He heard his album when it was done" and laughs, and I always loved that. Plus, RZA's verse on "4th Chamber."

RZA's made some really crap albums fyi

like at first I bought into the mythos that the best Wu-related stuff all had RZA's hand in it, but that has not been borne out over the years. he was on fire for the first few releases, no doubt about it, but by '98 or so he was basically out of ideas

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ieWt8mLDhVs

just sayin'

after apollo kids, ^^^ is the best song in the history of the world (w/ glaciers of ice in a close third.)

RZA's made some really crap albums fyi

No disagreement here. Liquid Swords ain't one of 'em, though.

i dont think anyone here thinks ls is 'crap'

there are some crappy songs on it!

i voted liquid swords, but i like later wu solo albums more than any of these tbh.

a new challopser has appeared!

liquid swords doesn't have any bad songs. it is also the reason i now pronounce the W in swords. Also all Wu records have something worthy on them imo, even the likes of Birth of a Prince. (Actually just remembered The Trials and Tribulations of Russell Jones which was all garbage - it has fucking icp on it!)

labels is a v bad stupid no good song

trials and tribulations had a cover of pigmeat markham's "here comes the judge" which was pretty cool

also had "taking a shit" the most literally named skit ever, unfortunately.

labels is awesome, gtfo

and yes gza is the old head 'dont u miss when lyrics were GOOD' corny NME reading choice

yes but what people like you fail to grasp is that an artist/album can be liked for reasons other than the one that has been most discussed by music critics, reasons that don't paint the person in the most negative light so you can look down on them from your perch of awesome pure hip hop dopeness.

I don't think LS is crap but I listen to pretty much all the other albums listed here more. there was a time when I really loved it but I dunno I'm just bored with it or something

yes but what people like you fail to grasp is that an artist/album can be liked for reasons other than the one that has been most discussed by music critics, reasons that don't paint the person in the most negative light so you can look down on them from your perch of awesome pure hip hop dopeness.

― hope this helps (Granny Dainger), Wednesday, November 10, 2010 2:08 PM (10 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i dont fail to grasp this. doesnt mean these results arent corny.

well then that's worse. you grasp it, but you still cast aspersions as if you didn't. and i can only assume you do that so you can feel better about yourself as some hip happening dude in comparison. kinda pathetic.

yeah i must be the first person ever to accuse someone's taste of being 'corny' on ilm!

in case u havent noticed, its the aggregate results that are corny, im not calling out individuals who love gza for making a wu tang juice crew record or something

everyone in this argument is gonna come out of it looking awesome.

if i could only point out douchiness when it was the first instance of that particular strain of douchines, i'd never get a chance to.

yeah i must be the first person ever to accuse someone's taste of being 'corny' on ilm!

― deej, Wednesday, November 10, 2010

maybe?

Hey, No Offense, But All Your Blogs Bite It

What he does offer is fire.

lol omar

v. confusing dates on that thread ?_?

look i think it's pretty clear that those posts were made during that last innocent summer, before the world as we knew it changed.

Okay, as I posted upthread, I voted GZA, and I fall squarely into the NME reading circa '95 corny indie fuxor demographic. I love all 5 of these albums, and the reason I voted GZA was as follows:
1) RZA's production- weird plinky casio keyboard beats, RZA before he lapsed into self parody
2) Great GZA lyrics (but this has been done to death)
3) Cameos from other members of the Wu at the top of their games
4) Samples: even compared to Cuban Linx, the kung fu movie samples take it to another level, and make the album a coherent whole
5) "In Bristol, with a fuckin' pistol" I first heard this record when living in Bristol and that line made it for me

Having said all this, on another day I could have voted for Cuban Linx (probably the Wu record I've listened to most, even though it tails off towards the end) or Return (though Nigga Please is its rival IMO). Tical and Ironman are both great, but don't rival those 3.

Also, 36 Chambers will always be my favourite Wu record.

MY LABORATORY STORY KEEP ME FLOWIN' WITH THE GLORY
A CAPELLA OR DEEP DIRTY INSTRUMENTAL
I COULD BLOW THE SKY (NO HOMO?) LIKE THE STORMY WIND BLEW
ONE GALLON OF WHYLIN', PARK HILL PROFILIN'
I CUT YOUR FACE UP ROUGH LIKE FIFTY SURE WHILE YOU'RE SMILIN'

supreme clientele has the best vocal samples imo, "my god so they are killers"

deej, I didn't mean your original point was a derail but the way the argument went on and on and on, in increasingly acrimonious and pedantic fashion, dominated the thread for a couple of days - "potentially interesting bogged down by butturtedness" as you put it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTPB9inzOPU

THEN I DRINK FORTIES TO THEY MEMORIES

this thread is kinda the best thing that could have happened to my week I gotta say

had the beat to '4th chamber' stuck in my head on my way home from work cuz of this thread. also, was reminded of when someone compared the 'labels' beat to sounding like a sock full of doorknobs to the head. i always liked that

SONS ARE BORN AND GUNS ARE DRAWN
CLIPS ARE FULLY LOADED, AND THEN BLOOD FLOODS THE LAWN

a construction worker, who was caught for his bomber
no time to swing the hammer that was hangin' from his farmers

(perennially stuck in my head)

man Liquid Swords is totally backloaded, all the best songs are in the second half

this thread will be glad to know that I FINALLY bought Return to the 36 Chambers today thanks to all of you (they didn't have Liquid Swords or Only Built 4 Cuban Linx...)

holy shit I'd forgotten that this is fucking amazing

the holy ghost got you scared to death kid boo

that album is deep, if it weren't for my corny love for liquid swords I totally would've voted for it

the bonus tracks are so good it's hard to imagine the album without them

yell at 4:50 is incredible

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlsE2Pz-AoE

http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2010/12/06/101206crat_atlarge_sanneh?currentPage=4

Another great American lyricist has just published a book of his own: “Finishing the Hat” (Knopf; $39.95), by Stephen Sondheim, is curiously similar in form to “Decoded.” Sondheim is just as appealing a narrator as Jay-Z, although he’s much less polite. (While Jay-Z has almost nothing bad to say about his fellow-rappers, Sondheim is quick to disparage his rivals, subject to a “cowardly but simple” precept: “criticize only the dead.”) But where Jay-Z wants to help readers see the poetry in hip-hop, Sondheim thinks poeticism can be a problem: in his discussion of “Tonight,” from “West Side Story,” he half apologizes for the song’s “lapses into ‘poetry.’ ” And where Bradley and DuBois are quick to praise rappers for using trick rhymes and big words, Sondheim is ever on guard against “overrhyming” and other instances of unwarranted cleverness. “In theatrical fact,” he writes, “it is usually the plainer and flatter lyric that soars poetically when infused with music.” Most rappers are no less pragmatic: they use the language that works, which is sometimes ornate, but more often plainspoken, even homely. (One thinks of Webbie, the pride of Baton Rouge, deftly rhyming “drunk as a fuckin’ rhino” with “my people gon’ get they shine on.”) Maybe future anthologies will help show why the most complicated hip-hop lyrics aren’t always the most successful.

am considering undertaking something of an academic exploration into ALL of the Wu solo albums (jesus there are a lot) and seeing what few undiscovered/underrated gems there are

U-God albums, how bad are they

i would read that tumblr