classic Wu-Tang solo run poll

odb, gza, and rae are pretty equal in my book...ironman only SLIGHTLY off that pace...tical is great but not in the same league (still better than shitloads of rap albums tho that's how great wu was in their prime)

i think i'm voting ODB cuz granny was talking bad about it and i love ODB for all time.

i'm going to listen to liquid swords today to see if it has aged awkwardly or not but idk, that album is like perfect combination of evil cool smart shit. & a lot of the things deej is saying about clumsy similes are things i would agree with wrt gza's later stuff, he kind of atrophies after ls and loses a lot of the pungency, meanness -- all fully intact on this album though

i still think legend of the liquid swords is way underrated

ya its pretty good

i think i'm voting ODB cuz granny was talking bad about it and i love ODB for all time.

― da poupier (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, October 13, 2010 11:52 AM (41 minutes ago) Bookmark

you have a weird family

nana always challopses about how the sunz of man album is better than nigga please

rae>gza=odb>ghost>meth i think. all close though. had LS on in the car a lot lately. sometimes rza on 4th chamber is my favorite verse

i like the clock radio lyrics -- im just saying theyve aged in a way rae's havent & sound very of their era. and yeah tuomas i think having different personas in different songs at least w/in rap music is weird & dated & unusual. 'unofficial wet tissue' is classic.

lyrics on 'gold' aged well. "waitin for the train to make noise... "

i think ppl are more forgiving of some of the more awkward lyrical turns bcuz they get buried under RZA's erm 'soundscapes' so it sounds more menacing than they would on later GZA records. doesnt change the fact that 'feminine like sandals' is a goofy thing for a dude rapping about the drug trade to say

i mean those kinds of similies are basically like, your literature/language arts teacher explaining rap music kind of goofy. its just ... dated juice crew type ish. rappers inhabit personas more fully now

would you prefer "feminine like scented candles"

seriously don't get holding "dated" sounds/styles against a musician

what kind of travesty is that fucking tattoo.

rappers inhabit personas more fully now

I feel quite the opposite; rappers now seem to me to be lame caricatures compared to the stuff on early Wu albums.

rappers inhabit personas more fully now

yeah I dunno if I would count this as a net positive. it's certainly made rap music more monotonous.

rmde x10000

I will take that as an otm directed at me :)

and to pay it forward:

sometimes rza on 4th chamber is my favorite verse

― another al3x, Wednesday, 13 October 2010 16:45 (51 minutes ago)

rmde x10000

yeah yeah we've had this argument

I think we exist in a weird transitional period where the visibility of extra-musical gossip-blog/twitter/etc stuff in relation the the music itself has increased, and the artists are aware of it and try to work it sometimes, but people aren't quite willing to extend artistic license to 'real life' shit. which I guess means that lady gaga is our only hope.

(if it wasn't clear, this is my attempt to explain the current state of rap personas)

Tical > Return > Liquid > Linx > Ironman

i mean those kinds of similies are basically like, your literature/language arts teacher explaining rap music kind of goofy. its just ... dated juice crew type ish. rappers inhabit personas more fully now

good to know rappers don't use similes anymore

"clever and/or unexpected wordplay is so dated" goes a very long way towards why I don't feel a lot of current hip-hop

shit's outdated like milk in liquor store fridges

If rappers inhabit their personas more fully now, and having different personas in different songs is "dated", you'd think that'd be a bad thing for rap music and not a good thing, as that means rap is less versatile now. Isn't there room for both approaches?

sandals are pretty fucken feminine whether you're a drug dealer or a CEO

not if you are CEO of Sandals

its just ... dated juice crew type ish.

;_;

that ish could be your life.

Not wildly enthusiastic about Meth or ODB albums. Enjoy the Ghostface okay but feels like a straight fight between Gza and Rae. Oh, who am I kidding? Liquid Swords all the way, influenced mainly by the fact that it was the only tape I had in my car for a 5-7 month period back in the day and I love Meth on this way more than anything on Tical.

i think tical 2000 judgement day is kinda underrated too

Tical was the first one released, right? presumably because Meth was viewed as the one with the most pop potential? which is funny considering how NON-pop the album ended up being. it's so sludgy and murky, even moreso than 36 Chambers

imo meth didn't really find his voice until Forever

it's so sludgy and murky, even moreso than 36 Chambers

it got waterlogged or something

1. Cuban Linx
2. Liquid Swords
3. Tical
4. Ironman
5. Return

All great, 3 & 4 could easily switch around on any given day but I've got Tical on right now, loving the sludge and murk.

yeah method man was the chosen one, the first single from 36 chambers was "method man", that says something right there. funny how his career never lived up to the early rep. if you had told ppl in '93 that ghostface's discog would slay method man's, nobody, me included, would've believed it.

I remember tical being widely dismissed on release, indie kids seemed to be the only folks who dug it.

honestly I think Method Man was singled out as the breakout star because he is the most conventionally good-looking

like, "oh this is the one the girls might conceivably like"

which is funny cuz afaict the big breakout pop star was actually ODB lol

tough call on the 1&2 spots, but my ranking would be

GZA - Liquid Swords
Ol' Dirty Bastard - Return to the 36 Chambers: The Dirty Version
Method Man - Tical
Raekwon - Only Built 4 Cuban Linx...
Ghostface Killah - Ironman

even though liquid swords is played out like NES controllers

u mad shakey

method man had a distinctive voice, great flow, a way with a hook, memorable rhymes & images

it was his to lose

xp

i got fat bags of skunk
i got white owl blunts
and I'm about to go get lifted

never 4get

I like the idea of Liquid Swords, and "Shadowboxing" has my favorite Meth moment ever, but it's boring and stodgy most of the time.

I'd rank them:

Ironman
Cuban Linx
ODB
Liquid Swords
Tical

i mean meth doesn't have the raw charisma of a masta killa but he does have a certain something

I'm not knockin Meth, he's great. Just noting that in retrospect tagging him as the breakout star was a little odd

I like what aero aid upthread about GZA loving the sound of words; he may contemplate them too much imo.

*said

who has the most hits of all the Wu solo guys? I would think that "Got Your Money" and ODB being on "Fantasy" trump everyone else's...? (Meth's biggest hit must have been the original Mary J. Blige version of "All I Need" right?)

xp

Meth, by far.

Meth 'n' Mary scored a #2 single. ODB has his bit on "Fantasy."

i really love tical...and obv blackout is a classic too, plus meth is one of those ppl that's always welcome on any track IMO, great guest verse dude on tons of wu-tang and others songs

shakey you are acting like he's a shit sandwich not a ticallion stallion!