THE POLL IS COMIN THROUGH, THE OUTCOME IS CRITICAL — WU-TANG CLAN — Artist Poll — Results

Yeah the graphics are great, nice work. GZA seems low but otherwise no real surprises here. I voted RZA #1, kind of biased as I'd been re-reading the Wu-Tang Manual just before voting and was swayed by how much he'd put into creating the mythology as well as the sound and feel of the records.

Thanks everyone. Album countdown coming up next. I'll be doing the top 18.

RZA - Bobby Digital in Stereo
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51JvJVMaBgL.jpg
3 votes 9 points

thats #18 btw.

Def my least favorite first wave wu release. i had such high expectations for it.

#17 Ol' Dirty Bastard — Ni**a Please
https://cps-static.rovicorp.com/3/JPG_500/MI0001/765/MI0001765836.jpg
4 votes 11 points

hadnt listened to this in a long time and had a hard time getting through it. lots of vile stuff on there. production is all over the place.

#16 Ghostface Killah — Bulletproof Wallets
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61UJAJ%2Bu6hL.jpg
3 votes 13 points

Wallets is p slapdash, feels like a collection of outtakes, but there are some really good tracks on it

yeah it ended up climbing my rankings a bit.

It's a lot of fun, but feels lightweight compared to a lot of other Ghost releases

#15 Wu-Tang Clan — Iron Flag
https://images.genius.com/aa7a18c2a99cfab6093f5c73cc358aab.500x500x1.png
3 votes 17 points

Iron Flag has aged really well imo.

their "pop" record, I guess, but I love it.

when i bought the cd i got the clean version on accident, so that's what i know, got all the little record scratches and sound fx memorized. was kinda weird hearing it with all the swears for the first time recently.

haha the first copy I got of 36 Chambers was also a clean version purchased by accident. Shame on a NUH!

the beginning of Rules on my copy just starts with the horns straight to the drop, no rza intro. much better that way.

iron flag has definitely aged well!

btw sorry i couldn't get a vote in but i'm trying to pop in here a lil

Surprised ODB was so low, he was my #1

yea he'd be higher up for me too

odb possibly has my favorite verse on any wu album "here i go / deep type flow..."

yeah his delivery is so great on that.

#14 Raekwon — Only Built 4 Cuban Linx... Pt. II
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61YJrYppPDL.jpg
5 votes 19 points

great album, much better as a whole than the sum of its parts

yeah this was better than it should have been for sure.

benefits from all the songs being fairly short imo, all killer no filler

also avoided sounding pastiche.

#13 Gravediggaz — 6 Feet Deep
https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8031/7989053788_207bab5851.jpg
8 votes 23 points

never really liked this as much as I expected to, it's alternately too goofy and too gross

production is A++ though

never registered as gross to me. just straight up funny in the best way possible

#12 Method Man & Redman — Blackout!
https://bonuscut.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/blackout.jpg
5 votes 28 points

^^ banger after banger

yeah pretty much perfect album.

This album needs to be polled separately

might be sacrilege but it may be my favorite from both artists

pretty big point jump for the next one. the next six were all really tightly scored.

#11 Method Man — Tical
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51ZeaUfyrLL.jpg
10 votes 51 points

this album is a subwoofer murderer

Release Yo Delf has been a staple on my workout/pump-up playlists for like 20 years.

might be sacrilege but it may be my favorite from both artists

― Spottie, Wednesday, November 15, 2017 3:59 PM (forty-seven minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

It's definitely my favorite by Meth. Blackout! 2 was unfairly overlooked, imo, even though it doesn't have the hit-to-miss ratio of the original, it has some jams,

yeah BO2 was pretty good!

#10 Ol' Dirty Bastard — Return to the 36 Chambers: The Dirty Version
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51mErOnfYcL.jpg
10 votes 59 points

this next one is TOO LOW

#9 Wu-Tang Clan — Wu-Tang Forever
https://lastfm-img2.akamaized.net/i/u/ar0/d9218d08725343839af3ff15e1133c36
10 votes 60 points

waaaaaaht that is def too low

It's acutally tied with the next one but the next one had a first place vote and more voters(!). this run are all within a handful of points.

i def waited in a long line at Sam Goody for the midnight release of that one.

feel like thats a common story for that album tho

#8 Wu-Tang Clan — The W
https://cdn-s3.allmusic.com/release-covers/500/0001/426/0001426441.jpg
12 votes 60 points 1 first

Didn't expect that!

Some random thoughts from doing this:

– Inspectah Deck is really underrated. it's too bad he didn't get any of Rza's best work from the first wave to do some solo stuff with
– I think Beneath the Surface deserves a spot in the lower-upper ranks of the wu canon. Same with Meth's Tical 2000 (I thought Break Ups 2 Make Ups would place). After this exercise I've decided I prefer Tical 2000 to Tical.
– Neither of the 7th Chamber tracks got much love, seems surprising
– I'm kinda sad I couldnt get a Sunz Of Man song to place, or a Killah Priest song outside of bible.
– Iron Flag is top notch wu i came away from this loving it even more

good poll spottie, nice to bring a little bit of order to an awesomely chaotic catalogue

re: tical 2000, it didn't make my cut for this poll but i will personally stan hard for "torture"

Love the beat on Suspect Chin Music and I listened to Retro Godfather a ton in college. RZA showing his range between those two.

ha yeah suspect chin music is my close #2

How did you assign points for each ballot, Spottie? IOW, how many points would someone's #1, #2, #3 and so forth earn? I'm trying to figure out just for myself what the results would've looked like had I submitted a ballot.

1 50
2 45
3 41
4 38
5 36
6 35
7 34
8 33
9 32
10 31

and so forth down to pick 36 which was worth 5 pts.

thanks for running this poll, Spottie - good stuff! I for one did not mind the tempo at all

surprised Camay didn't place

thanks Spottie, top work!

this is my favourite Killah Priest thing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMHZTauB-uY

Yeah, would have loved to see that one and one of the early Sunz of Man tracks on the list :)

This Method Man feature is so good - about halfway through it becomes less about the songs and more about regrets and anxieties: http://www.complex.com/music/2011/10/method-man-25-essential-songs/

oh yeah lots of good stuff in there thx.

“Dirty took all their shit and made it his own and GZA ain’t say shit. Most of [Dirty’s verses] was GZA’s shit. I remember GZA and ODB got in an argument one night and GZA was like, ‘Nigga most of that shit on your fucking album is mines anyway!’

“ODB wrote ‘Brooklyn Zoo’ though. I could go through the discography I could tell you which ones he wrote. Like ‘Dog Shit’ on Wu-Tang Forever? The fucking, ‘Calling me a dog/But leave a dog alone/Because nothing can stop me from burying my bones,’ I wrote that when I was 15 years old.

yeah it's great

listening to that strange, strange Texas remix I'm reminded of a quote I once heard paraphrased, where RZA describes not knowing the concept of musical keys when starting out as a producer, which, if true, may explain some of the off-ness abt songs like Can It Be All So Simple

Thanks for running this poll, Spottie! Unfortunately work kept me from being on ILX during the final half of the rollout, but it was really great to re-engage with the clan. Even though my ballot was all old favorites, the nomination process introduced me to some great tracks I wasn't familiar with