#1 favorite wu-tang member

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gza, secret weapon

Edward III, Wednesday, 16 May 2007 02:30 (sixteen years ago) link

which one was aka golden arms? i forgot.

U-God. Who really isn't all that bad! I'm unconvinced by any of the solo stuff I've heard (haven't heard much though) but on the posse cuts he actually can take credit for a number of classic Wu moments.

Doctor Casino, Wednesday, 16 May 2007 02:48 (sixteen years ago) link

I remember this about him.

g®▲Ðұ, Wednesday, 16 May 2007 02:49 (sixteen years ago) link

which one was aka golden arms? i forgot.

U-GOD!

"im pushin force, my force your doubtin
im makin devils cower to the caucus mountains"

max, Wednesday, 16 May 2007 02:51 (sixteen years ago) link

*youre

max, Wednesday, 16 May 2007 02:52 (sixteen years ago) link

Voted GZA, though. The Genius is just the Genius - the backbone of the whole thing.

Have a feeling the pity votes are misplaced - it's the cred-deprived Method Man who's probably going to end up underrated here, but I could be wrong.

Doctor Casino, Wednesday, 16 May 2007 02:52 (sixteen years ago) link

but i obv voted for method man almost entirely cause of "i got... myself a forty i got... myself a shorty and im about to go and stick it"

max, Wednesday, 16 May 2007 02:54 (sixteen years ago) link

xpost meth deserves love

max, Wednesday, 16 May 2007 02:54 (sixteen years ago) link

i've always kinda thought GZA was the most overrated. obv Liquid Swords rules but a lot of the best moments are down to RZA & the guests, and he just seems like the most humourless of the bunch? i mean fine he's 'the genius' but does that have to mean he can't crack a joke from time to time?

also he's always so calm and collected. it's like he never really attacks, unlike U-God who seems so grateful on the rare occasion that he's in the spotlight that he gets all excited and goes hell-for-leather.

jabba hands, Wednesday, 16 May 2007 03:03 (sixteen years ago) link

i was jk about ugod. i agree he kills it on alot of the classic tracks.

chaki, Wednesday, 16 May 2007 03:04 (sixteen years ago) link

haha, if i was gonna give a "sympathy vote" it would be for inspectah deck -- not out of pity at all, but because he actually IS an excellent MC with lots of great moments scattered across the wu canon who nonetheless gets overshadowed by every other wu-man. he's the wu's mc ren, or george harrison.

my real vote went to RZA -- because he's the sharpest motherfucker in the whole clan, he's always on point. Razor sharp—with the beats, with the rhymes, whatever ...

Eisbaer, Wednesday, 16 May 2007 03:12 (sixteen years ago) link

for lyrics Deck might be my number 1 too actually, but perhaps he isn't quite charismatic enough to win this. i'll prob go with Meth or RZA on a 'who is the most entertaining' basis.

jabba hands, Wednesday, 16 May 2007 03:16 (sixteen years ago) link

i've always kinda thought GZA was the most overrated. obv Liquid Swords rules but a lot of the best moments are down to RZA & the guests, and he just seems like the most humourless of the bunch? i mean fine he's 'the genius' but does that have to mean he can't crack a joke from time to time?

um, how about "labels" from [i]liquid swords{/i]? his verse on "protect ya neck"? or "I came down with phat tracks that combine and interlock / Like getting smashed by a cinder block / Blaow! Now it's all over /Niggaz seeing pink hearts, yellow moons, orange stars and green clovers"?

Eisbaer, Wednesday, 16 May 2007 03:16 (sixteen years ago) link

that's all great of course, he just strikes me as a bit of a boring dude!

jabba hands, Wednesday, 16 May 2007 03:26 (sixteen years ago) link

but he is trying to be humorous on those tracks ... ah well, i didn't vote for him either (though i did vote for liquid swords on the wu-tang poll thread).

Eisbaer, Wednesday, 16 May 2007 03:34 (sixteen years ago) link

Meth is class president.

Whiney G. Weingarten, Wednesday, 16 May 2007 03:36 (sixteen years ago) link

deck's verse on "triumph" really makes the song

max, Wednesday, 16 May 2007 03:50 (sixteen years ago) link

^^^^favorite verse on favorite wu-tang song

g®▲Ðұ, Wednesday, 16 May 2007 04:00 (sixteen years ago) link

ghostface

Shakey Mo Collier, Wednesday, 16 May 2007 06:00 (sixteen years ago) link

Juh-jukka-genius

Dom Passantino, Wednesday, 16 May 2007 08:19 (sixteen years ago) link

POLL closes: May 05

2008?

StanM, Wednesday, 16 May 2007 08:22 (sixteen years ago) link

No Cappadonna?

I think there's a difference between Wu-Tangers as group members and as solo artists. Some of them, like Deck or Ghost, fit really well into the group dynamic and have great verses on the Clan albums, but are kinda hard to take for the duration of a whole solo album.

Tuomas, Wednesday, 16 May 2007 12:38 (sixteen years ago) link

RONG

Noodle Vague, Wednesday, 16 May 2007 12:41 (sixteen years ago) link

I know many will disagree, but I find Ghost's voice, flow, and lyrics to get kinda tiresome if I have to listen to him for 60+ minutes.

Tuomas, Wednesday, 16 May 2007 12:48 (sixteen years ago) link

i've always kinda thought GZA was the most overrated. obv Liquid Swords rules but a lot of the best moments are down to RZA & the guests, and he just seems like the most humourless of the bunch? i mean fine he's 'the genius' but does that have to mean he can't crack a joke from time to time?

gza's deadpan but he doesn't lack humor (maybe you're confusing him with killah priest ZING). in retrospect liquid swords got a lot of props, so gza's not as underrated as he used to be. deck and u-god are lifetime holders of that title. overrated? when he effortlessly drops hall-of-fame rhymes like this it's not possible:

doin' artists in like cain did abel
now they money's gettin' stuck to the gum under the table


he's not as wild as the others but the depth and craft in his lyrics is something else.

Edward III, Wednesday, 16 May 2007 14:00 (sixteen years ago) link

U-God for sheer weirdness alone

braveclub, Wednesday, 16 May 2007 14:04 (sixteen years ago) link

I'm still deciding, but I think it'll come down to either GZA or Ghost.

Oilyrags, Wednesday, 16 May 2007 14:25 (sixteen years ago) link

unsurprisingly ODB for me. (this is favorite, not most talented, right?)

GOTT PUNCH II HAWKWINDZ, Wednesday, 16 May 2007 14:27 (sixteen years ago) link

RZA, for accent, will, soundscape. deck is most underrated. GZA is corniest.

gabbneb, Wednesday, 16 May 2007 14:29 (sixteen years ago) link

and randomness without clowning

gabbneb, Wednesday, 16 May 2007 14:30 (sixteen years ago) link

GZA and Ghost have those great narratives, though. I'm not denying GZA's occassional wordplay overdose eyeroller of a track, but occassionally listening to those guys is like reading a Parker novel or something.

Oilyrags, Wednesday, 16 May 2007 14:32 (sixteen years ago) link

yeah, i don't like narrative tho

gabbneb, Wednesday, 16 May 2007 14:33 (sixteen years ago) link

ghost in a pinch.

BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Wednesday, 16 May 2007 14:35 (sixteen years ago) link

1 for meth.

bell_labs, Wednesday, 16 May 2007 14:36 (sixteen years ago) link

unlike U-God who seems so grateful on the rare occasion that he's in the spotlight that he gets all excited and goes hell-for-leather.

I don't agree that GZA takes it for granted/is too chill, but I'd agree with this statement wholeheartedly. The "raw like cocaine straight from Bolivia" verse is one of the best by anybody on 36 Chambers, and he rocks all over "Gravel Pit" and "Pinky Ring."

Deck has elsewhere on ILM been tagged "the greatest one-verse MC ever" which I find sadly true from the solo tracks I've checked out - I like them, but as Tuomas says about Ghostface, I can't really imagine 60 minutes of him front and center. GZA, Meth, no problem. But he makes "Triumph" and "Protect Ya Neck" as we all know, and, of course "7th Chamber" which gives us probably my favorite Wu snippet this side of "4th Chamber":

Yo, I leave the mic in body bags, my rap style has
the force to leave you lost like the tribe of Shabazz
Murderous material made by a madman
it's the mic wrecker, Inspectah, bad man


RZA's at a disadvantage here because half his contribution is in the production, which is pretty much fantastic across the board. When he's compared as an MC, he isn't quite in the top league - he has a bunch of great verses but also a number of kind of impenetrable wack things.

Doctor Casino, Wednesday, 16 May 2007 15:05 (sixteen years ago) link

impenetrable wack is what makes him good!

gabbneb, Wednesday, 16 May 2007 15:08 (sixteen years ago) link

7th chamber is the realest song on enter the wu

and what, Wednesday, 16 May 2007 15:20 (sixteen years ago) link

i like the remix

deej, Wednesday, 16 May 2007 15:24 (sixteen years ago) link

or 'part ii' or whatever its called

deej, Wednesday, 16 May 2007 15:25 (sixteen years ago) link

yeah thats what i was talking about, what those deck rhymes are from

and what, Wednesday, 16 May 2007 15:39 (sixteen years ago) link

RZA for me. Every time he mentions the applehead he makes the track.

No homo.

paulhw, Wednesday, 16 May 2007 17:23 (sixteen years ago) link

rza then odb then ghost then meth then gza

forksclovetofu, Wednesday, 16 May 2007 20:28 (sixteen years ago) link

raekwon

am0n, Wednesday, 16 May 2007 21:16 (sixteen years ago) link

dr morbius

latebloomer, Wednesday, 16 May 2007 21:20 (sixteen years ago) link

Not even the "best," but these days my favorite is RZA easy. Specifically for his blunted delivery and verses on...

4th Chamber:
Aiyyo, camouflage chameleon - ninjas scalin your buildin
No time to grab the gun they already got your wife and children...


Assassination Day:
You can never master, it's invincible, Wu-Tang indispensable
One nation under God, indivisible
With liberty and justice, the mic is in my clutches
Thugs who bring ruckus, leave in crutches


Reunited:
Wu-Tang Incorp. take your brain on spacewalk
Talk strange like B-jork, great hero Jim Thorpe
How can I put it? Life is like video footage
Hard to edit, directors, they never understood it
...
Grow like a fetus with no hands and feet to complete us
and we return like Jesus, when the whole world need us


PS - His own solo stuff aside, Meth's the most consistent and really ought to win this thing - almost never less than great, and often brilliant. He pretty much holds Forever together. And his verse on Radioactive is sublime...

It ain't all to the good, muh'fuckers hatin in the hood
Gotta a hundred wolves waitin in the woods
for the Clan's forthcomin'
I miss you in the game a court summons
And fugitives of rap caught runnin, y'all get locked up
E'rything was wack 'til we popped up
And got it on and poppin like Orville Reddenbacher
Podnuh, you ain't got no wins in mi casa
Wu-Tang got ya, like every ghetto got a Tasha
Request lines are now open, you see these MC's chokin
and thinkin, "What's that SHIT they be smokin?"
I'm so focused, simple chronic halitosis
Keep my shit funky when I spit this braggadocious
[hach, spit] Y'all niggaz got some fuckin nerve
to critic what I write, that's my muh'fuckin word
Blah blah blah, like N'Sync
Kiss that ass "Bye Bye Bye" knahmsayin? I ain't playin...


U-God and Masta Killa are probably the most underrated.

rogermexico., Wednesday, 16 May 2007 23:10 (sixteen years ago) link

gza - some of the best flows on 36 chambers and liquid swords is just brilliant

gman, Thursday, 17 May 2007 03:57 (sixteen years ago) link

This is too damn hard. I've managed to narrow it down to GZA & Ghost, but.......

The Reverend, Thursday, 17 May 2007 04:19 (sixteen years ago) link

Voted Gza cause the guy tried to steal my spaghetti during an interview.

MaGoGo, Thursday, 17 May 2007 15:32 (sixteen years ago) link

POLL closes: May 05

2008?

-- StanM, Wednesday, May 16, 2007 4:22 AM (1 week ago)

Poll Closing Date: Monday, May 4, 2020 7:00 PM

am0n, Monday, 28 May 2007 22:40 (sixteen years ago) link

sweet.

BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Monday, 28 May 2007 22:47 (sixteen years ago) link

Ghost all day

Paul Ponzi, Tuesday, 31 December 2019 21:51 (four years ago) link

Johnny blaze or the chef

brimstead, Tuesday, 31 December 2019 23:13 (four years ago) link

GZA next

brimstead, Tuesday, 31 December 2019 23:14 (four years ago) link

I chose Dirty because Return to the 36 Chambers is still one of the most idiosyncratic and exciting albums of any genre.

irerisered, Wednesday, 1 January 2020 01:38 (four years ago) link

four months pass...

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

System, Monday, 4 May 2020 00:01 (three years ago) link

lol the time has arrived!!

Johnny Fever, Monday, 4 May 2020 00:03 (three years ago) link

GZA, Raekwon, then Method

genital giant (Neanderthal), Monday, 4 May 2020 00:04 (three years ago) link

been waiting for this one

Li'l Brexit (Tracer Hand), Monday, 4 May 2020 00:05 (three years ago) link

Ghost is my favorite rapper, so, him

sleight return (voodoo chili), Monday, 4 May 2020 00:46 (three years ago) link

A momentous day is nearly upon us!

I voted Raekwon because his raps were always so damn solid, but GZA's track on the Rhapsody album was an incredible reminder of the ability he possesses when he brings his A game.

Mario Meatwagon (Moodles), Monday, 4 May 2020 00:59 (three years ago) link

method man for sentimental value (limp bizkit collab, how high)

flappy bird, Monday, 4 May 2020 02:54 (three years ago) link

has to be ghostface

devvvine, Monday, 4 May 2020 09:12 (three years ago) link

Is it alright if we extend the deadline for another 13 years? I need more time to think.

cajunsunday, Monday, 4 May 2020 09:41 (three years ago) link

Is Dirt McGurt supposed to be ODB ?

Nabozo, Monday, 4 May 2020 09:47 (three years ago) link

voting gza because liquid swords had an absolutely seismic effect on me at age 15 but virtually all of them are extraordinary in one way or another, just an incredible concentration of talent

glad i had the time to think this through properly, thanks chromeski a.k. gattlington

i'm stunned to realize we're here. hits harder than any aging sci-fi movie "can't believe that far off future date has arrived" type thing.

Doctor Casino, Monday, 4 May 2020 12:13 (three years ago) link

Showdown between GZA and Ghost, nigh impossible, but ultimately the latter ran away with it.

Nearly finished my 2007 Things To Check Out list

- Chinese Democracy
- New Duke Nukem
- ILM's favourite wu-tang member

Non, je ned raggette rien (onimo), Monday, 4 May 2020 14:28 (three years ago) link

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

System, Tuesday, 5 May 2020 00:01 (three years ago) link

RZA and U-God the only ones I don't own solo albums by

genital giant (Neanderthal), Tuesday, 5 May 2020 00:06 (three years ago) link

Only 285 votes in all? Man, this place is tinier than I thought.

pomenitul, Tuesday, 5 May 2020 00:06 (three years ago) link

Confession: there were a number of years there where votes weren't being saved properly between server reboots and we've moved server about five times since this poll began so maybe better you just talk it out who is actually best

stet, Tuesday, 5 May 2020 00:20 (three years ago) link

Poll rerun needed, finishing in 2033

all things must pasteurize (Matt #2), Tuesday, 5 May 2020 00:24 (three years ago) link

Don't tempt me…

pomenitul, Tuesday, 5 May 2020 00:25 (three years ago) link

Confession: there were a number of years there where votes weren't being saved properly between server reboots and we've moved server about five times since this poll began so maybe better you just talk it out who is actually best

"Right speech means abstention ... from ... talk that may bring about hatred, enmity, disunity, and disharmony among individuals or groups of people"

lukas, Tuesday, 5 May 2020 00:47 (three years ago) link

anyway

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IiY38pUOBo

lukas, Tuesday, 5 May 2020 00:48 (three years ago) link

pretty sure most of the votes i cast over the years were rza, gza and deck, so obviously these results are fatally tainted by the server resets and lose all legitimacy

Doctor Casino, Tuesday, 5 May 2020 02:23 (three years ago) link

Nice distribution of points, although pretty impressed at how much Ghostface crushed it. His stock has gone way up over the past 15 or so years.

Mario Meatwagon (Moodles), Tuesday, 5 May 2020 03:51 (three years ago) link

partially because of how prolific he's been, and how consistently listenable-to-good most of his releases were, even if he's treaded water for a while. not that this is why people voted for him, but he has never really stopped chugging along. Raekwon probably the closest in terms of releases and quality control.

genital giant (Neanderthal), Tuesday, 5 May 2020 04:00 (three years ago) link

how did U-God beat Masta Killa

genital giant (Neanderthal), Tuesday, 5 May 2020 04:00 (three years ago) link

on the basis of "raw, I'ma give it to ya, with no trivia..." verse?

genital giant (Neanderthal), Tuesday, 5 May 2020 04:01 (three years ago) link

Ghostface is the only one where I accrued lots and lots of solo/collab records, almost all being decent investments. Have no idea whether I voted though!

Nag! Nag! Nag!, Tuesday, 5 May 2020 04:17 (three years ago) link

Love some u-god verses like on the completely bonkers Chercez LaGhost + Uzi, It’s Yourz, Chessboxin, Pinky Ring, Black Jesus, Click Click. Has way more classics than masta but masta gets credit for releasing a couple solid post wu prime solo albums.

Spottie, Tuesday, 5 May 2020 06:04 (three years ago) link

three months pass...

so this is a nerd question but my wife was listening to a rza interview about his ice cream jingle and apropos of nothing he started raving about how much he fucking loves the mellotron

does anybody know any releases where rza uses the mellotron

planet mellotron is no use because the guy who runs that site is gatekeepy and doesn't count sampled mellotron, you know how gear nerds get

Kate (rushomancy), Saturday, 15 August 2020 15:21 (three years ago) link

after all these years i think i miss the humble
and amiable u god the most

the late great, Saturday, 15 August 2020 17:40 (three years ago) link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ed_n6r66v8

+ iirc, You Can't Stop Me Now? or some other late aughts Bobby Digital joints, i know there's more

xp

gaudio, Saturday, 15 August 2020 18:53 (three years ago) link

thanks! cool jam, i'm not 100% sure that's _actually_ a tron, feel like it could be some willie mitchell strings? but it's a great song and it does _sound_ a lot like tron.

Kate (rushomancy), Saturday, 15 August 2020 20:32 (three years ago) link


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