WU-TANG CLAN — Artist Poll — Voting Thread (deadline Oct. 15)

nearly done with the singles playlist... fun to listen to these songs randomly. finding some i had never heard!

there's no disputing that 36 Chambers is all-time game-changing classic, with zero filler or bad tracks. at the same time, it isn't the one I return to the most, and it's p rare that I go back and listen to it all the way through. if I'm being honest I prefer the overall sound of Wu-Tang Forever (even if there are certain tracks that get skipped every time), or the cleaner production and gangster mythologizing on Only Built 4 Cuban Linx, or the non-stop grimy insanity of the first ODB record. I go back to those more.

― Οὖτις, Tuesday, October 3, 2017 12:21 PM (twenty-one minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i can see that. altho i have some issues with the mix on some of Forever

looking back it's a pretty interesting development, I don't think anyone would have predicted from the outset that Ghost would be the breakout critical (if not commercial) star with the deepest catalog

― Οὖτις, Tuesday, October 3, 2017 12:44 PM (two minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah meth was supposed to be the star

and in some ways he was, right? I feel like he definitely had a higher commercial profile + hit ratio, altho maybe all the acting gigs distort that.

yeah i guess. just seems like he hit a cliff after Blackout

blackout 2 has some jams

looking at Meth's singles chart postings it looks like his peak era was already over by '96 tho lol.

But he has a number one, and I don't think Ghost has ever even broken the top 10

probably gonna vote for at least one of its tracks

xp

blackout 2 has some jams

― bodak horseman (voodoo chili), Tuesday, October 3, 2017 12:54 PM (fifty-nine seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah for sure. i added A Yo in there. Meth had some scattered goodness left

if wiki is right then 4:21 sold over 230k!? jeez

loved the fallon performance when meth gets up on his desk and starts dancing <3
http://cms.springboardplatform.com/embed_iframe/159/video/48337/rab010/rapbasement.com/10

couldn’t in good conscience participate in the nominations but i’m gonna try to vote in this anyway

― ToddBonzalez (BradNelson), Sunday, October 1, 2017 7:30 AM (two days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

brad, i meant to ask what you meant by this? the first part)

Okay, Spotify tracks list is done. Biggest missing albums are 8 Diagrams, Theodore Unit, Ghost and Trife... but it's only 20 tracks out of 328!
I built a YouTube playlist with the non-spotify tracks; that's here: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLcqiswAZfVPq-ohw_PGfSMBrSmlDNdlX5
It all ends up being right at 24 hours of music.
I'll build the albums list later.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3RdWHFTNEk

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

yeah, those are in the youtube playlist i just posted.

ah, sorry

will always stan for this wild track

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-O8YoV2UVwc

the only intersect of Clinton and Wu, right?
Really enjoying Gravediggaz first album rn, which i somehow never seriously listened to!

isn't Clinton on some other track on that shitty album

like I seem to remember him getting two of those motor-mouth monologues in

(tbf "Wolves" is def one of the good track on there)

wolves is great.

that first trife track you posted is good but just a trife solo song no?

thanks for doing the playlists, forks, will be helpful for sure.

No prob man. I'm learning a lot!

Haha oh shit yr right! Track is so good i got distracted. Feel free to remove

Xp

Okay, the album playlist is fully populated too. Cappadonna has a lotta albums!

Missing albums (if anybody wants to build a separate YouTube playlist) are:
Cappadonna - The Cappatilize Project
Ghostface Killah (with Theodore Unit) - 718
Ghostface Killah & Trife Da God - Put It on the Line
GZA - Words from the Genius
GZA & DJ Muggs - Grandmasters
Ol' Dirty Bastard - A Son Unique
RZA - Digi Snacks
Sunz of Man - The Last Shall Be First
Wu-Tang Clan - 8 Diagrams

Thanks again. The sunz of man album is on spotify titled Natural High for some reason. I added already.

Ah got it; I saw that added but not on the list so I took that as an error. 9 outta 10 for the wu then.

thanks man

do we have enough people participating to make this work? figure we need about 20?

we've got 13 following the playlist on spotify, not sure how many more are planning on voting

Looks like there was about 15 or so who nominated at least one track and a couple others who chimed in with various other comments. but theres only like 4 of us talking in this thread so far.

Definitely plan on voting! Got a shortlist of 50+ tracks to work with.

Planning on voting as well, and really enjoying going through the playlist and discovering some new gems. For me, it's going to be hard for my ballot to have too much from outside the 36 Chambers-first five solo albums-Forever run. That's some of my favorite music ever made and I have such strong feelings about it

ould easily do just a ghostface ballot

― Spottie, Monday, October 2, 2017 11:36 AM (two days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I feel this, Ghost probably deserves his own artist poll in addition to this

top 5 ghost track imo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9HuGts2_SQ

I'm definitely voting, too, I just don't participate that much because I usually have nothing to add to the conversation. :)

But I guess I might as well campaign for this terrifying song while I'm here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K95kTh5gSfY

listening to the albums in the order they were released, tbh I think 36 Chambers is gonna end up towards the bottom of my top 5. Sacrilege, I know.

The arc of RZA's evolution as a producer is really interesting, esp because the first album seems to come out of left-field and bears next to no resemblance to that dominant sounds on the east coast (Puffy/Biggie) and the west coast (Dre/Snoop/2-Pac) at the time that were clearly leading the way through rap's big crossover pop moment. RZA was drawing from a different, very NY-centric tradition though (I think Muggs/Cypress Hill is a notable exception/precedent), and you can hear these echoes of Juice Crew/Marley Marl, Premier, Pete Rock, even the Native Tongues, in the way the beats sound and the way the songs are structured and put together. What's different and sets it apart is the actual content/imagery of all the kung-fu film stuff, and the dusty, gritty, almost tinny sound of it. There is not a ton of low end on this record, but there is tons of distortion, noise, and weirdly chopped samples. And it's all fascinating but tbh I don't think it actually *sounds* as good as a bunch of stuff that came later as he refined his approach. By the time he gets to the Dirty album, something like "Shimmy Shimmy Ya" really bangs - minimalist as it is there's a depth and widescreen-appeal to the sound, everything is carefully placed and panned in the mix for maximum impact, the haze of the first album and Tical (which is muddy as *fuck*, the whole thing sounds underwater) is still deployed but it's more skillful, less sloppy.

And then by the time he gets to Cuban Linx (probably the peak imo) shit is sounding downright shiny and polished.

and oddly I feel like the back half of 36 Chambers - from C.R.E.A.M. on - is where it really hits it's stride

also jfc getting this down to 36 tracks for my ballot is gonna be a bitch

my first run through of just the albums I own (a little more than a dozen) yielded 60 tracks, and I've only just started to check out the Spotify playlist.

Think Rza himself said he stole the most from Prince Paul xps. good post tho.

Tical is pretty great sounding in it's murkiness. The bass is so maxed out and sloppy. Def pushes my sub to extremes.

yeah iirc he cites Paul in the Wu-Tang Manual and they obviously had a personal connection. I get that Paul paved the way for being "weird" with the skits and samples and RZA ran with that, no doubt. but I don't really hear a lot of De La or Stetsasonic or 3rd Bass (lol) in that first album. the lo-fi grittiness reminds me more Marley Marl or BDP, it's the raw, scratchy loops.

hear a lotta paul in this first gravediggaz album

cos he produced it

he was sill credited on their second album too but dont think he had anything to do with it.

tbrr I never liked either Gravediggaz album

woohoo ty!

Marcos can you do a ballot by the end of this weekend?

spottie i missed this sorry!! proceed without me sad to say :( unfortunately i have too much going on

:( hopefully youll join in the rollout.

I got another one last night . not sure who from. think im gonna cut it off Sunday night for good and roll out with what we have next week.

do we at least have... 36?

Ok I am going to try and do a ballot by the end of today. Thanks for doing this spottie

Aw no cobra clutch? Ok I'll be voting for enough ghost as is I guess

Sent a copy over

do we at least have... 36?

― Larry Elleison (rogermexico.), Saturday, November 4, 2017 1:19 AM (twelve hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i wish .

got your a hoy hoy, waiting on forks now...

Forks you have until Teusday night. Im starting this rollout Wednesday.

(or anyone else that wants in still)

is this going to open this week?

got everythign compiled but had to go on business trip so starting it fresh on monday now. sorry team.

can(t) it all be so simple

nice timing... little appetizer for us to discuss in the meantime

https://massappeal.com/wu-tang-clan-ranked-every-song/

man those full catalog worst to best breakdown lists are exhausting

that mass appeal list is so lazy, just 92 songs presented with a quote from each, no criticism or engaging with the songs

believe it was rushomancy who demonstrated the format's potential in his breakdown of every pink floyd song, that list ruled

I’ll have to check that

https://pinkfloydsongsranked.blogspot.com/

Nice thx

man Supreme Clientele is such a great start-to-finish record, greater than the sum of its parts in a weird way

agreed.

btw ive got everything ready to go just doing some graphics. gonna start with the sub polls tonight.

ended up with 17 ballots so dragging it out got us over the hump

fwiw I would've voted for more "The W" songs if it weren't for the fact that almost every track on that album is actually 2 or 3 different songs randomly cut together.

agh i unbookmarked thread accidentally. i am bad person.

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

woohoo!