Ol' Dirty Bastard — Return to the 36 Chambers: The Dirty Version

During the production of "36 Chambers", the debut of the Wu-Tang Clan published by Loud Records, Matty C, the A&R of the label, communicates to his friend Dante Ross that not all the rappers of the supergroup have signed a contract with Loud. Ross is the A&R of Tommy Boy, and moves to the Elektra Records subsidiary, a label that wants to invest more in hip-hop artists. The executive goes to listen to some of the Wu-Tang boys live on Stretch & Bobbito show and joins them, to communicate his intentions: he wants to sign Ol' Dirty Bastard and Method Man as a kind of new Run-DMC-style hip-hop duo, but RZA, who controls and manages the group and the individual rappers, stops him right away. Meth is destined for Def Jam, Ross can only have ODB. In 1994, Dante Ross signs a contract with the rapper for two albums with Elektra. Afterwards, the rapper brings him 6-8 songs already made with RZA — I assume by intuition, that they're the ones in which Bobby Digital worked as an engineer, because from that moment on he'll no longer work on the ODB album. So the songs should be: "Baby C'mon", "Hippa to the Hoppa", "Raw Hide, "Damage", "The Stomp", "Goin' Down", "Proteck Ya Neck II The Zoo" and "Cuttin' Headz" — the rest of the first record must do it Ason himself, with the help of Ross, in order to complete the project.

GZA — Liquid Swords

Releasing his second studio album in early November 1995, GZA / Genius definitively consecrated himself as one of the best lyricists in hip-hop and one of the most respected and feared performers on the circuit during the nineties. The album is devoid of any weaknesses and is practically perfect, starting with the iconic cover: on a chessboard in the middle of space, duelists challenge each other with liquid swords (the reference is to the film "Legend of the Liquid Sword", 1992), on the right GZA is cutting the neck of a rival, while in the center the luminous symbol of the Wu-Tang, whose "g" is obscured by a chain. The stylized MC symbol appears twice, right and within the title. Entirely produced by RZA, except for the bonus track, whose beat is created by 4th Disciple, the album features the collaboration of all the official members of the Wu-Tang Clan, as well as Life, Dreddy Kruger and Killah Priest.

Ghostface Killah — Ironman

«Why do you listen to hip hop?» I think my personal answer lies in this 26-year-old boy's first solo album. In the most misogynistic and violent genre par excellence, Dennis Coles chooses one of the most violent monikers that can exist: Ghost Face Killer. The name is taken from the kung-fu movie "The Mystery of Chess Boxing" (1979). At the first Wu-Tang concerts, he shows up with a mask because he's wanted by the police due to some crime. On that first Wu-Tang album, the first verse of the opening song, "Bring da Ruckus", is dropped by him: he's the first Wu-Tang Clan member that RZA decides to let us listen to and he doesn't disappoint. Ghostface Killah kicks it all off and changes the course of hip hop forever. His verse is one of the most wicked and most memorable that he has dropped in his career above a rhythm that fades and then comes back strong in an alienating and disturbing atmosphere.

His robust performance in "36 Chambers" allows him to launch an extraordinary solo career and quickly become one of the best hip-hop artists ever, with one of the most solid and quality discographies of the genre: three clean classics, "Fishscale" (2006), "Supreme Clientele" (2000), and his debut. They're raw, rough, dark albums, full of violence, gangsterism, thugging, drugs, mafia, weapons, etc. For his first solo single, a song to be extracted to promote his first studio album, just under a month after its release, at this point, you expect it to be one of the most violent hip-hop tracks in history. Instead, Ghostface Killah chooses a song dedicated to his mom: a single verse, very deep, storytelling about his childhood that has a soulful hook by Mary J. Blige. Not only it's a rarity in the genre, it's a song at the top in describing the hard-knock life, at the top of the game by the same interpreter, practically free of curses (there's only one, functional), another absolute rarity in hip-hop. It's a pearl, completely unexpected, beautiful, amazing.

Wu-Tang Clan — Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)

In the late 1980s, cousins Robert Diggs and Gary Grice attempted careers in the music industry: they get a contract with Jamaica Records, which in turn brings the two artists to Tommy Boy. Diggs signs with this label, Grice gets a contract with Cold Chillin' Records, however, both don't get the hoped-for success. In 1990, Diggs moved to Steubenville, Ohio, becoming involved in minor crimes: after a shooting in 1992, he faces eight years in prison, and is saved by the jury. The fact opens his eyes and ears, the boy returns to devote himself fully to music and decides to form a hip-hop group, whose name is taken from a kung-fu film, "Shaolin and Wu Tang" (1983): the Wu-Tang Clan is born. The group consists of nine elements: in addition to him, leader of the group who also plays the role of producer of the album with the moniker The RZA, there are his cousins Gary "The GZA / The Genius" Grice and Russell "Ol' Dirty Bastard" Jones, and members of the previous Diggs group DMD Posse, Dennis "Ghost Face Killer" Coles, Clifford "The Method Man" Smith, Corey "Shallah Raekwon" Woods, Jason "Rebel INS / Inspectah Deck" Hunter and Lamont "U-God" Hawkins, later joined by The GZA friend, Elgin "Masta Killa" Turner.

Raekwon — Only Built 4 Cuban Linx...

To give an important and already defined identity to the blog, the first review is that of a Wu-Tang Clan album. I start with what over time has become one of my all-time favorites, Shallah Raekwon's masterpiece.

RZA has always been a big fan of cinema as well as hip-hop, and for Raekwon's first album he decides to make a project that closely resembles a movie. He takes the role of the director, Raekwon that of the star and Ghostface Killah is chosen for the guest star role. All members of the Wu-Tang Clan make cameos, in addition to the guests of honor Cappadonna, Blue Raspberry, 62nd Assassin, and Nas.

On Raekwon's initiative, in this album, the artists of the Wu-Tang Clan take different monikers, in homage to "Once Upon a Time in America" (1984), Sergio Leone's mafia movie on Jewish crime, starring Robert De Niro and James Woods: Raekwon is Lou Diamonds aka Lex Diamonds, Ghost Face Killer is Tony Starks, from "Iron Man", GZA and Master Killer are named like the characters played by Woods and De Niro in the flick, so they're Maximilian and Noodles respectively, RZA is Bobby Steels, Method Man is Johnny Blaze, from "Ghost Rider", Inspectah Deck is Rollie Fingers, finally U-God is Golden Arms aka Lucky Hands. The Wu-affiliate Cappadonna is Cappachino, while the only guest outside the Wu-Tang on the record, Nas, is Nas Escobar. The idea of The Chef influences the entire hip-hop circuit and from here on, all the other rappers will use a different moniker than the usual, often with mob references, for their records.