Entertainment
Wu‑Tang Clan’s Rise to Hip‑Hop Immortality Meets Tragedy as Founding Legend Dies Just After Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Nomination
It’s been an eventful day for the Wu-Tang Clan. Within a few hours of the announcement that the group was nominated for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, news broke that founding member Oliver “Power” Grant had passed away. An executive producer who also launched the apparel brand Wu Wear, Grant backed Wu-Tang Clan financially during its early days, enabling its artists to change the hip-hop genre as we know it.
It’s difficult to overstate the Wu-Tang Clan’s impact. Founded in 1992 in Staten Island, New York, the collective’s artists included GZA, RZA, Method Man, Ghostface Killah, Raekwon, Inspectah Deck, Ol’ Dirty Bastard (who passed away in 2004), Masta Killa, U-God, and, later, Cappadonna. Their debut album, Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) was deeply experimental in its incorporation of martial arts, Eastern philosophy, kung-fu movies, comic books, and comedic dialogue. As trailblazers who expanded the possibilities of what hip hop could sound like, the Wu-Tang Clan’s artists are among the most deserving inductees to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame of all time.
The Wu-Tang Clan Put the Spotlight Back on New York Hip Hop in the 1990s
Hip hop, particularly the New York variety, has been a fixture in popular music since the early 1970s, when artists like DJ Kool Herc and MC Debbie D hosted block parties that featured freestyling, acrobatic dancing, and original music. But as the genre spread through the United States, prolific hip-hop enclaves developed in Chicago, Detroit, and Los Angeles. By the end of the 1980s, West Coast hip-hop had more or less eclipsed the New York scene in national popularity. Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg, in particular, lent hip-hop a new, radio-ready sound that penetrated mainstream music and moved the epicenter of the genre to Southern California.
Enter the Wu-Tang Clan. With the release of Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) in 1992, the group revitalized New York City’s hip-hop scene and ushered in the East Coast Renaissance. In The Come Up: An Oral History of the Rise of Hip-Hip, Jonathan Abrams writes that the group “talk[ed] listeners into their tumultuous environment and introduce[ed] them to a new vocabulary.” In addition to popularizing New York slang and immersing fans in the fraught racial and socioeconomic politics of the city, the Wu-Tang Clan also brought together disparate cultural elements that had not previously been included in the hip hop world.
The Wu-Tang Clan Revitalized the New York Hip Hop Scene and Paved the Way for New Artists
According to New York hip hop producer Easy Mo Bee, record executives were initially dubious about the Wu-Tang Clan. In The Come Up, Abrams captures Easy’s initial reaction to the then-experimental group, comprised of nine artists looking to “fuse the hip-hop with the martial arts.” Easy recalled, “This is 1990. It’s a little too early to be talking snazzy concepts like that. So I wasn’t really getting it.”
Indeed, the Wu-Tang Clan’s work is filled with snippets from kung-fu movies, lyrics about martial arts, and allusions to comic books. Amid these cultural references are more traditional gangster rap elements, including descriptions of poverty, violence, and resilience in the inner city. Furthermore, the Wu-Tang Clan made great use of dialogue. Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) is filled with lengthy interludes, most of which are humorous and capture each member’s distinct personality.
“They were rebels,” said Steve Rifkind, founder of Loud Records. “I mean, all hip-hop artists [are], but it was just nine guys and the energy, it’s just hard, energized, raw music that’s not going to go away.” And it never did go away. Once the Wu-Tang Clan began releasing singles like “Protect Ya Neck,” they saw almost immediate success among rap fans.
Along with artists like Notorious B.I.G. (with whom Ghostface Killah and Raekwon unfortunately had beef), the Wu-Tang Clan popularized the practice of storytelling across an entire hip-hop album. In that regard, they paved the way for contemporary hip-hop stars like Kanye West, whose tracks are crafted to follow one another sequentially in order to tell a larger story. Furthermore, the Wu-Tang Clan took East Coast hip hop beyond freestyling and traditional gangster rap with their inclusion of disparate, multicultural influences. Without Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers), it’s hard to imagine an artist like Tyler the Creator or even Bad Bunny. Finally, the Wu-Tang Clan, along with Nas, pivoted hip hop away from the melodic, G-funk music coming out of the West Coast.
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame honors trailblazers, all of whom have changed the face of music. One can draw a direct line from the Wu-Tang Clan to the hip-hop of today, from the drill scene dominating New York City to the storytelling that pervades the music of Kendrick Lamar. Considering their influence, fans can only wait with bated breath to see who will perform in their honor and how they will honor the group’s late members.