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Wu-Tang Forever
Wu-Tang Clan
Loud / RCA Records, 1997
REVIEW BY: Sean McCarthy
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 02/28/1998
Open Letter to Ol' Dirty Bastard: Props to you and your boys atthe Grammys Wednesday night. Your stunt landed you in the same,prestigious circle as Guns N' Roses and Milli Vanilli, who werepast Grammy offenders. Sorry, but saying the Grammys don'trepresent quality is about as radical as saying the Spice Girlssuck. Blonde On Blonde, Highway 61 Revisited, It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back, all didn'tget one award? Surprised? Shouldn't be.
Now...onto your album, Wu-Tang Forever. Gotta say, not bad, not bad at all. 2Pacand The Notorious B.I.G. both released strong double albums, butyours was possibly the first double album that utilized most of thespace on two 60-minute plus discs. I'll get into the third personwriting-critiquing analysis in a sec, but I just wanted to say Wu-Tang Forever was the CD that made me feel hippest lastyear. When no one was in my apartment complex, this was blaring asI cleaned. This was one of those CD's where you almost wanted yourparents to discover you had, just to piss 'em off.
Ok, that all said, Wu-Tang Forever was probably the best rap CD released lastyear. Following up the now-classic Enter The Wu-Tang:36 Chambers was challenge enough.Following it up after nearly each member released solid solo albumsposed an even greater challenge. But Wu-Tang Forever sounds gloriously unified. If Puff Daddy isgloss king on albums, the Wu represent the dirtier side of rap.They leave spaces, some of the bass is scratchy and a good deal ofthe album is original material.
Thankfully, not all of Wu-Tang Forever is about boasts about how good the Wu-Tangare or over-glorified tales of street violence. While they do talkabout glocks, money and women who did them wrong(or bitches), theydo make obscure references to Bjork and the Transformers.
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