Friday, April 06, 2007

"Wu-Tang must watch a lot of TV"

That's an understatement.


I've been listening to a lot of what's considered now to be old school rap, predominantly by members of the Wu-Tang Clan. I just downloaded Liquid Swords, GZA's original side project, and have been cruising through the day at work. The Wu's pretty much perfect for doing work, the beats are repetitive, calm, and the flows are the same; that is, unless Ghostface starts talking about how his shoes talk when he shrooms or ODB busts in with some half-sung line about "the poonany splash".

The problem is that when you get a good rap song in your head you can't say it out loud. This morning I was washing my hands in the "pantry" (coffee room) and was caught saying "What? What? Ya'll!" to myself by our Division Executive Director. Oh well. Now he knows I'm down AND fresh, and so not to be messed with.

In addition to being known for their merry-go-round incarcerations and incestuous side projects, Wu's famous for sampling random old kung-fu movies. Most of their albums are driven by these themes, for whatever reason (probably weed-inspired). They even put out a "movie" where they rap over a concatenation of these movies. A bowl and a starter 1/8th is included in the box set.

But this begs a question. No, not "why?" Asking why would only lead you into the mental equivalent of quicksand. What I wonder is where the hell they found all of these fucking movies? My friend Diesel, a German bodybuilder who works on the line at the Volkswagen factory in Königslutter, and who is obviously way ahead of me in rap I.Q., answered this question as stated in the subject of this post. They must watch a lot of TV.

Anyone who saw the MTV Cribs episode in Wu's house can verify this. Aside from the hilarity of seeing random Clanmen... hmm, maybe we should use "Wu-Tangers" instead... wandering around a huge mansion in Beverly Hills, Methodman was passed out on the couch with a PS2 controller, like 4 remote controls, and a bag of the sticky next to him.

Anyway, I came upon this pretty awesome list of movies that Wu-Tang samples in all its albums. It's not entirely complete, but anyone who's dedicated enough to put something like this together is probably too deeply invested in the Wu-Tang philosophy to properly finish it off. Enjoy.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

In addition to their vast knowledge of martial arts films (which can be explained as some infusion with their islamic 5 Percenter religion - don't ask), these guys bust out the most random TV references I've ever heard, from Get Smart to Sanford & Son to that SuperFriends cartoon show. So basically, yeah, the Wu watched a lot of TV growing up. For more on their cryptic lyrics (I'm looking in your direction, Ghostface), check out the Wu Tang Manual:
http://www.amazon.com/Wu-Tang-Manual-Enter-Chambers-One/dp/1594480184/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/002-9194250-0053637?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1175903757&sr=8-1

Brice Lord said...

That's a good point to bring up Nick. Wu-Tang's obscure references don't stop at bad 70's kung fu movies, they umbrella all of television, too. Don't bother wondering how much time these guys have on their hands, it's just not possible to quantify.

David said...

Dave, Im glad it took you almost ten years to fully understand the joy of listening to liquid swords straight through from the beginning.