Staten Island, NY · hip-hop · east coast rap

Wu-Tang Clan

2 upcoming festivals

Nine MCs over dusty kung-fu-flick soul loops — still the most-imitated blueprint in rap, '36 Chambers' eternal.

Wu-Tang Clan formed in Staten Island, New York, in 1992, bringing together RZA, GZA, Ol' Dirty Bastard, Method Man, Raekwon, Ghostface Killah, Inspectah Deck, U-God and Masta Killa, with Cappadonna later closely affiliated. Their debut, Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers), was produced by RZA and paired sparse, gritty drums and soul samples with dialogue lifted from martial-arts films.

The group's structure was unusual: a collective contract that allowed members to sign solo deals elsewhere, which produced a run of individual albums through the mid-1990s while the Clan continued to record together. Their imagery, slang and production approach shaped a great deal of East Coast hip hop that followed, and Ol' Dirty Bastard's death in 2004 left a gap the surviving members have continued to work around.

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