The Greatest Wu Solo Albums

The Wu-Tang Clan is probably one of the greatest hip-hop groups of all-time and when they entered the hip-hop scene in 1993, the nine man collective changed the face of hip-hop.  The group released their debut album, Enter the Wu-Tang: 36 Chambers, in November 1993 on Loud Records and at the time, the group’s contract with Loud Records was considered unique because it allowed the individual group members sign solo deals with other record labels.  As a result, a year after the release of their debut album, Method Man would be the first of the individual members to release his solo album Tical, and multiple members would follow.  What follows is my list of the top 5 Wu solo albums.  Remember this is my list, not your list, so if you disagree, give me your top 5.

#5 Method Man – Tical

 I know a few people that didn’t like this album.  One of my boys hated the album so much that he was going to return it to Camelot Music and he said if they didn’t take, he was going to throw it at them and tell them to keep it.  Another one of my boys said he was never buying another Wu solo album, even though he changed his mind when Ol’ Dirty dropped his album next.  Call me sentimental though because the album holds a special place in my heart as being the first Wu solo album.  I also thought it epitomized the griminess that Wu-Tang represented at that time with the dark, hard beats of songs such as Bring The Pain, P.L.O. Style and Mr. Sandman.

#4 Ghostface Killah – Ironman

Most Wu fans should know this, but the original pressing of this album included a joint called The Soul Controller, but due to sample issues, the song was removed from later pressings.  I actually had the original pressing, but the CD got scratched and then I lucked up and found it in a used CD shop for dirt cheap. 

#3 GZA – Liquid Swords

I believe this was the fourth solo album from the Wu and it came out in November 1995.  It was my freshman year of college and I didn’t have a car, so my boy Shun who was at Michigan State, copped it for me and sent it to me.  I remember the back cover telling a story with the song titles, but nowhere in the CD were the song titles in order, so you had to guess the title of the songs.  In my opinion, GZA is probably the dopest lyricist in the Wu and while I think most people appreciate the album, I don’t think it gets its proper respect.  On some days, I could probably put this album at #2 on the list.

#2 Ghostface Killah – Supreme Clientele

Out of the sophomore solo albums from the Wu, this is easily the dopest one.  It came out in January of 2000 and I remember it spent the entire semester in my Walkman.  I can still put this album on today and play it straight through.  I love this album.  If it were a woman, I’d probably waive my “only marry Oprah” rule.  I think Ghost probably has the best solo catalog among the Wu and this album is the crown jewel.  This album is one of my favorites of all-time and if you call yourself a Wu fan and don’t have this album in your top 5, you might want to reconsider giving yourself the title of a Wu fan.

#1 Raekwon – Only Built 4 Cuban Linx… 

The purple tape.  This album came out August 1, 1995.  Up to this point, we had gotten solo albums from Meth and Ol’ Dirty which were both dope, but this album, it changed hip-hop.  I consider it the apex of Mafioso rap.  I still remember when I got this album.  I rode down to the mall with my mom to cop the album from Camelot Music and then I went to the laundry mat with her.  In the ride over, I remember ripping off the packaging and reading the tracklisting on the back of the CD.  The Wu members had given themselves Wu-Gambino names and I was studying the back of the album cover trying to learn their Wu-Gambino names.  While this was Rae’s solo album, it was billed as Raekwon the Chef guest starring Ghostface Killah, so it was almost like a group album.  This album also featured one of Nas’ best verses on Verbal Intercourse and it also featured the interlude Shark N****s where Rae and Ghost took shots at Biggie by accusing him of biting Nas’ album cover.  A couple of Christmases ago, I began giving my acknowledged nieces and nephews a classic album and I love this album so much that this was the album that I gave them last year. 

***Picture of album covers from www.amazon.com***

Step Your Rap Game Up

If you read XXL magazine, you probably already know what this article is about from the title.  In the magazine, there’s a section titled “Step Your Rap Game Up” where they put a wack lyric from a rapper.  I was listening to some music last week and heard a great lyricist drop a wack lyric and it got me to thinking about how some of the best emcees have dropped wack lyrics from time to time.  Therefore, I’ve compiled a list of 7 wack lyrics that were said by rappers that are considered to be dope lyricists.

Redman – 5 Boroughs

 “My paragraph alone is worth five mics/A twelve song LP, that’s 36 mics.”

Mathematically, I have no idea how this line works.  How many paragraphs are in a song?  Even if there’s only one, if the album has 12 songs and a paragraph is worth 5 mics, that should be 60 mics at a minimum, so where is the 36 coming from?  Redman is one of hip-hop’s most well-known weed heads, so maybe it is true that weed destroys the brain cells.

J. Cole – Dollar and a Dream III

“I let you feel like the s***, but boy, you can’t out-fart me.”

Unless we’re back in elementary, I have no idea why J. Cole is taking pride in out-farting somebody.  I mean, he actually wrote this lyric down and said it on a record.  Where’s the quality control?  Nobody in the studio said anything?  This line represents what happens when an artist surrounds himself with yes-men.

Eminem – Love the Way You Lie

“Now you get to watch her leave out the window/Guess that’s why the call it window pain.”

This was the line that inspired this article.  Every time I hear it, I’m disappointed in Em.  I just want to tell him that I don’t think that’s the reason they call it a windowpane.  I mean, what the hell, he’s supposed to be one of the greatest lyricists of all-time and he says this?  And he says it with such emotion as if we’re supposed to excuse the cheesiness of the line because he sounds pained when he says it. 

Rakim – Paid In Full

“Me and Eric B., and a nice big plate of fish, which is my favorite dish.”

It seems almost blasphemous to include Rakim in this article, but my boy Shun pointed this lyric out to me a few years ago.  I didn’t want to believe it was a wack lyric at the time because it’s Rakim and Rakim is supposed to be the greatest.  I mean really, it’s Rakim, but then when you hear the rhyme.  “A nice big plate of fish, which is my favorite dish.”  This could have been avoided if he had just eaten before he came to the studio.  Then he wouldn’t have been sitting around thinking about the big plate of catfish he was going to get when the session was over.

Jay-Z – Glory

“You’re a child of destiny/You’re the child of my destiny/You’re my child with the child from Destiny’s Child”

Jay released this freestyle shortly after the birth of his daughter so he was probably still emotional over that, so maybe he gets a partial pass for this line, but come on, “You’re my child with the child from Destiny’s Child”?  Didn’t Jay learn from the Super Ugly debacle about what can go wrong when you release emotional freestyles?  It has been my belief that family life has made Jay get lazy with the lyrics and this line is a prime example of that fact.  When Jay has these types of emotional moments in his life, I’m going to need him to start waiting 24 hours before he releases music so that it can go through the quality control process that he’ll be implementing for himself and J. Cole.

Ghostface Killah – Nutmeg

“Scooby snack, Jurassic plastic gas, booby trap/Ten years workin’ for me, you wanna tap s***?/Bung, bung, bung, your bell went rung, rung, rung”

Jay-Z once said, “Cause you don’t understand him, it don’t mean that he nice/It just means you don’t understand all the (mess) that he writes.”  That sums up how I feel about this Ghostface line.  This line is like hearing the adults on Peanuts talk.  I have no idea what he’s talking about.  What is Jurassic plastic gas?  If someone knows, please tell me and I understand that my bell went rung, rung, rung, but what exactly was going bung, bung, bung?

Eminem – Space Bound

“Love is evil.  Spell it backwards, I’ll show ya.”

I almost feel bad for putting Em on this list twice because if I had thought or looked harder, I’m sure I could have found another great lyricist that said something wack, but this line stands out almost as much as the window pain line.  When I spell love backwards, I get evol.  Because it’s Em, I tried to give him the benefit of the doubt and assume that evil was somewhere in there, but I haven’t been able to find it.  I also think that I may be getting dumber as I age, because I swear it seems like I try to spell love backwards every time I hear the rhyme and each time, I come up with evol.

So that's 7 wack lyrics by otherwise dope emcees.  I know there are a lot more than that floating out there, so if you can think of any, let me know.  Until next time…peace