Consider Yourself Schooled Part One - Wu-Tang Clan

Well I thought that I would start with something fairly obvious. The Wu-Tang Clan formed in New York in 1992 mainly thanks to the RZA and GZA, two cousins who had previously worked in the record industry with very little success. These two along with Ol' Dirty Bastard then proceeded to build the group with friends from in and around the New York area. The final line up of the group was made up of RZA, GZA, Ol' Dirty Bastard, Ghostface Killah, Inspectah Deck, Masta Killa, Method Man, Raekwon and U-God (Silly names I know but hear me out...). They took the name of the group from the 1981 martial arts film, "Shaolin and Wu Tang".

A year later in 1993 was the first time the Clan made themselves known to the general public with their single "Protect Ya Neck". Thanks to the underground reaction to this single they were signed to RCA and released their first album "Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)" in late 1993.

With a low use of samples (apart from the kung-fu film skits) and what sounds like low cost production methods that RZA uses is what gives the album its gritty and underground feel that most Hip-Hop at the time was avoiding. Calling Jazz pianists, such as Thelonious Monk his biggest influences certainly gives the album a very different sound to the "Gangster" Hip-Hop that was so popular both then and now.

The first to do many things in the world of Hip-Hop, such as start their own clothing label, create slang terms in their songs that become used the world over, cite comic book references in their tracks and change samples to do things that people couldn't imagine at the time. Yet these things do not change the fact that out of four albums the only one you really need to hear is the debut. Perhaps the world of business and making money took too much of their attention away from actually making good music, perhaps innovators in this as well as we see this even more nowadays.

Must Have Album - Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)

Protect Ya Neck (Remember it is 1993 and they made this video on their own with no money and only the equipment they had!)