NYC Early 90′s. Baggy jeans that required constant pulling up. Sweatshirts with army jackets. Timberland boots. If you were there, you remember. We were impressionable teenagers, living in the city producing music that continues to live on forever, in the midst of one of the greatest golden eras of hip-hop. The idea of a rap supergroup was in its heyday. Will give props to anyone who can STILL name all Wu Tang members (FYI Wu includes Inspecktah Deck, Raekwon, Ghostface, Method Man, Rza, Gza, U-God, Masta Killa, and ODB). Could hold out hope, that will be the question to a Jeopardy answer one day (not likely). Nostalgically listening to “Enter the Wu Tang (36 Chambers)”, that era seems like yesterday. Am still amazed with that many members in a group how they were able to get all of them on tracks.
Learning that the Clan was coming through LA again, I wanted to stroll down memory lane again. Having seen Method Man and Redman and Raekwon and Ghostface at earlier Rock the Bells shows, I knew Wu would be hype live. Was definitely looking forward to throwing up the Wu sign and observing the dynamics of the collective crew together. After a few mediocre opening acts (with one-act having one member that only came on stage to drink out of a red plastic frat boy party cup and smoke) minus the house DJ who played some decent songs, Wu Tang emerged from the gravel pit around 11 PM with one member spraying champagne on the audience. Missing Raekwon and Ghostface (not happy about that) but plus Cappadonna and Streetlife ( uh ok), the sold-out place went nuts. They did all the classics with Method Man, doing the heavy lifting trying to make up for the missing members, also performing his classic solo joints like “Bring the Pain”. He played to the crowd all night, encouraging moshing, jumping and then eventually crowd surfing. They also did a tribute to their deceased member, ODB, with “Shimmy Ya”. Have to admit cringing a little at the references of women in some of the songs and am not a fan of the girls in bikinis that were in their videos but I appreciated it for what it was at the time.
Ending the set with my favorite song of theirs, “Protect Ya Neck”, the crowd knew every single word including kids who couldn’t have been more than fetuses when their début album came out. But that’s the beautiful thing about classic hip-hop, the youth will discover it all over again. The ruckus was brought and yes C. still R.E.AM.