Wu-Tang Clan are practically a language onto themselves.
Since I started caring intensely about music in the mid-90s, all I’ve ever heard is how “Wu-Tang is for the children,” and how “cash rules everything around me.” They’re a lingua franca for generations of fans trying to celebrate the community, rebellion, and endless chutzpah that’s defined hip-over over the last 40-something years.
But even the most prolific of tongues eventually speak their own ending.
“Wu-Tang Forever: The Final Chamber” (get tickets here) is effectively meant to be as close to a final bow as humanely possible for the surviving Shaolin’s finest (That’d be RZA, GZA, Raekwon, Ghostface Killah, Method Man, Inspectah Deck, U-God, Masta Killa, and Cappadonna). It’s certainly a feat easier said than done — Wu-Tang’s collective heft is as mighty as it is generally sporadic, and often concerts and records are powered by half the collective or fewer. (Not to mention solo LPs that are often thinly-veiled group projects.)
But Wu were nothing if not honest with themselves and their faithful audience at the 18,422-capacity PHX Arena, “Final Chamber” is basically organized as sets featuring several members punctuated by big group gatherings around gems like “C.R.E.A.M.” and this fella’s discographical standout, “Gravel Pit.” It’s an approach that reminds you of the loose creative magic and charm at the perpetual heart of Wu, and how there’s always something bigger churning no matter the number of Shaolin soldiers on stage. It also means that there’s a few configurations that always standout — any time you got Raekwon and Method Man, for instance, it was solid gold, and there’s little denying the eternal connection between RZA and GZA.
Related Video
Again, it never truly mattered if there were two members or nearly 10 — Wu-Tang cultivated a setlist that less like a greatest hits offering and more of a case study into what made them so damn compelling. “Wu‐Tang Clan Ain’t Nuthing ta F’ Wit,” for instance, is that big group jam, and in the live setting we can see the effortless interplay that makes Wu unstoppable as its members coalesce. That same dynamic is at work but slightly altered on “Rainy Dayz”; here, Raekwon and Ghostface Killah demonstrated that the Wu’s strength always came from the power and creative surge the members experience each time they step to the mic in any capacity. Even what amounted to solo songs, like Cappadonna’s “Run,” offered a spotlight without it getting lost in the shuffle of star power.
Sure, there were other standouts and hits — “Bring da Ruckus” and “Protect Ya Neck,” for instance, sound as sharp and body-rocking as ever because true anthems can never die. But it almost felt like the songs were inconsequential at times. They were often vehicles for the true purpose of the night: To let Wu-Tang say goodbye. Not only to fans by playing underrated cuts like “Ice Cream” — which captures a sillier, playful side of the Wu “core” that we’ve always needed more — but to one another. There was lots of earnest hugging, impromptu mini-dance parties, and passing high-fives — all the expressions of deep brotherhood from a group who changed the face of rap as much as one another’s lives.
Yes, they deserve their victory lap, but more than that, they deserve to take in together and truly relish in the joy and art they’ve made for themselves and one another. This is one country-cruising chance to reconnect at the very end and remind themselves that, heck yes, Wu-Tang changed lives, the arc of popular music, and even the way folks see the world. Mostly, though, they did it all together.
Yet this tour isn’t about just the past, either. For a bunch of dudes saying goodbye, there were plenty of instances of Wu-Tang focusing on the future. That began with the show’s opener, Run The Jewels (aka Killer Mike and El-P). While that duo are well-established enough, placing them in the canon of Wu did heaps to cement that duo as future legends. (An honor Killer Mike responded to by saying, “The best way we could homage them is to burn this place to the motherfucking ground.”)
Content shared from consequence.net.