Official Wu-Tang: An American Saga Season 1 Thread

[Atsym Sknyfs]

I meant to post this here and not the Booth thread.

I’m high af Listening to this Mystery of Chess boxing after watching this series. So this just fan theory based off the show. Why do I now feel Rae and Ghost we’re going at each other.

Or at least I hope they were going at each other on some Park Hill vs Stapleton legacy beef.


Especially “D-Love” “Arsonists” verse.

Rough like Timberland wear, yeah
Me and the Clan in 'Yota Landcruisers out there
Peace to all the crooks, all the nikkas with bad looks
Bald heads, braids, blow this hook
We pack chrome TEC's, nickel-plated MAC's
Black AC's, drug-dealin' styles in phat stacks
I only been a good nikka for a minute though
'Cause I got to get my props and win it, yo
I got beef with commercial-ass nikkas with gold teeth
Lampin' in a Lexus, eatin' beef
Straight up and down, don't even bother
I got 40 nikkas up in here now who kill nikkas' fathers


Speakin' of the Devil, psych!
No, it's the God, get the shyt right
Mega trife, and yo, I killed you in a past life
On the mic while you was kickin' that fast shyt
You reneged, tried again and got blasted
Half-mastered-ass style, mad ruff task
When I struck I had on Timbs and a black mask
Remember that shyt? I know you don't remember jack
That night, yo, I was hittin' like a spiked bat
And then you thought I was bugged out, and crazy
Strapped for nonsense, after me became lazy
Yo, nobody budge while I shot slugs
Never shot thugs, I'm runnin' with thugs that flood mugs
So, grab your eight plus one
Start flippin' and trippin', nikkas is jettin', I'm lickin' off, son

Lyrics courtesy of Genius

It's been documented rza had them battling each other to get on tracks so it's possible

 

[old pig]

The fact the episode is called "LABELS"... made me really appreciate GZA's classic joint even more.

oh definitely...but for me it kinda goes w/o saying... @ the point ‘labels’ dropped the wu was well established and I appreciated this song to the fullest...not only for him going @ the labels (even tho that was nothing new @ that point) but also for the witty wordplay...for me the song brought to mind LL’s ‘milky cereal’ and UTFO’s ‘hanging out’ (2nd verse) but whereby those songs were jovial in nature...GZA’s shyt was dead fukking serious...but for me I always appreciated that song fully out the gate

‘protect ya neck’ not so much...I met ODB and I wanna say method man and deck on hampton campus and they was passing out the PYN cassette single and ‘method man’ was on the B-side...I couldn’t access NYC radio back then so I don’t know how it hit the streets but I honestly wasn’t feeling PYN but the ‘method man’ track caught my ear...it’s not til the entire album dropped and I heard ‘7th chamber’ did I hands down respect the wu as a unit...said it in another thread...that track forever solidified them in my eyes...however it’s not until this show that I developed a new appreciation for PYN

since the series started I’ve listened to ‘protect ya neck’ @ least once a week...I still think the lyrics for the most part are “subpar” compared to all the shyt they’ve dropped...but that beat is sick and for w/e reason it never hit me that hard back in the day but there’s a sample he uses (I’ll find it later on whosampled) that absolutely makes the song what it is...and also GZA’s verse...when ‘labels’ hit...wu was a formidable force and very few ppl listening to hip hop were sleeping on them...but after watching this last ep of the show and listening to PYN it just made me respect his verse on PYN so much more...everybody in the song is pretty much rapping about how dope they are as most rappers do...but GZA jumps in and closes out the track indirectly rapping about how dope he is by shytting on the labels and how wack they are...and the verse is damn near prophetic...for that to be be his “first” verse (as down w/ the wu not solo) on the first track that they dropped as a unit says a lot to me

sorry for the long ass post...this is not a right or wrong thing...just wanted to expound on my opinion

*edit* just checked ‘whosampled’ and there’s no sample for the part of the song I was talking about...beat crazy tho

here’s “milky cereal” and “hanging out” btw





damn this is why this show is so important...it’s about the wu but @ the same time it’s not just about them...it’s about hip hop...the thread discussion here and on the booth has reminded me of so many other rappers/songs

 

[nieman]

Nobody. It’s just filler breh.

That’s my biggest issue with this series. I know it’s unpopular but there’s a lot of filler. nikkas geeking out at Treach, Prince Paul, Just-Ice and Kenny Smith cameos and I’m just like “can we speed this up just a smidge”

The Kenny Smith cameo really did me in. Cuz it literally has no significance on the story.

And next episode apparently some brolic nikka gets out of jail and starts coming for RZA. I have no idea who dude is but hope he ties into the larger narrative.

It's not filler. It gives a perspective on the timelines and things in general. They were people encountered on their way up, and on different levels of success. Just Ice was the man as far as someone you didn't want to eff with. He's pretty much a footnote, if not forgotten in hip-hop by now. Naughty & De La were pillars of Tommy Boy hip-hop, so new artists would bee attached to them. Even La & the Unit who were one of maybe 4-5 crews total in hip-hop, just shows us how everything was on the way up, and most know what it became.

 

[Mr Hate Coffee]

It's not filler. It gives a perspective on the timelines and things in general. They were people encountered on their way up, and on different levels of success. Just Ice was the man as far as someone you didn't want to eff with. He's pretty much a footnote, if not forgotten in hip-hop by now. Naughty & De La were pillars of Tommy Boy hip-hop, so new artists would bee attached to them. Even La & the Unit who were one of maybe 4-5 crews total in hip-hop, just shows us how everything was on the way up, and most know what it became.

Bruh I know all that. I just feel it could be executed a bit more tightly. Even given everything you typed, Kenny Smith could be omitted.

 

[jshani]

Never really heard this version

 

[NYC Warrior]

The legend! The God Just-Ice! Nobody wanted it with God back in the day, real nikkas know.

 

[Majestyx]

this dude looking way more like the god fahim than rza.

i dont see how tis dude went through wit the price rakeem video

 

[Danie84]

Ason Unique said that possum thing look like Master Splinter ate the turtles

 

[thaKEAF]

I was wondering why it didn’t sound like the show version when I pulled up the video.

Good episode..how many more episodes we got?

 

[old pig]

I was wondering why it didn’t sound like the show version when I pulled up the video.

Good episode..how many more episodes we got?

2 more left

 

[Atsym Sknyfs]

I wonder where the UMCs fit in here... After all ..Has G did produce Apollo KIds for ghost

 

[MartyMcFly]

Bruh I know all that. I just feel it could be executed a bit more tightly. Even given everything you typed, Kenny Smith could be omitted.

That's my one complaint with the show. Not everything needs to be there. Kenny Smith showing up is cool in the sense that it might have happened, sure. But it does nothing for the story, adds nothing to it, and is minor as hell. And it didn't look like it made an impact on RZA one way or the other. There's a way to do stuff like that and give a shoutout to real life events without making it feel tedious.

That said, I don't mind the stuff with Treach and Naughty because that's the crew RZA was running with on Tommy Boy and helped illustrated what he wanted to do with Wu in terms of fairness and the label business. Treach saying they just go where Tommy Boy wants them to go is a big deal because to RZA, and to hip hop at the time, those cats were big stars. To hear even those big stars are subject to the same jerking around that RZA was getting at the time has to be a hell of an eye opener.

 

[BXKingPin82]

It's been documented rza had them battling each other to get on tracks so it's possible

"Introducing...


yo! fukk that nikka name!!!"

 

[Atsym Sknyfs]

"Introducing...


yo! fukk that nikka name!!!"

I actually know what that song is about and it's not anybody in the clan..
I posted the breakdown in the rza Ohio thread a few years ago

 

[Zero]

And next episode apparently some brolic nikka gets out of jail and starts coming for RZA. I have no idea who dude is but hope he ties into the larger narrative.

If that's U-God, I'll be weak