Basically
Wu-Tang - A Better Tomorrow (12/2/14) - Album Discussion Thread(Stream)
- Thread starter Billy Ocean
- Start date
Basically
Man that "Necklace" track is BANANAS.
I don't understand why it's so hard to make a Wu album. Give us 10-12 songs like this and I'm good. Grimy ass beats and them just spitting. You'd think after 20 years they'd have the formula mastered.
I need to find the Wu fans running up on RZA asking for these singing ass hooks and snuff the shyt out of them. If they even exist, because I find it hard to believe.
Fred.
I don't understand why it's so hard to make a Wu album. Give us 10-12 songs like this and I'm good. Grimy ass beats and them just spitting. You'd think after 20 years they'd have the formula mastered.
I need to find the Wu fans running up on RZA asking for these singing ass hooks and snuff the shyt out of them. If they even exist, because I find it hard to believe.
Fred.
Grand Eeezus Maxwell
"Time is when, God....lounge!!"
4th Diesel!
"Brother..............I think that necklace is causing you too much trouble."
"Brother..............I think that necklace is causing you too much trouble."
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*Goes and listens immediately
New RZA interview about ODB and A Better Tomorrow Boombot speaker:
This week marks the 10th anniversary of the passing of Russell Tyrone Jones, better known as Ol’ Dirty b*stard of the famous rap collective Wu-Tang Clan.
The RZA, Wu-Tang’s unofficial leader, has said that ODB will be included in some way in the group’s upcoming album, “A Better Tomorrow,” which is slated to be released in early December. However, part of “A Better Tomorrow” is being made available now through a special partnership between the band and Boombotix, a maker of Bluetooth speakers. Boombotix has created a special Wu-Tang version of their Boombot REX speaker, which will be preloaded with several songs from the new album. The speaker was available starting Nov. 15, which also just happens to be Ol’ Dirty b*stard’s birthday.
“When Mustafa [Shaikh, the head of PR at Boombotix] was giving us the release day of November 15th, I was like, that’s ODB’s b-day,” RZA told BetaBoston. “To me, that’s an auspicious day to launch this product. He’s not here to see how far our music has traveled.”
The Boombot REX is a portable Bluetooth speaker that connects to a smartphone. RZA suggested the speakers are the modern equivalent of the boom box, the now anachronistic staple of ’80s hip-hop and punk culture.
“Me and ODB used to always be on that boom box rapping,” RZA said, and here we are in a digital age, and we’re gonna carry that Wu-Tang forever.”
The Wu-Tang edition of the Boombot REX, which comes loaded with half of “A Better Tomorrow,” actually drops two weeks before the album’s Dec. 2 release date, and includes a song, “Big Horn B,” which is only available on the device.
The speaker is a way, in RZA’s words, to add tangibility back to music.
“Some people can’t sell 10,000 records nowadays, but you could sell 10,000 of these,” he said, alluding to the recent news that Taylor Swift has been the only artist in 2014 to release a Platinum record. While it might be a long shot, RZA is hoping that proprietary speakers and other products embedded with music will someday impact the way the RIAA counts album sales.
“Logically [the RIAA] will count it. We’ve created a new type of album, an SP,” he said. “LP is long play, EP is extra play, now you have the SP which is special play.”
The limited edition speaker is already sold out from the official Boombot webstore, but RZA hopes that similar ventures will bring people back into stores, to add value to music – something that has been devalued since file sharing took off in the late ’90s.
“This type of device opens up the door for retail,” he says. “It has the potential to ignite traffic in two ways: the average music consumer will find themselves in a store they would not normally be in, and then the average person, who wouldn’t buy music, finds a product and buys music he normally wouldn’t pay for.”
The release of the new Wu-Tang album via Bluetooth speaker at a fixed price point ($79.99) is a stark contrast to the pay-what-you-want models, and starker still to the way U2 released its recent album in October, which was infamously downloaded automatically on all iPhones.
“I didn’t know someone had that kind of access to my phone,” said RZA, speaking about the U2 album. “I left my phone at home and my wife saw the picture pop up, and I said I didn’t know how that got there.”
“I thought my phone had more privacy, let’s put it that way,” he said.
The release of a retail product is, in part, part of the Wu-Tang Clan’s approach to looking for new revenue channels in unusual places (they also have a line of licensed clothing being sold in Forever21 stores). He says it is just a reaction to the larger struggle for musicians now face in their attempts to get fans to pay for music.
“There’s something bad about it, in the industry you’ve got people who depend on the sale of a product. Everyone gets it without coming to the store,” RZA said. “Engineers are still $80-$100 an hour, it costs money to make music, so to give it away hurts the whole industry. I think it’s smart to keep feeding it [the retail industry].”
RZA still imagines new ventures for the Wu-Tang Clan, and says a Kung Fu film starring the group is a possible next step.
“I wrote two modern sci-fi/martial arts stories that included other Clan members in an exaggerated expression of their personae,” he said. “If life permits, and the brothers find the interest, it would be interesting to see such ideas come to fruition.”
Through it all, Ol’ Dirty b*stard still casts a shadow on the Wu-Tang Clan’s ventures. RZA is still finding new ways to honor his cousin and former bandmate.
“I was able to get some of his vocal samples embedded in the album,” RZA said, noting that he’s included some of his a capella and spoken word samples in some of the tracks.
“You can still feel some of his energy.”
This week marks the 10th anniversary of the passing of Russell Tyrone Jones, better known as Ol’ Dirty b*stard of the famous rap collective Wu-Tang Clan.
The RZA, Wu-Tang’s unofficial leader, has said that ODB will be included in some way in the group’s upcoming album, “A Better Tomorrow,” which is slated to be released in early December. However, part of “A Better Tomorrow” is being made available now through a special partnership between the band and Boombotix, a maker of Bluetooth speakers. Boombotix has created a special Wu-Tang version of their Boombot REX speaker, which will be preloaded with several songs from the new album. The speaker was available starting Nov. 15, which also just happens to be Ol’ Dirty b*stard’s birthday.
“When Mustafa [Shaikh, the head of PR at Boombotix] was giving us the release day of November 15th, I was like, that’s ODB’s b-day,” RZA told BetaBoston. “To me, that’s an auspicious day to launch this product. He’s not here to see how far our music has traveled.”
The Boombot REX is a portable Bluetooth speaker that connects to a smartphone. RZA suggested the speakers are the modern equivalent of the boom box, the now anachronistic staple of ’80s hip-hop and punk culture.
“Me and ODB used to always be on that boom box rapping,” RZA said, and here we are in a digital age, and we’re gonna carry that Wu-Tang forever.”
The Wu-Tang edition of the Boombot REX, which comes loaded with half of “A Better Tomorrow,” actually drops two weeks before the album’s Dec. 2 release date, and includes a song, “Big Horn B,” which is only available on the device.
The speaker is a way, in RZA’s words, to add tangibility back to music.
“Some people can’t sell 10,000 records nowadays, but you could sell 10,000 of these,” he said, alluding to the recent news that Taylor Swift has been the only artist in 2014 to release a Platinum record. While it might be a long shot, RZA is hoping that proprietary speakers and other products embedded with music will someday impact the way the RIAA counts album sales.
“Logically [the RIAA] will count it. We’ve created a new type of album, an SP,” he said. “LP is long play, EP is extra play, now you have the SP which is special play.”
The limited edition speaker is already sold out from the official Boombot webstore, but RZA hopes that similar ventures will bring people back into stores, to add value to music – something that has been devalued since file sharing took off in the late ’90s.
“This type of device opens up the door for retail,” he says. “It has the potential to ignite traffic in two ways: the average music consumer will find themselves in a store they would not normally be in, and then the average person, who wouldn’t buy music, finds a product and buys music he normally wouldn’t pay for.”
The release of the new Wu-Tang album via Bluetooth speaker at a fixed price point ($79.99) is a stark contrast to the pay-what-you-want models, and starker still to the way U2 released its recent album in October, which was infamously downloaded automatically on all iPhones.
“I didn’t know someone had that kind of access to my phone,” said RZA, speaking about the U2 album. “I left my phone at home and my wife saw the picture pop up, and I said I didn’t know how that got there.”
“I thought my phone had more privacy, let’s put it that way,” he said.
The release of a retail product is, in part, part of the Wu-Tang Clan’s approach to looking for new revenue channels in unusual places (they also have a line of licensed clothing being sold in Forever21 stores). He says it is just a reaction to the larger struggle for musicians now face in their attempts to get fans to pay for music.
“There’s something bad about it, in the industry you’ve got people who depend on the sale of a product. Everyone gets it without coming to the store,” RZA said. “Engineers are still $80-$100 an hour, it costs money to make music, so to give it away hurts the whole industry. I think it’s smart to keep feeding it [the retail industry].”
RZA still imagines new ventures for the Wu-Tang Clan, and says a Kung Fu film starring the group is a possible next step.
“I wrote two modern sci-fi/martial arts stories that included other Clan members in an exaggerated expression of their personae,” he said. “If life permits, and the brothers find the interest, it would be interesting to see such ideas come to fruition.”
Through it all, Ol’ Dirty b*stard still casts a shadow on the Wu-Tang Clan’s ventures. RZA is still finding new ways to honor his cousin and former bandmate.
“I was able to get some of his vocal samples embedded in the album,” RZA said, noting that he’s included some of his a capella and spoken word samples in some of the tracks.
“You can still feel some of his energy.”
But on the other hand 
It's dope af, that's it for me now though, wu blackout until december. Gonna grab this album and Ghosts and hopefully replay the shyt out of them. I was worried at first when I heard the ghost album was gonna be another live type production but I'm feeling the first two joints.It's well worth the buckle breh
KILLAKUTT7
All Star
Necklace:
just died
illest wu track i heard in awhile
just died
illest wu track i heard in awhile
g-ice
aka #DiamondNightmare
Chef and GFK on this new joint :cenamerchant:
ZEB WALTON
ayo! - BEZ
Songs so dope i had to bring the name outta retirement. The gza sounding !!!! Best wu song since gun will go
criminology
hearse initiator
4th made the album
and its dope, easily my fav so far
4th made some of my fav wu joints ever. Wish he could have branched out more during their height.
Oztradamus
Hold G's, Guns, and Grams...
Definitely feeling this new Wu joint... and yeah, it does sound like it could have been recorded during the W sessions. It's sooo grimey 
That's my favorite Hip-Hop group of all-time
That's my favorite Hip-Hop group of all-time