Wu Tang Forever was the beginning of the end.

[I love Latina women]

Obviously things were different because then they had record deals, and more money than they had ever had before the record deals, and some members had solo albums already and they were established artists.

So things couldn't be the same because a lot had changed

But where things really changed was once The W was released
Dirty was in and out of rehab and then locked up once the album came out.

 

[I love Latina women]

Also, Ol' Dirty's album nikka Please is a classic album

 

[MurderToCassette]

Better than 36 Chambers, don't @ me

 

[chuckifubuck]

Wu tang forever is one of the best group projects ever

outside of the U-god joint the album is perfect.

I will agree that it was the beginning of the end in that after that album the group lost something and would never have the same mystique to them

 

[Vinny Lupton]

nobody talks about how Wu started to fall off partly because RZA started using keyboard beats with shytty stock drums (non-breakbeats) probably for cost and clearance reasons

 

[DoomzdayzV]

nobody talks about how Wu started to fall off partly because RZA started using keyboard beats with shytty stock drums (non-breakbeats) probably for cost and clearance reasons

it could be alot deeper than that......digital processing was about to become the norm, and the people who decided that are probably so powerful that they make dudes like iovine and dre look like fukkin peons. Rza might not have even had a choice. I dont wanna turn this into one of those threads tho

 

[TripleAgent]

Obviously things were different because then they had record deals, and more money than they had ever had before the record deals, and some members had solo albums already and they were established artists.

So things couldn't be the same because a lot had changed

But where things really changed was once The W was released
Dirty was in and out of rehab and then locked up once the album came out.

They didn't make any money off 36 Chambers, besides show money. Somewhere, it was explained that even past recouping because the album blew up, after splitting the pie 9 ways, each member got 20-30k.

I think it was RZA growing. It got way more obvious after Bobby Digital and movie scoring. Self taught Hip-Hop producers who learn music theory and start doing advanced stuff lose rawness. Probably trying to use less samples so they could eat more on sales, too.

I would have preferred 36 Chambers 2, with MAYBE a few different joints splashed in, but it still turned out great.

 

[Piff Perkins]

36 Chambers is 10 times better.

their second album had too much filler with songs like this




Wu Tang Forever was probably the most anticipated album of all time but that don’t make it better than 36 Chambers

this is literally the only bad song on the album

 

[King Sun]

man nothing never changes. Wu Tang Forever

 

[hex]

Very odd thread.

The beginning of the end was the 2nd batch of Wu solos moving away from Rza. That alone severely slowed the momentum of the group.

Fred.

 

[Buckeye Fever]

Why is Bone being mentioned in this thread?

Because they had tension before?

 

[BuddahMAC]

Although I think Forever is a better album than 36 Chambers, OP isn't really wrong.

RZA Quietus interview:

"I'm a person that comes from a teaching of, we don't deal with leaders, but we deal with leadership," he said. "That means each man got to carry his own bucket, and somebody's gonna always be the one amongst you who leaves the footprints. In the beginning stages [of the group's history] I took that upon me to make sure that I was dealing with leadership. And being the best knower of a situation, basically, whatever I said, everybody agreed with it; or, if they didn't agree, they still submitted to it. It wasn't until I start feelin', personally, that I'm not here to be the motherfukkin' leader, I'm just here to show the path, that I went from... I like to call it that I went from dictatorship to democracy, basically. And when I went to that democracy, yo, that, to me, was the decline."

And can you, I asked, pinpoint the start of that decline?

"Oh, I can pinpoint it exactly," he said immediately. "1997, when we was recording Wu-Tang Forever. Before, it was kinda like I was forcin' people to do it; I can even remember having physical threats. I remember some brothers didn't get along with other brothers in the beginning, and I had to say, 'Nah, we treat each other like brothers'. But also, as people grow, you start changing. When I let that go, I kinda let go a little bit of the whole Wu-Tang. And it's hard to get that back, 'cos now you're dealin' with nine generals."

RZA falling back and letting people get in where they want, he lost that iron grip on the group, which then continued into the blow-up when the Forever tour failed, everyone started doing their own thing.

RZA Source interview

After the Wu-Tang Forever tour, I personally took a look at the whole Clan, like, ‘Yo, right now, nikkas know us for Voltron, but we gotta break down to the lions. Everybody go their directions.’ I ain’t been wit’ anyone but Ghost and my C-artists for almost two years. I assigned Power to Rae and Deck. I assigned Divine to Meth and Cappadonna. I said, ‘I’m a rock me, Ghost and U-God, na’mean?’ Dirt . . . he’s just Dirt, na’mean? As far as Masta Killa, I’m just gonna keep ‘im, but he got an album finished. Basically we broke the sh*t down on purpose.

Then, after that, he let everyone out of their Wu Productions deal, everyone got their own management & everything became each Wu member's own project instead of another full Wu-Tang Production like the early albums when the saga was continuing and each album, solo or group, was a Wu album.

Now, it's far from them falling off musically (like others said, it showcases a peak), though the inconsistency in projects solo to solo and further group albums all stem from this very point in history and both The W being full of guest MCs and Iron Flag having guest producers specifically come from RZA acquiescing to this 'democracy' approach.

 

[Thegospel]

yall are fukkin crazy. I assume this thread is bone fans tryna pull some passive agressive shyt

Somebody saw the thread i bumped

 

[Alvin]

Their unique sound was gone. Solo albums were meh, and they slowly and quietly faded.

it was the end of an era. Ghostface, Inspeckah Deck and GZA drooped decent solo projects but everyone was basically chasing a wu sound that was never coming back

Supreme Clientele is decent LMAO!

 

[Alvin]

Their unique sound was gone. Solo albums were meh, and they slowly and quietly faded.

it was the end of an era. Ghostface, Inspeckah Deck and GZA drooped decent solo projects but everyone was basically chasing a wu sound that was never coming back

But yeah, RZA should've dropped, deck, MK and U-God albums
Cappadonna the pillage is good breh