Wu-Tang Clan's "Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)"

(upbeat music) - All right, my friend. - I love it. - I'm done. Do I get to, do I get to a nap? Now I was up all night doing that shit. - That was great. - So Luxury, today we're talking about a rough, rugged, raw debut album that introduced the world to 9MC straight out of Shaolin. - That's right, G.O.L.A. by incorporating elements of Kung Fu movies, comic books, and Saturday morning cartoons. This triple platinum album was able to capture the harsh realities of street life through a cinematic lens. - Today, we're not just talking one song. We're talking one album. And that album is Into the Wootang, 36 Chambers by Wootang Clan. ♪ To my cold wake up ♪ ♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah ♪ - Watch your step, baby, baby, come on, baby, baby, come on, baby, baby, come on. (upbeat music) - What's going on, One Song Nation luxury here. - And I'm Diallo, and we are so excited to share that we will be taping a live episode of our show at OnAirFest this November. - We could not imagine one song live without you, our fans, so please join us on Wednesday, November 12th at KCRW in Santa Monica. - For more information, please visit onairpresents.com or go to the link in our bios. - Can we see all there? - I'm actor writer, director, and sometimes DJ Diallo Riddle. - And I'm producer DJ, songwriter, and music college is Luxury, AK, the guy who whispers. - Interpolation. - And this is One Song. - The show where we break down the stems and stories behind iconic songs across genres, telling you why they deserve one more listen. - You will hear these songs, like you've never heard them before, and you can watch One Song on YouTube and Spotify. While you're there, please like and subscribe. - All right, Diallo, I know you're a huge U-Tank fan. When was the first time you ever heard them? - Dude, I remember it clear as day. I think we were in my buddy at Torres Car, and our buddy, Joe had just gotten back from Pratt, where he was studying in art school, and he was like, "Yo, I got this killer tape." And he said, "Kill it tape," which I didn't even know as a reference to something said on the album, but he was like, "You gotta put this killer tape in." It's like some stuff you've never heard before. And from the second that it started, like it sounded like nothing that I had ever heard before, not just from hip-hop, but from anything. It was dark. It was so dark. It was born in line like a horror movie. Like it was like an audio landscape in hell. And I'll never forget, I asked everybody in the car, is like we got to like the second or third song. I was like, "Is this hip-hop?" Like that's how different it sounded from everything that came before. - That's it. You thought it wasn't hip-hop because of what? - It just didn't sound like hip-hop. I think that we had gotten really used to a certain sound in hip-hop. Like there was always like the James Brown. We didn't know, we didn't talk in these terms. But looking back now, there was always like a James Brown drum break. There was a Lonnie List and Smith bass line and a lot of like the tribe stuff. They were looping up the funk and like the p-funk and stuff. And that was not this at all. It was like, it had the street rap of like West Coast gangster rap, but there was no smoothness of like g-funk in it. There was some of the grit that you would hear on the East Coast from producers like DJ Premier, Dazzle FX. (upbeat music) In research of this episode, I didn't even know this. Dazzle FX produced their own songs. Shout out to Dazzle FX. Like those were some of the first really dark 90s style like hip-hop songs that had forsaken like sort of the sounds of like the 80s or even like the bomb squad with public enemy. And it just, it didn't sound like hip-hop. To be hip-hop it always been dance music or at least party music. At least party music. And like if this was party music, I don't know what kind of fucked up party we're at. - That's interesting. The distinction you're making is that the darkness of it, the emotion that the music brought out was different from what you've been hearing. - Yes. - What hip-hop had done for you previously. What you would use it for so to speak. Like what environment you'd be hearing it and the emotion it would rise. - Yes. - It would raise in you. - Luxury, what about you? Were you listening to Wu Tang in the 90s? - I was a little late to Wu Tang. I caught up to them a little later, but like it's sort of thing that like I love the sound of this. I love the grit. I love the dirt. I love hip-hop, but it just bypassed me. - I bet you really should be a little later. - You really should be a little later. You knew what, you knew who take was a thing. But you know what? While we're giving shout outs to our friends like my Betty, I would go up to New York City on the Greyhound bus from DC. And I would stay with my friend Gabe, who's working at BMG records. Uh-huh. And he had a Wu Tang on his wall. He had Wu Tang post on his wall. He was listening to Fushnikens. He was big into Mob Deep. He was the guy who like was into the New York hip hop stuff. So like when I be hanging out with my buddy Gabe shout out to Gabe. That's what I would be hearing and I'd be absorbing it. But I never went down the deeper dive into it that I'm so happy you brought up Fushneck because I love Fushneck. Listen, no, I did too. I do love Fushneck is Fushneck is it should be said was like one of the first to incorporate Kung Fu movies. They were the I feel like they were the first. They had so many great songs. They had I'm a true Fushneck. They had Ring the Alarm, they have Lashmove. Hushmove. We ain't got nothing to prove. They got nothing to prove. Uh-huh. And what's interesting, I'm glad he brought up also Fushnik because I went back and listen to Fushnik recently and I will say that for whatever reason, they're appropriation of Kung Fu movies and Asian culture in general. But it has an age as well as moutains, like it is very cringe, but like it is interesting to see how their stuff has not aged quite as well as woo, even though both were popular at the time. But props to food for doing that. And I don't think it's a mistake that both Fushnikens and Wutane clan are from New York. Because this is what's interesting, I think culturally about New York, we're all, every kids are all watching Saturday morning cartoons, I wish Saturday morning cartoons are something they are really not. That was the highlight of my life and I was so great. Kids nowadays, they just watch whatever they want to win. - And it's five a man. - Absolutely, 100%. - But in New York specifically, Saturday morning cartoons went into old Kung Fu movies. And so those kids were like getting a steady diet of like, you know, those cartoons we were all watching and then into Kung Fu movies. So, you know, it's just like that's something that both Fushnikans and Wu-Teng incorporated into their music, but Wu-Teng is darker. I would argue them Fushnikens and it's not an accident that this album feels like a movie. I felt like if the Rizz had been born in another city, like say Los Angeles, he might have been a filmmaker instead of a rapper because he was clearly using the audible space as his canvas, as his big screen, 70 millimeter misdivision screen. Like his score, it's like a score. It's almost like he's creating a score with no visuals. The visuals are in your mind. - Right, right, right. You mentioned the Kung Fu movies made me connect it to the fact that these Kung Fu movies, it may not be a full coincidence that you go from cartoons into these overdubbed Kung Fu movies 'cause there's something funny about them. - Yes. - And the sounds are part of what make them funny, 'cause the overdubbing, of course, famously, is always a little bit off. - It's always off. - And the sounds are a little too loud to what would actually have happened if you hit somebody with that feather. - You hit somebody with a feather, let me go. - But those sounds find their way, obviously, into this music, right? And so it gives it kind of a cartoonish violence top of the actual like there's the combination basically of the references culturally and the sounds which we associate with sort of cartoonish violence. Yeah. But then there's an actual darkness to the lyrical content. There is such an interesting blend of things. There is. But just thinking about like their integration of Kung Fu movies into their music, I mean like this album that we're talking about today into the Wu Tang, it literally starts with a clip from the movie that they - With a clip from the movie that they take their name from, that movie being Shaolin and the Wu Tang. This is the beginning of Bring the Ruckus. - The Shaolin and the Wu Tang could be dangerous. - Do you think your Wu Tang saw a candy-feet meat? - I'm going to try my Wu Tang style. - Bring the mother fucking Ruckus. - Dude, that song still gives me so stiked. - So stiked. - So stiked. - This is a podcast. So for those of you missing the video component, we were mirroring the not correct dubbing because style that you would have seen in the actual film. - We were talking about that with expert dubbing on our behalf. - His expert dubbing on our behalf. - I think we were a little too good. - I know, there were a couple of times I couldn't help but say the lyrics. - By the way, for that specific clip, Riza has said that quote, "It was perfect for what I was trying to say about my crew." That's how I felt Wu was almost invincible. - Yeah, like the same way these Kung Fu movies would highlight different martial art styles. Every member of the Wu was kind of coming with like a totally different style. Unlike almost any other rapper that was out there at the time, let's talk about the different members of the Wu. The clan was just founded by the Riza and includes Masticula, the Giza, old dirty bastard. Respect the dick, rake qualms the ship. You got ghost face killer and the METHOD. - Man. - Sorry, I just got lost in my 90s so just. - I liked your 90s so much. - I wish I had known you that. - I wish we had been friends 30 years ago. - I do too, man. - When we were two. - I tell you, I was definitely skinny back then. I got to put an effort and eat right. - Got it. - I got to survive. - Welcome back to the UNC podcast. Okay, so just for fun, let's come up with our Wu Tang Names. We are all logging into the Wu Tang Name Generator right now. - Which I think has been there since the 90s. - Dude, I mean, this is literally how Donald Glover got his name childish campaign. - It's like a Geo City's ass-looking website. - It's frightening, so. - I'm typing it in. - You go first. From this day forward, the website is telling me you will be also known as mighty menace That's all right, that's pretty good. Tell them it's a little bit. It's not great. Oh, I disagree. I don't love it But I think mighty menace might have been Menace, I don't like he might have had a featured verse on the killer priest album It's kind of a backhand a couple because they start with mighty. I'm like stoked, but then menace like am I annoying? Do I irritate you? I feel like I'm irritating you right now. No, I'm being a menace right now Irritated me because you got a fucking dope name. I just type my name in apparently my name is respected ninja Let me tell you something if you all start replying in the comments with the ninja emoji I see what you're doing. You're not slick. Yeah, I'll look for my ninja put your middle name really put your middle name in because you get a different name Maybe get something better. All right, my other Wu-Tang name is intellectual commander. Okay, I like this I like this for you. You're my intellectual commander. It's the rebel I See coming as you see I mean, it's not mad at intellectual commander. That isn't much either in the same zone as Inspector deck He's inspecting what a deck like what even is that? So keep him with this theme of album listening We're gonna fast forward if you will to the middle of the album We're gonna spend some time in this block of songs starting with Wu-Tang clan Ain't nothing to fuck with this song. I think it encapsulates this idea of Kung Fu brotherhood with a street edge But bonding over Saturday cartoons and cereal check out Wu-Tang clan ain't none to fuck with Yo the moon's back making brothers go boom boom like a super cat This is gonna be a hard one for me. This is your Aussie. I kind of know every I kind of know every lyric I have memories by the way I used to love as a survey said you did That's a dark. That's a family few that's a bar. Very dark. They were killing people on set By the way, one of the things I love the most about this song is the song in samples Let's play a little bit of the song in samples. This is the opening theme song to underdog That's all that's all he needed that's all he needed to make People lose their shit. I mean like when this album came out I just can't stress how much multiple songs off this album would make people go crazy Protect your neck method man like these songs would get played multiple times at one party Also, I saw online where Wyclef John just recently has made it kind of clear that he was interpolating the Rizzis sample of that underdog Sample for when Carlos antenna does his guitar solo Maria Maria. Let's hear a little bit of that Play by Carlos and test man All right, so the next song in the album is cream and I should say that this would definitely be the first Wu-Teng song I would have ever heard because obviously it's the one that popped into the culture Yeah, the expressions and all the like language that came out of the song became reference points just like that people said You just started saying cash rolls everything around me dollar-dollar bill y'all this stuff to me That's such a marker of importance for a band or an artist when what they say when the art gets into It's just language now. Yeah, like another thing like for me like the word ruckus I don't think I'd heard the word ruckus since the 30s until I came back with the Wu-Teng with I think ruckus was out there in East Coast hip-hop slang at the time But because they had such a big audience in my mind they own that word because their microphone was so big to use it Yeah, totally. Yeah, so cream was their most successful single by the way is their biggest on Spotify? But it's on Spotify. It's like got half a billion streams cash rolls everything around me for those who don't know That's what cream stands for. Yeah, and it's the song that really put the band on the map So let's play snippet of their performance on Arsenio Hall's final show speaking of the 90s Do you give the late 80s into the 90s that featured a stacked lineup? It's got MC light. It's got five dog It's got Q-tip CL smooth K-R-S1 and Pete rock and the Wu let's listen 40 of us life as a shorty shouldn't be so rough So feminist what such an ally what a feminist line life as a shorty shouldn't be so no no no that's When he said shorty there. He's talking about kids I know shorty used to be shorty used to be Shorty eventually became exclusively the girl you're talking to It became shouting so he's saying life as a child like yeah, life as a shorty because he's talking about when he was going to jail So that sounds much darker than the interpretation that I had Which was sweet and an ally I'm sorry man. I didn't mean to take cream and put it in a dark place But I told you this album. That's okay. That's okay. I appreciate the education. I have more knowledge now That's why we do the show absolutely Can I just say why should that the cultural significance of being on the Series finale of the Arsenio Hall show because it can't be overstated Arsenio was the cool maker in late night TV in fact when I started as a writer on late night with Jimmy Fallon One of his goals one of our goals was to be in 2009 what Arsenio had done So well in the early on he was essential to the culture wasn't he just like yeah also also about cream Fantastic sample fantastic sampling. So the key sample is of course 1967 Charmel's tune as long as I've got you That's it. It's just that little intro section right there is the primary loop and that's co-written the primary loop Yeah, that's the primary loop and it's um and then if you let it play a little bit longer Just a little bit longer you'll hear the beginning of cream And it's co-written its Isaac Hayes and David Porter. So I'm like he meant this musicians from stacks the stacks era Just a real quick moment everything we're talking about today by the way Talking about all these samples. It's worth noting that first of all the Rizza has talked extensively about all these samples They're all cleared all these are cleared and what's interesting is you sort of go through them Because sample clearance is back in the day. We're just starting to happen and they were early to it They were just true right way really only a couple of years. Yeah earlier. We'd have that big Bismarkey That's right. So we had we had the grand upright lawsuit, which was terrible Yeah, and this is where Bismarkey was sued for sampling alone again by Gilbert O'Sullivan Who sued and it went to trial which prior to that hadn't happened This is the first sort of like precedent case and it set this idea that literally the judge in his decision said Use biblical terms to say that thou shalt not sample which is crazy to me. It's crazy He threatened to to send them to jail like it didn't end up happening that way But it set this cultural framework we're sampling from that moment forward people started calling stealing and let me say this The thing in the hip-hop culture the time that you don't talk about samples That was about 30 years ago. I just want to take a step back until all the hip-hop heads of whom I would count myself On this show we only talk about samples that are known only samples that are fully fully public knowledge There's no secrets being revealed here. This is all fun as I often say on this show We are not sample snitches if we ever do come across something that is not public knowledge We won't talk about it because we believe in the art we believe in the producers If anything we just want to celebrate the producers and celebrate the artist sampling In ways that everybody already knows about absolutely agree and just to build on that to be like really specific Clear like we look at the publishing with not just the liner notes the liner notes tell you something But it's a snapshot and things change yeah the public records tell you whether there were publishing splits Meaning the people that were sampled got paid. That's what we look into every single episode for every sample we talk about This is all about celebrating sampling as an art form We are so proud to have had the Jimmy Jams the Lil John's the Warren G's the Bangladesh's on this show because they To me I get sort of emotional like they appreciate that we appreciate the culture that we that I appreciate the culture that I am here in Deolo We're both here to spread the joy of where did this come from yeah and for producers and songwriters to help them understand This is a songwriting technique. You can make music from other music. It's the history of music And sampling is one size of that We always say that a lot of those rock bands from the 60s and everybody's up right there Basically interpolating old black musicians and if we can talk honestly about this stuff then everybody gets their flowers And we just want to undo the damage that was done by that 1991 the grand upright decision That's framed sampling in a separate category of interpolation and covering all these other areas of normal musical Farway so I'll get off my soapbox now With Deolo we're sharing the soapbox together. We'll jump off and get back into the music exactly another thing that makes hip-hop albums in this period We talked a little bit about this on the day last sole episode That we did is The interludes kids and interludes right always made it feel like the first or like the biggest to do They were they were one of the first to like make it like a major yeah to popularize. I think that's fair to say This is one of my most favorite albums to have interludes on it famously or infamously There's an interlude at the beginning of the track methaman where methaman and requan go back and forth trying to one up each other Now to torture people are not going to play a clip from this. Yes. We have no way to clip from torture and apologies to anyone who can scrolls out of you But you've had more than 30 years to prepare This is what became known as torches - That's so crazy. - I fucking saw your asshole close and keep feeding you and feeding you and feeding you and feeding you. (laughing) - Jesus Christ. - I'm sorry. - Is this a threat or a promise? This is like-- - That was some dark comedy. - Yeah. Listen, my understanding about this group is that these guys as independent artists, right? Started, they then landed later also as independent artists. But there was a put together 8, 9, 10, how many, you wanna count, depending on the day. Artists who were themselves rappers, who to some degree in Staten Island might have known about each other. I've heard stories, they were in high school. They're like, oh, that guy, I know who that is. He's from another part of town. There's a degree to which there's some actual quote unquote animosity, which is creative and it's a friendly rivalry. But underneath that, bubbling under that a little bit might be some actual, it's still creative. And there's still a team as the Wu-Tang. But they're also rivals. They're trying to have the best verse. Absolutely, there's absolutely competition taking place. But I also think that they're all like, just to talk about torture going back a second, they're all still like reciting, they're recording an album. It's, you get the sense that they know that it's gonna come out. And so in that, when I hear people having fun, so yes, there's competition and there's some rivalry. But there's also, I mean, some of them are family. But there's also some friendships, some kinship there. And I think that was really funny because a couple of the torture scenarios that get thrown out there, don't land, you know? They're not that bad. Some are better than others. That seems to win every single time. There's almost a livery. It's like, they're kind of pulling their punches a little bit. I'm not gonna go that far, but myth is like going all the way. I think it's like, it's almost like a joke side for where like, some jokes don't land as hard. Yeah, yeah, yeah, totally. No, and definitely I'm not trying to imply that there's actual hatred going on. That's a joke clearly. When we come back, repressing, play on, protect your neck, we're gonna dive deep into the samples of the song and the legendary verses that introduced us to the woo on a genre-defining posse cut. When we come back. All right, welcome back to one song. Let's dive into another song off of "Into the Wootang" 36 Chambers. This is "Protect your neck." And this was the first song "Wootang Recorded" as a full collective in "Firehouse Studios" in Brooklyn. It's been well documented that the final version of the song was not the version they originally recorded. They originally recorded to a different beat and in a different order, and that version was never released. That's right, Diallo. But on the TV show "Wootang and American Saga" on episode six of season two, there's this really great sequence where they really dive into the making of this song. And it's really beautifully done, by the way, I have to recommend it, because they sort of display how sampling is done in this sort of artistic way. They bring back these 70s band members and Rizzes there at his console and he's like telling the drummer to do this. No, just play the snare, just play this beat. It's really cool. It's very well done. [MUSIC PLAYING] Why are you feeling about this? We're going to recreate that a little bit in just a second. But first, on the episode, you hear that they're wrapping to a completely different tune. And full props goes to a YouTuber called "Project Strump" AKA Cole John 23, who recreated it. This is the beat. And again, this is a snippet that was used on that episode that he took and turned into the entire track. This is what "Wootang Clan" would have been wrapping to when they first did "Protect Yennec." It would have sounded like this. [MUSIC PLAYING] So it sounds a little different, right? It does. It's a little bouncy or a little upbeat, I would say. Yeah, it's not white as a-- I don't know, maybe it's because it's new. It sounds a little bit more in the hip-hop pocket, if you will, of like, 1990s. It's sort of brighter sounding, to my ears, right? It doesn't have the darkness and the grit that we're about to get into. I agree. Yeah. So that was originally done by Prince Rocky May, K.A. Rizza back when he was still Prince Rocky. And it was originally a beat for the Rebel INS, AKA Jason Hunter, AKA Inspector Deck. Yes. Well, I feel like it's an unsung hero of this group. People forget that on-- you could argue maybe two of their biggest posse cuts of all time, Protector Deck, and Triumph. He's got the first first. That is such a big-- He's the lead off. --weight on his shoulders, and he carries it every time. That's right, he brings you in. So anyway, that song was samples, by the way, the main ingredient, song, something about love. So that's the sample you're hearing. Obviously, at a certain point, Rizza heard back the results of all of them in the room. And it was like, this isn't quite the right beat for this. It's not the right vibe. So what they did was-- and by the way, a couple of unsung heroes. I got to get props to Ethan Ryman, who gets this whole engineering credit on this song. But-- On the version we know. Yeah, on the canonical version, that's on the record. He gets the engineering credit for this song. But we also know that Carlos Bess had something to do with it, as did Blaze Dupuy. There's a little bit of a Rashomon who tracked it and who didn't. But they were all part of the process of making this tune. Yeah. Well, let's hear a little bit of the beat of Protector Deck. Here's the main loop. [MUSIC PLAYING] And that's it. It's really just a bar, actually. I played it twice. Don't overthink it. I think that's the lesson. Don't overthink it. Where did they get that loop from? Now, the Rizza has himself explained this on his TV show. A lot of what I'm about to show you comes out of what he's told all of us. I've just broken it down for our show to get to the more micro level. Yeah. All right. So the first beat is The Legendary Honey Drippers in Peach the President, 1973. One of the most sample tunes of all time. You've heard this loop. I'll just play it for you raw. This is what it sounded like. [MUSIC PLAYING] Ladies and gentlemen, we have 100 drops in an hour tonight. You've heard that in literally one of the thousands of the tunes that it has been in. It is Early Hip Hop. Cool Herkbott, one of the like 500 maybe copies that were made, maybe actually only be at 100 copies. Not a lot were pressed, but he had one. And it became Legendary in Hip Hop after he started to play it. And then most famously in 1985, Marley Marl, does one of the first, if not the first, quote, unquote, chops. Where you're not just using the loop, he started taking just the kick, just the snare. And you can remake a beat based on those basic elements in High Hat. So Legendarily, great story he tells on QLS. Let's listen to that episode about how his reel to reel got stolen. And the beat that he originally made for MC Shands, The Bridge, found its way into other tunes of the era. Like, because he had left it behind at the studio. So Rizzo would have chopped up the beat using a sampler. He just isolated the snare and mapped it to his sampler so he could just play that separate, as well as the kick, which sounds like this. So once those two items got to his sampler, including the high hats and everything, he would have had something like this. And then there's the double kick. And he left out this. I wasn't there, but what one can do with the sampler, so it's likely the Rizzo would have done something like this, is mess around on the keyboard. By the way, I'm doing it with the pads. He didn't have pads on his keyboard. He just had the notes, like the keyboard keyboard. But he wouldn't play it around with the beat, like. [MUSIC] But I think he left out that high hat. >> Yeah, I don't think there's a high hat in there. So what you're actually getting, and I'll play it for you now, is this. [MUSIC] >> Yeah, he left out the high hat. And I think that's what prevented it from sounding like more older school hip hop, like that high hat is like the happiness. It's also like brings up the up by taking that part out and stripping it down a little bit. It feels more like a beat down, like it feels like somebody. It honestly feels like you're on the receiving end of some characters from Staten Island. And I think that that's what makes it sound more in the context of 19a3, more modern. Now I got to say that does it sound quite like the beat as I think about it. So what else is going on? >> We have a few more steps to go. I'm going to keep it simple. There is a degree to which what I'm doing is recreating it in the room in five minutes. Which doesn't take into account all of the sonic shaping that would require it a lot more time on the day. So and different gear by the way, but we're going to get pretty close. I think 88%, maybe 91%, if I do a good job. So there's another beat in there, I'll play you the whole thing. It's another situation where he's just isolated a piece of it. So see if you can listen for what was isolated. This is Otis Redding Hard to Handle. [MUSIC] So I'm going to show you what he took from that. And you may not have noticed the first time, but here it is. [MUSIC] That's the piece right there, I'll play it again. [MUSIC] That shows up, including the piano. >> Yeah, I was going to say the piano sounds very wound. One of my favorite things about sampling, especially, and specifically the riser what he does in Wu Tang is the sounds are, we call them. A lot of words are used that are about darkness and grit and dirt, right? Part of it is because the sample chops the choice of what he uses. And the choice to keep in what was there that wasn't the note maybe that he wanted. Just the kick drum, he includes that piano sound. Now he pitches that up one and a half steps. So it sounds like this. [MUSIC] And then he takes a little piece of it and he puts it on the end. So the entire loop sounds like this. [MUSIC] And now I'm going to bring back the impeach the president's snare and kick. [MUSIC] And I think he layered like an A to A kick or something underneath it to get a little punch. So that might sound like this. [MUSIC] I love it and what's crazy about it is like this. Think about what's happening on the West Coast right now. Dr. Dre is like cleaning that stuff up, making it shine. - This is the opposite. - This is going in the absolute opposite direction. He's leaving that sample dirty. - Yes. - He's leaving an element that he may not have even asked for, but because they're there, it's gonna have to take risk of touch. - I'm so glad you said that 'cause the final step in the process, which is gonna get us from might be 75% accurate now, to like, I hope 90 is that there's one last step to make it dirty and gritty. You can accomplish that grit in a lot of ways. I think down sampling, in other words, the sample resolution was very low. He might have added distortion. He might have done other things. I'm gonna quickly make that whole thing sound a little bit darker. And one way to do that is. - We're going dark. - We're going a little bit dark. Here's that hard to handle, loop. And now if I add some of what's called down sampling, to make it sound like what a sampler would have done, it does this. And I can do an EQ cut on the highs, to make it sound darker. And all of a sudden, when you add back, I still think there's too much high end. So I'm gonna take the high end off of that. It sounds a lot darker. And here's the original, I got close. Let's see how close I got. See, even now there's another day or five to like, take that into dial it in. Now I'm hearing the snare. I want to bring back a little more of that high end, but long story short, these are the tools you use to piece together from different sample sources. Just the sound you want, in the place you want, and then shape and transform the overall mix of all those elements. - I know that there's a bass and piano on this track. Are those sampled or something that the risoplay, what's going on there? - So I believe that they come from the ensignique workstations floppy disks that would have been, essentially the presets that would have come - Is the 90s version of the Melatron, sounds like. - It's 1990, when you buy this machine, you get a whole bunch of floppy disks, 3.5, not the five inch ones, but the one that's 3.5. And they have different sounds that you literally put in and then you can play a piano or a bass sound. So I'll play you with the bass sound, sounds like isolated, and then I'll bring the beat back in. (upbeat music) - So I didn't hear that bass without me doing what I was just doing, which is doing the piano part because that's sort of more of what I hear. - You put it to your nose for me, that's what it's for you. - Coming next is the piano, which I believe comes from a 3.5 inch floppy disk, called piano Steinway One. I know what it sounded, something like that. - And you can't afford a Steinway, to get the Steinway One. (laughs) - Wood has sounded something like this. And I believe this is the Reza playing this melody line. (piano music) - Yeah. (piano music) - Well, let's put it together in the mix. (laughs) (piano music) - All right, my friends. - I love it. - I'm done. Do I get to, do I get to take a nap? - That was great. - Listen, there's a whole bunch of other samples on this tune. They're mostly little cut-ins, little sound effects, right? Of course, there's that guitar noise that we hear whenever there's a swear. For example. ♪ Tick tock and keep ticking ♪ ♪ Well, I get to flippin' off the sound ♪ ♪ I'm kickin' the low range off ♪ - Which, by the way, it comes from LL Cool J. ♪ LL Cool J is hard as hell ♪ ♪ Battle anybody, I don't hear you ♪ - Which comes from ACVC. (upbeat music) - They're the kings of amazing ways to censor your music. I've said on the show many times, "The Brooklyn Zoo Clean Edit" is one of my favorite songs of all time because of how they cleaned it up. - Yeah. ♪ I take off so quick, I'm like some handin' on you ♪ ♪ 'Cause if you want to step to my move ♪ ♪ Right, right, right ♪ - But this is an important one. It's arguably the last piece in the core part of the instrumental of the track that runs through it for the most part. This is "Break Your Promise" from the Delphonics, 1968. So here it is in the original. (upbeat music) ♪ Bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam ♪ It's that stabbing sound that let's hear where that came from. (upbeat music) - And there's another thing in there that's like in so many hip-hop songs, I call it the "Squeal." - Yeah, that's the grunt. The J.B.'s sound something like this. ♪ What's violent, man, so all ♪ ♪ Take time, keep taking it ♪ ♪ Well, I get to flip it off the shit I'm kicking ♪ - And this would already be to your point, legendarily hip-hop, because public energy - Yeah, everybody's used that. (upbeat music) - Yeah, so they used half of what public energy you had used. - Yeah, yeah, so many people. ♪ I'm terrible with all the poor ♪ ♪ I'm lowering my level, the hard rammer ♪ ♪ Where you never been, I'm in ♪ ♪ You what styling, you know ♪ - That's the grunt from the J.B.'s 1970. - I wish we could do a whole episode dedicated to just this song. It's their first song. It's the song that I believe that they took to Jack the Rapper. It's the song that really introduced a lot of us to the Wu Tang because it was like getting like traded about on like mixed tapes and it was some of the first music that we ever heard from them. They all have a verse on here. I wanna highlight three verses in particular because as with any Ponzi, some people go on to greatness. Some, I would argue this is not at all the best ghost-based killer verse of all time, but he goes on to have, I think, easily one of the best solo careers after this album. But I wanna focus on three big verses on here because they're really introduced to the three guys who went solo in a big way. First off is methaman. I mean, like, it's not an accident that he's one of the first voices that you hear, watch Step Kid, watch Step Kid. Like he's one of the first voices that you hear on the album and he's got a great verse. ♪ It's the methaman for short ♪ ♪ Methaman moving on your lap ♪ ♪ Get it off, get it off, let it off like a gag ♪ ♪ I wanna break food, cop me back, small change ♪ ♪ They put in shame and they ♪ - Set it off, straight. - First off, amazing, amazing verse. And like, "Fame, I'm gonna live forever." Like he's calling it popular TV shows of our youth. But one thing I wanna say about meth, obviously, he was the breakout star of this battle. He was a Chevy Chase, if you will, bringing out a, you know, the S&L. - Early S&L, yeah. - Out of the early S&L because he was the only person who had like a huge song that was literally his name. Like later in this album, we hear. - I tell you what we're saying. - D-A-O-D, man. - Smart. - And both, and methaman, which is, you know, he's using M-E-T-H-O-D, man. He's making a reference to Daryl Hall and John Oates, method of modern love. (upbeat music) And he's also, he's like the interpolation king. Even in this verse, even in this verse, he's like, "Move it on your lip." Which is a call back to Stratos Strafe. Yes, one of the great dance songs. - It's an electro-like. - Let's try the old youth, - Prodo-electro. - Early, early proto-electro. ♪ On the left, y'all ♪ ♪ Said it off on the right, y'all ♪ ♪ Said it off, said it off, said it off ♪ ♪ Come on, listen it off ♪ And I was thinking about it, like he's just the king of like bringing it up, okay, other songs. If you think about on "Me the Man," he brings in the Beatles, come together. ♪ I got fat, bad, too strong ♪ ♪ I got one out of a door ♪ ♪ And I'm about to go get left in ♪ ♪ Yes, I'm about to go get left in ♪ - Right after you're interpolating, Daryl Hall and John Oates, he says, "Hey, you get off my cloud!" Which is a chorus of reference to the Rolling Stones. ♪ Hey, you get off my cloud ♪ ♪ Hey, hey, you get off my cloud ♪ ♪ On how high he starts solving, excuse me ♪ ♪ Well, I kiss the sky ♪ ♪ Excuse me, I talk kiss the sky ♪ ♪ I think it's on the six turns ♪ ♪ The pocket from the rise ♪ ♪ Excuse me, why not just the sky ♪ - I'm going to take Kleining down the fuck with. He says, "The math will come out tomorrow." You know, like he's referencing Annie. ♪ Hey, hey, the math will come out tomorrow ♪ ♪ Yeah, okay, let's keep it all the trouble ♪ - To me, he was always the guy who could do how to like bring in just the right reference from a previous song. - Yeah, I love all of those references. And to be clear, like they mostly sound like references to me, like you're allowed to refer to another song or another lyric, and this is all down to like, it sounds like their record label was really solidly behind them, because they were able to do things that I think are wonderful culturally, bringing both musical references with the sampling. - Yeah. - And lyrical references, right? - I also think math, you know, it was funny when we were working on this episode, when I went back and listened to some of my favorite songs off of their solo albums. It occurred to me that he sings a lot of their choruses. Like I was like, I love ice cream off of Rayquan's only built for Cuban links. But he's the one who's like, wash these rep, get all up in your gut. - Yeah, you're right. ♪ Watch these rap is get all up in your gut ♪ ♪ Spring's been out my brother, he can't chocolate deluxe ♪ ♪ Even caramel thundies ♪ - When I went back and listened to Shadow Boxing, I realized he starts off that song. ♪ Down with the bone grocery ♪ ♪ Those beatings got missile heat seeking ♪ ♪ Johnny Blease, night myth like West Creighton ♪ ♪ He's gunna, my throw it off ♪ - And then when I went back and listened to other songs, I just realized like, oh, he was like the guy with the gift to make your song or your chorus really pop. And he even did it for himself. When he came out with that remix with Mary J. Blige, the all I need. That's one of the first songs, I think to win like the duo Grammy or whatever it is. In hip hop, like meth is just that guy, he's the guy from the beginning. They should call him chorus man. Oh, I didn't know I'd get a laugh out of you. I was so happy that that happened. I was expecting silence at a dead stare. Well, you know what meth is dance for, right? A method of modern love. No, it's actually that's what we that's what we used to call marijuana. So you and method, you know, old, old hip hop hunks like myself. Yeah, no, it was a popular choice. I heard that one at the time, yeah, it was the chronic East Coast style, which is funny because now if you say meth, it means another drug, it means another drug. Well, chorus man, it's available. If you want to use it, it's my idea for you. Let's hear a verse from one of my favorite Wu-Tang rappers. This is old dirty bastard. Same old you when you step through to the old dirty bastard, straight from the Brooklyn zoo. And I'll be damn if I let any man come to myself, you enter the winter, straight up and down next to this pack cam. You can't slam. Couple of things. Number one, there are so many old dirty bastard choruses that will be, there's so many lines of this that will be lifted and used as choruses in later songs. What did I say? Chorus man. Well, that's old dirty bastard now. Oh, sorry. Oh, wait. This man. I mean, listen, old dirty bastard, not great branding. Let's face it. What's he thinking? It's like that rock group, the Negro problem, right? It's like it's really hard to book them. Yeah. It's hard to book them. It's hard to throw that name up on the marquee. But here's what I'll say about ODB as we may call him. He himself was sort of like a unique chorus driven guy. Like I said, a lot of these lines get used in choruses later. And I like that he says something like, you can't slam because Onyx had a huge hit with slam, like just the previous year. And I feel like they were already maybe moving out and sort of taking over that slot of like where the New York guys you should be afraid of. And also how much I miss Russell Jones, you know, like old dirty bastard. Go back and listen to our Mariah Carey fantasy episode because we sort of do a mini deep dive on ODB. His story is so fascinating, so many great stories. But this album gave us ODB, the Osiris, the big baby Jesus to the Wu-Tang clan. And this verse, you know, is one of the best verses all of us all. That's so crazy to just be reminded that this is an introduction to all these guys that are just like legendary cultural figures for 30 years now, right? That's crazy. It's so strong. Let's talk about the genius aka the jizza. Well, he don't know the meaning of dope when he's looking for a suit top rap that's cleaning it in a Warsaw. And I don't know the easiest thing is sight. Matter of fact, we got the girls and let's have a mud fight. I love every single line of that because every Wu member had their own style. They're all wrapping about different things. They all have a totally different delivery. The fact that the Rizza, who is like the jizza's cousin, it should be said that the jizza, the Rizza, and old dirty bastard are all cousins. So they've known each other for a while. Like they have so many different styles yet, the Rizza is able to piece them all together onto this super loaded track. Can I just ask, is it just so begs the question, like, is there any precedent for this? Not really. I mean, like eight rappers with no hook, with no repeated elements, right? There's no chorus. There's this is so unique, but it like is a new template for a new way to, this is what their music sounds like. It was crazy. I never thought about that. Yeah. If you could call anything the chorus, the chorus is the very end of the song. Right. Because the very end of the song, they say, you best protect your neck, you best protect your neck. You best protect your neck. Like, that's the, that's the chorus. You get like that. That's the title we outro, right. That's crazy. It almost feels like an afterthought. Not quite a quote. I mean, listen, the whole thing is obviously a combination of mastermindedly engineered by the Rizza, but also he repeats together what they had recorded and just the beat. The fact that the protect your neck line appears at the beginning at the very end, right in the middle as an interlude. It's almost as though to give there a hook that like a through line for the whole thing. I think what he was going for with this song, especially when they were shopping it. I think the hip-hop world was still very, very infatuated with a certain, with another posse cut that doesn't get mentioned a whole lot, live at the barbecue. This is the, this is the posse cut. I think it was a cold chillin, pretty sure it's on cold chillin that was sort of everybody's introduction to Nas. And Nas had an amazing verse on live at the barbecue, live at the barbecue. I also don't think ever gets mentioned in the song. But even if it does, it's again a non-traditional chorus. I think he had one of the best verses on this song. The fact that he gets so granular with like record label politics and he benches cold killer, but that's in a reference to the fact that he was on cold chillin and he always felt worse from the genius, was his album back then. He felt like he had been done wrong. He felt like they were investing in another rapper, this suit and tie rap, as he references later in his verse. He's really like sort of opening himself up and being vulnerable in his own way and saying like, this industry is messed up. So I got with my cousins and I got with these other rappers and we're about to take this rap ship by storm. Exactly. And I think that's really cool. And they really did when you think about it because the Jizzah, I think, has one of the best solo albums coming out of intro of the Wootang 36 Chambers. His album, "Liquid with Swords" is just really amazing and it really, I thought, said the bar very high along with "Methis to Cal" and Rayquan's only bill for Cuban links. I think that these albums really set the bar high for the level of quality that you would get out of a Wootang solo album because they could have just been this group that came out with a great posse album and then sort of like, you know, disappeared until the next posse album came out. No, every single solo album that came out of the Wootang felt curated and tailor made for the audience that was ready to devour it. So luxury, how do the splits break down? Listen, the splits are almost exactly what you'd hoped there'd be for eight dudes. Seven of them get 6.25%. Really? But interestingly, we were just talking about them, but the Jizzah gets a little bit X-ray. He gets 9.37. Oh, wow. So the genius, the Jizzah, gets that extra 3%. I did not know. I would have thought the Rizzah would have got maybe like that extra 0.5 or something. It's so interesting. You say that. So this is from 1991. It's him first trying out this line, protecting that. So you clearly wanted to use that line, wasn't a step kid. So he brought it into the song. Maybe the fact that that becomes part of the hook is why he got some of those extra percentage points. Maybe so. But good on the guys, I think again, I think that's one of the things that helps keep people in good standing. We know that there are some choppy waters in this best future, but at least in theory, those splits sounds kind of fair. Do y'all, what do you think the legacy of End of the Wu 36 chambers is? I guess they'll remember what it looked like sitting there in tower records when I went to go buy it. Listen, this album went off like a cultural bomb. It planted a flag in the ground for the East Coast and the future. Of course, a hip-hop and a way that I've rarely seen since. This kind of thing happens like once or twice a decade at best. I really don't think it allowed a raw, street aesthetic into East Coast rap that would have been out of step with what tribe and native tongues was doing, but it would have also been out of place in the pinhouses where Puffy and the bad boy guys were hanging out. You know what I mean? Like, this is this third lane approach is what I think allowed the mob deeps and the Smith and Wessons and the Heltas-Skelters and honestly, the post-illmatic output of Nas to really come in through the door and that's not even mentioning, which we don't have time to do, all of the epic and classic Wu Tang solo album. I mean, very simply, this changed the sound of hip-hop. It changed the sound of hip-hop and there were so many of them. Like, if you think about it, their solo album output is kind of unparalleled in almost any genre. It's about hip-hop, like what rock group breaks up and all of the solo albums are kind of amazing. It doesn't happen very often. Two Simmons, maybe. Oh no, I take that back, back in the New York groove. I mean, even the Ringo Star albums are not really well known. I mean, like, there's no other group that breaks off with like nine members and you have like admittedly like nine interesting solo careers. I mean, just think about it. You've got Methamastical. You've got The Jizzis, Liquid Swords. You've got Rekwan's Only Bill for Cuban Links. And you've got one of my absolute favorite members of the Wu, Ghostface Killer, his album, Iron Man. Insane. They tone a 500. Come on. And this runs Siemens Wu Tang as a unique super group and the Riza as a production powerhouse. And what's crazy, that's all before they even dropped the second album, man. We won't even have time to talk about it. about 1997's Wu-Tang Forever, and it's amazing song triumphs. You have to give, expect a dick, his props, you have to give him his props, because he comes on first on "Protect your neck," he comes on first on "Trium," play triumph at a party to this day. Every person of a certain age is going to know every single lyric on that first verse and fight me. That is the best verse on triumph on a song with amazing verses, expect a dick's verse on triumph is transcendent. It's so interesting also here that the change in production, because this is soundwise, a lot different from the earlier ones. Four years later, they're less digging in to the dirtiness of the earlier records. Absolutely. So much has happened in four years, right after "Into the Wu-Tang-36 Chambers," not too long after the Rizzis, like doing like grave diggers, which is even darker and like a horror chord. After so many solo albums and so much things happening in their professional lives, yes. At some point, the sound of music is changing, and to hear "Meth and Man" tell it, by the time Wu-Tang forever comes out in 1997, he already felt the industry was moving towards what we call the jiggy era, the shiny suit era, whatever you want to call it. It was hard for them to get triumph on New York radio. At that point, Puffy's sort of taking over New York radio. So as much as I love triumph, it is sort of that point where Wu-Tang will have to again start fighting their way through the industry instead of easily guiding it and sort of like influencing it in their own image. But because of the epic, epic album, "Into the Wu-Tang-36 Chambers," from then until now and into the future, we will always throw up the W, Wu-Tang, Wu-Tang. All right, one song nation, this is one genre. Our friends at Discox challenge us to dive deep into a sub-genre and share a few records that we think are essential listening. Today we're talking about Neil's soul. I'm so excited to talk about this sub-genre. Mocham, music exec, Kadar Massimberg is credited with coming up with that term. It's funny that he plays into the story. When I was doing the radio show at my college station, we would open up the packages with the records inside. I remember the day that I opened up a package and there was an Eric-A-Badu record that had come and I'd never heard the name Eric-A-Badu in my life. But what stood out about the record is that there was a piece of incense taped to the record. I was like, "Oh snap, when you're in college, like a free piece of incense," you're like, "Okay, you got my attention." I remember lighting the incense and being like, "Hey, they gave me a free piece of a piece of incense. I should listen to the record and I put on Eric's on and on." I was like, "Man, this is cool because she's singing about current stuff, but she sounds like Billy Holiday." I remember thinking like, "This is really interesting and being a liner notes reader." I saw that name, Kadar Massimberg, kind of a weird name and it stuck out to me. That was my first experience with Kadar. I would say without artists like Eric-A-Badu and DeAngelo with his Brown Sugar album, we may not have gotten Neal Soul the way that we ended up getting it, but just for the uninitiated, Neal Soul is basically R&B that borrows heavily from a 70 soul aesthetic but had contemporary to the '90s production values and a post hip-hop perspective. And again, that's artists like Eric-A-Badu with their album, "Baduism," DeAngelo's Brown Sugar, and of course, Maxwell's Opus, Urban Hanks Week. I'm just thinking because you know that phenomenon, if somebody describes a record sometimes, you'll never not hear it the way they described it. I just remember, I think it was Novina Carmel, actually, our friend at the show. On K-Sair, Deb was describing in Eric-A-Badu's song and he's like, "It's like someone came up behind you and breathed heavily on your neck." And that's what I think of every time I hear Eric-A-Badu. Totally. Eric-A-Badu. That's a perfect answer for every music. So what is your pick for Neal Soul? All right, my friend. I brought in DeAngelo's legendary Voodoo album. This record to me is perfection. That's one of the best albums. Yeah. Of the 2000s. Yeah. It's one of the best albums of the 2000s. Ever. It's one of the best bands, as you mentioned, the sounds and vibe, even. There's something vibey. It's not just 70s sounds, but it's also some of the vibe-ness. Yeah. But there's also something interesting about it being modern, because they use dry production techniques. Instead of the big, cavernous reverb that you might hear in the '60s and '70s, very dry production, obviously. Didn't they use some vintage instruments and, like, you know, I feel like they'd be-- Yeah. It wasn't enabled. They were going for a vintage sound, but they did things that you would not have heard at the time, not the least of which is Quest Love and his drumming, which on some bunch of songs, has that Dilla vibe, which he had been, you know, himself obsessed with for a few years? Absolutely. Working with Dilla, meeting him and shouting out to the highest heavens at this guy's a genius. And he started to actually, you know, every now and then perform broken beat style stuff he might have heard out on a Dilla record. I'd love voodoo for the second. I actually worked at a version as an intern in Fresh Out of College when that album came out. So I remember seeing just stacks and stacks of them and putting it on thinking, like, "Oh, man, I like brown sugar. I'll probably like this." It was so drastically different from brown sugar, and yet it sort of, like, let us know that, like, "Oh, this is a guy who could have a super long career because it is just genius." And you've got Quest Love, and you've got James Poiser, and you've got so many people, you know, from that Neal Soul. Neal Soul was, like, not even just a genre. It really did feel like--it's, like, grunge. It's like a scene. And there's certain people who pop up on record after record. Yeah. And the sound of this record is so specific. It's got, like, I don't even know what emotion it is, but it takes me to a very specific place. It's a very specific color that only this record has. Is it, like, a dark gray? Is it, like, grainy? It is a little bit--that's so funny. Yeah, I would say it's a sepia tone. I think you're right. It's not--it's black and white, but with a little bit of something added to it, so it's not black and white. And, of course, vocally speaking, we've got--you're alluding back to prints and Curtis Mayfield. Yeah. You're getting all of these shivers up your spine kind of feelings that come from this record. So one of my favorites. This--one of these records that I've been wanting for years, you know, that list is endless. I will never buy all the records I intended by. Finally, I was like, this is the day, I was at the record show of the day, bought this immediately ran home, put it on discogues. It's there in my profile, and I'm proud of it. I'm proud that it's there, balancing out all the dub records, and all the James Addiction, Originals, and Miss Fits and whatever else. What about you, Diallo? What is your new solo pick this week? Glad he asked for my pick. I actually went with Music Soul Child. This album was really cool. I love the song Just Friends, which is the first single off of this album. And the other thing that I think is sort of interesting about it, there were a lot of artists, once Erica blew up and DeAngelo blew up, there were a lot of artists I felt like started to adopt, if not the sound of Neal Soul, sort of like the appeal of it. They didn't maybe go full on, full on Soul Quarians, but you just got the sense that artists like Bill Al, Sunshine Andersen, there were more artists that were coming into the tent, and Music was one of them. And I love the song Just Friends. I love Don Disgogs to find out who would play the keys on this. And I saw the name James Poiser, who is once again with our buddy Quest Raus, somebody who worked on your pick, which was DeAngelo's voodoo. So it really was a scene and a time, and it's a really cool scene. And I do feel like certain artists like Miguel, sort of like carry on the tradition of Neal Soul into the present. One other fun fact, the song that Music Soul Child had on his other album, which was called Half Crazy, is an amazing song. And I don't think you know that song. I would say go and listen to that song, 'cause that has like a really hypnotic, strange sort of like time signature. I really can't wait to play this. Oh, I'm the guy who like strange time signatures. Okay, fine. I like time signature. Not wrong, but I like them. I know you like them. Sure. I think we're gonna bond over his song, Half Crazy. Next level bonding, okay. Next level bonding. And this was his breakout album. This is a, I just wanna sing, you know, spelled, in a very interesting way, at the AI. AI just one CIAing. Seeing. Look, we can spell whatever we want. I got it. He's a great album. I knew what he meant. No, I did too. So those are our one genre picks for Neal Soul. Let us know what you think in the comments. I'm sure you have comments. And if you wanna hear our selections, please check out our one song playlist, linked in our episode notes. As always, you can find us on Instagram in TikTok. You can find me on Instagram at Diallo, DIA, LLLO, and on TikTok at Dialloroom. And you can find me on Instagram at Luxury, that's L-U-X-X-U-R-Y, and on TikTok at Luxury-X-X. And you can follow our podcast on Instagram and TikTok at One Song Podcast. We're exclusive content. You can also watch full episodes of One Song on YouTube and Spotify just search for One Song Podcast. We'd love it. Love it. If you'd like and subscribe. Also, be sure to check out the One Song Spotify playlist for all the songs we've discussed in our episodes. You can find the link in our episode description. And if you've made it this far, you're officially part of the One Song Nation. Give it up for yourselves. Show us some love, give us five stars, leave a review, and send this episode to a fellow music nerd. It really helps keep the show going. All right, Luxury, help me in this thing. I'm producer DJ, songwriter, and musicologist, Luxury. And I'm after Reddit director and sometimes DJ Dialloroom. And this is One Song, we will see you next time. This episode is produced by Melissa Doignyans. Our video editor is Casey Simonson. Our associate producer is Jeremy Bimbo. Mixing is by Michael Hardman and Engineering by Eric Hicks. Production supervision by Rizok Wu-Tang Boykin. Additional production support from Zee Taylor. And this shows executive produced by Kevin Hart, Mike Stein, Brian Smiley, Eric Gettings, Eric Weil, and Liz Aguam.