Raekwon's Only Built 4 Cuban Linx., in particular, was praised for its cinematic feel. While the group's previous album is known for its minimalistic production style, producer RZA had been expanding the musical backdrop of each solo Wu-Tang album since then. Upon its release, Wu-Tang Forever received favorable reviews from most music critics, while it also earned the group a Grammy Award nomination for Best Rap Album at the 40th Annual Grammy Awards. It is the group's highest selling album to date. The album was certified 4 times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on Octoand has sold over 2 million copies in the United States. The original run of compact discs featured an "Enhanced CD" which allowed users to walk around the "Wu Mansion" and access additional content.ĭespite limited radio/TV airplay, and a lead single that famously clocked at nearly six minutes with no chorus (" Triumph"), Wu-Tang Forever debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 with 612,000 copies sold in its first week. Forever features several guest appearances from Wu-Tang affiliates Cappadonna, Streetlife, 4th Disciple, True Master, and Tekitha. Pressed as a double album, it was released after a long run of successful solo projects from various members of the group, and serves as the follow-up to their debut album Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers). Album DescriptionWu-Tang Forever is the second studio album of American hip hop group Wu-Tang Clan, released June 3, 1997, on Loud/ RCA Records in the United States.
See More Your browser does not support the audio element. Some hailed Wu-Tang Forever as the best double-disc hip-hop album yet released, but others regarded it as a disappointment despite its many high points, it's the first time the Wu didn't quite fulfill their ambitions.
Wu-Tang Forever easily would have made a brilliant single CD RZA's production is more polished than the debut, thanks to a bigger budget and better equipment, and leans heavily on soundtrack-style strings to underscore the album's cinematic scope. The second disc is far too long, diluting the impact of its better songs (the terrific single "Triumph") with an excess of lackluster material. Once you get past the rambling Five Percenter introduction, the first disc is pretty tight, partly because it was kept short to leave room for enhanced CD content. In other words, the group is starting to go off in more individual directions here, making it harder to maintain an overall focus. On the other hand, you also get some of the group's most explicit sex raps yet ("Maria," "The Projects," the utterly bizarre ODB solo track "Dog Shit").
On the one hand, there's more social consciousness on Wu-Tang Forever, taking hard looks at ghetto life while finding pathos and offering encouragement and uplift ("A Better Tomorrow," "Impossible"). While the result, Wu-Tang Forever, is frequently brilliant, it's also sprawling and unfocused, losing its handle on the carefully controlled chaos of Enter the Wu-Tang. So why not give it a shot? With a main crew of nine MCs (plus new protégé Cappadonna), the Wu wouldn't have to depend heavily on guest appearances to flesh out two whole discs of material, as Biggie and 2Pac had. Buy the album Starting at £14.49īy the time the Wu-Tang Clan finished their first round of solo projects and reconvened for their second album as a group, the double-disc album had become the hip-hop fad of the moment.
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