Wu-Tang Clan London, UK Concert Recap

via NME

Wu Tang Clan covered The Beatles classic 'Come Together' as they rounded off their UK tour in London tonight (Wednesday, August 4).

Lead singer RZA rapped over the opener to the Fab Four's 1969 album 'Abbey Road' at the end of their show at Brixton Academy for the band's first show in three years.

The rap collective played a host of tracks from their back catalogue with much of their material leaning towards their 1993 debut album 'Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)'.

Setting out their stall early on, RZA declared: "It is the year 2010 and Wu Tang Clan are on tour. Manchester was off the hook last night (August 3). This is the last night of our tour so we're going to save the best for last."

The tour was their first since 2007 and was meant to include the full line-up. But Method Man pulled out due to filming commitments for an episode of CSI. The rapper previously appeared in The Wire as Calvin 'Cheese' Wagstaff.

RZA acknowledged his absence, apologising to the throng towards the end. "We're sorry Method Man couldn't make it," he said. "He's in Hollywood. We're going to let him know how loud you were though."

RZA also announced his own forthcoming movie project The Man With The Iron Fist to the crowd.

Earlier the band paid tribute to late member Ol' Dirty Bastard, who died of an accidental drug overdose in 2004, by asking the audience to lift up lighters and mobile phones in his honour.

But the biggest cheer of the night was reserved for their only UK hit single 'Gravel Pit', which you can watch below.

Wu Tang Clan played:

'Protect Ya Neck'
'Clan In Da Front'
'Bring Da Ruckus'
'Tearz'
'Triumph'
'Ice Cream'
'Liquid Swords'
'U God'
'Reunited'
'It's Yourz'
'One Blood Under W'
'Wu-Tang Clan Ain't Nuthing Ta Fuck Wit'
'Da Mystery of Chessboxin'
'C.R.E.A.M.'
'Baby C'mon'
'Can It All Be So Simple'
'Gravel Pit'
'Come Together'

(video courtesy of kateit17)

Rock The Bells 2010 Guerilla Union Press Conference

This is a portion of Monday's press conference courtesy of Nerdlike. As it was announced, Rock The Bells 2010 will have a 'classic album' format.

Eric B. & Rakim performing Paid In Full
Slick Rick performing The Great Adventures of Slick Rick
KRS-One performing Criminal Minded
Wu-Tang Clan performing Enter the Wu-Tang: 36 Chambers

...and for those who are lucky enough to attend this will be a once in a lifetime event for sure.

Artists confirmed for the ROCK THE BELLS 2010 FESTIVAL SERIES as follows:
Wu-Tang Clan
Rakim
KRS-One
Slick Rick
Street Sweeper Social Club
Murs and 9th Wonder
Wiz Khalifa
Clipse
Immortal Technique
Jedi Mind Tricks
Brother Ali
DJ Muggs and Ill Bill
Big Sean
Yelawolf

Hosted by
Supernatural
DJ Rocky Rock

For more info about Rock The Bells 2010:
Rock The Bells 2010

Method Man In The Kitchen Cooking Up...Lasagna

If Italian food is your thing, Method Man demonstrates how to cook the noodles just right to make a mean lasagna.

(Video courtesy of Echelon Media)

More Nas & RZA Live In Hawaii Video Footage

(video courtesy of Light Sleepers, Shinji Designs & juschokum)

Related:
Nas Live In Hawaii & RZA Gets In On The Action To Perform A Wu-Tang Classic

Nas Live In Hawaii & RZA Gets In On The Action To Perform A Wu-Tang Classic

At last night's (Friday March 19) Nas concert at the Aloha Tower Marketplace in Honolulu, Hawaii, RZA came out of nowhere as a special guest to perform the Wu-Tang classic "Wu-Tang Clan Ain't Nothing to F**k Wit." According to the concert promoter's twitter post Kanye West & DJ Qbert were also in attendance.

Although the flyer below says DJ Green Lantern was DJing during Nas set, Boston native Statik Seletah stepped in for Lantern for this show.

more fan shot footage below.





(video courtesy of InZaneRascaL, juschokum & matt higa)

GZA SXSW 2010 At Mohawk Showcase Review

A press clipping review reported by Andy Gross at Austin 360 / The Statesman

Thursday night (March 18) at Mohawk, the GZA, was not that man. And I’m pretty sure almost nobody in the crowd cared.

Taking the stage about 40 minutes late at 20 to 1 a.m., the GZA, one of the Wu-Tang Clan’s legendary M.C.s seemed….rickety? Overly relaxed? Barely able to stand up? One of those.

Let me put it this way: He had a hype man, he had a DJ and he had a dude who was essentially a spotter. This gentleman at one point literally put his hand on GZA’s back, perhaps to keep him from tipping over.

GZA stood very still for much of the set and at one point took out a Blackberry (smartphone?) and started texting. To his credit, he didn’t stop rapping. But he also decided to check some messages while on stage performing. Think about that. That’s considered rude when you’re ordering food at McDonald’s.

But again, it was unclear if anyone at Mohawk minded. SXSW crowds are more forgiving that you might think. After midnight, after a hard day of partying, people, to a certain extent, are just happy to still be awake. Mohawk was one of the night’s hotter tickets and as long as the GZA hit highlights from the Wu-Tang catalog (which he did) and rapped a whole bunch of verses from his brilliant debut “Liquid Swords” (ditto) people were going to be happy with it.

(A hype man also yelled, “Bill Murray is in the building,” but ol’ Bill was accused of being about four places at the same time, according to Twitter. Anyone know where he actually was? Are there fake Murrays running around?)

(video courtesy of crunchyMunchkin1)

Raekwon & Ghostface Killah Nokia Theatre NYC 'Wu-Massacre' Concert Recap

via Entertainment Weekly

Wu-Massacre, the album that Method Man, Raekwon, and Ghostface Killah are dropping March 30, whittles down the Wu-Tang Clan to three of its finest. Last night, that line-up was pared further to just Raekwon and Ghostface, for what was billed as an early Wu-Massacre release celebration at the Nokia Theater in NYC’s Times Square (Friday, March 5). There was some sense in making the trio a duo. Rae and Ghost, in particular, have often felt like a group within a group on the Clan’s releases. These guys go together like peanut butter and jelly, or pasta and tomato sauce — speaking of which, they collaborate often enough to have come up with the acronym R.A.G.U. (for “Rae and Ghost United”) to identify their joint efforts.



The concert began with a string of unimpeachable cuts from 1995’s classic Only Built 4 Cuban Linx… — technically Raekwon’s solo debut, but one to which Ghostface contributed heavily, earning prominent billing on the album’s cover. Their undiminished chemistry was evident in the show-opening string of “Criminology,” “Incarcerated Scarfaces,” “Ice Cream,” and “Verbal Intercourse.” Both rappers are essentially storytellers, Ghostface narrating crime sagas with a jumpy urgency, Raekwon doing the same in gravelly and matter-of-fact tones. Together they strode the stage like giants, joining in on one another’s lyrics at key points for emphasis.



After a few more tunes from their catalog (notably Ghostface’s “Mighty Healthy”), the pair retreated to the back of the stage while random New York mixtape rappers like Grafh and Red Cafe appeared to perform unannounced mini-sets. I’ve got nothing against those dudes, but as far as surprise guests go, I was hoping more for, well, Method Man, or at least Masta Killa. No such luck. At least we got to see Smif-n-Wessun do 1994’s “Bucktown,” whose rough NY sound isn’t so far removed from Rae and Ghost’s territory.



Thankfully, Rae and Ghost took center stage again before long. The crowd of die-hard Wu fans flipped out when they ran through several necessary selections from the Clan’s epochal 1993 debut, Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers), including “Bring da Ruckus,” “Wu-Tang Clan Ain’t Nuthing ta F— Wit,” “Shame on a N—-,” “C.R.E.A.M.” (You can see Raekwon do the latter song’s opening verse last night below, thanks to the magic of YouTube; some NSFW language, obviously.) It is never less than thrilling to hear these songs in any context, even when only two members of the nine-man group are present. Rae and Ghost paid tribute to their late friend Ol’ Dirty Bastard by performing his solo single “Shimmy Shimmy Ya” before returning to a few more of their own solo tunes (Raekwon’s “Canal Street,” Ghostface’s “Holla”).



Then came another series of guests, for some reason. A rapper identified only as “Ghost’s son” sounded like a much less experienced version of his dad (only fair, I suppose). Jim Jones walked on for “We Fly High” to much applause. It was interesting to see Rae and Ghost as the kind of elder statesmen who would cede so much of their own concert for the benefit of competitors like Jones — not something either of them have necessarily been best known for in the past. That generous spirit still wasn’t enough to make these interludes feel like smart uses of the audience’s time.

All was more or less forgiven by the crowd when the beat for the Clan’s 1997 single “Triumph” kicked in. No further members made last-minute appearances as Rae and Ghost closed out the show, sadly. Still, my only real complaint last night was that the two main performers didn’t go even deeper into their shared catalog. Concerts can have far worse problems than that. Were any of you at the Nokia Theater last night? Are you looking forward to Wu-Massacre?

Photos:
Getty Images
Wire Image

More fan shot footage below.



(video courtesy of t2optimus, ladiemare & eja688)

RZA Talks Art With Baller Status

BallerStatus.com: Why is ODB and GZA the only members of the Wu featured in the Victory or Death art piece?

RZA: Two reasons. One: the pioneers of the Wu-Tang sound is RZA, GZA and Old Dirty. We started as teenagers, and we were the first foundation of the group, and everyone else was, in one way or another, students of ours. So, we brought the three masters, the three elders together for the piece. Ask the other Wu-Tang members and they'll tell you that RZA, GZA and Old Dirty are the teachers. Ghost said "I learned from the best." That means RZA, GZA and Old Dirty. Everybody will tell you that we are the ones who inspired them. So that's the main reason why we said "let's use them, that'll be enough." We did talk about using the whole Clan at one point because we thought it would make a great album cover, but Wu-Tang is so scattered in ideas and scattered in business right now, we didn't wanna get a business jamboree going on. Even though I do have the rights to do it, I didn't want to go through the headache of arguing over my own rights.

BallerStatus.com: What did you think of the piece once it was finished? Was there anything you would've changed?

RZA: No, I think it came out good. It wasn't a predestined thing to do, so the results are the results. That's one thing about true art. It's something that's spontaneous, that's done, that you can't change. That's what made some of the Wu-Tang stuff so raw too. I didn't fix a lot of sh**. You hear all the "yo's" and the "check one twos." I was like "Let that sh** stay." That's the rawness of it, the realness of it. Now with Pro Tools, we edit everything and we adlib and sh**, but my most successful work has been the spontaneous things that I've done.

BallerStatus.com: Initially, was a project like this something you ever thought about doing?

RZA: I've been to Paris many times in my life. I even had a villa 25 miles outside of Paris. But honestly, I had never really seen the city, paid attention to the city. It wasn't until the spring of 2009 that I had two weeks in Paris and I went to their museums and went to the Eiffel Tower and went more like a tourist and absorbed the city, and that's when I really appreciated Paris and the whole French culture. I also got a great appreciation for art. It's funny how when you're young, you don't see the beauty in things. I remember I was in San Francisco at the Museum of Abstract Art, and I took my son and my wife there, and we were looking around, and I kind of caught the vibe of what they were doing. Two years ago or five years ago, I wouldn't have caught it. I think as we grow and become more refined, more cultured, our tastes become stronger. We have more of an understanding of things. So, if I can inspire somebody to say "let me go over here and check this museum" and see the artistic nature of the mind, the consciousness that art derives from, and how it comes into the consciousness, I think that it'll help people. It's a good thing for culture.

BallerStatus.com: Have you done any art yourself in your spare time?

RZA: I'm an artist, so my life is art. Most of my artistic nature has been given over to my daughter, who draws something every day. She has hundreds of drawings that one day I may use for some kind of comic book line or art direction for a movie or something.

Meth, Ghost & Rae 'Wu Massacre' Artwork & Tracklist Posted Online

Meth, Ghost & Rae - 'Wu Massacre' on Island/Def Jam arrives March 30.

01. Criminology 2.5
02. Meth vs Chef
03. Ya Moms Skit
04. Smooth Sailing Remix ft. Solomon Childs
05. Our Dreams
06. Gunshowers ft. Inspectah Deck & Cappadonna
07. Dangerous
08. Pimpin’ Chipp
09. How To Pay Rent Skit ft. Tracy Morgan
10. Miranda
11. Youngtown Heist
12. Breaka Breaka
13. Made Men

tracklist props to RapRadar via The Urban Daily

Wu-Tang Clan: Return of the Wu & Friends With DJ Mathematics

On Return of the Wu & Friends, Wu-Tang producer and DJ Mathematics collects exclusive tracks, lost gems and old time favorites featuring all nine emcees from the mighty Wu.

Mathematics Presents Return Of The Wu And Friends on Gold Dust Media/Nature Sounds in-stores and online February 16th.

Redman and Method Man take Blackout 2 live to Amsterdam

Shot live at Melkweg in Amsterdam Thursday June 4.

I don't want to ask about the after party either...I can only imagine with these two.

Raekwon conquers Atlanta show posted

Before embarking on the massive 2009 Rock The Bells tour, Diamond Lex showed his hip hop powers to the appreciative Atlanta crowd April 28 at the Apache Cafe.









Raekwon's 'Only Built 4 Cuban Linx pt.2' out August 11, 2009 on Ice H2O Inc./EMI

Ghostface asks the audience for an MC (video)

At Scala in London May 6.
Ghostface stops the track to find an MC from the audience to come up to the mic.


Performance footage