![]() A posse in the truest sense, the Wu’s members would go on to release highly individual solo albums, but their collective debut was the epitome of gritty urban hip-hop in the 90s: concerned less with grooves and more with reintroducing the menace – and twisted humor – back into the music. Producer RZA’s mutating of classic soul samples, mixed with dialogue from kung-fu films, created a sparse, ominous backing for the Wu’s cadre of MCs – among them Method Man, Ol’ Dirty Bastard, GZA and Raekwon – who approached their microphone battles with the discipline of martial arts masters. With Dr Dre staking a claim for the West Coast’s dominance in ’92, Wu-Tang Clan’s debut brought the focus back to hip-hop’s New York City birthplace. Wu-Tang Clan: Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) (1993) Sample lyric: “One, two, three and to the fo’/Snoop Doggy Dogg and Dr Dre is at the do’/Ready to make an entrance, so back on up/’Cause you know we ’bout to rip s_t up.” (‘Nuthin’ But A “G” Thang’) It also introduced the world to Snoop Dogg, whose laidback flow was the perfect accompaniment to the music. ![]() Crystallizing the G-Funk production style that he’d edged towards with N.W.A’s Efil4zaggin, The Chronic remains one of the most influential hip-hop albums of all time, Dre’s high-pitched synth lines running on top of P-Funk samples and low-slung beats, laying the template for much of mainstream hip-hop for years to come. Having defected from Eazy-E’s Ruthless imprint, Dr Dre lay the foundations for Suge Knight’s Death Row label, putting it on the map with an album that took gangsta rap to No.3 on the Billboard charts. Sample lyric: “Little boys and girls, they all love me/Come sit on the lap of I-C-E” (‘A Gangsta’s Fairytale’) Cube comes out swinging with the utmost ease and style it’s unbelievable to consider he was only 20 when he recorded it. Besides Cube’s unparalleled lyricism and The Bomb Squad’s sample-driven sound, AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted delves deep into the social and political issues of the era: poverty, racism, and drug addiction. With newly found freedom he released his debut solo album, AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted, in 1990: an instant hit that went Gold in only two weeks. However, contractual and royalty disputes led to an acrimonious split from the group. Ice Cube was one of the founding members of the seminal gangster rap group N.W.A, as well as their chief lyricist. ![]() Sample lyric: “I’ve been dropping the new science and kicking the new k-nowledge/An MC to a degree that you can’t get in college” (‘Sounds Of Science’) Following the 1989 sampling lawsuit against De La Soul, producers and DJs were forced to become more circumspect about their source material, making it virtually impossible for anyone to even try to top the dexterity on display on Paul’s Boutique. ![]() Gleefully sampling everything from P-Funk to The Beatles, Pink Floyd and Johnny Cash, Paul’s Boutique was a crate-digger’s delight, reveling in the possibilities that hip hop’s Golden Age had to offer. Having introduced themselves as hip hop’s bratty punks with 1986’s Licensed To Ill, Beastie Boys holed up with production duo The Dust Brothers, creating a dazzling follow-up whose patchwork of samples is ably matched by the wordplay – and interplay – of Mike D, MCA and Ad-Rock. ![]()
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