copower wrote:
maybe "Cuban Linx", "Fishscale" and "Return to the 36 Chambers" if you really feel the need to expand. and you should.
fishscale is def a good album, though im not sure its a good representation of the "wu tang sound" given the lack of rza beats (good beats though... mf doom, pete rock, j dilla....).
imo the golden age of wu tang is between 36 chambers and forever, inclusive of both albums (i understand some people aren't fans of forever, but some beats and verses on that album really make me go nuts). between those 2 albums is the whole string of solo-wu-artist albums that had mostly rza beats.
they are, in order of quality:
gza - liquid swords
raekwon - only built 4 cuban linx (ghostface is on more than half the tracks)
ghostface killah - iron man
method man - tical
ODB - return to the 36 chambers
its tough to really debate whether liquid swords or cuban linx is the better album. i think cuban linx might be better but i suspect popular opinion says otherwise, so i left liquid swords at the top.
unfortunately, inspectah deck was only ever really great when he was with wu, his solo albums aren't all that; u-god hasn't had a great solo career; masta killa didn't release an album until a few years ago, which ended up being good; rza didn't do anything solo until bobby digital, which was kind of flakey with just a few good tracks - did the
ghost dog soundtrack though, great soundtrack.