Wu Tang

Wu Tang Clan – Triumph


First to fully understand the context of this song, one must understand the period of time in which it was released. Rap music was on top of the world. Biggie was in his most popular and pop stage, releasing songs like Hypnotize. Glamour was a part of the genre, with no expense spared on music videos. Triumph is no exception. Directed by Brett Ratner, yes the same Brett Ratner that directed Rush Hour, the video is the epitome of the tip-top of hip-hop. When rap artists could drop millions on a video without breaking a sweat, or the bank. In troubling economic times like these, where such excessive spending is frowned upon, I think it's good to take a look back to a different time in rap music, a time where Rappers ruled the world, and could get away with anything.

This song, unbelievable as it may seem, was a single from the 1997 album Wu-Tang Forever. A single, as in it received radio time. A six minute song featuring nine different verses and no chorus was played in its entirety on the radio. The video opens with a faux news report featuring an introduction from Ol' Dirty Bastard. It then leads into one of the best verses that I've ever heard on a Wu-Tang song from a relative unknown, reminiscent of the verse dropped by AZ on Nas' 'Life's a Bitch'. Colorful and descriptive vocabulary mark this verse as 'Ridiculous'. "I bomb atomically, Socrates philosophies can't define how I be droppin these/ Mockeries, Lyrically perform armed robberies". And that's just how the song starts.

Each of the members of the Wu-Tang clan, with a featured verse by Cappadonna, comes in and drops a verse showcasing their individual styles, with the only notable break in the verbal assault coming in roughly the middle of the song, with Ol' Dirty yelling, "The Saga Continues, Wu-Tang, Wu-Tang". This to me is the perfect group song. Everyone brings their best, showcasing the diversity among the Clan, and the RZA does it double hard with a great verse (Program fat baselines, innovation/ getting drunk as fuck, I'm duckin five-year probation) and a hard beat, using the sample of a woman singing in the background at the perfect points in the song to set a different tone (U-God's "Olympic Torch Flaming, we burn so sweet/ the thrill of victory, the agony of defeat). This song truly is one of the high points in hip hop, and one of the best collaborative efforts in a song over the genre's entire history.

- JR