since i have you, i’d love to know your favorite wu-tang solo album. my actual favorite wu member is ghostface, but my favorite solo record is (big surprise) LIQUID SWORDS, which is just perfect
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My favorite of the RZA helmed solo first run is Only Built 4 Cuban Linx. Possibly the best collection of beats ever put together by one producer to that point imo.
Favorite wu solo overall is Supreme Clientele because it’s possibly the best/most unhinged Ghostface ideas on an album
LIQUID SWORDS is fantastic but my favorite is Ghostface’s SUPREME CLIENTELE. Just nonstop energy and incredible production from beginning to end. CUBAN LINX 1 and 2 are also among my personal favorites.
Hard to find the best solo album. Liquid Swords is AMAZING. Cuban Linx has bangers, Tical has Meth Vs Chef which may be the best battle song of the group.
I don't really listen to the Wu-Tang Clan enough to have favorites, but I think the chat will be amused to hear that one time during undergrad for our spring festival thing, the headlining musical acts were the Wu-Tang Clan... and Gavin DeGraw. (who is possibly the antipode of the wu-tang clan?)
I've been lucky to see GZA twice on tour as he celebrated anniversaries of Liquid Swords live in the last 5 years.
Once in a dingy little club, the other in a theatre. Both hit hard but in different ways.
Going to join the club and say Fishscale too but there’s a special place in my heart for Pro Tools. Even if it’s not quite the revelation that Liquid Swords is there are tracks I always keep coming back to.
Cuban Linx. If Wu are "the Beatles of Hip Hop" then that's their Sgt Pepper. Technicolour masterpiece. The sheer brilliance is just relentless, moment by moment. RZA's finest hour. I revisited it the other day and was blown away as forcefully as I was the day I first heard it.
ONLY BUILT 4 CUBAN LINX has a grandiosity that's really hard to beat. My car broke down one summer while blasting "Glaciers of Ice," and it seemed like the (only) right reaction to the sonics.
Deck is my favorite and the best the Wu has to offer. I’ll die on that hill. It’s a tragedy that his 1st solo album was lost in the flood. But if I had to pick a favorite solo album it would have to be Only Built 4 Cuban Linx.
I agree with you 100% Ghostface has longevity and consistency (especially in old age) the other members don’t have. Liquid Swords is special. RZA’s five year plan for all these guys doesn’t get enough credit.
Cuban Linx is objectively the “best” Wu album, IMO, the cinematic vibe and the Rae-Ghost interplay are perfect, and the recording is just a little more polished than the earlier records, while still just grimy enough.
Liquid Swords is amazing, but I gotta go with Ghostface's Supreme Clientele. My favorite individual track of his is from Fishscale, though. The Champ is a goddamn romp.
CL is just so good because rhythmically Ghost and Rae just play off each other so well, Ghost getting ahead of the beat and attacking the mic, Rae dragging a little bit, not letting it get too hot.
This reminds me that the first time I bought the ODB album whose name I dare not type, I accidentally bought the *clean* CD. Comically long stretches of missing vocals.
Growing up my favorite was Tical (who’s more charming than Method Man?), but now it’s probably a tie between Liquid Swords and Supreme Clientele. I even did a meme about it
honorable mention for FISHSCALE though, which in addition to being an amazing record was also given to me as a gift from a very good friend back in college, and so i have a soft spot for it
Dirk McGirt aka Big Baby Jesus aka old dirty bastard is the member whose music has aged the best. He had avoided unc status and still sounds more like 2025 than anyone else rapping in 2025. I am ready to die on this hill even though liquid swords is imho the best solo album.
Wu-tang Meets the Indie Culture- Rza's line, "Tempted by the sins of life, the pleasures of lust, with wild imaginings that you can't discuss.." in Biochemical Equation. Brilliant.
All of Raekwon on Enter the Wu is magic! True "1993 exoticness.."
One year I listend to THE CHAMP before heading into every one of my exams and I'm pretty sure it's responsible for improving my marks by a full letter grade.
The best song to get yourself hyped, ever. Still can't believe Ghostface dropped the line "Want me dead, but they scared to step to me/Ripped they guts out like a hysterectomy"
That is ALSO right up there. One of my personal favorites, and right alongside The Champ on my old morning playlist for when I was taking mass transit to class when I was in college.
re: LIQUID SWORDS, i like that the closest thing to a single on that record, “Living in the World Today,” is still the most sinister thing you’ll ever hear. and it’s the sinister vibe of LIQUID SWORDS that i love. the whole record feels like headlights in your rearview mirror on a foggy night
As a metal guy, Liquid Swords is as close as a multi platinum hip hop album comes to a lot of metal vibes wise. There is a theatricality and escapism as well as that darkness.
4th Chamber is one of my favorite tracks as well, I saw them once where they brought out the guitarist from System of a Down to play the chords and the crowd got so hyped
I remember back in high school a dude on the back of my bus played the cassingle for Liquid Swords every morning for a month straight. Absolute classic.
Amazing description of liquid swords. I always felt like it was the moment right before a storm at twilight, when the clouds roll in to shut off the last lingering light of the day and make the air thick enough to choke on.
Liquid Swords is absolutely my fave Wu solo project too, but spare a moment for the late great ODB’s classic Return to the 36 Chambers. So many unhinged classics on that one.
i have the same story with fishscale. one of my best friends burned it for me and told me it was a cinematic experience and it is. i wore it out and i still love it, and partly because it's tied to my friend
When I got my first car in 06 I put Fishscale in the CD player first to hear the songs blending into each other because my iPod mini couldn’t do that yet
White nerd here! I agree with basically everything you’ve said. Also my best friend (Japanese nerd) and I got a FISHSCALE poster personally autographed, and it remains a prized possession we pass back and forth.
Inspectah Deck is my favorite and I'm bummed out that he never pursued much in the way of a solo career, and that his few solo records aren't that memorable
It used to be Liquid Swords for me but as I've got older I have gravitated towards Only Built 4 Cuban Linx. An incredibly dense and mysterious record, I don't know I'll ever fully grasp it.
For me it’s either Cuban Linx on Supreme Clientele, extremely tough choice, liquid swords is also incredible, I was lucky enough to see GZA do it live in 2012
My favorite is Liquid Swords as well. I don’t remember that one ever being played on the radio and I bought just hoping it would be good. It blew my mind and then passed it around to a bunch of my friends and everybody seemed to love it too.
Used to be Fishscale as well because I, like you, am Ghostface Gang. But I've gone back and checked out Ironman and Supreme Clientele and I think it may now be Ironman: soulful, groovy Sunday morning production plus some of Ghost's best storytelling.
Either LIQUID SWORDS or BOBBY DIGITAL, definitely. Speaking of, I came across this song randomly a couple years ago and had a huge “holy shit!” moment. https://youtu.be/2iuGhNlR8x0?si=u-upEA1K9IrdXyzK
Inspectah Deck on Gang Starr's "Above the Clouds" is better than most albums. (I am also an UNCONTROLLED SUBSTANCE truther, but I suspect that album hasn't aged as well.)
Liquid Swords, but, today. Tomorrow might be Cuban Linx for the sheer operatic ambition, Nas on Verbal Intercourse, Wu Gambinos…But track for track, LS.
Liquid Swords and several of the 1st round of solo joints were great. I like finding the gems I never knew came out later, like No Said Date by Masta Killa and Chamber No.9 by Inspectah Deck are good ones ones. Not "best Wu ever" but really solid and worth checking out!
Supreme Clientele, even though it's one of the least "Wu" of the early solos.
I always wondered what Uncontrolled Substance would sounded like with the original beats. Reading the history, it sounds like someone Deck got in a beef got access to a time machine at some point.
Not counting Liquid Swords (because most of us will say Liquid Swords), I’d have to go with Supreme Clientele - though ODB’s Return to the 36 Chambers deserves an honorable mention.
Going back to your point about Wu-Tang being nerds, how could you ever listen to this album and not realize this? I love this one more than any other solo because of how he loved the same kung fu action theatre stuff I did.
I desperately want to say The Purple Tape or Supreme Clientele, but honestly, it’s Return to the 36. The cumulative efforts of ODB, RZA, and GZA. It’s undeniable and mesmerizing. Love it.
An unpopular opinion I think, but my favorite is tical although I can admit that it’s not the “best” which I’d probably say is Cuban linx or supreme clientele
1. Liquid Swords - chilling, epic.
2. Ironman - the Wu has a heart.
3. Return to 36 Chambers - a lot of that is to do with Harlem World, just an incredible woozy stream of consciousness flowing out of ODB.
Criminology could be my favourite solo track tho.
Just listened to LS last night lol. It's definitely my favorite solo too, followed by the Purple Tape. LS just basically perfect in every way. Hell, even the song without The Genius is elite.
Ghostface, no question, and Fishscale. A big part of it for me was that DOOM produced a few tracks, just sent it over on a gamble, and Ghostface loved them. The Champ is some of my favourite Ghostface work, ever. He did the conceit to perfection; nobody else can do that after him
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Favorite wu solo overall is Supreme Clientele because it’s possibly the best/most unhinged Ghostface ideas on an album
Once in a dingy little club, the other in a theatre. Both hit hard but in different ways.
2. Retrun to 36 Chambers
3. Supreme Clientele
That said, I really wish Deck’s solo pieces had the same energy as his bars in the group. As a member he’s a contender.
Close 2nd: Ironman is literally banger after banger after banger. Daytona 500 might be the most underrated Wu joint of all time.
https://youtu.be/lPyZlcIHLgg?si=MNE3Mf2hPn8d050m
It definitely was the official video for the song though, because I have VHS "single" of it. Guess I'll try to rip it.
Digital Bullets.
Liquid Swords is my favorite, though.
I think my favorite currently *active* member is Inspectah Deck, who is doing fun stuff with Czarface. https://youtu.be/dqjJXe3kLUQ?si=Dz5Als8cT48MlICt
All of Raekwon on Enter the Wu is magic! True "1993 exoticness.."
When it comes to songs that get me hyped up, I can't ignore Ante Up. It makes me want to run through a fucking brick wall.
“Why is water wet?”
“Why did Judas rat to Romans while Jesus slept?”
Every verse is almost perfection.
RZA and GZA amazing
Still great.
So...come boy...choose life or death...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ee2NrhXEGWs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiTWKHEqdgk&list=PLC80P4gsPr-YXebE41nYqhd4K_2kJaJSt
And while not solo... Czarface
I don't think I'm the only one, but RZA is my favorite emcee in the crew (if I was forced to chose)
That said, Shakey Dog is his best track by far.
🤘🏾
2. Cuban Linx 2
3. Fishscale
4. Tical
5. Ironman
I have no idea how that was the one I came across lol.
Cuban Linx for the summer
“Duel of the Iron Mic!”
“It's the 52 fatal strikes!”
I always wondered what Uncontrolled Substance would sounded like with the original beats. Reading the history, it sounds like someone Deck got in a beef got access to a time machine at some point.
Most disappointed by Bobby Digital, though I probably haven't listened to it since it came out.
_, Please
Obviously the guest appearances on the two Limp Bizkit albums
These are not highbrow choices and I'll own that
2. Ironman - the Wu has a heart.
3. Return to 36 Chambers - a lot of that is to do with Harlem World, just an incredible woozy stream of consciousness flowing out of ODB.
Criminology could be my favourite solo track tho.
Rappers started whispering after that.
“Hey we can try to outdo Snakes or we could kinda mumble.”
“Time to mumble”
On a practical level I still sing “Kilo” to myself whenever I need to convert “ounces” to metric.
https://youtu.be/IzBeuWS4LhY?si=JWY30P9tTvdXkKkn