WU TANG IS FOR THE KIDS

Freshman year of high school, I was an impressionable young Filipino kid trapped in a city and school where I was on a mission to attack the wack. Turlock, CA. Not a city conducive for igniting growth and subversive ideals. But I had my own Book of Gospel to teach me the truth, it was actually two books, with a couple chapters composed by some of the disciples. The first was Enter the 36 Chambers, and the second was Wu Tang Forever. And for this young follower, those compositions forever altered my perception of what music could be.

The Wu was like a new aged group of prophets who sought to make noise, not knowing that the noise they would make would generate a breed of followers who would emulate their independent ethos. The Wu was what made Def Jux, Rhymesayers, Rawkus, and a slew of independent labels and gropus what they would eventually become. Thier sound was identifiable, and it would also be mirrored and reprocessed by countless others. The Wu also embarked on a global domination that would have the dorkiest of white and Asian kids rockin their brand of street wear and leaving carvings of the infamous "W" logo wherever they could.

I felt special in Turlock, and it was in part due to these nine emcees. I represented to the fullest, being the first kid in my school to be rockin' my Wu Wear shirt with my Wu Wear skully. They were the reason I saved up money from my paper route to cop a pair of Air Force Ones from Eastbay (stores in the region wouldnt even come close to selling AF1's until Nelly came out with his dumb ass song)and Timberlands from the Gilroy outlets (and you know I had to rock the Tims with the laces only in the 1st, 3rd, and 4th shoe lace holes). And if this seemed natural for you, picture yourself in the Bible belt region of California where kids only listened to gangsta vato-lowrider music or country.

These five YouTube clips are from a MTV Ultrasound documentary that came out around '98/'98, (I forgot what year), about the Clan. This made its debut during the pinnacle of Wu Tangs existence, proceeding the success of Wu Tang Forever and other solo releases (not to mention the neverending list of their affiliates). It was a period where I really didn't care about anything else if it wasn't Wu related. The Ultrasound documentary was the shit to me during that time, and I had been searching for it for the longest time on YouTube, but luckily some good soul was able to actually get it up for the rest of us to be able to reflect to a back when it was all about the Killah Bees.

(Just to let you know: There are a couple times where the videos overlap, and I believe that it is missing one part where Ghostface talks about how important "All That I Got Is You" was for other people and how it made big dudes in prison cry.)