I was thinking for a long while as who the artist of the year would be. Drake, Wale, and Kid Cudi all blew up but they really didn’t leave a huge mark as they should’ve, and honestly radio play downgrades many artists. Lady Gaga had a string of hits and more rumors about her sexuality than Kermit dolls sewed onto that dress she wore, but she didn’t encompass the entire year as a superstar in my opinion. KISS put out a really good new album that happened to come packaged with a greatest hits CD and a live DVD, which although it was only available at Wal-Mart, debuted at #1. They also went out on the most profitable tour of their career and rocked the house. But still, how can someone say that the 60 year old KISS guys are artists of the year? What about Michael Jackson? Dave Matthews Band? Britney Spears? Taylor Swift? No. No. No. After much thought there is a clear artist of the year and I have deducted them with plenty of numbers to back up my claim.
Dave Winchell’s “Artist of the Year” is the Wu-Tang Clan.
Now I see all of you going, “Aw man that’s so dumb, he likes them so he’s picking favorites!” And I would like to make sure that you know that I went into this process with an open mind, listening to bands, looking at tours, and checking out the way fans relate to them.
Let’s start with a little bit of background, there are 8 living “true” members of the Clan (R.I.P. Dirty). This year we’ve seen solo albums from two members (Raekwon, Ghostface Killah), a duet album from Method Man with longtime collaborator Redman and we’ve seen a compilation in Wu-Tang Chamber Music that might as well have played as a full Clan album. And we were treated to another digital only Wu-Tang Meets the Indie Culture album! Also, we were lucky enough to get the final release from Old Dirty Bastard, while I can’t say I listened to it, nor am I particularly interested to, the fact that it’s available only shows how much Wu there was in 2009.
But five albums from nine people is nothing. Right? It’s not just the number of the albums, it’s the fact that they even got made. In the end of 2007, upon the release of the Wu’s last full group album 8 Diagrams there was a huge fallout between RZA, Raekwon and Ghostface Killah that threatened to split the group in two. And last year, both RZA and GZA released albums that were good, but nothing particularly memorable. And then for the first half of this year the Clan kind of stewed. Could they re-unite after the public beef between the groups core members? They could, and by the looks of their works in 2009 they did.
Let me tell you that Wu-Tang Chamber Music is far from a typical comp. album from any hip-hop group. While their last comp Wu-Tang Meets the Indie Culture was a decent look at the Clan combining forces with incredibly competent indie rappers like MF Doom, Aesop Rock, and more, Chamber Music is much more a Clan album with their hand picked guests. Five members of the Clan are present on the album, and they choose their guests in more underground rappers like Sean Price, Kool G Rap, Sadat X and a few more.
Another really cool aspect of this album is that RZA had a live band play all of the instrumentals, and yet we still get that signature, kung fu funk that all of the Wu fans love.
"Our album is better than The Blueprint 3!"
And let us not forget Method Man and Redman’s Blackout! 2, a sequel to their 1999 album. This album follows the path of it’s original, showing that even late 30’s men can enjoy the excess of life and still style their words with some originality (take that Snoop Dogg). They also feature fellow Clansmen Raekwon and Ghostface. It was critically acclaimed, and although didn’t top any charts, one must take into consideration it came out against Eminem’s Relapse.
Ghostface Killah also put out the album Ghostdini: Wizard of Poetry in Emerald City and unfortunately I can’t say I’ve listened to the album aside from a few tracks, and honestly I’m not too big of a fan of the concept. Ghostface said he wanted to make a more R&B-centric rap album, and to me that’s a waste of his talent. But a 68 on metacritic as well as several notable guest spots from Kanye West, John Legend, Estelle, Ne-Yo, Lloyd and Fabolos make this a notch in the Wu’s post worth noting.
TRUMP CARD
And then there was Raekwon...apparently the tension between RZA and Raekwon and Ghostface was because Ghost and Rae considered 8 Diagrams not “street” enough for the Wu-Tang fans. From what I’ve heard, RZA had to sit down with Raekwon and let him know that since the Wu is so well known that they can’t afford to be “street” when the whole world appreciates their art. But the words that sealed the deal between RZA and Rae was that while 8 Diagrams wasn’t going to be a ghetto banger, that Raekwon’s Only Built 4 Cuban Linx...Pt. II would be. And thank the lord it was, because that album is phenomenal. At Rock the Bells at Jones Beach they were plastering posters everywhere for the album and I said to my friend Corey McNair, “I’ll hang this poster up in my room if the album is good, but if it’s bad, I’ll take it down.” And surely enough the poster is still hanging proudly on my wall!
And all releases aside, the Wu had a prominent role in the aforementioned Rock the Bells tour this year. While they didn’t headline, RZA, GZA and Raekwon all dominated the second stage, giving credibility to their fellow side-stagers K’Naan and Slaughterhouse by simply appearing on said stage. Also, the group had a pseudo reunion on their New York date, getting the bump from second stage to a main stage set that featured Raekwon, RZA, Method Man, Inpsectah Deck and O.D.B.’s son Boy Jones. Apparently Ghostface was on hand but didn’t get up on stage to perform.
If that isn’t enough, the Wu also saturated themselves even more by appearing as notable guests on some of the albums most highly anticipated and critically acclaimed albums, The Black Keys hip-hop project Blakroc which featured the likes of Mos Def, Jim Jones, Ludacris and more featured fantastic verses from RZA and Raekwon and a sex heaby posthumous track from O.D.B. Also on N.A.S.A.’s star studded album The Spirit of Apollo which featured the likes of Tom Waits, M.I.A., David Bryne, The Cool Kids, DJ AM, and more, Method Man, RZA and Ghostface were given prominent roles opposite several talented individuals.
So all in all, my love for the Clan aside, it’s pretty clear to me at least that these guys deserve the artist of the year. Now you can argue for so many more, and I’d love to hear these arguments. But to me, there’s no denying the work these guys put into maintaining their image, whether or not that image is mainstream I don’t care. And if you don’t think they deserve this honor, you’ve got to at least give them the E for effort!
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