When Wu Tang first came on the scene were they seen as cool or weird ?

[old pig]

Get the foam jawns, but take the foam padding off

oh we knew

 

[Derekjackson2]

I was in college at UAPB when I read the rap pages article portrayed as cartoon characters. I heard protect your neck& was totally confused but once the album dropped I got the gimmick

 

[88m3]

first albums were really dark and gangster rap... I don't think weird is the word you're looking for

they got a lot of play on Hot 97, local stations, and tapes

they were well respected when they came out

 

[Kyle Barker]

first albums were really dark and gangster rap... I don't think weird is the word you're looking for

they got a lot of play on Hot 97, local stations, and tapes

they were well respected when they came out

Yeah they were New York's answer to the West Coast gangster rap that was dominant at a time. They deserve a lot of credit for bringing the attention back to the East Coast. The Kung Fu stuff just felt more like their signature as opposed to an overbearing gimmick. They just came across as real street cats.

 

[NZA]

Honestly, “street ni66@z” wasn’t really a thing back then....

live ni66a meant the same thing and was in use in NY rap back in the day. rap had street ni66as since schoolly d

 

[Unknown Poster]

Wu-Tang was huge in the 90s. Definitely had the hood and the suburbs on lock especially 1996-1999. You just knew what it was.

 

[zayk35]

Wu Tang never got any love in "lil country spots" in Texas where I'm from. I liked them a lil bit but I was wayyy wrapped up in the Geto Boys and West Coast rap to have given them any real burn. They never even got played on Sunday night jam, which was my "lil country town's" "black radio block "from 6p.m til midnight only on Sundays. And the DJs of the station would get all their music from whatever K104 was playing in Dallas. They'd play whatever was really popping on the radio stations there. I know Dallas played some Wu Tang but they never got back to my "lil country town" only the "All I need" remix got there and the "how high remix" both in 95. But other than that Wu Tang did not really exist.....fast fwd to when I joined the Marine Corps and got to the "fleet" and met different types of ppl and get put on to some Wu Tang. By 1998 I started to really fukk with it and been hooked every since. I'd go back home on leave to my " lil country town" bumping some Wu and them nikkas would be frowning and disgusted. Because where I'm from the hottest rapper was usually some terrible "local dude" and any obscure 90s Bay Area rapper.

 

[Sankofa Alwayz]

live ni66a meant the same thing and was in use in NY rap back in the day. rap had street ni66as since schoolly d

 

[Take It In Blood]

Nikkas in class used to practice drawing the Wu symbol

 

[Bawon Samedi]

Don't ever compare Odd Future() to Wutang...

 

[AnonymityX1000]

Another interesting thing about them that let you know they were different was how they had a record deal as a group and then could separately sign as individuals. Was never done before, a group was signed to a label and if members went solo it happened on the same label. Wu came out independently with Protect Ya Neck, then quickly got signed to Loud Records which was a new major. But when Protect Ya Neck was doing well you heard Ol Dirty b*stard had a solo deal with Elektra already. It was like how?
Then they released Method Man, shyt really blew up and you read in rap magazines there is a bidding war for his solo material and he eventually signs with Def Jam!
Then you hear Rae and Deck signed solo with Loud.
Ghost with Epic.
The Genius with Geffen records.

It was just a huge takeover of the industry that had never been done. It definitely added to the excitement.
Later The RZA himself signed to G Street and U-God to Priority but by then they were gigantic.

 

[untaintedbeats]

Couldn’t understand why they were stealing the Fu-Schnickens “Kung Fu” gimmick, so blatantly....

I liked the fu schnickens first album but their use of Kung fu or Chinese culture was more gimmick ie..each member had fu in their name...videos of them rapping out of Chinese food boxes...with Wu is was more a metaphor...the brother hood and sharpness of their lyrics..

 

[WaveMolecules]

36 chamber blew my 8 year old mind.

 

[No Homo]

I was away @ college @ the time but cats gravitated to their music immediately...it didn’t hurt that some of us met them when they were giving away cassette singles on campus

My bro in law told me they stayed coming up to his school (in SI) passing out tapes.

 

[No Homo]

Na not at all..METHOD MAN was actually the first WU song I heard seeing the video on video music box...then I saw Protect ya Neck...they just seemed like wild, grimy dudes to me.