Why tang clan

How do people in Poland, Bangladesh — how do they relate to these guys? Inspectah Deck can speak from experience. I was ready for a change anyway.

The block was driving me crazy… what else I got to lose, man? Dudes getting shot and killed around the way. I left it alone, threw the phones away and said we out. Put the Indiana Jones hat on, we went to the temple of doom baby, the adventure. It has endured, though. Wu-Tang Clan, hip hop legends who hustled past the struggle.

Photo: AFP A quarter century ago a ragtag group of New York kids that would become the iconic Wu-Tang Clan banded together, betting that mainstream music might just embrace hard-core hip hop from the streets. Gifted with an ear for raw, menacing lyrics and fueled by a desire to rise above their poverty-mired peers, the nine-member collective ascended from New York's then particularly rough outer boroughs to become one of the most influential rap acts in history.

Their hardscrabble journey that paved the way for dozens of successful hip hop artists is the subject of the four-part docu-series Wu-Tang Clan: Of Mics and Men - a riff on the title of the US classic Of Mice and Men , the story of itinerant workers seeking financial stability - scheduled to air on the US cable network Showtime next month. Also in , Ol' Dirty Bastard began a long and bizarre saga of erratic behavior and run-ins with police that found him making headlines with alarming and ridiculous regularity.

In February he interrupted Shawn Colvin 's acceptance speech at the Grammy Awards to protest the Clan's loss in the Best Rap Album category; shortly thereafter, he announced he was changing his name to Big Baby Jesus , an idea that never picked up steam. This was only the beginning -- over the next year and a half, ODB would be arrested for a litany of offenses that included assault, shoplifting, making terrorist threats, wearing body armor after being convicted of a felony, possessing cocaine, and missing countless court dates.

Plus, in early , the whole Clan fell under suspicion of masterminding a gun-running operation between Staten Island and Steubenville, Ohio -- charges that were never proven to have any validity. In the midst of this legal sideshow, the Clan kicked off a second round of solo projects in late June saw the release of an excellent singles compilation, RZA Hits, which covered the first Wu-Tang album and the first round of solo albums ; the very next week, GZA 's second album, Beneath the Surface, was released.

Finally, Ghostface Killah issued his well-received sophomore set, Supreme Clientele, in January However, this second round of Wu-Tang solo albums didn't attract as much attention, either critically or commercially. But the Wu franchise was suffering from inconsistency, overexposure they'd spawned a clothing line, a video game, a comic book, and more , and a flood of musical product that even diehards found difficult to keep up with.

Their once-distinctive sound was becoming commonplace and diluted, not just through the collective's own releases but also RZA 's many imitators; plus, by this time, Timbaland had taken over the mantle of hip-hop's most cutting-edge producer.

Other than that, the Clan reconvened for a new album and were mostly quiet during much of -- aside from Ol' Dirty Bastard , who unfortunately continued to spiral out of control. He spent some time in a California jail for violating the terms of his probation, but appeared to be on the right track when suddenly, in October -- with just two months of rehab to go -- he escaped the California facility and spent a month on the run from the law. Fans were shocked when ODB turned up on-stage at the New York record-release party for the Clan's new album, The W, which was released with considerably less fanfare in November A leaner, more focused collection, The W featured only one track from ODB and pictured Cappadonna as a full-fledged member of the group though he remained unnamed on their official contract with Loud.

ODB managed to exit the club after his surprise performance but was soon captured by police in Philadelphia and extradited to New York to face charges of cocaine possession.

In April , he cut a deal with prosecutors that resulted in a sentence of two to four years in state prison, bringing his outlaw saga to a sad end. This time, though, there was no full round of solo projects in between Wu albums; the full group minus ODB assembled for its fourth album, Iron Flag, which was released in December , just one year after its predecessor.

Despite a lot of activity for the various solo projects, Wu-Tang released only a live album, 's Disciples of the 36 Chambers, during the subsequent five years. That document was one of the last places to hear Ol' Dirty Bastard , who died of a heart attack in November In early , in anticipation for the Clan's upcoming album, 8 Diagrams, Nature Sounds issued the Mathematics -compiled Unreleased, a collection of new remixes and hard-to-find, previously unreleased songs from the group and some of its friends.

It wasn't until the end of the year, however -- after a couple of delays and some criticism from Raekwon and Ghostface directed at RZA regarding the overall sound of the record -- that 8 Diagrams came out.