Published: Today 03.22
Updated: Today 09.47
CONCERT When the Wu-Tang Clan and Nas do a joint tour, the chart is… nuthin’ ta fuck with.
But what rings the most in the ears afterwards is an over-tagged drummer.
Wu-Tang Clan & Nose
Place: Avicii arena, Stockholm. Audience: Not full, but still unexpectedly crowded. Length: 2 hours and 15 minutes. Best: “4th chamber”, “Hate me now” and Ghostface Killah. Worst: Besides the sound? The version of Ol’ Dirty Bastard’s “Got your money” is more lax than necessary. The world could also have done without the cover of “Come together”.
Huh? What did you say?
After the concert, a colleague and I try to talk about rap.
His mouth is moving but I can barely hear what he is saying.
I’m not sensitive to loud noises, on the contrary. But here the choice to skip the earplugs becomes a minor struggle. The volume is turned up to “fuck you” levels.
Wu-Tang Clan uses a small band to amplify the beats. They are close to the border but never really become hard rock. However, the drummer is mixed so high that the pounding drowns out most of it. It sounds like he’s trying to outvote My Bloody Valentine with a bolt board.
No one expects good sound at Avicii arena. Especially not when it comes to the Wu-Tang Clan. But when the noise makes it hard to hear the piano loop in “CREAM”, something is wrong.
Otherwise, the concert is unexpectedly entertaining. When the Wu-Tang Clan and Nas together pay tribute to themselves and each other, the city of New York and a bygone 90s, the audience gets a Joakim von Anka-bath in golden hits and legendary songs.
While the monitors flicker with tough slideshows from New York, “Scarface”, “Taxi driver”, “Shaft” and “Scarface” again, the rap collective from Staten Island does not move many centimeters outside the debut album “Enter the Wu-Tang (36 chambers)” , Raekwon’s “Only built for cuban linx” and “Liquid swords” with GZA. There is no major reason.
Method Man is not included as usual. But apart from him, all the original members who are now alive are on stage. How much each contributes varies from person to person. GZA mostly stands in the background and nods his head a little while Ghostface Killah basically self-ignites in every single verse.
Rap has a higher metabolism than rock. Hip hop that was new and groundbreaking 30 years ago is Bill Haley & His Comets today. It is difficult to compare the clan’s block party at all with that, for example Travis Scott can provide with on a stage.
But one thing Wu-Tang Clan is still pretty much alone about. When everyone gathers under the direction of the conductor RZA the voices and beats create collective chaos that makes cheeks flutter. The uncles’ attack in “4th chamber” and “Triumph” cannot be tired of.
Nas, in turn, proves that he is, without much effort and with just the right amount of heat, one of the most obvious and best rappers on the planet. In the last 50 years, there are not many who can measure up to his flow, technique and voice. He fast-forwards through one blockbuster after another:
“NY State of mind”, “The message”, “Hate me now”, “Made you look”, Mob Deeps “Eye for an eye (your beef is mine)”, “Street dreams”, “If I ruled the world”, to name just a few.
It is reasonable that he gets to end everything with “One mic”.
A song that, among other things, shows how important it is Phil Collins has been for classic hip-hop.
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