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At the time, when laid-back West Coast G-funk ruled, the manic energy of this release - a seemingly infinite number of different rappers pouring out hallucinatory imagery; denser backing tracks than was believed possible in the "all samples cleared" era - was shocking. Now that the group's innovations have been refined and copied so much, the disc doesn't pack quite the same punch. There are some wonderful eerie grooves ("Wu-Tang: 7th Chamber," "Protect Ya Neck"), first-rate rhyming ("Method Man"), and they're just about the only hip-hop act whose between-song skits are actually funny ("Clan In Da Front"). When they get serious, they can be devastating (the nostalgic "Can It Be All So Simple"). And with so much talent on hand, the record never has a chance to get dull: even the minor tracks hold your attention ("Wu-Tang Clan Ain't Nuthing Ta F' Wit").

Right away, a side project: RZA plus Poetic, De La Soul's Prince Paul and Frukwan. It's ultraviolent in the horror style pioneered, I believe, by the Geto Boys - which is to say, it's like a rap version of Texas Chainsaw Massacre, plenty of murder and mayhem spiced with the occasional occult reference. The blood and guts preoccupation gets old real fast, but taken individually many of the tracks are effective, and the furiously paced, genuinely scary "Diary Of A Madman" is perhaps the masterpiece of the genre. That track is RZA's, but most of the disc is produced by Prince Paul, and he makes some interesting choices: the mellow soul groove of "1-800 SUICIDE" only makes the gleefully demented vocals more disturbing; the brief "Mommy, What's A Gravedigga?" makes good use of an obscure Patrice Rushen sample; the dense, wordless "Rest In Peace (Outro)" is fascinating. RZA does contribute the title track, which is so weirdly out of tune it sounds like a put-on, and the routine "Graveyard Chamber." You're unlikely to keep this in heavy rotation unless you're an Omen fan, and it's not like any other Wu-associated offering, but the witty, unpredictable rhyming and offbeat production make this a worth a listen... borrow it from a friend. (DBW)

From what I can tell, Raekwon is the group member most focused (lyrically, at any rate) on guns, violence and drug dealing - in other words, he often fits the "gangsta rapper" stereotype. There are even between-song skits of the group members portraying mafiosi, connected to a never-realized film to be called Wu-Gambinos. The RZA produced, arranged, engineered and mixed everything, but he went with a stripped-down, one or two sample-per-song groove that's not nearly as interesting as usual: outside of a couple of brilliant, unsettling tracks ("Rainy Dayz" featuring Blue Raspberry, the closing "Heaven & Hell"), in several ways this is a run of the mill hip hop record despite its classic status. Raekwon even finds time for some irritatingly stupid sexual ranting ("Ice Water," also featuring Cappadonna). Raekwon gets a lot of help from the rest of the Clan - Ghost Face appears on 12 of the 17 cuts, and everyone turns up on one track or another except ODB and U-God. But they mostly just go along for the ride (Meth's shot on "Wu-Gambinos" is an exception), and the same goes for the guest appearance by Nas on "Verbal Intercourse." As if the album weren't long enough already, the album includes a remix of "Can It Be All So Simple," and the CD-only bonus track is "North Star (Jewels)." (DBW)

GZA's rap style is calm and confident, and he has a right to be: his rhymes are sharp, original and to the point, and when he digs into a theme, it's often devastating ("Cold World," which borrows the melody from Stevie Wonder's "Rocket Love"). Some of RZA's tunes (he produced everything here) have the simplicity of his work for Raekwon (title track), but they're never dull, largely because GZA's words and delivery are absorbing, and the guest appearances are used to better effect ("Duel Of The Iron Mic" featuring ODB, Deck, Masta Killa, and Dreddy Kruger). On other tracks, RZA wheels out his dense cacophonous approach, which can work wonders ("Gold"). Every single member of the group is on this one (Cappadonna hadn't joined yet), and so is Killah Priest, and this is about as good an introduction to Wu style as the group's debut. The CD version has a bonus track, "B.I.B.L.E.," that later turned up on Priest's solo album