Sunday 12 June 2011

Album #1. Enter The Wu-Tang: 36 Chambers

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaand to start us off, here's a stone cold 90s hip hop classic.



I tried for weeks to get hold of the official version of this, and the closest I got was grabbing two of the clean tracks off someone on a message board. You can't buy it in the UK online, you can't get it on iTunes, there's no-one who has it on discogs for sale (last time I looked) and to be perfectly honest the "official" promo one is only nine tracks long... no "Bring The Ruckus", no "Wu-Tang 7th Chamber" or remix, and it sounds pretty bad (sword sound effects).

So, I decided to do my own. Which I think sounds pretty good, if I do say so myself. Not only does it have nearly the entire album (apart from the "torture" skit), the skits are also broken up into individual tracks so you can skip them if necessary. The only two bits that might be a bit full-on for younger ears are the "Where's My Killer Tape?" skit ("Is he dead?" "He layin there like a new born baby....") and the skit directly before "Tearz". Otherwise, this is pretty clean - subject matter is generally not too bad, very old-school martial arts based rather than straight up murder / gangster style rhyming (I was surprised to hear how little there was that was genuinely bad-ass - in fact, a lot of it is old school style rhyming about skills).

Anyway - here you go: tracklist after the link. Enjoy!

Enter The Wu-Tang: 36 Chambers (Full Clean Version)

1. Bring Da Ruckus
2. Shame On A Nuh
3. Killa Bees Interlude
4. Clan In Da Front
5. Where My Killer Tape? (skit)
6. Wu-Tang: 7th Chamber
7. Can It All Be So Simple Skit
8. Can It All Be So Simple
9. Protect Ya Neck
10. Intermission
11. Da Mystery Of Chessboxin
12. Wu-Tang Clan Ain't Nuttin Ta F' With
13. C.R.E.A.M.
14. Method Man
15. Tearz
16. Wu-Tang: 7th Chamber Part II
17. Method Man Remix
18. Conclusion

Clean Versions

Yo!

I'd imagine that I'm not the only hip hop fan in the world who has both (a) a love for hip hop and rap music, and (b) young kids in the house for a lot of the time.

This leaves me (and everyone else like me) in a bit of a quandary - do I listen to my favourite albums in the privacy of the car, or with headphones on, or do I play the full unedited versions with the kids in earshot?

If you're like me, you'll probably go for one fot he first two, or just not listen to your music until it's safe to do so. However, I've come up with a cunning plan! Namely, make my own clean versions of albums to play so that I can still enjoy them, and yet there won't be anything specifically offensive for the younger listeners. (I'll try to get rid of all the swearing - but I might leave the less obvious references to adult stuff in... I mean, what 8 year old is going to know the real meaning ot "Method Man"?)

Basically, this blog is going to feature posts of clean versions of albums by hip hop artists that you either can't get anywhere else, or you'd find very difficult to get hold of. Certainly, I'm not going to be posting up links to anything that will affect record sales for the artists involved - if you can buy it in the shops, you won't find it here. :)

Keep checking!

Peace out.