In the early '90s Wu-Tang Clan was already one of the absolute top crews in the modern hip-hop landscape but when Raekwon dropped his 'Only Built 4 Cuban Linx Niggas' in '95, its mafioso infected dreams of the big bucks, fly Shaolin slang and references to future embraced brands like Cristal truly changed the game. To me, it's still the top album ever released, and besides Raekwon's name the cover also bore the under title 'guest starring Tony Starks A/K/A Ghost Face Killer'. In fact Ghost appeared on no less than fourteen of the album 17 or 18 cuts (depending on which version you bought) and it was his chemistry with The Chef and RZA's futuristic production that made the LP the instant masterpiece it was and still is. The following year, Ghostface once again hooked up with Rae and RZA and released his own debut, 'Ironman', an equally impressive project. Despite the three main characters being the same, RZA's samples were now instead steeped in the '60s and '70s soul and funk that the young Dennis Coles had grown up on (including Al Green, Bob James, Jackson 5 and Sam Cooke). If you never heard Coles before, after listening to his debut front-to-back you'd be left with the feeling that you know Ghost and his persona, ideals and history.
![Bobby Bobby](/uploads/1/2/5/6/125633258/607642214.jpg)
Dec 27, 2016 Bjork - Bachelorette (RZA Remix) Bounty Killer - Eyes A Bleed (RZA Remix) Bounty Killer - War Face (Ask Fi War) (Remix) Charles Mingus - II B.S. (Rza's Mingus Bounce Mix) Charlie Parker - Bebop (Live At The Rooftop) (RZA Remix) Cilvaringz - Man, Woman And Child (RZA Remix) Dark Skinned Assassin - The Horror (Unreleased RZA Remix).
Classics like ' All That I Got is You' was a heartfelt dedication to his mother while also dealing with the hardships of his youth, ' Camay' told a taseful love tale while the super misogynistic ' Wildflower' saw a furious Ghost spew hate over a cheating ex-girlfriend with no spare on the profanity. Together with Rae, both their two albums was additionally filled with fantastic storytelling raps that would make Slick Rick and KRS-One proud and helped cement the pair as one of the finest rap duos of all time. After RZA completed his five year plan for the Clan with the release of 1997's superior multi-platinum 'Wu-Tang Forever' he took a step back from producing the 9 generals solo music to focus on what he called his 'c-artists'; peeps like Killarmy, Cappadonna and Sunz Of Man. Instead he assigned Divine or Power as the main executive producers for Clan members various projects. This allowed the Wu members to release more music rapidly and with more personal input. This resulted in releases between '98 and '99 from RZA, Method Man, GZA, Ol' Dirty Bastard, Inspectah Deck, Red N Meth, U-God and Raekwon.
While the majority of these projects were far from bad, even die hard Wu fans were agreeing that something was missing from them all and that they didn't live up to the high standards set by the Wu-Tang releases between 1992 and 1997. What was missing was clearly RZA's input, guidance and vision; on an average he produced one to three beats per project (save for RZA as Bobby Digital's 'In Stereo' which could arguably be considered a part of the first round of RZA laced solo albums; although it was way ahead of its time when it first hit stores and caught a lot of flack). By early 2000, the only Wu member to not have dropped a solo over the last couple of years (save for Masta Killa) was Ghostface Killah, much due to a six month bid on Riker's Island. Once he was released, he hit the studio to record 'Supreme Clientele', an album that both Ghost, RZA, Divine and Power collaborated on and understood the extreme importance of. I remember hearing the Raekwon featured single 'Apollo Kids' and feeling it was one of the best Wu songs in years and when I picked up my copy of Ghost's sophomore LP on the day of its release, I, like many others, knew that The Wu was back in full throttle.
The album was totally cohesivem perfectly sequenced, had clever skits and followed a theme of a super hero on a mission to save the world; a metaphor for Ghost's importance in bringing back the Wu legacy with a classic worthy of the early '90s Clan solos. While RZA didn't prouce the majority of the beats, he and Ghost had a hand in the mix and final outcome of every track which gave the project it's unique sound.
Instead of having the beatmakers produce their record in the studio, RZA and Ghost picked out beats from the likes of Beatnuts' JujJu, Carlos Broady, Allah Mathematics and Phantom Of The Beats and produced and arranged everything on the LP much the same way a rock producer would've done it. This is a very important part to the LP's success. Another equally impressive feature of 'Supreme Clientele' was Ghostface's own lyrical performance, displaying a totally unique style of emceeing that hasn't been duplicated neither before or since. I even heard of an English teacher at an American university using some of the verses on the album as poetic art material for analysis. The stream-of-consciousness style Coles used here could be interpreted as jibberish by someone, as high art by another while a third party would chalk it up to twisted ghetto slang. What put the icing on the cake and truly made it one of the best rap performances of all time was the way Ghost spat his lines though, his flow on every verse delivered to perfection. Epic, Ghost's label for his three first albums were masters at screwing up tracklists and denying sample clearances.
This was especially evident on 2001's which could and should have been GFK's third classic in a row if it wasn't for the label. It's hard to believe that an LP as close to perfection as 'Supreme Clientele' originally faced some similiar problems, resulting in the released version being slightly different than how it was first intendended. Luckily for fans, the original version was available for a limited time period on first pressings over in Canada.
Which of the two versions is the better can be debated but it's unquestionably very interesting to hear this slightly different take on such a familiar classic. This version features 14 tracks rather than the retail's 21 as the skits appears after a track's song; the Ironman cartoon intro and outro is however entirely dismissed here and the sequence is slightly altered. The main differences though is that rather than the atmospheric RZA remix of ' G-Dini' appearing on all other editions, here we get Ghost and Superb ripping the much more sinister and hard hitting Blaquesmiths beat previously used for ' Bastards' (The Ruthless Bastards joint on 'The Swarm Vol.
Further, ' Child's Play' features an extended vocal outro but RZA alters his beat by keeping the George Jackson organ sample on a steady loop while leaving out all the breakdowns and alternations which to me always helped elevate the song to the next level. The biggest and most important difference between the two editions however is that all but the Canadian's missed out on the absoultely brilliant ' Wise', a vintage Ghost song with raw emotions on full display that works as a heartfelt tribute to his fallen friend and comrade Wise (Killarmy's original manager). The track is built on the classic Dramatic's song ' In the Rain' but not only does it use a sample of the beat but it actually features production work and guest vocals by the original artist. This joint is to me a pivotal moment on 'S.C.' That every Ghost fan owes it to themeselves to hear, its long honoring verse can be likened to that on ' Impossible' (which is thrown in here as a skit for good measure). So, which version is the better?
Check it out below, TURN IT UP and decide for yourself! 'Nutmeg' (Ft. RZA as Bobby Digital) 02. 'Saturday Nite' / 'Impossible' / 'Ghost's Theme' 04. The Dramatics) 05. 'Mighty Healthy' 06. 'Apollo Kids' / 'Clyde Smith' (Skit) 07.
'Buck 50' (Ft. Method Man & Redman) / 'Stroke Of Death' 08.
'Deck's Beat' (Ft. 60 Second Assassin) 09.
'G-Dini' (Ft. 'Malcolm' 11. 'We Made It' (Ft. Superb, Chip Banks & Hell Razah) 12. 'Child's Play' Original Mix 13. 'CherChez LaGhost' (Ft. 'Wu Banga 101' (Ft.
![Zipp Zipp](/uploads/1/2/5/6/125633258/459598990.jpg)
GZA, Cappadonna, Raekwon & Masta Killa). Anonymous thanks, this is release is so amazing. I'd say Ghost's best solo release, and he's put out quite a few.
I enjoy the canadian releae more than the us/europe releases, thanks for spreading the word about where to find true hip hop. I was just talking with a friend of mine about how sad it is to see so much classic hiphop forgotten. This blog keeps my hope up though! I look forward to being a fellow hiphop fan looking towards the blog for more great posts(seriously, you're posts on many of these albums are the most informative I've found anywhere) THANKS SO MUCH, can't express my appreciation enough! I'll try to re-up it soon, i got a lot of requests for dead links.
I started using MediaFire bc usually there links lasts at least a year but lately they have started deleting everything very quickly it seems. My other preference was megaupload and that is gone too.
I tried 4Shared which worked fine for most but some people complained they couldn't use it so i don't know what to use. The best thing is to check the blog on a daily basis to make sure you get everything you want right away lol.
But i'll try to do it soon, check back in a few days at the most. Anonymous Not to be rude, but can we get a properly ripped version of this? I've noticed that all the things I've downloaded from this blog have been amplified and clip horribly. I thank you for your efforts as there is a lot of cool stuff on here, but this is a pretty big annoyance to me. Same with the version of InI's Center of Attention that you have here.
Did you modify those mp3s? No offense, but it seems unlikely that the guy who ripped that would've killed the files like that. I'm seriously not trying to be offensive or anything, better quality audio is a benefit to all of us. Here's a picture of examples of what I mean in Audacity: http://i.imgur.com/f1igK.png. Anonymous #1: if you want perfect quality, purchase your music on vinyl and CD like me and any true hip-hop fan.
You are the only person complaining about the sound quality of demo releases like World Renown's tape and what not, just be glad you are able to hear it. As for the Canadian version of 'Supreme.' Has only been ripped in 192 kbps as far as i know, and to me it sounds good. I don't have it myself, i bought the American/EU version two-three times otherwise i would have ripped it in 320 kbps. Anonymous 2: hahah not to be rude, but you must have misse the entire point, i bet you idn't read the article accompaying the download.
There's two versions of 'Suprmee Clientele'. The iTunes version and the US/EU Cd has 21 tracks, yes, but this is the rare Canadian version which is different in the sequence and some of the songs are different plus it has a couple of tracks nto on any other versions so definitely listen to this. Anyway, new link up for y'all!
When discussing RZA as a marvel of Hip Hop production the template that really shows his depth and range is usually accepted to be his work between 'Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)' (1993) and 'Wu-Tang Forever' (1997), the two WTC group albums, and the solo albums in between. Those latter projects is what we commonly refer to as the first round of solos, five albums which each offered a unique look into the starring emcee's persona, style and musical preferences - or their respective chamber as the Wu themeselves would call it. The way RZA managed to craft a complete body of work for each individual emcee (that was also distinct from the group projects) which was easily distinguishable from the previous and next projects through their sonic substance and either the samples used or the way they were used. The music created for those albums not only reflected the emcees voices but also a sound which were the musical equivalents of their respective personality. 'Ironman' (1996) is a great example. For Ghostface who always had a strong love for the soul classics of the '60s and '70's, RZA used those type of records as sample souces (Al Green, Jackson 5, The Persuaders, etc.) and took a cleaner and more polished approach to the music than he did for Raekwon's hard hitting, red hot street opera released a year earlier. RZA and Ghost even invited Force MD's and Delphonics to add their voices to the album and created their own take of a heartfelt soul classic with Mary J.
Blige on the autobiographical ' All That I Got Is You'. It's no question that this was clearly Ghostface's chamber, his personal work, and RZA did a marvelous job of tailoring it to suit his musical needs.
In contrast compare it with Method Man's 'Tical' (1994) which was all around super grimey, dark and dusty. Layered with unorthodox sounds, heavy drum programming and such heavy low end that the basslines would damn near blow out your speakers (' Biscuits' is a good example), the close-to-scary darkness that surrounded the songs was the musical equivalent of the blunts dipped in honey that Meth supposedly smoked at the time. Each of the albums RZA produced around this time can be described by pointing out their differences, but it's also important to note that despite each album being easily distinguished from the next, RZA also managed to create them in a way that collectively would help create an unmistakable Wu sound - a sound that to this day has never succesfully been re-created by anyone else (despite superb 'interpretations' by people like True Master and Allah Maethematics).
I would like to challenge this commonly accepted discourse by making a case for the inclusion of RZA's very own solo debut 'Bobby Digital: In Stereo' (1998) to be considered as a natural part of the aforementioned first round of albums that defined RZA as a producer and built the Wu-Tang brand. In that case it both marks the end of an era as well as the beginnings of a new one, something that can be said for 'Wu-Tang Forever' as well.
Coming two years after Ghostface's soulful celebration and embracement of his life, beats and rhymes, RZA went back to his well of inspiration to craft yet another totally individual chamber of sounds within the Wu-Tang pantheon. But this time the resulting body of work would take even the most loyal of followers by surprise as RZA stripped down the majority of what had made him number #1 to the hoards of people who worshippped at his altar - his mastery of creating music from samples. Although his various albums had contained very different styles they all shared the common thread of being sample based music.
Around 1996 he had instead begun experimenting with a wide range of keyboards and synthesizers which he dubbed his 'digitized orchestra' while also taking up Western music theory. Looking back at the album today and putting it within a wider context we can however see that this wasn't as sudden a transformation as was once believed the first time fans heard the synthesized 'B.O.B.B.Y.'
Blast through the speakers. I would say that the earliest precursor that could be considered Bobby Digital material would be the Hide-Out Remix of the Method Man single ' The Riddler' (from 1995's Batman Forever soundtrack). Another joint that appeared months before the first single from 'In Stereo' is called ' And Justice For All.' Which was featured on the Razor Sharp compilation 'Wu-Tang Killa Beez: The Swarm'. Naturally, a lot of the stuff we heard were already beginning to take shape on 'Wu-Tang Forever' with its stripped use of samples in favor of digitized keyboards based on chord progressions and European music theory.
With this in mind it's clear that this 'new' sound wasn't something that The RZA had haphazardly thrown together with the simple reason of doing away with sample-based music. This was a style that he had been working on and trying to perfect for quite some time, and someone with as good an ear as The Abbot has proven to master a style rather fast. What makes 'In Stereo' so intriguing from a production standpoint is that it's still quite firmly rooted in the unpredictability and originality that came from RZA being a producer from starting out as a DJ (basing everything by ear), in contrast to a producer working slavishly from music theory (basing everything on 'logic'). This unpredictability is something that RZA to a large degree lost as he became more immersed in Western musical theory, but on here he had yet not truly 'got a grip on it' more than the most basic stuff, which allowed him to create a sound that mixed traditional and unexpected elements. Two great examples of this is 'Unspoken Word' and 'Mantis'.
On the latter cut he has the fat drums programmed, a repetitive piano loop, and really very little else, until he chooses to use what should, by all natural logic, be an incredibly annoying sound effect that sounds something like a repetitive control tone. This is used to create a kind of melody and is then looped across the entire track.
With Bobby, Masta Killa and Tekitha all going hard as fuck the end result is hypnotic in its brilliance. The inclusion of.
'Unspoken Word' similarily creates a hypnotic groove out of a fascinating anomali, created by a rock hard, but very short loop with a vocal sample that never gets to finish before it is looped back again. This keeps repeating for 5 minutes straight while RZA spits some of the hardest bars on the album - there's a lot of quotables on here and to me this would've been a better first single than the somewhat mediocre 'B.O.B.B.Y.' Like the preceding Wu-Tang albums he produced 'In Stereo' is a very cohessive and thematically tight album. The musical tranks linked by accoustic piano intermissions of spoken words in different languages shouting out Bobby Digital as the worldwide superhero he is. As I mentioned above I was never crazy about the lead single ' B.O.B.B.Y.' , but from the second song and up to the last song on the thematic closer ' Domestic Violence' 'In Stereo' plays out like a modern day masterpiece.
Similiar to the earlier albums mentioned above, the LP is filled with Wu-Tang Clan members (most generals make an apperance in one way or another - save for Raekwon) and like on the older albums some of the best tracks are the posse cuts and cuts with guests. Perhaps because RZA, though a good rhyme spitter, he's always best when surrounded by emcees of equally high caliber ('N.Y.C.
Everything' with Method Man; the Inspectah Deck produced 'Kiss Of A Black Widow' with ODB; the posse cuts 'Holocaust', 'Terrorist' and 'Bobby Did It'). It also stands out as it is the first true Clan solo that heavily features what RZA in a The Source article in late '99 called his 'C-artists' (Killarmy, Black Knights, North Star, Tekitha, Ms. As such it was the first album that introduced the somewhat legendary Holocaust on a track where he attacked the song so viciously that he got the track (which was originally titled 'Silkworm') named after him.
Those two posse cuts with Ghost are also among the first two tracks to feature the style that Ghost would attract the whole world to with his 'Supreme Clientele' style some 18 months later. When discussing 'In Stereo' as a classic it is important to note that t he album features 21 tracks, with the information that the four final tracks are bonus RZA tracks (as in not made in Bobby Digital persona). As such the liner notes makes it clear that 'Bobby Digital in Stereo' is finished when track #17 fades out - the excellent artistic and violent expression that is 'Domestic Violence'. Therefore it should be noted that when I am discussing 'In Stereo' as a personal classic and a profound and cohessive musical statement on par with the first round of Wu-Tang solos, those sentiments are based on the front-to-back experience of listening to tracks 1 to 17. While a couple of the bonus tracks does have some merit (especially 'Lab Drunk') it makes the album sound dragged out and the two weakest songs on the entire disc finish things off diminishes the artistic statement of the preceding cuts.
To end the album on the one-two punch that is 'My Lovin' is Digi' and 'Domestic Violence' is nothing short of genius - the first one being a majestic string filled affair with beautiful, seductive female vocals and Bobby Digital declaring his love for women and love in general. On the other hand, 'Domestic Violence' is the gritty backside of that same coin - where Bobby describes a fallen relationship in the harshest terms possible over a stripped down but gut punchingly hard beat. When the song fades out after over 5 minutes we've been treated to misogynistic rhymes and hateful attack on the former partners as well as a chaotic outro with U-God on the phone interrupting the fighting couple in a most cinematic way. When the song finally ends the sudden sound of silence is almost a relief, and like the moments after you've seen a great movie that had a profound impact on you, you'll sit there reflecting on Bobby Digital and his weird, intense world of hip-hop, drugs, women and violence. Lastly, on an interesting side note, followers of this blog and Wu-Tang in general know that many artists releases different versions of albums for the Japanese market every now and then. Much like the Canadian release of 'Supreme Clientele', the Japan release of 'In Stereo' features a different tracklist which I have a hard time reconciling with the well-thought out concepts of the orignal album (or maybe the Japanese tracklist was the original before RZA realized there were more to be done - similiar to another pefectionist who kept shaping his work even after their original releases - Stanley Kubrick). The Japanese version loses all the skits and intros as well as the excellent 'Handwriting On The Wall' featuring Ras Kass and RZA which uses the same drum-less 'beat' as those interludes.
Another song that doens't make the final cut is one of my favorites, the triumphant 'My Lovin' is A Digi' which makes 'Domestc Violence' so much more powerful. Instead the Japanese got the four RZA bonus tracks spread out across the album (yet the back cover still says that it DOES feature four bonus RZA tracks).
But what makes the album really inteeresting for westerners despite being far from as good or cohessive - is the inclusion of the 11 minutes self-produced freestyle 'Do You Hear The Bells' and the extended version of 'Terrorist' with addiitional verses by Holocaust, Dom Pachino and Killa Sin. On the subject of 'Terrorist' you have to admire how Bobby borrowed the bassline of 'Wu-Tang Clan Ain't Nuthin' Ta Fuck With' and incorporated it in to the flavor of the digitized orchestra. 'Do You Hear The Bells' appeared on a free 'N.Y.C. Everything' cardboard single with Stress Magazie that my homie Big Rob owned, so I got a high quality FLAC file here of that single for your enjoyment (it's quite large considering one of the songs is an 11 minutes/'freestyle'). And if you're intersted you can check out the original tracklist, rip the songs and put them in the proper sequence and see what you think. To my ears the US/European versions are far superior.
'Unspoken Word' 03. 'Airwaves' 04. 'Love Jones' 05.
Everything' 06. 'Holocaust' (Silkworm)' 08. 'Terrorist' 09 'Bobby Did It ('Spanish Fly) 10. 'Kiss OF A Blak Widow' 11. 'Do You Hear The Bells' (9 Minute Freestyle) 12. 'Project Talk' 13. 'Lab Drunk' 14.
'Fuck What You Think' 15. 'Daily Routine' 16. 'Donestic Violence' 'N.Y.C. EVERYGHING' / 'DO YOU HEAR THE BELLS' (CDS) FLAC.