Wu-Tang Clan

RZA Headlines L.A. Weekly's Bedrocktoberfest: Here's Our Interview

[Editor's note: Weekly scribe Jeff Weiss's column, "Bizarre Ride," appears on West Coast Sound every Wednesday. His archives are available here.] There's no musical comparison to interviewing RZA. Having a conversation with the Wu-Tang abbot is closer to interviewing the Dalai Lama, if the Dalai La ... More >>

Drake's New Album Reviewed Using Sex and the City GIFs

Drake's new album, Nothing Was The Same, is due out Tuesday, but it leaked earlier this week.. It is one of the year's best projects, as has been the case with any album he has released, with the possible exception of Comeback Season if you want to be particular. So, let's review Nothing Was The ... More >>

Rock the Bells - San Manuel Amphitheater - Sept 7 & 8, 2013

Rock the Bells Hip-Hop Festival San Manuel Amphitheater 9/7/13 - 9/8/13 This weekend was the 10th anniversary of hip-hop festival Rock the Bells. Anticipated for its reunions, game changing new artists, and ODB and Eazy-E holograms, it was two days for hip-hop fans and artists to connect. Still, we ... More >>

The Best Concerts to See in L.A. This Weekend

Don't forget to check our constantly-updated Los Angeles Concert Calendar Friday, September 6 Anticon 15th-Anniversary Party featuring Baths, Daedelus, Doseone, et al. ECHOPLEX Tip your hat to 15 years of Anticon greatness: The label/collective founded by Oakland's Adam "Doseone" Drucker has champ ... More >>

RZA Headlines L.A. Weekly's First Annual Bedrocktoberfest

Wu-Tang Clan mastermind RZA will headline a new music festival put on by L.A. Weekly, on October 5. Called Bedrocktoberfest, it will be geld at Bedrock Rehearsal studios in Echo Park. More info, including the other performers on the bill, below:

Everybody's a Critic: Readers Respond to Our Food, Movie and Music Critics

George Harrison's Son Dhani Lives in Town, and Modeled His Band on Wu-Tang Clan

At Apogee's Berkeley Street Studio in Santa Monica, Dhani Harrison, brushes his lanky black hair back from his cheeks and reinserts his orange in-ear monitors. The only child of George Harrison, he's also lead singer and ringleader for a group called thenewno2, who now gear up for the second half of ... More >>

Top Ten Rap Albums For People Who Don't Know Shit About Hip-Hop

Hip-hop is nearly 40, but many still find this slightly-disorienting world of beats, rhymes and oversize personalities a bit daunting. So consider this our hip-hop Cliff's notes; here are the albums you should know about if you don't want to look silly at cocktail parties. We're not saying these a ... More >>

Taking Physics Class 
with Professor GZA

[Editor's note: Weekly scribe Jeff Weiss's column, "Bizarre Ride," appears on West Coast Sound every Wednesday. His archives are available here.] See also: Our review of Wu-Tang Clan's January 21, 2012 show at Club Nokia The Wu-Tang Clan once said if we picked up their double album, Wu-Tang Foreve ... More >>

Seven Ghostface Killah Songs Showing His Softer Side

​See also Ghostface Killah Changes Mind About Online Impersonator Ghostfase: 'Shout Out to My Mini Muse.... Funny Ass Ninja' Story by Reed Fischer Ghostface Killah has flirted with mainstream hip-hop, but has spent most of his career being the critics' favorite rapper -- for good reason. Tony St ... More >>

Is Syl Johnson Rich Off of Rap Samples? He Says So

The Grammy-nominated soul singer Syl Johnson is currently suing Jay-Z and Kanye West for an alleged illegal sample of his song "Different Strokes" on the Watch The Throne album track "The Joy." (No, not the theme song from the television show starring Gary Coleman.) If successful, it won't be the f ... More >>

Wu-Tang Clan - Club Nokia - 1/21/12

Wu-Tang Clan Club Nokia January 21, 2012 Sorry, but Wu-Tang Clan is something to fuck with these days. Sure, their fans remain passionate -- a group of grown-ass music writers I know do almost nothing but analyze their lyrics and recent solo projects -- but there's fewer of them. The group's rele ... More >>

Music Picks: Skrillex, Diplo, Wu-Tang Clan, The Health Club

Also, Art Lande, Albert "Tootie" Heath, Gilad Hekselman, The Stitches, The Villains and others

Ghostface Killah Changes Mind About Online Impersonator Ghostfase: 'Shout Out to My Mini Muse.... Funny Ass Ninja'

​Internet junkies earned a new respect for Ghostface Killah back in March, under the illusion it was he who had conjured the brilliant and hysterical (to the point of tears) "Top 10 Softest Rappers In The Game." But when West Coast darling Wiz Khalifa and the other teddy bears on the list sta ... More >>

Ice-T vs. Soula Boy: Who Won?

​[Editor's note: In honor of Soulja Boy's performance at L.A. Memorial Sports Arena this Saturday, August 20, along with Kid Ink, Travis Porter and many others, here's an excerpt from my book Dirty South: OutKast, Lil Wayne, Soulja Boy, and the Southern Rappers Who Reinvented Hip-Hop, which wa ... More >>

Laughing My Fucking Ass Off: Top Five Drastic Rapper Image Changes

​The buzz around professional party-circuit players LMFAO's second album, Sorry For Party Rocking, is still going strong. The group's success has largely involved cultivating a public image resembling an extreme version of the most ridiculous hipster archetype. But it didn't always used to b ... More >>

Today In WTF: WUGAZI (Wu-Tang Meets Fugazi) Free Mixtape

​ When we heard word that a group put out a mixtape that mashes up the Wu-Tang Clan and Fugazi, it reminded us of the time when we heard that they were remaking Clash Of The Titans.  In other words, this could either be a giant failure or something incredibly epic.  Let's just say this ... More >>

Top 7 Hall & Oates-Sampled Hip-Hop Songs

We can go for that!​By Sheila Dichoso Nothing says hip-hop like Hall & Oates. That's right. Not even the filthy mouths of 2 Live Crew could resist their soft rock hooks, luxurious hair and awkward, ambiguous lyrics. (You can't go for what, exactly?) From Wu Tang to Kanye, rappers have paid ... More >>

Wu-Tang Clan Headline Village Voice Media's SXSW Party

Nate "Igor" SmithNot to be confused with the Wu-Tang Clan.​Last night Wu-Tang Clan, Yelawolf, Wild Flag, Fishbone, Trae Tha Truth, Marz Lovejoy, Rocky Business, Trouble Andrew, Ume, Times New Viking and DJ Erykah Badu all provided music for the Village Voice Media/Frank 151 SXSW Showdown at th ... More >>

Wu-Tang Clan, Yelawolf and Many Others to Play SXSW Party, Courtesy of the Village Voice and Frank151

Wu-Tang: Forever bridging the gap between hip-hop and indie​ We've just received word from our sister publication the Village Voice in NYC that they have something pretty special planned for the upcoming SXSW music and media conference in Austin, Texas. The 2011 Village Voice SXSW party, cosp ... More >>

FREE Raekwon Track: "Shaolin vs. Wu-Tang": Will the Other Wu Members Ever Forgive RZA for "8 Diagrams"?

​Raekwon has just released (through Pitchfork) a track from his forthcoming (and much delayed) project Shaolin vs. Wu-Tang. It starts with a lengthy martial-arts-movie style sample that seems to refer to the not-very-beefy beef between the Abbot (RZA) and the rest of the Clan. In case you for ... More >>

Music Picks: Sweaters, Jonathan Richman, Hanni El Khatib, Henry Rollins

Also, Aloe Blacc, Maren Parusel, the Greenhornes and others

Is Wu-Tang without the RZA still Wu-Tang?

Not all of these people will be coming to Club Nokia next Sunday...​Next Sunday, concert promotion juggernaut Golden Voice is bringing what they claim is the Wu-Tang Clan to Club Nokia. To be more precise, as Mikael Wood pointed out in this week's pick, they're bringing "seven of the eight or ... More >>

Over the Weekend: Rock the Bells Hip-Hop Festival, featuring Snoop, Wu-Tang, Lauryn Hill

Kasey StokesMethod Man of Wu-Tang Clan​As it turns out, you should not fuck tha police. Our Rock the Bells road trip began promisingly: left for San Bernardino early, avoided traffic. We'd maintained a cool objectivity all week, but now were free to exclaim over the lineup, a mix of ones-to- ... More >>

Music Picks: Sunset Junction Street Fair, Lucinda Williams, Y & T, Tanya Morgan

Also, GZA, Jimmy Webb, Fol Chen and others

Live Review: RZA at the Key Club

Rebecca HaithcoatRZA, ready to ascend​A little more than halfway through his show at the Key Club Saturday night, RZA proclaimed, "If you're not havin' a good time, you're wastin' your time." He then launched into a track from 2003's Birth of a Prince, "Drink, Smoke Fuck." Scheme, or serend ... More >>

The Long and Winding Road to 'Wu-Massacre'

The latest Wu-Tang-related album is dropping (we are almost certain, though this is the Wu we're talking about, so insert proverbial grain of salt here) on March 20th, and the names on the cover--Ghostface, Method Man and Raekwon--are promoting Wu Massacre in their expectedly eccentric way. Method ... More >>

RZA Discusses Dressing Up Like George Washington: The Tights "Really Hug Your Nuts"

The first thing you need to do is examine this painting very carefully. It was based on the famous George Washington Crossing the Potomac painting, created by Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze in 1851. ​ Except that that ain't George. That's the Wu-Tang Clan's RZA, flanked by fellow Wu-Men GZA and Ol ... More >>

10 Hip Hop Highlights of 2009, from Doom to Raekwon to Antipop and Beyond

Top of the Hip-Hop Or, how Dan LeRoy learned to stop worrying and love da bomb.   While year-end, catch-all wrap-ups are common to every musical genre, in no other style of music do they turn into the hand-wringing, "state of the game" examinations that hip-hop seems to provoke. (I've certainly wr ... More >>

LA Stories: The Wacky Adventures of the RZA (featuring Sister-Luvin', the Black Tank, and Travolta in Drag)

​Here at West Coast Sound we have been long-time fans of the RZA's 2005 book The Wu-Tang Manual, a really inspirational retelling of the conception and formation of hip-hop's unlikeliest spiritual gang. So we were thrilled when we learned earlier this year that The Abbot was working on a follo ... More >>

Rock Picks: Holly Golightly, Sergio Mendes, Wu-Tang Clan

Also, the Hanson Brothers, Oasis, Azure Ray and others

Question in the Form of an Answer: An Interview with Chef Raekwon

No introduction necessary. Q: So what brings you out to LA? A: Just business brought me out here. I have an office set up out here and we’re just out here networking and keeping our minds at peace and just working on the album, staying in the studio. I’m doing a lot of things—dealing wit ... More >>

Hip-Hop's Greatest Al Green Samples

The Reverend, replicated

10 Reasons Why The Wu-Tang Clan's "The Heart Gently Weeps" Video Might Be Their Worst Ever

1. Who made the decision to have an Asian Bjork clone perform a feather dance for one of the video's main plot threads? Okay fine, we all know the answer was Rza, but really, was Erykah Badu that busy taking trips to Israel with Jay Electronica that Bobby couldn't convince her to show up for a cou ... More >>

GZA's Liquid Swords of Truth

Artist performs his masterpiece in its entirety this week. Here's why you should care.

Pause and Rewind: The Show

I remember watching The Show for the first and only time when I was a freshman in high school. I wasn't very impressed. This was 1995, Biggie was alive, Warren G was the biggest star in the world, Wu-Tang was in the middle of the greatest run in rap history and Snoop Dogg hadn't yet released Tha D ... More >>

Weiss' Top 50 Albums of 2007 (#25-21)

25. Wu-Tang Clan-8 Diagrams [SRC/Loud] 8 Diagrams is east coast hardcore rap that doesn't sound like it was made on the east coast. It was recorded in LA but it doesn't sound like LA either. considering it isn't loud, it isn't flashy, and it certainly couldn't soundtrack a barbeque unless Jim Jarm ... More >>

Wu-Tang Clan Still Sting

Sentencing Diagrams: A swarm turns in on itself

Rock Picks: RZA, Etta James, Zola Moon, Tori Amos, The Monolators

For the week of December 14 - 20

Wu-Tang Clan's 8 Diagrams

Wu-Tang Clan 8 Diagrams (Loud/SRC/Universal) By Ben Westhoff The long awaited fifth Wu-Tang Clan album, 8 Diagrams, just leaked, and it’s fucking solid. After just a few listens, it’s already in my 2007 top ten, and it will surely battle Graduation for supremacy on hip hop critics’ year-end l ... More >>

Record Reviews: Burial, Wu-Tang Clan and Kenna

Burial, Wu-Tang Clan and Kenna

Bells On Parade

Public Enemy, Wu-Tang Clan, Rage against the Machine and more at Rock the Bells

Killah's Message of Love

Ghostface Killah at the Key Club

Killah on the Road

Ghostface returns to the streets — and his own inner weirdo — on Fish Scale

Rock The Bells!

Summer love-in for underground hip-hop fans

Ring of the Fellowship

Can’t Go to Sleep

Sound of the Taurus

Vintage soul to please the people

Thieves Like Us

Stalking classic rock with the Charlatans UK

All About the Benjamins

Hip-hop: The need, not the greed