Public Enemy vs Wu Tang Clan

[top_biller]

I fall into that tiny minority of posters that owns slightly over 5 hip hop records and consider the pre-Greatest Misses output of Public Enemy to be superior in many ways to the collective output of any and all of the Wu Tang Clan, although the Wu does weigh in pretty heavy on my ipod and probably the two biggest "oh my god, wait till I play this to people" albums I've ever bought were Nation of Millions and Enter The Wu Tang.

But it does have a lot to do with PE coming first in my musical evolution, if I'd been 11 and listened to Enter The Wu Tang on my walkman everywhere I went for months having not heard any PE, I'd probably be on the other side of the argument.

It all comes down to that first impressionable listen. PE tracks still make my neck tingle even as a wizened old thirty-something.

 

[upsidedownwalrus]

Only listen to bits and pieces of hiphop. PE are an amazing band though. One of the very few acts that I liked when I was about 13, and still really love.

 

[Bajie]

Even though as a teenager I spent huge amounts of time listening to Public Enemy, now days I listen to Wu Tang and all of it's off shoots a lot more.

 

[alsoknownas]

It's a bit depressing that people seriously consider Wu as more influential than PE. It's like one of those 'greatest band ever' audience vote shows where Oasis or whoever come in above The Who.
Not only did PE drop a bomb on hip-hop they were one of the greatest groups in any genre. The impact when they first dropped was comparable to hearing the Sex Pistols for the first time.
Wu Tang are a truly great crew, and although I'm not a out-and-out fan, I recognise their brilliance. But I would be willing to bet that there isn't a single member of Wu Tang who wouldn't acknowledge that PE were a more influential moment in hip-hop than them.

 

[isitme]

It's a bit depressing that people seriously consider Wu as more influential than PE. It's like one of those 'greatest band ever' audience vote shows where Oasis or whoever come in above The Who.
Not only did PE drop a bomb on hip-hop they were one of the greatest groups in any genre. The impact when they first dropped was comparable to hearing the Sex Pistols for the first time.
Wu Tang are a truly great crew, and although I'm not a out-and-out fan, I recognise their brilliance. But I would be willing to bet that there isn't a single member of Wu Tang who wouldn't acknowledge that PE were a more influential moment in hip-hop than them.

It's pretty depressing to me that people think the sex pistols were really important when they were a shit version of the who with an advertising campaign designed by a couple of fashion industry twats for me

 

[stavros]

The impact when they first dropped was comparable to hearing the Sex Pistols for the first time.

To draw another punk analogy, I always think of PE as more like the Clash, with NWA as their Sex Pistols saying fuck everything with just one classic album. I can't immediately think of a punk equivalent to the Wu.

 

[isitme]

To draw another punk analogy, I always think of PE as more like the Clash, with NWA as their Sex Pistols saying fuck everything with just one classic album. I can't immediately think of a punk equivalent to the Wu.

That's cos PE are like a rock band, wu tang aren't, they are just the wu

 

[stavros]

Is it fair to say that the Wu were more multifaceted than PE? PE, lyrically, relied on Chuck D, who had a definite style and went with it. The Wu could explore more dimensions because of their range of MCs, from the GZA's dark wordplay, to Meth's party-stoner style to ODB's ad hoc bonkersness.

 

[isitme]

I think so. All of the Wu-Tang did step out of their comfort zones and rap about serious stuff as well as indulging in the whole mythology and so on (except ODB who didn't seem to know what day it was lol)

 

[stavros]

We could start an ODB vs Flavor Flav poll....

 

[isitme]

there's no competition tho is there?

ODB was a completely unique rapper

flava flav is just some berk with a clock

 

[stavros]

Oh agree. Flav is basically a hip hop Bez.

 

[top_biller]

You've obviously never been cold lamping.

 

[stavros]

You've obviously never been cold lamping.

There wasn't actually a society for that at my Uni, although given the recent weather I would have thought that the street lamps, and indeed any other illumination device exposed to the natural conditions, are quite chilly.