Urban Thought Collective

Inspiration can come in many forms. This week it comes from a post by my boy Mizzo at The Starting Five. The same day I read that post, I woke up with Rae’s “Ice Cream” blaring through my cranium. I’ve been banging The Wu since, so I figured I might as well post some vids this week. The Wu Army is so vast that I couldn’t possibly hit all the high points, so I did the best I could. And that’s all we can really hope for, right? Right? OK I probably could’ve done better, but my dog died. OK, he died when I was 5 but that kind of thing tends to stick with a kid. Anyway, I promise next week will be TREMENDOUS! Lol Holla.

Wu TANG CLAN | “TRIUMPH”
“Sickening. Guaranteed to make ‘em jump like Rod Strickland.” You know what it’s like to be eating a bag of Lay’s, sitting on the couch, just maxing and relaxing? All is well in the world as you eat tasty chip after tasty chip. Then all of a sudden, you eat one of those badly burnt chips that leave a bad taste in your mouth, and then you just don’t want to eat any more? Cappadonna is that badly burnt chip. Fortunately I am able to finish the rest of the bag, but “Wackadonna’s” total suckage makes it tough. God, I hate that dude.

METHOD MAN FEAT. MARY J. BLIGE | “I’LL BE THERE FOR YOU”
“I got a love jones for ya body and ya skin tone.” Freshman year. Classic track. Top 10 all-time collabo. No snark necessary.

INSPECTAH DECK | “WORD ON THE STREET”
The Rebel INS. I think he was the most slept on member of the crew. This dude had serious lyrics, and I can’t remember him ever spitting a wack verse. I guess he just didn’t have enough umph to break out. The first time I heard this joint was when me, [UTC commenter] Smooth, and our boy K-Dawg were kicking it in Houston. When it came on the radio we were all like, “Is that Inspectah Deck? Yo that’s tight.” Eight years later, and it still is.

Wu TANG CLAN | “C.R.E.A.M.”
“Survval got me buggin’, but I’m alive on arrival.” Remember what I said about Deck never spitting a wack verse? But was there a wack verse spit on the entire album? I’m thinking…but nothing is coming to mind. Anyway, this has to be my favorite Wu-Tang track of all time. The beat, more on that later, is all kinds of ridiculous. Rae and Deck spit classic material. It really doesn’t get any better. This takes me back to when I used to daydream in Mr. Bryant’s Economics class. I got an “A” by the way.

And now…for something completely soulful…

THE CHARMEL’S | “AS LONG AS I GOT YOU”
Yeah about that “C.R.E.A.M” beat? Here you go. The Charmel’s recorded this track in the early 60’s, and I’m pretty sure they couldn’t imagine that the first eight bars of this song would give birth to an all-time hip hop classic. Nevertheless, some thirty years later Rza dug into the crates and pulled out a classic. Rza is a little strange, but the dude knows his music.

Diallo Tyson is a filmmaker, comedian and old school music junkie. When he’s not busy, he is a rapper with the group “Two Pimps and a Dream.” Step into a groovin’ time machine every week on UTC.