Illmatic vs 36 Chambers

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  • the_dLthe_dL 1,531 Posts
    much agreed.

    2) Hard to say. I haven't seen a 9th Wonder lecture on 36 chambers yet.



  • Lucious_FoxLucious_Fox 2,479 Posts
    Illmatic is the best hip hop album ever next to Public Enemy - It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back


  • 36 Chambers is definitely an album I'd take with me if I was tuck on a deserted island

  • mannybolonemannybolone Los Angeles, CA 15,025 Posts
    Illmatic all day

    No dis to the Wu.

  • Lucious_FoxLucious_Fox 2,479 Posts


    timeless

  • DelayDelay 4,530 Posts
    no offense, oliver, but this is a rediculous comparison. for one... illmatic was release a year after 36 chambers and if one thing is evident, it's that hip hop was changing at an insane pace between 91-95. live at the barbeque came out in 92, and nas had more hype behind him than any rapper EVER. that wu LP came out of nowhere.

  • dukeofdelridgedukeofdelridge urgent.monkey.mice 2,453 Posts
    36 Chambers is way more fun to listen to. I really don't listen to Illmatic ever anymore, while 36 Chambers gets a week or so of heavy rotation per year...

  • edpowersedpowers 4,437 Posts
    this is a rediculous comparison. for one... illmatic was release a year after 36 chambers and if one thing is evident, it's that hip hop was changing at an insane pace between 91-95. live at the barbeque came out in 92, and nas had more hype behind him than any rapper EVER. that wu LP came out of nowhere.


  • edpowersedpowers 4,437 Posts

    1) Better album

    Wu

    2) Most influence (in terms of industry as a whole)

    Nas

    3) Resulting follow up albums

    Wu

    4) better production

    Nas

    5) quotables

    Wu

    6) continued playability

    Wu

  • Mike_BellMike_Bell 5,736 Posts

  • I've been listening to both of these albums a fair amount over the last year, and while I still enjoy both, 36 Chambers has fewer skippable tracks, so I give it a slight edge.

  • faux_rillzfaux_rillz 14,343 Posts
    THEY ARE DATED!
    when people say that old stuff is dated i wanna jump out a window. almost 20 years old these songs are! of course they sound fukkin dated. how will waka flaka sound in 20 years?

    "Dated" = aged poorly

    Something can be of a particular time and place, but still sound great outside of that context. Illmatic does; 36 Chambers really doesn't. Honestly, I remember revisitng that album around 1996 and already thinking it sounded wilde dated.

    Also, why are you poasting like Yoda?

    Almost 20 years old these songs are!

  • jaymackjaymack 5,199 Posts
    haha!
    i dont know.

  • jaymackjaymack 5,199 Posts
    ive played both albums to death and never feel the urge to listen to either anymore.

  • JuniorJunior 4,853 Posts
    I don't really feel the urge to revisit either these days. I've probably got more affection for 36 Chambers but if I was going to play one through it'd have to be Illmatic as most of the Wu debut hasn't aged in the 'classic' way that Illmatic has.

    I still love 7th Chamber?Part II though.

  • Jonny_PaycheckJonny_Paycheck 17,825 Posts
    I've been inspired by this thread to begin work on a book tentatively titled "And Keep Feeding You... And Feeding You... And Feeding You: Reading The Wu-Tang Clan's 'Enter The Wu Tang (36 Chambers)'."

  • Lucious_FoxLucious_Fox 2,479 Posts
    most of the Wu debut hasn't aged in the 'classic' way that Illmatic has.

    Explain pleez?

    What does AGED IN THE CLASSIC WAY mean.

    36 is a Classic Album. Period.

    If u thtink it "hasnt aged well" fine. That's on you.

    Illmatic sounds less "dated" than 36?

    The bangers on both albums are still bangers.

  • JuniorJunior 4,853 Posts
    Nope. I refuse to get drawn into another "great" debate today thanks all the same. Let's just say that illmatic fits a mould for a sound and production that I occasionally like to revisit while 36 chambers doesn't do that for me anymore. If I want that kind of Wu I'll tend to go to Forever instead.



    This is a subjective view.

  • I've been inspired by this thread to begin work on a book tentatively titled "And Keep Feeding You... And Feeding You... And Feeding You: Reading The Wu-Tang Clan's 'Enter The Wu Tang (36 Chambers)'."

    I would love to write the foreword to that book. "Can I Say This One? Can I Say This One?"

  • GaryGary 3,982 Posts
    36 chambers DEFINED me.

  • HarveyCanalHarveyCanal "a distraction from my main thesis." 13,234 Posts
    I'm not seeing/getting the "hasn't aged well" argument AT ALL.

  • faux_rillzfaux_rillz 14,343 Posts
    I've been inspired by this thread to begin work on a book tentatively titled "And Keep Feeding You... And Feeding You... And Feeding You: Reading The Wu-Tang Clan's 'Enter The Wu Tang (36 Chambers)'."

    No, no, no.

    With Illmatic, it made you want to pick up a book. While listening to it.

  • faux_rillzfaux_rillz 14,343 Posts
    36 chambers DEFINED me.

    A period of fixation on Wu-Tang is pretty common amongst people who never actually liked rap music.

  • Jonny_PaycheckJonny_Paycheck 17,825 Posts
    You are simply not ready for my measured analysis of lyrics like "A man's gonna do what a man's gonna do/He got butt-naked and stuck the Power U."

  • DustedDonDustedDon 830 Posts
    a better comparison for Illmatic would be Ready to Die IMO...

  • GaryGary 3,982 Posts
    36 chambers DEFINED me.

    A period of fixation on Wu-Tang is pretty common amongst people who never actually liked rap music.


    Someday when you look back upon the history of your soulstrut posts, I hope that you think this one, your 19,633rd was the best of them all.

  • HarveyCanalHarveyCanal "a distraction from my main thesis." 13,234 Posts
    In 2010, you gotta disown any attachments to ever genuinely liking the Wu or you might as well be in the front row at a Limp Against the Machine concert. You didn't know?

  • Jonny_PaycheckJonny_Paycheck 17,825 Posts
    I totally disagree that Enter The Wu has aged poorly - I mean, it's aged *differently* than Illmatic but I revisited it recently and enjoyed it as much as ever. It's a great record through and through.

    Who are you dudes talking about tracks that you skip and what rap do you play all the way through? Both of these are end-to-enders for me.

    That said, I agree most with Delay, this is a stupid comparison. Apples and avocados.

  • Lucious_FoxLucious_Fox 2,479 Posts
    Both helped "rejuvenate" NYC Hip Hop but from diff approaches.

    they overlapped in terms of popularity regardless of the year diff in dropping.

    Back then dudes rocked a tape longer than 3 months.

    Both have been "bigged up" since they came out(and continued to be).

    I never saw either as ever being a 'dead' album.

    Didnt IIlmatic get the Deluxe treatment recently?

  • jaymackjaymack 5,199 Posts


    Didnt IIlmatic get the Deluxe treatment recently?

    ugh..not properly. had a couple modern day remixes on disc 2.

    i dont see how people can call 36 aged badly but call illmatic better aged. the production on illmatic is classic early 90s. pete rock. large pro. premo in his jazzier days. its got sleigh bells for cryin out loud.
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