On Wu Tang
"Listen to the Winds, O God the Reader, that wail across the whip-cords stretched taut on broken human hearts; listen to the Bones, the bare bleached bones of slaves, that line the lanes of Seven Seas and beat eternal tom-toms in the forests of the laboring deep; listen to the Blood, the cold thick blood that spills its filth across the fields and flowers of the Free; listen to the Souls that wing and thrill and weep and scream and sob and sing above it all. What shall these things mean, O God the Reader? You know. You know."
- W.E.B. Du Bois
William Edward Burghardt (W. E. B.) Du Bois is one of the greatest American born intellectuals. Du Bois studied and wrote on history, society and the future of the world with an eye towards the African-American population. Du Bois was sensitive to the feelings and limitations of the vast array of contemporaries at the time: illiterate share-croppers, the talented tenth, whose will and abilities would disprove racist dogmas, and even the southern whites whose brutality he viewed through the lens of the brutal civil war from which the nation was still emerging at that time.
Du Bois was generally optimistic about the future for African Americans. Interestingly he saw Japan as a role model for African Americans. Japan disproved the dominant racialist theories. Du Bois correctly predicted the fall of European imperialism. He anticipated that Japan would provide leadership for formerly colonized lands and he wanted African Americans to be connected to that current. Du Bois was optimistic about the future for African Americans and saw Japan as a role model. He predicted the fall of European imperialism and believed that Japan would provide leadership to former colonies and that African Americans should be a part of that.
Du Bois was an academic intellectual. Closer to the streets and contemporary to Du Bois was Noble Drew Ali. Ali founded the Moorish temple, a precursor to the Nation of Islam. Ali coined the term Asiatic to mean all non-white races. Ali refered to whites as European. Noble Drew Ali preached that African-Americans should ally themselves to the asiatic peoples to achieve their freedom and self-respect. I have no research to support a connection between Noble Drew Ali and W.E.B. Du Bois. However I would contend that these streams of thought did blend in the popular intellectual mind and have continued on through the Nation of Islam, the Five Per-centers, independent readers and finally in Hip Hop.
I find that for a few decades now mainstream publications like the New Yorker and the New York Times have tried to jump on the hip hop train by fetishizing rappers who really have no redeeming qualities. These publications will quote some lines from these artists in the hopes that by divorcing the lines from their original context they will be imbued with some aura of intelligence. This is often misapplied to simplistic singsong rappers like Migos. I am acutely aware of this overindulgent lense. While this article may bear some passing ressemblance to the vain attempts of the Times to be hip, I hope that you, the discerning reader, will see the difference. Wu-Tang Clan took the concept of Asiatic to a new level by embracing Kung Fu films. From the first album, Wu-Tang and it's members included samples from Kung Fu films and referenced the concepts from the films in their lyrics. Wu-Tang highlighted themes of self-respect, physical prowess, bravery and sacrifice. I am going to demonstrate with some of the lyrics below Wu-Tang provided a guide for life to a population often deprived of role models, meaningful political representation, cultural pride and in many cases, literacy. Wu's message was also heard by the broader American subculture of hip hop fans and ultimately music listeners around the world. In some cases the insights to life are buried in a mix of abstraction and braggadocio. Still the depth of the signal overcomes the noise of the pop music. The first truth, scattered through many of the songs is that literate thought is the basis of freedom: Light is provided through sparks of energy from the mind that travels in rhyme form Giving sight to the blind The dumb are mostly intrigued by the drum Death only one can save self from So I reach out and try to teach one But eighty-five percent uncivilized content
I bomb atomically Socrates' philosophies and hypothesis can't define how I be dropping these Does it pay to be deaf, dumb, and blind? From a slave we was kept from the mind Second, the suffering of the people due to poverty and crime, contrary to the cartoonish gansta rap still popular to this day, is painful, lonely and certainly not glorious: Rockin each others pants to school wasn't easy We survived winters, snotty nosed with no coats We kept it real, but the older brother still had jokes Sadly, daddy left me at the age of six I didn't know nuttin but mommy neatly packed his shit She cried, and grandma held the family down I guess mommy wasn't strong enough, she just went down Gunshots, shatter first floor window panes Shells hit the ground and blood stained the dice game By the lone gunner, who took revenge for his brother who got slain last summer by a cocaine runner A new year is dawning, new crews is forming Rival gangs warring blood steadily pouring Another heart is torn as close ones mourn Shot up the Chinese restaurant, for this kid named Lamont I thought he was dead but instead he missed a kid and hit a twelve year old girl in the head and then fled. Rather than moralizing and passing judgment as on a fish for the water in which he swims, Wu-Tang provides insight on correct behaviour and the broader systemic forces at play in a world of violence and crime:
Tactical narcotic, task force, back off fast Cause the crime boss is passing off cash Extortions, for portions of streets, causes beef Having followers of Indians trying to play Chief You witness the saga, casualties and drama Life is a script, I'm not an actor but the author of a modern day opera, where the main character is presidential paper, the dominant factor
We got stickup kids, corrupt cops, and crack rocks And stray shots, all on the block that stays hot Leave it up to me while I be living proof To kick the truth to the young black youth But shorty's running wild smokin' sess drinkin' beer And ain't trying to hear what I'm kickin' in his ear Neglected, for now, but yo, it gots to be accepted That what? That life is hectic
Finally, one of my favorite stanzas of Wu-Tang Clan. A powerful ambitious gangster is facing a deadly confrontation with an overwhelming adversary. The mention of brothers turning into "mad pussy and scared" suggests that even close relationships and personal connections can no longer be trusted. The song implies that he has been killed by the end of the song. Despite this, the advice offered below is both chilling and practical, stay moving, stay aware, stay sober. Pure Will can fill in whatever gaps are left by luck. Even then sometimes luck just runs out.
Being watched all day like enemy's prey
Faces, you never seen before is in your hallway
Brothers you knew for years is mad pussy and scared
Back in the days U.F.O.'s couldn't walk up in here
It's time to motor, travel like a foul odor
Clear my head, stay sober, the soul controller
The appreciation for Eastern cultures as seen in the works of both Wu-Tang Clan and W.E.B. Du Bois highlights a unique perspective in African American thought. Wu-Tang Clan was not invented by record companies to represent a cartoon of African American machismo. As such Wu-Tang was able to reprent an authentic complex collective vision to mass audiences. This vision included many streams that are not found in the work of other Top 40 hip hop artists. I would imagine that Wu-Tang planted the seeds of this thinking where otherwise there would be only the plastic nihilism of the gangsta. Sometimes the seeds land on barren ground and nothing grows. After all, the dumb are mostly intrigued by the drum. I hope that, for at least a few, these seeds grew into an interest in literature, biblical studies, islam, kung fu and general self respect. Du Bois, on the other hand, saw Japan as a role model for African Americans and believed that Japan would provide leadership to former colonies and that African Americans should be a part of that. These admixtures of Eastern culture in African American thought may have positive impacts on African American culture and, in turn, American culture as a whole. The impact on the world could be meaningful, as African American culture acts as a compass on the overall American culture. That is why in my view:
And here we are...
