Murderous material, made by a madman

The Wu-Tang Clan - 'Wu-Tang: 7th Chamber—Part II' / 'Conclusion' (Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) - 1993)

'Wu-Tang: 7th Chamber—Part II' is our first reprise, technically more of a remix of a previous track on an album. The contributions from each Wu-Tang Clan member are no different to part one, and the only changes in content are that the intro is not a skit and is a section of 'Clan In Da Front', also from earlier in the album.

Sonically, the two versions are pretty different. We lose the samples from Otis Redding, Charmels (that same sample is much more prominent on 'C.R.E.A.M.') and Lonnie Smith (the drums) and replace them with drums from 'Make It Funky' by Ralph Vargas and Carlos Bess, released earlier in 1993.

There is an eerie, haunting quality to part one, which is not present in the second part, driven mainly by the Otis Redding guitar tone. Despite this, you can imagine fans across Staten Island nodding along. I would go as far as to say that part two is a broodier, jazzier interpretation of part one, to the degree that it is not too much of a stretch to imagine the backing featuring on Massive Attack's Mezzanine. It is an altogether noisier affair.

We have the most members showcased in both versions, other than in 'Protect Ya Neck'. Lyrically, we see Raekwon dropping a potential Wu-Tang acronym solution in his verse, Method Man and Inspektor Dek drop some references to the PLO and Nation of Islam before the five-fold alliteration in the title of this post. Towards the end, RZA comes in with maybe his best verse on the album (other than the first time we heard it!) and, at the very end, is bookended by Genius/GZA himself as the Thrilla in Manilla and leaves you seeing not just stars but a bowl of Lucky Charms as well.

One of the things you learn about communicating a vision to people is about repetition. As we touched on in the intro post, Peak-End user theory stresses the importance of the end of the experience on influencing our takeaway. As such, The Wu-Tang Clan clearly felt that '7th Chamber' needed repeating as if delivering a manifesto via grenade on the first side of the album didn't grab you by your lapels and knock you about enough.

'Conclusion' is barely worth commenting on, a snippet of dialogue with an interview is waiting for the chance to see them live before RZA gives us yet another call-back to the preceding 58 minutes as we are given a familiar piece of advice right at the end of the album.