4. Wu-Tang ClanWu-Tang Forever
Again, this record reminds me of touring America. Imagine being on a bus for six to twelve weeks at a time going around America with the same people – you need things around you that just help you stay SANE! ‘Forever’ was one of my go-tos when things would get too much on the road, I’d get in my bunk, put in my headphones and just lose myself in it. RZA is an architect, and I was studying the album like I was at university. I’d listen to the lyrics, I’d really try and get my head into their mindsets, you know, and of course the density of the production. The standards were so high I don’t even want to call it ‘beatmaking’, it was way beyond that. For us jungle artists it made us want to make music at that level – there was a fierce competitiveness in jungle at that time and this album helped us compete with different samples, different sounds, different ways of getting our beats to sound as loud and crunchy and fat and heavy as the RZA did. No matter what genre we were listening to – me, Goldie, everyone at that time, we were hearing things and saying – that sounds amazing. How do I do that?
A lot of people say that the album’s too long, too sprawling…
Nahh man, Forever was an epic moment – I think it could’ve been a triple album, I wanted more!
