Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)
Enter the Wu-Tang , often referred to as simply 36 Chambers, is the debut studio album by the American hip-hop collective Wu-Tang Clan, released on November 9, 1993, by Loud Records and RCA Records. The recording sessions took place during late 1992 to early 1993 at Firehouse Studio in New York City, and the album was produced by the group's de facto leader RZA. Its title originates from the martial arts films Enter the Dragon and The 36th Chamber of Shaolin.
The distinctive, gritty sound of Enter the Wu-Tang created a blueprint for hardcore hip-hop during the 1990s, and helped return New York City hip-hop to national prominence. Its sound also became greatly influential in modern hip-hop production, while the group members' explicit, humorous, and free-associative lyrics have served as a template for many subsequent rap records. Serving as a landmark release in the era of hip-hop known as the East Coast Renaissance, its influence helped lead the way for several other East Coast rappers, including Nas, The Notorious B.I.G., Mobb Deep, and Jay-Z.
Despite its raw, underground sound, the album had surprising chart success, peaking at number 41 on the US Billboard 200 chart, selling 30,000 copies in its first week on sale. By 1995, it was certified Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America, and in November 2025 it was certified quadruple platinum. Initially receiving positive reviews from most music critics, Enter the Wu-Tang has since been widely regarded as one of the most significant albums of the 1990s, as well as one of the greatest hip-hop albums of all time. In 2020, the album was ranked 27th on Rolling Stone
Background
In the late 1980s, cousins Robert Diggs, Gary Grice, and Russell Jones formed a group named Force of the Imperial Master, also known as the All in Together Now Crew. Each member recorded under an alias: Grice as The Genius, Diggs as Prince Rakeem or The Scientist, and Jones as The Specialist. The group never signed to a major label, but caught the attention of the New York City rap scene and was recognized by rapper Biz Markie. By 1991, The Genius and Prince Rakeem were signed to separate record labels. The Genius released Words from the Genius on Cold Chillin' Records and Prince Rakeem released Ooh I Love You Rakeem on Tommy Boy Records. Both were soon dropped by their labels. Embittered but unbowed, they refocused their efforts and on new monikers; The Genius became GZA, while Prince Rakeem became RZA. RZA discussed the matter in the book The Wu-Tang Manual, stating " made the decision to sign House of Pain over us. When they dropped me, I was thinking, 'Damn, they chose a bunch of whiteboy shit over me.RZA began collaborating with Dennis Coles, later known as Ghostface Killah, another rapper from the Stapleton Houses in Staten Island. The duo decided to create a hip-hop group whose ethos would be a blend of "Eastern philosophy picked up from kung fu movies, watered-down Five-Percent Nation preaching picked up on the New York streets, and comic books."
Recording and production
Enter the Wu-Tang was recorded at Firehouse Studio in New York City. The album was produced, mixed, arranged, and programmed by RZA, and was mastered at The Hit Factory in New York City by Chris Gehringer. Because of an extremely limited budget, the group was only able to record in a small, inexpensive studio; with up to eight of the nine Wu-Tang members in the studio at once, the quarters were frequently crowded. To decide who appeared on each song, RZA forced the Wu-Tang rappers to battle with each other. This competition led to the track "Meth Vs. Chef", a battle between Method Man and Raekwon over the rights to rap over RZA's beat; this track was left off the Wu-Tang Clan's debut album but surfaced on Method Man's debut, Tical.Group leader RZA produced Enter the Wu-Tang by creating sonic collages from classic soul samples and clips from martial arts movies Shaolin and Wu Tang and Ten Tigers from Kwangtung. He complemented the rappers' performances with "lean, menacing beats that evoked their gritty, urban surroundings more effectively than their words," according to Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic. The use of soul samples and various esoteric clips, and the technique by which RZA employed them in his beats was unique and largely unprecedented in hip-hop. The gritty sound of Enter the Wu-Tang is due, at least in part, to the use of cheap equipment to produce the album.
Music and lyrics
According to music journalist Ben Yew, the minimalist means of production plays directly into the music's "street" aesthetic. "Because didn't have the best mixing or recording equipment, the album is wrought with a 'dirty' quality—the drums have more bass and are more hard-hitting than they are crisp and clean; the samples have an eerie, almost haunting type of echo; and the vocals, because each member's voice is already aggressive and gritty, perfectly match the production." Although Ol' Dirty Bastard is given co-production credit on "Da Mystery of Chessboxin'" and Method Man is co-credited for "Wu-Tang Clan Ain't Nuthing ta F' Wit", critics and admirers universally credit RZA with developing what Pitchfork called a "dusty yet digital production style helped legitimize the use of more diverse sample sources to the hardcore New York rap massive, breaking away from James Brown based beats and embracing a style that turned the Underdog theme into the menacing coda for a group of underground terrorists."Enter the Wu-Tang ushered in a new standard for hip-hop at a time when hip-hop music was dominated by the jazz-influenced styles of A Tribe Called Quest, the Afrocentric viewpoints of Public Enemy, and the rising popularity of West Coast gangsta rap. The album's explicit, humorous and free-associative lyrics have been credited for serving as a template for many subsequent hip-hop records. Rolling Stone described the album as possessing an aesthetic that was "low on hype and production values high on the idea that indigence is a central part of blackness". While the lyrical content on Enter the Wu-Tang generally varies from rapper to rapper, the basic themes are the same—urban life, martial arts movies, comic book references, and marijuana—and the setting is invariably the harsh environment of New York City. AllMusic contributor Steve Huey praises the lyricists for their originality and caustic humor, stating "Some were outsized, theatrical personalities, others were cerebral storytellers and lyrical technicians, but each had his own distinctive style ... Every track on Enter the Wu-Tang is packed with fresh, inventive rhymes, which are filled with martial arts metaphors, pop culture references, bizarre threats of violence, and a truly twisted sense of humor."
With the exception of "Method Man" and GZA's "Clan in da Front", every song features multiple rappers contributing verses of varying lengths. The verses are essentially battle rhymes, mixed with humor and outsized tales of urban violence and drug use. There is some debate about whether the lyrics on 36 Chambers are properly classified as gangsta rap or something else entirely. In a Stylus magazine review, writer Gavin Mueller evokes the bleakness of the Wu-Tang world view:
All nine original Wu-Tang Clan members contribute vocals on Enter the Wu-Tang. Masta Killa only appears on one track, contributing the last verse of "Da Mystery of Chessboxin, but all the other rappers appear on at least two songs. Method Man and Raekwon are the most prolific of the group, featured on eight tracks. Though the performers have widely differing techniques, the chemistry between them is a key ingredient of the album's success. Pitchfork asserts that "Half the charm is in the cast's idiosyncrasies: ODB's hovering sing-song, Raekwon's fake stutter, Ghostface's verbal tics, Method Man's hazy, dusted voice."
Title and packaging
Part of the album's title originates from the Five Percent philosophy, known to adherents as the Supreme Mathematics, which attaches the number 9 with the meaning "to bring into existence". Because the Wu-Tang Clan was made of nine members, each of whom has four chambers of the heart, the album was subtitled "36 Chambers", being the total of the nine hearts of the members.In reference to the 1978 kung fu film The 36th Chamber of Shaolin that the group enjoyed watching, the Clan considered themselves as lyrical masters of the 36 chambers, and arrived onto the rap scene while appearing to be ahead, and more advanced over others, with "knowledge of 36 chambers of hip hop music when everyone else in hip hop was striving to attain the knowledge of 35 lessons". Also, while the human body has 108 pressure points, only the Wu-Tang martial artists learned and understood that 36 of those pressure points are deadly . The lyrics and rhymes of the 9 members are to be considered as 36 deadly lyrical techniques for pressure points. All of this is the basis for the album title, Enter the Wu-Tang , being that 9 members x 4 chambers = 36. However, this is just a theory; the true significance of the title is not definitively known. The first part of the title is taken from the 1973 film Enter the Dragon and aforementioned Shaolin and Wu Tang.
The album's front cover image was photographed by Daniel Hastings. It features only six members of the Wu-Tang Clan: RZA, GZA, Ol' Dirty Bastard, Inspectah Deck, Ghostface Killah, and Raekwon; member U-God was in jail for a parole violation at the time, while Method Man had been arrested earlier that day for marijuana possession. As not every member of the group was present for the shoot, the six members who were donned stocking masks to conceal their faces. The album cover photo was shot inside Angel Orensanz Center, then an abandoned and ruined synagogue. The group was photographed in front of a large foamcore rendering of the Wu-Tang Clan logo, on a set lit with tungsten lights, strobe lights, and candles. Hastings also took several photographs of the group under the Queensboro Bridge, which were featured in the album's packaging.