New Generation of Wu-Tang MCs Hacking Music Distribution on Blend
From the Official Wu-Tang Blog.
As an art form, Hip Hop has always been a champion of open source creative processes. From DJs extending breakbeats from classic funk and soul records, to repurposing pieces of multiple works through digital sampling.
Today the Wu-Tang Clan as always is taking that idea one step further, putting the raw music files of a new song on Blend for anyone to re-imagine as they see fit.
This digital collaboration is part of a new project under the Wu-Tang Umbrella called Wutang Parental Advisory. “Basically we are carrying on the tradition by exposing a new generation of talent with that Wu-Tang swordstyle sharp rawness. We open up by bringing you back to where it all started “Once upon a time in staten island’ and take you on a journey from there around the country and the world in true Audio Visual Hybrid art form” explains Oliver Grant AKA Power, who is co-founder of Wu Tang and executive producer of the classic group and original solo albums. He is also credited with being a driving force in the branding and commercial empire around the music.
“It’s about being in touch with what’s going on today not only in music and film but also taking the technology and marrying that to the traditional and fundamental methods we know to keep hip hop and the culture as a whole moving in forward directions that actually work and compliment the culture without taking away the essence of it. Some things will work, some things won’t either way we have to find what works, make sense out of it and take those chances. Sometimes squares do fit in circles.”
Wu Tang is debuting a sneak peak at one of the first tracks from the Wutang Parental Advisory album on Blend. The new song, titled So Many Detailz, will be presented in 3 formats: ProTools, Ableton Live and Logic. “It’s ours, but we’re giving it to you, you guys take it and throw it back on us and lets see what sticks ,” explains Grant. “The stuff that sticks could possibly be some good shit!”
Along with kickstarting careers for some talented new generation of artists from Staten Island and New Jersey sprinkled with some talent from around the country, and with special guest appearances from a few of the Wu Tang Clan members themselves, Wutang Parental Advisory will also rely on Blend to reach out to a much wider talent pool. “We’re looking to be shocked, whether it’s EDM, or whatever version it is. It may be some guy in Australia whose thing may not be just hip hop sites or maybe not even hip hop sites at all, but he’s going to be on Blend, checking out what else is new from a creative and forward thinkers point of view.”
Wu-Tang’s Grant has a similar mindset when it comes to navigating today’s changing music landscape. “Fools got stuck, the industry got caught up with Napster and iTunes and every other platform fighting against them , while we were all still trying to figure out what to do with an industry model that had changed and switched up almost overnight . It’s like yo, y’all fucked up, you should’ve embraced them and figured it out the first time, Steve Jobs came and stole the game from a music distribution perspective with itunes then the music industry made its way to team up with the youtubes and things like that. The Facebook guys killed what ever else is coming up next and counting the list is endless of things that are out there that can possibly be that next thing. Everything has a place when it makes sense. We’ll see what happens next. Had they embraced it in the first place ‘cause that’s what they eventually did end up doing, after fighting against it, they would have been making dollars from day one artists and companies.” Everybody is Looking forward to “A Better Tomorrow” somewhere.
“So Many Detailz” is produced by Wu-Tang’s Cruise, the premier producer on Wutang Parental Advisory. Turnpike Ike, one of the members of Parental Advisory, also appears on Cappadonna’s track “Vegan” for remixing on Blend courtesy of WUTANG.
