Twenty-five years ago this week, one of the great albums of all time was released; Enter the Wu-Tang: 36 Chambers, introducing the world to the Wu-Tang Clan.
I was a freshman in college and a devoted hip-hop head when it dropped, but I had never heard anything like Wu-Tang before. There had never been a group with this many members who all touched the mic. The production was dark and haunting, but at the same time there were the messages of strength, resilience, survival, and success mixed in with the tales of violence and despair that came from their collective experiences coming of age on Staten Island in New York.