DJ Filthy Rich Lets Loose A Clan Called Wu - Enter: The Marauders In Honor of 36 Chambers & Midnight Marauders' 25th Anniversaries

As any well-rounded Hip-Hop head should already know, we recently celebrated the 25th anniversaries of two of Hip-Hop's most revered and widely-loved albums: Wu-Tang Clan's monumental debut, Enter: The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) and A Tribe Called Quest's third album, Midnight Marauders both originally released on November 9th, 1993. Wu-Tang's 9 surviving clansmen, as well as ODB's son, Young Dirty Bastard (@DirtyBastardJr) have recently been making the rounds in celebration of their 25th anniversary; making recent appearances on Jimmy Kimmel Live, Good Morning America, and in Staten Island AKA "Shaolin" in honor of Wu-Tang Clan Day. Wu-Tang also, dropped a career-spanning documentary called For The Children: 25 Years of Enter: The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers.) A Tribe Called Quest's surviving members—Q-Tip, Ali Shaheed Muhammad & Jarobi White—on the other hand, have remained a bit more silent since their 2016 "final" album with founding member, Phife Dawg, We Got It from Here... Thank You 4 Your Service. I've personally, been a fan of both albums, since I first discovered Wu-Tang & Tribe around 2002, but I, honestly, had no idea 36 Chambers & Midnight Marauders were both released on the same day and initially, distributed by RCA through Loud/Jive Records. Now, to celebrate Wu-Tang & Tribe's 25th anniversaries, Toronto, Canada-based DJ Filthy Rich has assembled a 30-minute mix/blendtape with Wu-Tang Clan's expertly-woven rhymes atop A Tribe Called Quest, Skeff Anselm & Large Professor's dusty instrumentals from Midnight Marauders. He's even fittingly dubbed it "a clan called Wu - Enter the Marauders." Check out DJ Filthy Rich's story about his relationship with the albums, as well as the making-of A Clan Called Wu - Enter: The Marauders directly from his Soundcloud page down below the break. 👐

"November 9, 1993 will forever go down as one of the greatest days in Hip-Hop history. Two of the genre's most revered albums dropped on the same day: Wu-Tang Clan's debut, Enter: The [Wu-Tang] (36 Chambers) & A Tribe Called Quest's third LP, Midnight Marauders. I remember riding my bike to the mall, with money I had earned from my after-school job. I had anticipated this day for a while and saved up in advance to pick up both CD's—at that age, $40 felt like $500. For the months that followed, both albums fought for playing time on my single-disc CD player. One moment, I was transported to the boulevard of Linden and the next, to the rugged streets of Shaolin. Those albums stayed in my rotation forever (literally!)

To mark the 25th anniversary of both LP's, I thought it might be a good idea to try and take the vocals from Wu-Tang's album and blend them over the instrumentals from Midnight Marauders. I wasn't sure it would work at first, but as is usually the case, inspiration hit at midnight, when I was trying to sleep—the coincidence of the timing is not lost on me. A couple of hours later, I managed to pair up every single Wu-Tang vocal with a suitable beat from MM. The intent was not to improve on the originals in any way... that would be impossible, as I consider them both to be perfect bodies of work. Rather, it was about orchestrating a fun concept and putting a totally new spin on these well-worn classics. The contrast of Wu's gritty street raps over Tribe's Jazzy production works in a pleasantly unexpected way. Now, I present to you my personal tribute to these legendary groups: A Clan Called Wu - Enter: The Marauders [a blendtape by DJ Filthy Rich]."

- DJ Filthy Rich (@djfilthyrich416)