WU-TANG CLAN – GRAVEL
PIT (EPIC)
There is a sad reality
in that this is probably the best known Wu-Tang. Its not because its groundbreaking or even
much good for that matter, its just because its clean and got airplay. It has a video with group looking stupid it
but doesn’t have swear words (at least in most distributed version it doesn’t)
and in the modern media climate that is all that’s required. Ultimately when held up against so many
superior tracks in the Wu-Tang arsenal, you can’t help but feel a little
deflated by such a reality.
“Gravel Pit” feels
like a gag, a bad gag. In some ways it’s
the Wu-Tang Clan equivalent of “Tubthumping” as the chatty
nature of the piece spreads the motion thin and makes it accessible to/for all
the wrong people. This is how you get on
daytime FM radio.
When the song came out
I was dating a girl that loved this track, loved the video and I loved her. Even though she owned The
Dirty Version by ODB I wasn’t convinced that she had experienced Enter
The Wu-Tang. She claimed to be
rebellious, claimed to be hot but as I helped carry her belongings into her new
flat only a few weeks after we’d met (probably too big a favour offered too
soon) all she would focus on with the song was the caveman video and not the
rap talent or what was really meant by the gravel pit (or rather her gravel
pit).
Ultimately it’s a
fucking pop song. The hook is a Cameo sample for fuck’s
sake. Wu songs with female vocal parts
always tended to be a bit light (although it would not be fair to lay blame at
the hands of Paulissa Moorman). The
reality is that everyone needs to get paid at some point.
Stepping over that
shambles, the b-side is “Protect Ya Neck (The Jump Off)” which is hardly
anything fresh or new either. In theory
this shit is back from Enter
The Wu-Tang albeit now coming sprinkled with a little extra something
something rendering it to a place that is next to unrecognisable. They just wrecked their song. And I can’t be bothered to investigate why.
What the fuck?
What a waste.
Thesaurus moment:
earner.
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