> and is a piece of performance art in its own right
Very much so. Excellent point.
As a die hard rap and Wu fan I would just like to say that very few artists actually fall into that stereotype. There's no "rap culture". Rap is about expression, and it happens to express different things when made by different people.
I love rap, but even I have to admit that a lot of rap lyrics are dumb and offensive, and definitely play into the hands of those who talk about "rap culture" (I think Boondocks does a pretty good job of showing this by the way).
Pretty much everyone in the mainstream falls into exactly that category. Macklemore probably the exception to the rule at the moment.
Compare with the underground artists like Atmosphere, Brother Ali, Immortal Technique, Shad, Jurassic 5, Blackalicious etc.
They are worlds apart! It's such a shame that hip hop has ben positioned as an almost antithesis of intelligent music in the public eye, when it started out as music with a message (much of the underground still has that ethos). It's so bad that I usually have to justify my music choices to people who know no better "why would you listen to that shit? - nothing but bitches and ho's".
Compare Kanye West and Brother Ali to see one example of the difference.
EDIT: Switched to a better example of hip hop. Also, someone downvoted me for making a distinction? Strange.
They should have Dutch auctioned it if there was sufficient interest from the big labels.
Reproducibility has never detracted anything from important pieces of art, and has nothing to do with their artistical value; everyone has painting reproductions in their home, and that doesn't make the painting* less valuable.
For this reason, while there are certainly valuable discussions on generic terms, this remains a pure marketing stunt (or, a banal pseudo-intellectual statement).
*=of course, here there could be a debate about the value of the concept related to the original physical copy and its reproductions.
In addition to being a great album Wu-Tang Clan's album Forever was the first CD to offer multimedia when inserted into a PC! Not to say "enhanced CDs" are the pinnacle of technology, but it's an example of them being forward looking, so their willingness to try new things doesn't surprise me.
[For the downvoters: Read the Forbes article from 6 days ago, below]
# http://www.forbes.com/sites/zackomalleygreenburg/2014/03/26/...]
basically my friend told me that they were coerced into making a "last" album (this was before it was formally announced by them fyi), to pay off a group of club-bouncer thugs that follow them to all their events and threaten them for payment--I'll explain below.
When wu-tang was getting popular and played at inner city clubs, the manager would pick out 5-10 of the meanest looking guys in the crowd and tell them to essentially act as bouncers in the venue if things too got out of control. He couldn't pay then, but these guys would do this at every venue and over time, bonded over this newfound relationship with wu-tang clan. They got wu-tang tattoos on their arms and felt proud of the affiliation (almost to the tune of resembling a gang). Once wu-tang started playing gigs at bigger, mainstream venues these bouncer men were no longer needed.
These wu-tang tatoo'd bouncers felt wronged, and attributes wu-tang's success now with the protection they provided at dangerous inner-city clubs. They felt like they were employees in a sense and demanded a percentage of all the revenue the group was now making. They threaten the group and manager frequently and my friend said, wu-tang desperately needed to pay them off because they are all older now and fear for the safety of their families.
This album was then announced publicly and I can't help but put two and two together. Was this album created to get a quick sum of money to pay off the club bouncers once and for all? I can't stop thinking about it now.
I promise I'm not making this up, just wondering if anyone can confirm any of these assertions that are knowledgeable with wu-tang/hip hop.
Wu-Tang are one of the few music acts to really get that it's about entertainment.
From what I've seen over the years, Wu-Tang has a propensity for such self-aggrandizement (and I mean that as a complement). I can certainly see them doing this project without ulterior fear-driven motivation.
Not saying your version isn't true, but applying Occam's Razor from my humble perspective. RZA having an epiphany of "hey, let's do a full blown album and sell one copy!" seems entirely fitting.
In reality it's a very smart marketing tactic (they're selling another album with regular distribution btw), and is a piece of performance art in its own right. It raises questions and encourages discussion about the value of art & music in the digital age. This is particularly noteworthy coming from the rap genre which is typically not given enough credit for its role in shaping music trends and pop culture generally. The "art" in question isn't really about the music, it's about framing music as art.
[Edited for grammar/spelling]