The Rise and Fall of Wu-Tang, an epic infodiscography in three parts

Information design wizard Jess Bachman has quite an ambitious infographic out today on the history of the Wu-Tang Clan.

"It's so large (14,000 px) i had to break it into three parts," Jess explains. "The vital stats for every release of every member of the Wu."

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.

The current incarnation of the Wu have a new album due out in 2012. Here's a link to their discography on Amazon, including recent remix albums.

• [Grey Devil]

  A little bit of commentary or notes within the infographic would be really enlightening. I scrolled around, and lost interest.

• [noah django]

  it’s crazy how many releases i missed (the majority of page 2 and 3.)  I usually just tell people that every first solo joint is gold, subsequent solo records usually either suck outright or only had a few singles.  Ghostface is the exception, most of his are pretty great (though i’ve never heard of some of these–who knew?)  I’ve never heard U-God’s stuff.  nobody has.  i’m told he is bitter over this.  Also skip the Bobby Digital ones.  most slept-on is Deck’s first joint, it’s super hot.  best solo record is GZA’s Liquid Swords although Rae’s original Cuban Link is also a perfectly acceptable answer.  the gold standard remains 36 Chambers (first team record.)  There, you can skip the chart now.

  Also, he left out the Cappadonna record, I guess because he got kicked out.  it sucked though.  His verse on Winter Warz remains a favorite, though.

  • [Michael Banck]

    I always thought Deck was the best, but I never really warmed up to REC Room, compared to Liquid Swords et al.

    • [noah django]

      i feel ya.  just saying that record never got it’s due.  now, Deck’s verse on “Guillotine”?  Oh, man!  That’s probably my favorite Wu joint all-around, too.  Let’s all examine it again, shall we?
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfVF-9bTMiw

      • [Michael Banck]

        Thihi, german content mafia has blocked that youtube vid.  I guess it’s mostly because REC Room was one of the last solo joints to come out and I had lost some of the interest already back then… :-/

• [SedanChair]

  Nothing less than they deserve; the greatest and most influential musical innovators of hip-hop period. 
  “But SedanChair, what about”–PERIOD

  Also Ghost is at the center of the grid, which is as it should be.

• [Phart]

  Just sayin’:

  Ghost’s 2001 album is “Bulletproof Wallets”, not “Waterproof Bullets”.  Some sort of bizarre Freudian slip?

  • [SedanChair]

    GZA would have made the shit out of Waterproof Bullets if he had thought of it

• [Elroy Mcphlip]

  Not to sound trollish but they really didn’t get every release. This is really entertaining, but it is not entirely comprehensive.  

  • [Jess Bachman]

    what’s it missing.

    • [noah django]

       Cappadonna’s joint, KillaArmy, Killah Priest, Papa Wu, the ones Elroy said, probably more.  Technically the Gravediggas wasn’t a Wu album (and it looks like you skipped the Shovel and the Sickle lp), nor were the Red and Meth albums, they just had Wu members on them.  but if you open that rabbit hole, you’re gonna have mad more pages to this.

      • [Jess Bachman]

        ok, well those guys are more WU affiliates than official members.  I included all solo albums from the original wu memebers, like Red and Meth albums.  If i missed any, let me know.

        If I had include wu-filiates, it would have been absurd.

• [Elroy Mcphlip]

  it’s missing the Wu Swarm album(1998 included Cappadonna’s “97 mentality”) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Swarm_(album), not to mention La the Darkman (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_the_darkman  ) and other weird Wu Affiliates that existed.
  Overall though, hats off to dude for trying to catch em all. Nice format

• [David Hall]

  What is this “fall” you speak of?