\n\t\u201cWe got a lot on our minds tonight,\u201d RZA told the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia on Friday night (July 18), before the rest of Wu-Tang Clan joined him onstage to close out the final scheduled date of their farewell tour. <\/p>\n
\n\tSince kicking off last month and running through a slew of arenas in North America, Wu-Tang Forever: The Final Chamber has been a smashing success, and the Philly performance demonstrated why: for as many personalities roamed the stage and as sprawling of a catalog they possessed individually and collectively, this iteration of the Wu-Tang experience has been focused, cohesive and celebratory, a group of otherworldly talents locking in for one last ride.<\/p>\n
\n\tWith nary a floor seat unfilled and a stage setup that included a giant tilted screen that appeared to loom over the crowd, Wu-Tang Clan was larger than life in front of an adoring audience. The setlist was a nearly immaculate mix of solo hits and posse cuts (the word \u201cnearly\u201d necessary for the lack of a Ghostface Killah showcase \u2014 my kingdom for \u201cMighty Healthy\u201d!), the guests were world-class (more on them later), and, perhaps most importantly, the crowd embraced every high-energy moment. <\/p>\n
\n\tPart of the fun of a Wu-Tang Clan show, in any era or setting, is hearing their rhymes rattled back at them; witnessing an arena audience know every word to \u201cDuel of the Iron Mic\u201d or \u201cClan in Da Front\u201d or \u201cIce Cream,\u201d roughly 30 years after they were first released, spoke to the power of their catalog, and made for a thrilling evening.<\/p>\n
\n\tWe\u2019ll see how many of them we have left. Although Friday\u2019s show was full of special moments and outpourings of emotion, Wu-Tang Clan did not treat it as their final show ever \u2014 and why should they? With a show that mixes iconic songs and modern hip-hop urgency, and every MC in the W sounding sharper than they have in a long time, Wu-Tang Forever: The Final Chamber could, and should, keep rolling for a while. Some farewell tours have a funny way of overstaying their welcome, but Wu-Tang Clan has earned a long goodbye.<\/p>\n
\n\tHere were the best moments from Wu-Tang Clan\u2019s Philadelphia performance on Friday night:\u00a0<\/p>\n
\tThe Opening Barrage of Hits<\/p>\n
\n\t
After RZA\u2019s solo declarations to kick off the show, we got a slew of 36 Chambers all-timers, including \u201cBring Da Ruckus,\u201d \u201cWu-Tang Clan Ain\u2019t Nuthing Ta F\u2019 Wit,\u201d \u201cMethod Man,\u201d \u201cShame on a N\u2014a\u201d and \u201cProtect Ya Neck\u201d \u2014 an unstoppable opening run, all as the W\u2019s flew high in the crowd.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
\tThe Opening Style Choices<\/p>\n
\n\t
While the members rotated outfits throughout the evening, watching Raekwon stroll onstage in a jewel-encrusted bucket hat and Inspectah Deck rock a custom Philadelphia Flyers jersey (which the entire Wu received from the venue) made for the perfect reintroduction to their respective personalities.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
\tGuest No. 1: Ms. Lauryn Hill<\/p>\n
\n\tAfter appearing at the group\u2019s Newark show the previous night, the R&B legend pulled double duty with a guest spot on Friday night: \u201cWu-Tang and Fugees came out around the same time,\u201d Hill said, declaring the \u201890s a \u201cbeautiful time for music.\u201d She warbled \u201cKilling Me Softly,\u201d brought out her son Zion for \u201cTo Zion,\u201d and led a sing-along of \u201cEx Factor,\u201d which naturally segued into \u201cCan It All Be So Simple.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
\tGuest No. 2: Freeway<\/p>\n
\n\tPhilly Freezer played the role of hometown hero on Friday night: even if \u201cFlipside\u201d and \u201cWhat We Do\u201d don\u2019t share a ton of connective tissue with Wu-Tang\u2019s oeuvre, they will forever bang heads in South Philadelphia, and Freeway sounded particularly spry tossing them out to the rapturous crowd.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
\tGuest No. 3: LL Cool J<\/p>\n
\n\t
The biggest surprise on Friday night came when LL sprang onstage to join his \u201c4,3,2,1\u201d collaborator Method Man, with the pair turning back time and trading bars like they did in their heyday. With a hood pulled over his head and his flow sounding bulletproof, the rap veteran stole the moment \u201cwithout a gun,\u201d Method quipped when he left the stage.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
\tMethod Man\u2019s Visible Emotion<\/p>\n
\n\t
Following \u201cBring the Pain\u201d \u2014 and before quickly lifting his shirt to show off his six-pack \u2014 Method Man took a moment to stare out into the arena crowd and appeared to get choked up as the thousands in attendance went berserk. The gravity of the moment seemed to hit home for the hip-hop hero, who then snapped back to attention with a \u201cCan I get a sooooo?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
\tThe Tribute to Fallen Brothers<\/p>\n
\n\tA Wu-Tang Clan show would be incomplete without some proselytizing from RZA, who was met with cheers upon telling the crowd, \u201cOur government be trying to regulate women, but not regulate guns!\u201d That led into an extended salute to rap icons who had passed away, many from gun violence \u2014 The Notorious B.I.G., Nipsey Hussle, 2pac \u2014 as well as Biz Markie, DMX and of course, Ol\u2019 Dirty Bastard.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
\tThe Extended Farewell<\/p>\n
\n\t
The closing one-two wallop of \u201cC.R.E.A.M.\u201d and \u201cTriumph\u201d is always a crowd-pleaser, but the best moments were tucked in between the rhymes \u2014 like a bottle of champagne being popped onstage, and Raekwon turning to the rest of the Wu and declaring, \u201cI wanna tell my brothers onstage, I love y\u2019all, man. Y\u2019all saved my life.\u201d We\u2019ll see if and when they return, but for now, the Wu closed out this farewell tour in smashing fashion. \u201cWe came in peace,\u201d RZA concluded. \u201cWe gon\u2019 leave in peace.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cWe got a lot on our minds tonight,\u201d RZA told the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia on Friday…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":75736,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5132],"tags":[5229,52616,14839,5499,1448,2830,1311,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-75735","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-genre-rap","10":"tag-hip-hop","11":"tag-music-news","12":"tag-pa","13":"tag-pennsylvania","14":"tag-philadelphia","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-united-states-of-america","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","19":"tag-us","20":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114880700971517336","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75735","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75735"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75735\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}