Las Vegas made a whole lot of history this past weekend. Along the Strip, football fans, proud locals and celebrities huddled around Allegiant Stadium and its adjacent venues for the city’s first Super Bowl. Mere miles away and two nights earlier, music lovers were also busy celebrating as the Wu-Tang Clan, one of the most influential rap groups of all time, kicked off Las Vegas’ first full-fledged hip-hop residency at the Theater at Virgin Hotels on February 9.
Just after 9:35 p.m., the pioneering East Coast emcees—RZA, GZA, Method Man, Ghostface Killah, U-God, Inspectah Deck, Cappadonna, Masta Killa, Raekwon and Young Dirty Bastard (son of the late Ol’ Dirty Bastard)—took the stage like a band of ninjas in their black and yellow hoodies and white masks, quite literally ready to bring the ruckus.
They prowled the stage, blowing through the tongue-twisting rhymes of “Protect Ya Neck” and “Wu-Tang Clan Ain’t Nuthing ta F’ Wit” with an unfettered finesse, enhanced by a live band and a troupe of dancers.
Like a group of seasoned athletes, members of the crew tagged themselves into each verse, ganging up on lines with a collective shout, assigning a primal sort of power and vitality to them. Young Dirty Bastard took that energy and bottled it as an animated image of his father, springing up and down and swooping in like a hurricane on grimy favorites like “Shimmy Shimmy Ya,” leaving a flurry of bars in his wake.
Method Man couldn’t seem to contain his excitement either, as he grinned from ear to ear and flashed his abs to the crowd. Dollar bills rained down in the background as he ran point on “C.R.E.A.M. (Cash Rules Everything Around Me)”, and let it be noted that not a soul in that room was ready for that one.
Personality preceded each verse for these stars, who also leaned into their kung-fu-inspired roots with a cinematic interlude that featured a bare-chested samurai. Those moments, plus Wu-Tang’s roast-heavy onstage monologues, gave the residency a theatrical flair. But those who came for a grimy, no-frills rap show received it, as the clan unleashed their lyrical acrobatics without a single backing vocal. Pure, unfiltered flow is hard to find these days, but Wu-Tang barely missed a beat or a bar.
Towards the end, RZA paid tribute to the last 50 years of hip-hop and those we’ve lost since then. Together, the room recognized fallen soldiers like Tupac Shakur, Notorious B.I.G., DMX, Biz Markie and ultimately, Ol’ Dirty Bastard, who died in 2004.
“Throughout hip-hop … we’ve lost so many things to foolish acts, guns and drugs. And even though Wu-Tang is a part of the streets, we use our arts and our music to escape the streets,” RZA said. “This anger that young people have inside of them, it needs an outlet. I advise us as a culture, as a community, to give our youth a better outlet for their anger and their violence, and we can make a better f*cking culture, aight?”
Closing out the 78-minute set with a Champagne shower, the hip-hop collective concluded its Vegas residency debut in style and with more substance than we could have ever hoped for.
