| Iron Flag | |||||
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| Studio album by Wu-Tang Clan | |||||
| Released | December 18, 2001 | ||||
| Recorded | 2001 | ||||
| Genre | Hip hop | ||||
| Label | Loud/Columbia/SME CK 86236 |
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| Producer | RZA, True Master, Mathematics, Nick Fury, Trackmasters | ||||
| Professional reviews | |||||
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| Wu-Tang Clan chronology | |||||
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| Wu-Tang Clan solo chronology | |||||
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Iron Flag is the fourth studio album by American East Coast hip hop collective Wu-Tang Clan, released December 18, 2001 on Loud Records. The album was certified gold in sales by the Recording Industry Association of America. Iron Flag served as the group's second lowest-selling album (687,000 copies), as their record label, Loud, was on the verge of shutting down at the time. The album debuted at #32 on the Billboard 200 with 153,000 copies sold in the first week released.[2]
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A gap of four years separated both the first and second albums, and the second and third albums, with those gaps being filled by a myriad of solo projects. It was consequently surprising to many when the Clan reformed for a new LP only a year after their well-received 2000 album The W, with only RZA's Digital Bullet and Ghostface Killah's Bulletproof Wallets released in between. The album's promotion was also quite low-key, particularly in comparison to the fanfare, hype and expensive videos that had preceded the release of the group's two previous albums. Unusual for hip hop albums of the time, Iron Flag only consists of 12 tracks (which contain 13 songs plus a short introduction) with no interludes or skits between songs. This is similar to The W, which only consisted of 13 tracks (though unlike Iron Flag it did feature interludes and skits).
The album cover is inspired by the Iwo Jima flag-raising photo from 1945, one of the most famous photos of all time.
Ol' Dirty Bastard's contributions to the Wu-Tang's group albums continued to decrease with each successive album: after being one of the main stars of Enter the Wu-Tang: 36 Chambers, he was by far the least prolific Clan member on the group's follow-up album Wu-Tang Forever. He then made only one appearance on The W (on the song "Conditioner") due to being engulfed in legal troubles; legal troubles which in the year separating The W and Iron Flag had only gotten worse. Consequently, ODB does not appear on Iron Flag at all, making The W the final Wu-Tang album to feature him. He does, however, appear on 8 Diagrams posthumously.
Another absentee is Cappadonna: after being merely a very close affiliate of the group on Wu-Tang Forever, he appeared to have become absorbed into the group itself as a full member on The W (tracks with his contributions no longer being marked as "featuring Cappadonna"). In the year following the release of The W Cappadonna had become dissatisfied with being in the group (RZA has said he felt unhappy that people outside of the group did not respect him as much as the original nine members) and had also been in dispute with the group over the revelation that his manager Michael Caruso was a police informant.[3] Whatever the case, he does not appear on the album. Although, it should be noted that he appears on the original cover of the album but was air brushed out. The original cover appears on the back of the "Wu-Tang Manual" by RZA. This suggests that he might have been removed from the album in post production.
Rather than stick to one unified sound for most of the album's tracks, as with previous Clan albums, much of Iron Flag returns to many different individual sounds and styles that the Wu-Tang had visited over the years:
Many of the remaining tracks sound little like much the Clan had done before, and little like each other.[says who?] This may be a result of the collaborators involved: all of the above tracks are produced by the RZA, whereas of the remaining six only two are RZA produced. Two are produced by in-house Wu-Elements producers True Master and Mathematics:
Though these two producers are known for their distinctly traditional Wu-Tang sound, these two beats do not particularly resemble much of the Clan's previous output, at least not as a group. If anything they resemble some of the sharp 1970s soul-influenced funk tracks from the Wu-Tang's 1999-2000 solo albums (U-God's "Dat Gangsta" and "Soul Dazzle" from Golden Arms Redemption, Inspectah Deck's "Word On The Street" and "Movers & Shakers" from Uncontrolled Substance).
There had been some discontent among fans and critics when The W included non-Wu Tang affiliated hip hop crossover superstars Busta Rhymes and Snoop Dogg. Nevertheless, Iron Flag also makes use of non-Wu artists well-known in their own right: Flavor Flav of Public Enemy provides the chorus for "Soul Power (Black Jungle)", and "Back In The Game" features both pop-rap hitmakers Trackmasters and soul legend Ronald Isley. Nick "Fury" Loftin also produces "One Of These Days", sampling Donny Hathaway's rendition of Ray Charles' "I Believe To My Soul" for its hook and using a fairly generic coupling of muffled horn stabs and soul guitar.
"Back in the Game" opens with the same vocal sample ("if what you say is true, the Shaolin and the Wu-Tang could be dangerous!") as 36 Chambers, but it sounds little like anything the Clan had done before; it also sounds little like well-known Trackmasters hits of the time, such as R. Kelly's "Fiesta" (apart from its use of bongos). A delicate piano melody is layered over a heavy organ vamp and a stumbling, complex rhythm.
A number of critics, such as the NME's Ted Kessler and The Onion A.V. Club's Nathan Rabin, saw Flavor Flav's appearance as a way to temporarily fill the clownish role of the absent Ol' Dirty Bastard. Flav sings the call-and-response chorus of "Soul Power (Black Jungle)" with U-God, and has a long conversation with Method Man in the song's outro about growing up in Long Island, where Flav hails from.
| # | Title | Performer(s) | Songwriters | Producer(s) | Samples / Notes |
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| 1 | "In the Hood" |
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Elgin Turner Robert Diggs Jason Hunter Patrick Charles |
RZA |
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| 2 | "Rules" |
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Dennis Coles Corey Woods Elgin Turner Jason Hunter Clifford Smith Ronald Bean Patrick Charles |
Mathematics |
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| 3 | "Chrome Wheels" |
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Corey Woods Elgin Turner Robert Diggs Vergil Ruff |
RZA | |
| 4 | "Soul Power (Black Jungle)" |
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Lamont Hawkins Dennis Coles Robert Diggs Corey Woods Elgin Turner Jason Hunter Clifford Smith |
RZA | |
| 5 | "Uzi (Pinky Ring)" |
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Lamont Hawkins Dennis Coles Robert Diggs Corey Woods Elgin Turner Jason Hunter Clifford Smith Gary Grice Clarence Reid Russel Jones |
RZA |
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| 6 | "One of These Days" |
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Lamont Hawkins Nick Loftin Corey Woods Jason Hunter Patrick Charles |
Nick "Fury" Loftin |
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| 7 | "Y'All Been Warned" |
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Robert Diggs Corey Woods Elgin Turner Jason Hunter Clifford Smith Derek Harris Patrick Charles |
True Master |
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| 8 | "Babies" |
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Dennis Coles Robert Diggs Corey Woods Jason Hunter Gary Grice |
RZA |
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| 9 | "Radioactive (Four Assassins)" |
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Robert Diggs Corey Woods Elgin Turner Gary Grice Clifford Smith |
RZA | |
| 10 | "Back in the Game" |
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Dennis Coles Corey Woods Gary Grice Jason Hunter Clifford Smith Samuel Barnes Jean-Claude Olivier |
Trackmasters | |
| 11 | "Iron Flag" |
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Lamont Hawkins Robert Diggs Corey Woods Elgin Turner Jason Hunter |
RZA |
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| 12 | "Dashing (Reasons)" |
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Robert Diggs Jason Hunter Gary Grice |
RZA | |
| 13 | "The W" (Bonus Track) |
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Robert Diggs Lamont Hawkins Jason Hunter Gary Grice |
RZA |
| Single information |
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"Uzi (Pinky Ring)"
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"Rules"
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"Back in the Game"
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| Year | Album | Chart positions | ||
| Billboard 200 | Top R&B/Hip Hop Albums | |||
| 2002 | Iron Flag | #32 | #6 | |
| Year | Song | Chart positions | ||
| Billboard Hot 100 | Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks | Hot Rap Singles | ||
| 2002 | "Uzi (Pinky Ring)" | - | #93 | #16 |
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