Iron Flag

Iron Flag
Studio album by Wu-Tang Clan
Released December 18, 2001
Recorded 2001
Genre Hip hop
Label Loud/Columbia/SME
CK 86236
Producer RZA, True Master, Mathematics, Nick Fury, Trackmasters
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Wu-Tang Clan chronology
The W
(2000)
Iron Flag
(2001)
8 Diagrams
(2007)
Wu-Tang Clan solo chronology
Ghostface Killah:
Bulletproof Wallets
(2001)
Iron Flag
(2001)
GZA:
Legend of the Liquid Sword
(2002)

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]

Contents

Overview

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).

Album cover

The album cover is inspired by the Iwo Jima flag-raising photo from 1945, one of the most famous photos of all time.

Absences

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.

Revisiting old sounds

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:

Wu-Elements contributions

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).

Outside collaborators

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.

Track listing

# Title Performer(s) Songwriters Producer(s) Samples / Notes
1 "In the Hood"
  • Intro: RZA
  • First verse: Masta Killa
  • Second verse: Inspectah Deck
  • Third verse: Streetlife
  • Chorus: Suga Bang Bang
Elgin Turner
Robert Diggs
Jason Hunter
Patrick Charles
RZA
  • Contains sample from "In My Heart" as performed by Barbara and the Browns
  • Contains sample from "Intro: Salute To Thames" by Dennis "Johnny" Hawksworth
2 "Rules"
  • Intro: RZA
  • First verse: Ghostface Killah
  • Second verse: Inspectah Deck
  • Third verse: Masta Killa
  • Fourth verse: Streetlife
  • Fifth verse: Raekwon
  • Chorus/sixth verse/outro: Method Man
Dennis Coles
Corey Woods
Elgin Turner
Jason Hunter
Clifford Smith
Ronald Bean
Patrick Charles
Mathematics
  • Contains sample from "You've Got The Papers (I've Got The Man)" as performed by Ann Peebles
3 "Chrome Wheels"
  • Intro: 12 O'Clock & RZA
  • First verse: 12 O'Clock
  • Second verse: RZA
  • Third verse: Raekwon
  • Fourth verse/outro: Prodigal Sunn
  • Chorus: Madame D
Corey Woods
Elgin Turner
Robert Diggs
Vergil Ruff
RZA
4 "Soul Power (Black Jungle)"
  • Intro: Flavor Flav/Raekwon
  • First verse: Raekwon
  • Second verse: Masta Killa
  • Third verse: Ghostface Killah
  • Fourth verse: U-God
  • Chorus: Wu-Tang Clan/Flavor Flav
  • Outro: Method Man/Flavor Flav
Lamont Hawkins
Dennis Coles
Robert Diggs
Corey Woods
Elgin Turner
Jason Hunter
Clifford Smith
RZA
5 "Uzi (Pinky Ring)"
  • Intro/first verse: U-God
  • Second verse: Raekwon
  • Third verse: Ghostface Killah
  • Fourth verse: RZA
  • Fifth verse: Method Man
  • Sixth verse: Inspectah Deck
  • Seventh verse: Masta Killa
  • Eighth verse: GZA
  • Chorus: Wu-Tang Clan
Lamont Hawkins
Dennis Coles
Robert Diggs
Corey Woods
Elgin Turner
Jason Hunter
Clifford Smith
Gary Grice
Clarence Reid
Russel Jones
RZA
6 "One of These Days"
  • First verse: Inspectah Deck
  • Second verse: Raekwon
  • Third verse: U-God
  • Chorus: Inspectah Deck/Raekwon/U-God
Lamont Hawkins
Nick Loftin
Corey Woods
Jason Hunter
Patrick Charles
Nick "Fury" Loftin
  • Contains sample from "I Believe To My Soul" as performed by Donny Hathaway
  • Guitar: Eric "E.BASS" Johnson
7 "Y'All Been Warned"
  • Intro/first verse/chorus: Method Man
  • Second verse: RZA
  • Third verse: Inspectah Deck
  • Fourth verse: Raekwon/Masta Killa
Robert Diggs
Corey Woods
Elgin Turner
Jason Hunter
Clifford Smith
Derek Harris
Patrick Charles
True Master
  • Contains sample from "In My Heart" as performed by Barbara and the Browns
8 "Babies"
  • Intro/chorus: Madame D
  • First verse: Ghostface Killah
  • Second verse: Raekwon
  • Third verse: GZA
Dennis Coles
Robert Diggs
Corey Woods
Jason Hunter
Gary Grice
RZA
  • Drums: Ramsey Jones
9 "Radioactive (Four Assassins)"
  • First verse: GZA
  • Second verse: Raekwon
  • Third verse: Method Man
  • Fourth verse: Masta Killa
Robert Diggs
Corey Woods
Elgin Turner
Gary Grice
Clifford Smith
RZA
10 "Back in the Game"
  • Intro/second verse: Method Man
  • First verse: Inspectah Deck
  • Third verse: GZA
  • Fourth verse: Raekwon
  • Fifth verse: Ghostface Killah
  • Chorus: Ron Isley
Dennis Coles
Corey Woods
Gary Grice
Jason Hunter
Clifford Smith
Samuel Barnes
Jean-Claude Olivier
Trackmasters
11 "Iron Flag"
  • Intro/first verse/chorus: Raekwon
  • Second verse: Masta Killa
  • Third verse : Inspectah Deck
Lamont Hawkins
Robert Diggs
Corey Woods
Elgin Turner
Jason Hunter
RZA
  • Contains a sample of "The Handwriting Is on the Wall" Ann Peebles
12 "Dashing (Reasons)"
  • Intro/first verse/chorus: Inspectah Deck
  • Second verse: GZA
Robert Diggs
Jason Hunter
Gary Grice
RZA
13 "The W" (Bonus Track)
  • First verse: GZA
  • Second verse: Method Man
  • Third verse/chorus: U-God
  • Fourth verse: Raekwon
Robert Diggs
Lamont Hawkins
Jason Hunter
Gary Grice
RZA

Album singles

Single information
"Uzi (Pinky Ring)"
  • Released: December 18, 2001
  • B-side: "Y'all Been Warned"
"Rules"
  • Released: January 22, 2002
  • B-side: "In The Hood"
"Back in the Game"
  • Released: April 23, 2002

Album Chart Positions

Year Album Chart positions
Billboard 200 Top R&B/Hip Hop Albums
2002 Iron Flag #32 #6

Singles Chart Positions

Year Song Chart positions
Billboard Hot 100 Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks Hot Rap Singles
2002 "Uzi (Pinky Ring)" - #93 #16

References

  1. ^ http://www.robertchristgau.com/get_artist.php?name=wu-tang+clan
  2. ^ David Jenison (2000-05-26). "Charts: A Very Creed-y Christmas". Chelsea Lately. http://ca.eonline.com/on/shows/chelsea/chuy/b42645_charts_very_creed-y_christmas.html. Retrieved 2010-12-14. 
  3. ^ Jennifer Vineyard (2000-05-26). "Wu-Tang Clan Fires Manager After Village Voice Expose". Rolling Stone. http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/_/id/5922868. Retrieved 2007-02-23.