Wu Tang Clan x the Beatles

If the Beatles’ John Lennon hadn’t claimed at some point that his group was as big as Jesus, one of the Wu Tang affiliated emcees and producers probably would have done so for his own ensemble. The imagined quip would have had decades between it and its progenitor and should have functioned to enliven fans of different socio-economic backgrounds and musical interests.

The band’s, though, aren’t that different – well apart from the music.

There’re a variety of reasons that these two group’s are inextricably linked, though – and it goes back before the hip hop group tapped John Frusciante to ‘interpolate’ a Beatles track for the 8 Diagrams album from a few years back.

Regardless of that albums success or failure, the Wu Tang Clan has become an economic force unto itself. There’re clothing lines, record labels and enough side projects that get muddled with guest appearances that it’s sometimes difficult to differentiate between albums.

Either way, members of the Beatles got into roughly the same territory after the group broke up. And while John Lennon and George Harrison inarguably reeled off a more artistically impressive succession of albums, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr turned in a variety of discs as well.

Beyond all of that, there’s an urgency that’s present in both group’s music which was larlgely absent in each ensemble’s contemporaries. The Beatles are generally considered to have turned in the best written tunes of the ‘60s rock thing – and the Wu’s “C.R.E.A.M.,” even standing alone, represented a new, more literate approach to hip hop in the early ‘90s.

So, Tom Caruana’s idea to smash the two disparate groups together on Enter the Magical Mystery Chambers kinda makes sense. And while it’s a good idea, from the perspective of visibility, some of the mixtape doesn’t work as well as one might hope. With that being said, there’s nothing unlistenable here – it’s still two of the more important groups from the 20^th century after all.

Tying the two groups together, though, is something that Caruana works towards over the entirety of the disc. On “Mighty Healthy,” a vocal sample proclaims that the Beatles sound is “the eternal cry of youth” - much the same can be said of the Wu Tang Clan. And while the Beatles’ sample that’s used here works to good effect, the sentiment can’t be applied to everything on the disc.

There are entire portions of the aforementioned “C.R.E.A.M.,” here of course augmented by the Beatles, when listeners are necessitated to wait for the raps to catch up to the beat and vice versa. But that’s the cost of experimentation. It’s all worth it nonetheless.

Most pleasurable, though, if you’re favorite track by the Liverpudlian group is “Girl” off of Rubber Soul, is “R.E.C. Room.” The strings and supple melody that back up the Wu emcee’s here renders the song a new school classic, even as some of the track’s original urgency is muted by the subtlety of the Beatles sample.

Enter the Magical Mystery Chambers might be theory over practice at times, but it’s worth a listen if either the Wu or the Beatles are a group that receives generous spins on your stereo.