The Triumphant Album of My Youth — “Wu-Tang Forever” at 20

The sprawling double disc forever changed my relationship to hip-hop and the world

This originally appeared on The Passion of Christopher Pierznik

“Reunited, double LP, world excited”

It wasn’t just an album release. It was an event.

While we are currently in the midst of the surprise album era, when some of the biggest artists in the world unleash a disc of new music unexpectedly in the early morning hours, things were decidedly different back in 1997.

It was still a couple of years before major hip-hop albums leaked online months before their scheduled unveiling and the run-up to an album release could last nearly half-a-year. Such was the case with Wu-Tang Forever, the highly anticipated second group album by Wu-Tang Clan. “Triumph,” the first single, dropped in February, 1997, a full four months before the album’s release date. The moment I heard it, with its rumbling bassline, the harmonic female voice chanting “oooh hooo” in the background, and Inspectah’s Deck’s incredible opening verse, I was hooked. That song and its accompanying video were ubiquitous in the first half of ’97 and we couldn’t wait for the full album.