A few days ago we put up some clips of the ‘Dirty Minded’ ODB documentary. Thanks to Sky Gellatly’s Riottt blog, here’s a seven part film entitled ‘Old Skool Kung Fu’ in which the Wu talk about their mythic roots and the philosophy underpinning their music, all interspersed with some classic Kung Fu movie cuts. The Wu brand is hip hop royalty. Little wonder Wu streetwear collabs have been a hot item over the past few years. In a sense, for all it’s swagger and macho posturing, "streetwear" as it is today is really all about self-defence rather than creatively exuberent, freely confident self expression. It’s an urban armour insulating you, protecting you from a harsh outside world. Think of it’s reccuring form- military inspired garb, thick all-weather jackets, inpenetrable technical outerware, shadowy druid-like hoodies. Even though Pharrell and Kanye have been streetwear’s shiny avitars over the past few years, it is Wu Tang’s iron wall of solitary discipline and fraternal honour that best embodies what streetwear’s all about. With the new Wu Tang album, their fist since ‘01, ‘8 Diagrams’ coming out this December expect to see a lot more activity coming out of the slums of Shaolin very soon.
