If Ghostface seemed like the celebratory id of wu tang name generator-Tang, then GZA was its sober ego. The Genius strategically doles out stoic wisdom on Liquid Swords, his grimy sadness-tinged masterpiece that’s rightly been described by many as the purest distillation of the core Wu-Tang aesthetic. But for a guy who painted such a terrifying bleak picture on "Cold World," GZA was surprisingly funny throughout Liquid Swords. Even if all the peripherals didn’t quite last, the Wu-Tang Clan’s music hasn’t dulled any of its vibrancy in the 20-plus years since the group first appeared.

But you got to come to the island, too." So in a way it was like, yeah, I wanna go see if y’all really live the way y’all say y’all live, and the same for me. You know I brung them to my neighborhood, you know what I mean, sat up in the Chinese restaurant, cats is swinging they little things….you know, it was just like I say, we was young, like Ghost Say, young, dumb, full of cum ass niggas. Yeah, it was on its way out, but we was still in them. I mean, I at least still did what I had to do, though. But uh, it was serious before we even got with Loud. RZA had shopped that tape "Protect Ya Neck" shit everywhere.

Other artists followed wu name generator-Tang's blueprint in the decades since the group debuted. Acts like Mobb Deep, Nas, the Notorious B.I.G. and others adopted the hardcore rap style mastered by Wu-Tang — but none harnessed the same manpower or presence as the group over the decades. But the 2010s saw the re-emergence of rap supergroups.

And you just felt free, like you couldn’t wait to come outside tosee your boys and get back in the same activity that you did last night. Break ofday on the bench, break of dawn, you know what I mean. I mean, yeah, 40ounces, just getting into stuff, though, but it was like the good old daysfor us. Then you had the best music out there. At the same time, you had [BigDaddy] Kane and Rakim and, I mean, it was just all the greats, they was all balled up into one.

There was an intersection named, a few blurry photos posted. The first text from my editor had even mentioned that the Wu-Tang Clan was in attendance. Regardless, I spent an anxious 60 minutes under the ground with little connection to the outside world, or the "Drake Harlem" twitter search results which served as the only tip I had to go off of.

And as Meth bugs his eyes out, and staggers around the trailer, RZA’s just about cackling. During the European festival dates this summer, "we’d talk about everything, man. We’d look at how lemons can alkaline any water.

He was like, "And, you know, I’ll let you go solo, get y’all shit together, go solo, do what you gotta do," and shit like that. He said up top, you know what I mean, he ain’t had no money, but we went because he gave us what we wanted. I mean, the money came after that shit, so all everybody had shitted on us at one time, because they said there was too many motherfuckers, it wasn’t going to work. And I respect RZA for that, because he made the right decision, and we history now. The Wu-Tang Clan’s debut album Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers), is widely regarded as one of the greatest hip-hop albums of all time.