This album is hands down cemented permanently in my Top Ten records of ever. From the first time you hear those intercut samples from kung-fu movies and the Rza's beats with "Bring tha motherfuckin' ruckus!" shouted over it, 36 Chambers becomes musical heroin. This album is the true epiphany of great beats mixed with some of the most intelligent street rhymes ever spat.

Rza's beats on this album are a marriage of old samples and extra add-ins, like snaps and choruses of the ODB (as he was still known at this time) singing out gibberish. The end product is something that's banging, but soft enough to feature the lyrics. The best part about this album is that every word said is worth being said and is set up to be heard. That's the problem with rap music these days, you've got Lil' Jon crankin' out something on 5 Casio keyboards so loud that you can't even hear anyone saying anything except "Get low!"

What's so worth hearing, you ask me? I'll tell you what:
"Gunnin, hummin comin atcha/First I'm gonna getcha, once I gotcha, I gat-cha/ You could never capture the Method Man's stature"

"Razor sharp, I sever the head from the shoulders, I'm better than my competta, you mean competitor, whadeva!"

"Raw I'm a give it to ya, with no trivia/
Raw like cocaine straight from Bolivia/
My hip-hop will rock and shock the nation/
like the Emancipation Proclamation/
Weak MC's approach with slang that's dead/
you might as well run into the wall and bang your head/
I'm pushin' force, my force your doubtin'/
I'm makin' devils cower to the Caucus Mountains"

Trust me, this album will make you dance and bob your head. As an album, it's perfectly constructed mixing between choice tracks and intercut kung-fu movie lines. "A game of chess, is like a sword fight. You must think fist, before you move." "Shaolin shawdoboxing...and the Wu-Tang sword style...if what you say is true, the Shaolin and the Wu-Tang could be dangerous. Do you think your Wu-Tang sword can defeat me?" "En garde, I'll let you try my Wu-Tang style."

Other references in the lyrics include, but are not limited to: Waco, Texas; Voltron; Jacque Cousteu; Richard Dawson and the Family Feud; Beetle Bailey; The New York Times; Good Morning Vietnam. The Wu-Tang Clan have created a piece of literature in the way they constructed this album, presenting a nonstop barrage of pop-culture and worldly events in one concise, 13 track package.

If you don't own this album, what the fuck have you been doing with the past eleven years of your life? Buy it now, bitches!