Track 7 from Soul in the Hole (Original Music From and Inspired by the Motion Picture) (1997)

Track 8 from Funkmaster Flex's The Mix Tape, Volume III: 60 Minutes of Funk (The Final Chapter) (1998)

Track 9 from Rush Hour (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) (1998)

Track 15 and 16 from Iron Flag (2001)

Obviously, The Wu-Tang Clan has a sprawling discography that includes dozens of solo albums and offshoot groups. But there are only 7 proper group albums, 6 of which are commercially available -- famously, only a single copy of Once Upon A Time In Shaolin was made, and it was sold for $2 million, making it the most expensive album of all time. Given the downward slide of quality on the later Wu albums, I don't particularly care if the public ever gets to hear it, but of course I'd be curious to put it on if I ever got the chance. But there were also a good number of soundtrack and compilation tracks credited to the group, and it was fun to bring those together in one place, some of them might be a little obscure even to people who know the first few Wu albums by heart. 

The two tracks titled "A Better Tomorrow" are completely different songs, although the 2014 album A Better Tomorrow and its title track presumably took inspiration from the Wu-Tang Forever track. It was tempting to include "Black Shampoo" simply because it's the most talked about song on Wu-Tang Forever, but I think people are generally right that it's not a good song. I remember having a terrible internet connection in my dorm room when Napster became a big deal and I didn't buy The W but I downloaded a handful of tracks that my friend Josh recommended. 

I'm going to do some separate deep album cuts playlists for some of the more notable Wu-Tang solo careers -- definitely Ghostface Killah and Method Man and Raekwon, and beyond that, I dunno, maybe GZA? Maybe RZA? So I gravitated a little toward songs that showcase people who won't get their own playlists, like Ol' Dirty Bastard, who sadly left behind a pretty small catalog, and Inspectah Deck, who's probably the MVP of the group's output who never had a classic solo album. But I tried to showcase everybody, some of my favorite verses on this playlist include Meth on "Wu-Tang: 7th Chamber," RZA on "Tearz," GZA on "Clan In Da Front," Rae on "Cash Still Rules/Scary Hours," U-God on "A Better Tomorrow" (the 1997 one), ODB on "And You Don't Stop," Inspectah Deck on "The Abduction," Masta Killa on "Radioactive (Four Assassins)," Cappadonna on "Campfire," and Ghostface on "Rivers of Blood. "