Not many people outside of the U.S get to witness Wu-Tang live as a collective; Australia remains no exception. Method Man and Ghostface Killah, two of the clan's most popular members were sorely missed throughout the concert along with underground favourites U-God and Masta Killa (who were replaced with two members from hip-hop group Sunz of Man). However, this issue became small as the remaining members, especially RZA, kept us highly entertained from start to near-finish. When there is more than a few of them, Wu-Tang clan are definitely nothing to f*ck with.

The night started out with local support KillaQueenz. This female duo have been getting more attention than most other hip-hop acts get in Australia for the past year or so, and with reason. They are comparable to Yo Majesty from the UK or perhaps even Xtaci from T.I's Grand Hustle Records; a kind of neo-Salt-N-Pepa with a dirty south vibe I guess. Either way, they are different enough to what Australian Hip-Hop is used to to actually have a bright future ahead of them. With crunkish party hip-hop rising in popularity over the past years it is refreshing to see that Australia is in the market with these girls.

I have seen them live a couple of times previously and remain only semi-impressed, personally, because I'm not a huge fan of their style. However, their flow is nice and they compliment each other very, very well - which is pretty much all you need to rap in a group. With the right songs and the right beats this group has much potential but their lyrics in their current songs are boring, even for southern-esque tracks and the beats aren't too exciting either. The only track catchy enough to get the crowd into it was "Bitches" which was saved for last.

Luckily they didn't overstay their welcome and were ushered off the stage to bring on DJ Ology.

DJ Ology is one of the few Aussie hip-hop DJ's who seems to know what he's doing and knows the genre he is playing. Entertaining us with hip-hop classics such as Redman's 'Time for some AKsion' and Pharoahe Monch's much-loved 'Simon says' he was very welcome on stage as the roadies prepared for everyone's favourite 'king of crunk.'

Lil' Jon radiates energy. He is like one big hairy ball of adrenaline that bursts as soon as he hits the stage and injects everyone in the audience with some crunk juice; at least that's how it is meant to be. The start was insane as he got into 'Get Crunk' but something was wrong, the crowd didn't seem to know much about crunk (which is fair enough since it's a Wu-Tang concert). Lil' jon, noticing the lack of crunkness, in the crowd felt the need to tell someone to start a mosh pit (I was trying Lil' Jon! I was trying hard!) as he continued shouting to the crunk classics that made him an icon in the U.S's south. Trillville's 'Neva Eva' and Lil' Scrappys 'Head Bussa' were very surprising and welcome additions to the start of his set.

Mr Jon then got into the more globally known tracks such as Trick Daddy's 'Let's Go' and his own gems 'Throw It Up,' 'Bia Bia,' and 'I Don't Give A Fu*k.' However, the majority of the crowd remained clueless.

Noticing this, Lil' Jon pulled out his radio (metaphorically of course) and went into his top 40 hits such as the insanely popular 'Get Low' and Pitbull's 'Culo.' This seemed to work as the crowds inner-teenybopper came out and the front turned into a scene out of 'Step Up' or one of those stupid dance movies.

The rest of his set remained top 40, which was annoying for me, but the rest of the crowd seemed to love it and it definitely got everyone in the partying mood for the Wu.

By now their was a mosh pit and the front filled up with ‘hardcore’ Wu-Tang fanatics trying their hardest to get as close as possible to the stage.

DJ Mathematics began spinning whilst the present members of the wu rushed out and all hell broke loose. Straight into the classics, RZA, GZA, Raekwon and Inspectah deck served us a platter of classics with ‘Wu Tang Clan Ain’t Nuttin Ta F*ck Wit’ starting a riot up the front. The crowd was fairly placid during the lead up to Wu-Tang but it was now apparent that the Enmore was packed with dedicated fans as it became hard to hold your ground in the mosh pit whilst everyone tried to rush to the front to catch a better glimpse of their favourite Wu member(s).

The Wu went through most of the popular tracks from the classic ’36 Chambers’ by the middle of the set after which they gave us some of their other hits such as ‘It’s Yours,’ ‘Gravel Pit’ (which was definitely a party-starter), and the much-loved ‘Triumph.’ However, the last 20 minutes of the set saw the members losing energy and the crowd losing interest as the set finished on a very quiet and barely noticable note with no encore. I guess these guys are getting old?

It wasn’t a perfect gig, but the Wu did well in bringing New York’s hardcore hip-hop scene to the Enmore. The mediocre ending of the set was negated by the pure hypeness of the rest of the gig. From the energy that Lil’ Jon bought to the rawness of the Wu-Tang, this concert will not soon be forgotten.

Headline Photos by Larry Heath