Iron Flag
Iron Flag is the fourth studio album by American East Coast hip hop collective Wu-Tang Clan, released on December 18, 2001 on Loud Records. It was certified gold in sales by the RIAA. Iron Flag served as the group's second lowest-selling album (687,000 copies), as their record label, Loud, was on the verge of shutting down at the time. The album debuted at No. 32 on the Billboard 200 with 153,000 copies sold in its first week of release. It has sold 500,000 copies in the United States, & certified Gold by the RIAA on January 29,2002.
Overview
A gap of four years separated both the first and second albums, and three years between the second and third albums, with those gaps being filled by a myriad of solo projects. It was consequently surprising to many when the Clan reformed for a new LP only a year after their well-received 2000 album The W, with only RZA's Digital Bullet and Ghostface Killah's Bulletproof Wallets released in between. The album's promotion was also quite low-key, particularly in comparison to the fanfare, hype and expensive videos that had preceded the release of the group's two previous albums. Unusual for hip hop albums of the time, Iron Flag only consists of twelve tracks (which contain thirteen songs plus a short introduction) with no interludes or skits between songs. This is similar to The W, which only consisted of thirteen tracks (though unlike Iron Flag it did feature interludes and skits).
Podcasts:
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by Wu-Tang Clan
Iron Flag
by: Wu-Tang ClanMurder one of y'all niggaz..
Get to hurtin one of y'all niggaz..
Bitches, snatch the shirt off one of y'all niggaz
... kick dirt
Color glocks splitters just listen there's UFO visitors
Fly paintings remainin, reclinin pro-comissioner
One boot off he Rudolph, know he hyped flew off
Hibernatin, dead in the makin, ear-rake him, gear-rake him
Technician murderer, Wu hit the universe
Our words is crush, fingers icy slush, ringers wants Mercedes bust
Tip bottles, Movado, sailin in some Wu googles you follow
Mail and jail letters, sendin niggaz lottos
What made you murder my flow, what made you rival my clothes
What made you -- fuck it, yo son these niggaz gotta owe
I think a lot of flows, I flip exotic hoes
We paintin pictures if it's (?) I seen a lot of those
Gettin fly with Ghost, power just buy the boats
RZA your vision is exquisite, daddy hide your scrolls
Platonic chronic shows, tonic prose
Off the meter Panasonic know, son line me a ho
Devestatin shockwaves strikin the nation
Newsflash, warn the people, assassination
The hour of detonation, pure untampered or mixed in any form
In any form mixed untampered it's pure
Dissect each line of the rhyme
Find my ingredients and nutrients
Teach patience and obediance before movement
Killer bee student enrollment
I'm out your control and expose if it's synthetic
Quote these plush degrees as I inject, there's many at risk
Slang therapist Shallah Rae
plus the people, with magnificent wordplay
Aiyyo you know the half, some get respect, most we show the path
They quoted tracks while we spoke math, blowin fast
Expose the craft, first picks chosen in the draft
I don't flash, hoes love me cause I hold a stash
Known to blast, paramedics couldn't close the gash
Floatin past in an alley with the oak dash
Show the cash, watch it blow in half, it's no fair
They goin mad, check their tape recorders and their notepads
Crabs wanna play me close and grab
Can't believe you on the canvas, I'm just throwin jabs
Where the powers you supposed to have, hand in your soldier rag
You posin bad, show your ass son, you won't last
With heavy weights that elevate the whole mass