"C.R.E.A.M"

Wu-Tang Clan
(Loud/RCA, 1993)

"Wu-Tang Clan Ain't Nothin' To Fuck Wit" introduced so many masked men working under so many names, the single should have come with a scorecard and a golf pencil. It wasn't until "C.R.E.A.M.," the Clan's Shaolin greenback mantra ("C.R.E.A.M." is slang for "money," and short for Cash Rules Everything Around Me), that we got to know them for something besides their trail of dead. A shimmering organ loops and loops, as Inspectah Deck and Raekwon take turns scaring their listeners straight.

-- Alex Pappademas