Well the Wu did more than just introduce martial arts movies and cater to the Asian market.
Wu's real influence on hip hop is through the business side, and their forming crews that weren't all signed to a single label.
They also moved the needle on rappers opening their own labels. Before Roc-A-Fella, Shady clothing, G-unit clothing, etc, Wu had their clothing label. Their clothing still probably looks better than the majority of aforementioned clothing lines too. That shit was (and is) so tacky. But Wu clothing still gets repped. Every now and then i'll see someone rocking clothing with the Wu logo on it, and still looks dope.
Wu also played to the listeners' ear as much as the music itself. 36 Chambers was purposely mastered to sound like a cassette tape, playing to the idea of the album being a specific experience rather than just another album with a collection of songs.
For Heavens' Sake was also the song that spawned the entire style of Kanye West and The Heatmakerz. Without that song and the Wu's performance, it's arguable whether those producers would've had the same career trajectories. It was also influential on Just Blaze's style and hence, the production on multiple Jay-Z albums.
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Redman - introduced the rapper with multiple profiles (though popularized by the Wu), and invented all that raar-raar shit, dat 'jump-up-and-ready-to-fuck-shit-up-now-shit'.
Wu's real influence on hip hop is through the business side, and their forming crews that weren't all signed to a single label.
They also moved the needle on rappers opening their own labels. Before Roc-A-Fella, Shady clothing, G-unit clothing, etc, Wu had their clothing label. Their clothing still probably looks better than the majority of aforementioned clothing lines too. That shit was (and is) so tacky. But Wu clothing still gets repped. Every now and then i'll see someone rocking clothing with the Wu logo on it, and still looks dope.
Wu also played to the listeners' ear as much as the music itself. 36 Chambers was purposely mastered to sound like a cassette tape, playing to the idea of the album being a specific experience rather than just another album with a collection of songs.
For Heavens' Sake was also the song that spawned the entire style of Kanye West and The Heatmakerz. Without that song and the Wu's performance, it's arguable whether those producers would've had the same career trajectories. It was also influential on Just Blaze's style and hence, the production on multiple Jay-Z albums.
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Redman - introduced the rapper with multiple profiles (though popularized by the Wu), and invented all that raar-raar shit, dat 'jump-up-and-ready-to-fuck-shit-up-now-shit'.
