Protect Ya Neck 20th Anniversary

This isn't the most important Hip Hop record ever, but this is actually the most important Hip Hop song from the 90's because of what came before and what was to come because Hip Hop before this was a very different thing. I was 12 living in the Bronx going to Middle School and radio was my main thing. Me and my friends would meet up in the morning and kick rhymes that we heard on the radio before going to school- and at school and after school! We liked groups because we could all rap together so we picked songs from Onyx and A Tribe Called Quest, but once we heard Protect Ya Neck we wanted to do the whole song by ourselves! It was crazy hype (that's how we talked back then) and we would stay up real late to hear Funkmaster Flex play it on the radio. When it was the top song on the radio you could get injected with that feeling in the middle of the day. Hip Hop songs on the radio were mostly West Coast rappers with very little reflection about New York City, but it was the Wu-Tang Clan that brought that mindset back. Biggie's Party and Bullshit wouldn't drop for an entire year later and Illmatic wouldn't be released until 1994. The year is 1992 and shit just got very real for Hip Hop.

The Protect Ya Neck single was released 20 years ago this week. It was originally released with After The Laughter on Wu-Tang records in 1992 and it would be released on Loud with Method Man as the B side in 1993. The song is a fiery assault from 9 emcees that recently was unfound on a record though one should be aware that Tribe's Scenario was released a few months before and it can be seen as a predecessor of what was to come.

If Scenario is the greatest posse cut then Protect Ya Neck is a thug's version of that song. Busta Rhymes verse leaves the listener craving more jagged and raw verses, you couldn't walk the streets going "Rawr, Rawr, Like a dungeon dragon" without having someone lose their god damn mind and the debut single of the Wu is the continuation of that honest and dirty feeling many inner city residents all over the world still feel every day. We were all starving for something new and New York had just got served a 9 piece main course that replenished and rejuvenated our spirits. Hip Hop became a New York property again, many east coast rose to great heights. For me Hip Hop 90's era was created when this song was released because of how it affected personally.

Here's the video for Protect Ya Neck is a great look at the Wu-Tang before they got rich and famous. They're wearing Champion hoodies and standing around Staten Island slums. Then unknown Wu member Cappadonna makes a cameo and GZA's name is even misspelled as The Jizah. There's nothing fancy in this video at all, it's just pure rhymes- Because that's all you need, ya heard!?