"Protect Ya Neck" is released

Why it matters

"Protect Ya Neck" came out November 9, 1992, as the first single Wu-Tang Clan ever released, on their own Wu-Tang Records before Loud took over. RZA produced. Method Man, Raekwon, Inspectah Deck, U-God, RZA, Ghostface Killah, GZA, and ODB each take a verse. The song is six and a half minutes long with no chorus. Eight rappers in a row. It is hard to overstate how strange this 12-inch sounded in late 1992. New York rap by that point was mostly polished. Pete Rock was making jazzy horn-loop beats. Tribe was making smooth bass-forward beats. Then this single shows up, with a beat that sounds like it was recorded inside a basement (because it was), eight MCs with stage names from kung-fu movies, no song structure to speak of, and a confidence that came from somewhere outside the industry's existing categories. The 12-inch sold itself through pure word-of-mouth. By the time Loud signed the group and put out Enter the Wu-Tang in late 1993, the demo had already done the work. You can put on "Protect Ya Neck" right now and the basement is still in the room.