The internet is a funny place. It can mold you and steer you into niches you’d never have explored without it. Warcloud was such a niche. I still very vividly remember the wutangworld.com covers for his first two albums, homemade covers that are burned into my memory because I had to cut them after printing them to fit in the cd-cases. CD’s of albums that you could not buy in the store or online, and were like nothing else. It was only then that I started backtracking his steps through The Swarm, Dirty Weaponry and In Stereo.1‘Back smack you so hard all your seeds will be born deformed’, what the fuck was that?
These were the early days of MP3’s without proper MP3 players so everything was burned on CD’s. Which were subsequently played in the car everywhere we went. Soon the sounds of Beer Song, Fever Dream, Last Hovering Castle, Howling Wolves were blasting out of the ride. Often leading to strange reactions from friends. How the fuck is this guy talking about it rained tea on the day Buddha was born and this pyramid that holds his heart?
The man was like no other, and not only stood out as a West Coast Killabee. He jumped out beyond mountains. His rhymes were like nothing we ever heard before. Especially on his albums he was weaving fairytales through his rhymes with a nick for horror while still making sure he was the protagonist of his raps. It only increased the hunger for music from him. So when backtracking him, and seeing him as part of the Black Knights, it was only sad to hear he soon parted ways.2 His showcase as part of the Black Knights on songs as Crunch Time, Punishment, Fatal Sting & Howling Wolves were standouts. Warcloud chugged on. Coming out with different styles and characters, Alcatraz, Robot Tank. All with tracks here and there and rarely a proper album release, safe for the 2006 Blue Sky Black Death Presents The Holocaust. Now rumor has it there is a RZA produced album that was never released. That is something, even if it was from the In Stereo era, I would love to know more about. Silkworm is still an insane song.
On December 29 2024 Anthony Creston Brown passed away, leaving a legacy as one of the most unique voices from the Wu-Tang camp ever. Gathering a well deserved cult following. With his passing, and the earlier killing of Doc Doom3, this also means only Crisis and Rugged Monk as members of the original Black Knights. In any case his voice will surely be missed, and the joy he brought with his rhymes will surely not be forgotten. Thank you for all those.
Wu-Lyricz archive: https://web.archive.org/web/20100315082240/http://lyrics.chambermusik.com/holocaust.html