Even though Wu: The Story of the Wu-Tang Clan encompasses ten years and several albums, the compilation is threaded together by the crew’s inimitable sonic signature. It's a formula cooked up by Wu-Tang’s mastermind, the RZA. Icy and skeletal, his production style seems to emanate from a sinister netherworld. He is one of the few hip-hop producers willing to embrace warped time signatures and atonal flourishes, but even in its most grotesque forms Wu-Tang’s music is rooted in the rhythms of classic funk and soul. Though the Wu-Tang Clan is usually identified by this sound, RZA has actually included a variety of sonic backdrops on the Wu-Tang albums. The Story of the Wu-Tang Clan works as a primer because it sticks to the core sound and traces it over the course of the crew’s ten year history. Whereas other greatest-hits compilations focused on the Wu-Tang’s potent rhyme styles, this is the collection to reach for when you need to summarize the group’s allegiance to a singular sonic blueprint.