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Wu-Tang Clan set to tour behind '8 Diagrams'
Reunited rap group Wu-Tang Clan has announced a list of locations for a fall/winter tour behind "8 Diagrams," the hip-hop collective's first new album since 2001.
Preliminary scheduling for the tour has the outfit kicking off Oct. 20 in Miami, FL, and hitting a total of 26 cities through late November. Specific venues--and, in some cases, specific cities--are still unconfirmed. The itinerary in its current form is included below.
The tour will mark the third time this year that the suddenly very active Wu-Tang has come together for an extensive live schedule. Prior to this year's reunion concerts, Wu-Tang Clan performances had been rare in recent years--and tours even less frequent--because the group's principals all have successful solo careers. The group's 2006 shows were the first since Nov. 13, 2004, the same night Wu-Tang rapper Ol' Dirty Bastard--who didn't show up for that gig--collapsed and died of an accidental drug overdose.
"8 Diagrams," the first Wu-Tang album to feature all of the group's members (minus the late ODB) since 2001's "Iron Flag," will be released Dec. 4.
The album's release recently was pushed back from Nov. 13 "due to the magnitude of the sample and the History being made," according to the group's website, apparently referring to the album's first single, "The Heart Gently Weeps," which contains a "compositional sample" of The Beatles' "While My Guitar Gently Weeps."
While the group originally claimed to be the first artists legally authorized to use a Beatles sample, a spokesman for Wu-Tang later told MTV News that the group's claim was slightly inaccurate, as the song contains a sample of a re-recorded version of the George Harrison composition, and not a sample of the original version.
