Triumph

For over a decade, I’ve considered myself as being the whitest Wu-Tang Clan fan in America. Even after Bumbershoot this year, where I witnessed throngs of pasty suburban clowns in Wu-Tang shirts, screaming “Cash Rules Everything Around Me” all day, I still believed it. Tonight, Sam Mickens will defeat me, hard. The dapper (and yes, white) hip hop aficionado, is transforming his weekly DJ night, “Once Upon a Time In America,” into “Triumph,” a Wu-Tang themed dance partywith nothing but ass shakin’ Shaolin slum sizzlers to help usher in the midnight release of Wu-Tang Clan’s new disc, 8 Diagrams. So maybe I’m not the whitest or biggest Wu-Tang Clan fan in America or even in this world, but there’s a reason why people like myself keep going back to their raw messages and solid beats, raising those W’s and buying all that ridiculous Wu Wear (which you are encouraged to wear, by the way). Wu-Tang is Wu-niversal.
Mon., Dec. 10, 9 p.m., 2007