Their first singles Protect Ya Neck and C.R.E.A.M. and their first album Enter the Wu-Tang (1993) upped the ante for the entire scene, while, at the same time, appealing to a broad audience.

Despite the hype, the double album Wu-Tang Forever (1997) was mostly a production tour de force by RZA (Triumph), overflowing with filler. As RZA relented his artistic grip on the group, the Wu-Tang Clan returned to the basics on The W (2000) and Iron Flag (2001)

Robert "RZA" Diggs and "Prince Paul" Huston, the producer of De La Soul's 3 Feet High and Rising, penned Gravediggaz's gothic 6 Feet Deep (1994), the manifesto of horrorcore.

Of all Wu-Tang members, Method Man sold the most records, thanks to Tical (1994), produced by RZA, Tical 2000 (1998) and Blackout (1999), a duo with Redman.

Russell "Ol' Dirty Bastard" Jones debuted solo with Return to the 36 Chambers (1995), produced by RZA, which became a major hit thanks to Brooklyn Zoo and Shimmy Shimmy Ya. Repeatedly arrested, he managed to released a second album, Nigga Please (1999), before landing in a penitentiary for good. He was arrested several more times. He died in 2004 of an overdose, one year after being released from jail.

GZA/Genius narrated Liquid Swords (1995), produced by RZA, the most dramatic and cinematic of the solo projects. But Beneath the Surface (1999) showed how important RZA's presence (in this case, absence) was.

Corey "Raekwon" Woods debuted with the effervescent Only Built 4 Cuban Linx (1995), as usual produced by RZA, followed by Immobilarity (1999).

Dennis "Ghostface Killah" Coles debuted solo with Ironman (1996), an album of soul revival, but found his true mission with the much more ambitious Supreme Clientele (2000), another RZA masterwork, and Bulletproof Wallets (2001). The Pretty Toney Album (2004) matched all his previous albums both in exuberance and in catchiness, and establishes Ghostface as the leading former Wu-Tang in the new decade.

RZa debuted solo with the schizoid Bobby Digital In Stereo (1998), followed by the mediocre soundtrack Ghost Dog (2000) and by Bobby Digital's uneven Digital Bullet (2001). His first album credited to RZA, Birth of a Prince (2003), was a disappointment.

A Wu-Tang Clan side project, Wu-Tang Killa Beez released The Swarm Vol 1 (1998) and The Sting (2002).

Other solo albums by this mass-production industry were Inspectah Deck's Uncontrolled Substance (1999) U-God's Golden Arms Redemption (1999), Masta Killa's No Said Date (2004).

While the Wu-Tang Clan is generally undergoing a rapid artistic decline, Ghostface Killah's popularity kept increasing. The 24-song Fishscale (2006), produced by masters such as MF Doom, Madlib and Pete Rock, simply obliterated anything else the "clan" did at the time. The powerful, even brutal, death-obsessed, cinematic storytelling Was not innovative ma immensely effective. By comparison, The Big Doe Rehab (2007) is flawed because his visceral style is wrapped in a hodgepodge of different styles.

Not surprisingly, Ghostface Killah did not feature prominently on the Wu-Tang Clan's Eight Diagrams (2007), dominated by RZA's three-dimensional sound experience (Campfire, Unpredictable, Stick Me for My Riches, and especially the Morriconian hip-hop jam Wolves) and his philosophical/mystical tone-poems (Sunlight). However, for one thrilling Rushing Elephants there are at least two pop songs too many (Starter and The Heart Gently Weeps, a variation on the Beatles' While My Guitar Gently Weeps with John Frusciante on guitar).

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