The first four concert dates will begin with Super Bowl weekend in February.
Wu-Tang Clan will begin a Las Vegas residency in February as the city hosts its first Super Bowl, the Grammy-nominated rap collective announced on Tuesday.
Though rap stars frequently perform in Las Vegas for concerts and appearances at nightclubs, it is unclear if a hip-hop group has held a traditional residency, which became popular in the city around the 1940s.
“Wu-Tang Clan: The Saga Continues … The Las Vegas Residency” will begin next year at the Theater at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas, starting with concerts on Feb. 9-10, Super Bowl weekend, and March 22-23, when fans flock to the city to bet on the N.C.A.A. college basketball tournaments. Tickets go on sale on Friday, and more dates will be released in the coming months.
Known for hits like “C.R.E.A.M. (Cash Rules Everything Around Me)” and “Protect Ya Neck,” Wu-Tang Clan recently concluded a tour with the rapper Nas. The group’s leader, Robert Diggs, known as RZA, said the residency had been in the works for about five years and was meant in part to elevate the genre, which has been celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.
“Hip-hop is rich in its content and what it offers creatively to an audience,” he said, adding that the nine-member group, which was founded in New York in the early 1990s, wants “to put it on flagpoles to show that hip-hop can go where any other art form has gone before.”
“I think the art form has evolved,” he added.
Residencies in Las Vegas this year included the pop artists Adele and Katy Perry. The band U2 will conclude its residency at the Sphere, the video-screen-wrapped orb-like venue built by the Knicks owner James Dolan, in March. Usher Raymond, the R&B star who will headline the Super Bowl halftime show, recently completed a residency in the city.
Las Vegas, which has long been known for hosting boxing and mixed martial arts fights, has also expanded its reputation as a destination for other top-caliber sporting events. In addition to hosting the upcoming Super Bowl, the city held its first Formula 1 race in November and saw its professional hockey and women’s basketball teams win championships this past season.
RZA said he was hopeful that Wu-Tang Clan’s residency would inspire other rap artists to inject themselves into Las Vegas’s entertainment scene.
“I’m in that spirit of loving where there’s a hub of art and then loving that I — in my talent and the Wu-Tang brothers — can add to that hub and of course eventually invite more hip-hop artists to come and play in this sandbox with us,” RZA said.
Source: Music - nytimes.com
