Filled with rough rhymes and grimy beats, the Wu-Tang Clan of Staten Island destroyed the image of what a rap group could be. With the 1993 release of “Enter The Wu-Tang: 36 Chambers,” RZA, producer and rapper on the album, carved a new hole in hip-hop. The rappers of Wu-Tang that the viewer meets in this season are: GZA, Method Man, Ol’ Dirty Bastard, Inspectah Deck, Ghostface Killah, Raekwon, U-God and Masta Killa. Each member has a versatile style and presence within the group.

Wu-Tang has kept a strong prevalence in popular culture over the years, with their solid music and a worldwide following. The music of the group reflects the reality of New York and the hardships they worked through every day. The Hulu original biopic show “Wu-Tang: An American Saga” highlights the trailblazing rise of the group. Season one of the show followed RZA as a young Black man forced to deal drugs in order to scrape by and his terrible experiences within the music industry. The business took a bite out of him, ignoring his artistic strengths. And, when one song didn’t stick, he was thrown back to rock bottom.

Now with season one finished, we can look at RZA’s next phase. We start with his arrest after a self-defense shooting when he lived in Ohio. After being acquitted, he has a second chance at life. With a new battery in his back, he moves back to Staten Island to gather his close rapper friends with beats in tow. Even with broken relationships between members, like Ghostface and Raekwon, he presents the Wu-Tang Clan idea to them, which would see five years of their lives spent in RZA’s orchestra of hip-hop.

In this show, the writers and producers take some creative liberties with these true stories. They also switch cinematic styles and break the fourth wall in clever ways. We can see this when RZA freestyles for his defense trial leading to an emotional release of his thought process. These unique switches in the show are fantastic. They can be humorous, like when a boat intercom tells RZA to “get [his] shit together, before these fools get off the ferry,” in episode four, “Pioneer The Frontier.”

The emphasis of the creative liberties in the show is in episode six, “Protect YaNeck.” In this episode, RZA produces a new track for his crew. He’s searching for a song that can have his whole clan come out with swords drawn. We see the entire process of making the song — searching through vinyls for samples, creating the beat and  writing their lyrics.

We peek inside RZA’s mind as we see him work with the fictional depictions of the musicians. He takes their music apart to create something new. This shows how sampling can be a fantastic method for songwriting and shows hip-hop production in a new, interesting way. We also get to see RZA rework the sample when it isn’t as dirty as he wanted, developing a sound inspired by what his rappers were spitting.

All of the actors do a stellar job representing their real-life counterparts. Even though it is hard to sound exactly like the real person when rapping, they get as close as possible and deliver invigorating live performances. In episode eight, “Saturday Nite,” the group holds their first performance at the famous hall, The Fever. The rappers deliver realistic recreations of this show and bring the energy like the original clan did.

Even though it’s not exactly what happened in real life, the additions to the world of Wu-Tang in the show add more to the music and world of “Enter the Wu-Tang.” Their experiences as Black men in the 90s are genuine; the pain and fear created by a White-supremacist society are addressed well. We see their inspirations from Kung-Fu Flicks, the Five Percent Nation and other hip-hop groups of the time. The actors show the passion these men had for music and their families.

This show is a worthwhile watch if you are a fan of Wu-Tang or want to learn about them. You can tell that the writers, directors and actors working on this show love the music and wish to express it as best they can. So far there hasn’t been a confirmed season three. But, if it comes to fruition, it will hopefully show the expansion of Wu-Tang’s empire with solo work, rampant touring and drama within the group.