Wu Tang Logo

Wu Tang Logo PNG

Wu-Tang is like a bird performing a martial arts dance. The Wu-Tang logo has a hint of entertainment combined with experience and pressure. This makes the band’s performances professional and enjoyable for the audience.

Meaning and History

According to Lamont member Jody Hawkins (under the pseudonym U-God), they all “grew up in the urban jungle” of New York, which influenced further creativity. He recalls how their neighborhood turned into a criminal zone, where drugs were freely sold, and people on the streets fired guns and wore bulletproof vests under their T-shirts. During such a challenging time, nine rappers came together to form the Wu-Tang Clan. They were looking for every opportunity to break out of the slums and start life from scratch.

The organizer and ideological inspirer of the project were Robert Diggs (RZA). It was he who invited his best friends and cousins ​​to unite in a hardcore rap group. Many rappers had not only a pseudonym but also a personal emblem based on the Wu-Tang badge. As for the main logo, it appeared in 1993 overnight. It was developed by Ronald Bean, nicknamed Mathematics, who began painting graffiti in 1991.

The large, stylized “W” that became the emblem was originally a sticker. It resembles the Batman superhero icon in shape because the wide sidelines look like the wings of a bat. As far as we know, the band members adopted it for themselves: Gary Grice (GZA) turned “W” into “G,” and Clifford Smith (Method Man) made “M” out of it. They needed this branding for their solo performances to show their connection to the Wu-Tang Clan. In addition, the “W” has been used as a symbol for the rapper’s Wu Wear clothing line.

Many see the group’s logo as an imprint of Eastern culture because the word “WU-TANG,” located in a horizontal stripe across the letter “W,” is written in Chinese style. And this is no coincidence because the name of the musical group was taken from the Hong Kong film Shaolin and Wu-Tang, the plot of which is built around the martial art of kung fu. Action heroes fought with swords, and RZA compared them to rappers, whose sword is language and word. By analogy, U-God called the Wu-Tang Clan “lyrical assassins.”

It can be said that many of the band members grew up on Eastern philosophy. In the 1970s, foreign films about kung fu were popular among black residents of the United States because white people were not extolled there, and Asians were a symbol of strength. Therefore, for rappers, especially for RZA, the Shaolin temple had a special meaning. He often recalled a Shaolin monk who went on a journey to teach people his martial arts style. In his opinion, the Wu-Tang Clan has a similar story: the group broke out of the slums to show the world their hip-hop style. So it’s no surprise that her logo looks like an icon from a kung fu comic book.

At first, the corporate symbol had to contain a hand with a severed head because it was created for the single “Protect ya Neck.” But RZA and Mathematics agreed unanimously that the drawing was too bloody. Therefore, they abandoned the original idea and left only the letter “W,” which later became a logo.

Someone sees in the image a stylized CD, and to someone, it resembles a bird with large wings or the Batman emblem. RZA has its own opinion on this matter. The group’s founder claimed that “W” is similar to the peaks of the Wudang mountain range, where many Taoist temples and monasteries are located. He saw a giant W-shaped sign when he arrived in Shaolin and climbed the winding roads to Mount Wudang. True, this happened after the logo was created. But RZA found this coincidence very symbolic.

Font and Colors

The word “WU-TANG” that crosses the big “W” is stylized in a Chinese handwritten script. The jagged lines give the impression that the letters were drawn with a brush. This inscription was invented by Ronald Bean (aka Mathematics) when he created various graffiti versions for the icon of the musical group.

The primary color is yellow, although a versatile black and white option work well for placing the logo on light, dark, or colorful backgrounds.

Wu Tang color codes