Wu-Tang Clan will play the final show of its last-ever ‘Final Chamber’ tour in Philadelphia
The Staten Island hip-hop collective's decades-long touring career will have its finale at the Wells Fargo Center
Fresh off hip-hop’s first-ever Las Vegas residency, the Wu-Tang Clan announced its final tour, “Wu-Tang Forever: The Final Chamber,” on Monday.
The 27-date concert run, which will take place in venues across North America, will kick off in Baltimore on June 6 and conclude on July 18 at the Wells Fargo Center.
The Wu’s final show in Philly will be the first since its 2019 stop at Franklin Music Hall to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the group’s landmark debut, Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers). “Back in the day, when Wu-Tang was getting off the ground, Philadelphia was the second biggest market for the group after New York,” Inquirer music critic Dan DeLuca wrote in his review.
“You’ll see all of us together and that may be the last time you see us all together in the physical,” Wu-Tang Clan leader RZA told the New York Times. “You might watch us on TV, but we’re not coming to your city again. We want you to come break bread with us.”
The tour, the New York Times reported, will mark the group’s biggest road show as the headlining act. All surviving members of the iconic collective will hit the stage, including group architect RZA, Raekwon, GZA, Ghostface Killah, Method Man, Inspectah Deck, U-God, Masta Killa, and Cappadonna. Young Dirty Bastard will perform in place of his father, Ol’ Dirty Bastard, who died in 2004. Hip-hop duo Run The Jewels will serve as the opening act.
RZA said the upcoming tour wraps up a “five-plus-year plan of legacy-building for the Clan,” starting with the 2019 documentary Wu-Tang Clan: Of Mics and Men, which then led to Hulu drama series American Saga and the band’s 2022 “New York State of Mind” concert tour with Nas.
The plan’s second chapter culminated in a Las Vegas residency, and will close out with the group’s final tour. “It all was part of a plan,” RZA told the New York Times’ music podcast, The Popcast hosts Jon Caramanica and Joe Coscarelli. “We’ve been blessed to be on course.”
“The Wu-Tang have always regarded Philadelphia as a home away from Shaolin, as they renamed their native New York borough [of Staten Island],” DeLuca noted in his 2019 review.
Six years later, the group will be welcomed by an arena-sized swarm of hip-hop heads, and waves of W-shaped signals from the Wells Fargo crowd.
Tickets for the “The Final Chamber Tour” go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday on Ticketmaster.