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While the Wu-Tang Clan insists its new album returns the group to a raw street sound, the first video from "The W" finds the Clan straying far from the streets into a fantasy realm of caveman suits and time travel.

The new Wu album won't arrive until November 21, but on September 16, the nine-member Clan donned furry costumes and rapped along to the party tune "Gravel Pit" on a massive, "Flintstones"-style set made of fake rock, bones, and palm trees to shoot one video for three new songs. Along with "Gravel Pit," the Wu is also cramming the street number "Be Careful" and "Protect Ya Neck (The Jump Off)" into the video, which is expected to clock in at about 10 minutes.

Though Saturday's 100-plus temperatures in Los Angeles forced three of the group's scantily clad dancers off the shoot because of heat exhaustion, all of the Wu-Tang endured, despite the discomfort their costumes added to the sweltering conditions.

I'm

surprised they're not dying on me," director Joseph Kahn (Sisqo, Backstreet Boys) said. "You gotta love it, though. We've got the ghetto Bedrock, and the Wu-Tang are a bunch of pimp 'Flintstone' people, and all of a sudden a kung-fu fight is gonna break out in the middle of it.

All of Wu-Tang's original members participated in the four-day shoot, except troubled co-founder Ol' Dirty Bastard, who is serving time in a court-ordered drug rehab program (see [article id="1429372"]"O.D.B. Progresses In Treatment Program"[/article]). Cappadonna is filling his spot, though Wu-Tang's upcoming album, "The W," will include previously recorded rhymes by O.D.B.

You can catch a lot more on the Wu-Tang Clan on Monday afternoon's premiere edition of "Direct Effect," which will carry an MTV News television report filed from the set of the video. The new daily hip-hop show airs at 5:30 p.m. (ET).

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