In April, after Wu-Tang put out the single “Keep Watch,” Raekwon – a master of grimy drug-rap and the biggest hold-out from A Better Tomorrow – took aim at RZA in an interview with Rolling Stone. RZA publicly called out Raekwon and Ghostface for lack of commitment, and said he needed “more energy” from GZA. As the anniversary of 36 Chambers came and went, A Better Tomorrow was only partly finished. RZA, himself a proficient guitarist, often led the band through the changes himself. He also headed to Royal Studios in Memphis, and hired some of the session men who played on the classic Al Green albums that had been recorded there. with producer and classic-funk guru Adrian Younge.
In early 2013, RZA began work on new Wu-Tang songs, doubling down on his organic approach to production: Instead of sampling old R&B songs, as he had on early Wu-Tang records, he would make his own vintage-flavored tracks from scratch. (That one – called Once Upon a Time in Shaolin – goes up for auction in the near future RZA has said the group received a $5 million offer for it.) Released in 1993, Enter the Wu-Tang: 36 Chambers established the Wu as hip-hop’s wildest, most talented collective, a nine-man crew steeped in kung-fu movies, mystagogic symbology and Staten Island’s drug trade. The more RZA thought about the anniversary, the more ways he thought of to celebrate it: a world tour, “refurbishing” the Wu-Wear clothing line, maybe even a new Wu-themed comic book and video game. Eventually, the group decided to make two different new albums: A Better Tomorrow, as well as a second record that the group would release in one copy and one copy only. So I told them, ‘You’re my brothers forever, but I will never do business with you again.'”īut a few years ago, as the 20th anniversary of the group’s debut album approached, RZA began to think about reconvening the Wu.
At the next group meeting, RZA says, “There was a strong verbal attack on me. Only Inspectah Deck and Method Man showed up. Things came to a head after RZA invited the entire Wu-Tang Clan to the premiere of American Gangster, in which he had a key role. 'Silence of the Lambs': The Complete Buffalo Bill Story Even as Raekwon told fans to go out and buy 8 Diagrams, he called RZA a “hip-hop hippie” (not a compliment) and admitted the album “could’ve been stronger.”īlack Sabbath on the Making of 'Vol. In the mid-2000s, relations within the Wu-Tang Clan turned especially ugly: RZA faced lawsuits from both Ghostface Killah and U-God for unpaid funds (the Ghostface suit was settled U-God’s was voided, according to RZA), and he was accused of diluting the group’s sound with his live-instrument-based production (“Shit is wack,” Ghostface said of 8 Diagrams). There was a time when it looked like there might never be another Wu-Tang album at all. “Making our last album was difficult,” says RZA, referring to 2007’s 8 Diagrams. As so often happens when the Wu talk to (or about) one another, gripes flew: Inspectah Deck was irked RZA had told the MCs what to rhyme about on the album Raekwon refused to appear in the video for a new single. The Wu-Tang Clan leader just got off a marathon conference call with the rest of the group, who are getting ready to release A Better Tomorrow, their first album in seven years. RZA stares out the window of a room at the Soho Grand hotel in New York, looking a little weary.