Pour leur numéro anniversaire (20 ans d'existence!) le mag Hip-Hop Connection s'offre 3 couvertures differentes, dont une avec RZA!
Extrait :
Where does the Wu-Tang story really begin?
"I was 21. After going through some negative shit in Ohio, about to face eight years in jail and all that... I don't really wanna get into that part. It was an altercation over a woman, and it got out of hand and it got crazy, and it got physical, and it got handguns involved with it. It was self-defence, but at the same time, somebody got hurt. And after that and I didn't get sent to jail, my mother told me, 'This is a second chance: do right.' And I took what she said serious. I had a baby on the way, had a different kind of motivation to me.
"So I left Ohio, went back to New York with $20,000 to my name. It was the bail money that I'd been given back. And I gave ten of that to Ghost. I remember telling Ghost, 'Go on with your life.' 'Cos we were kind of partners. I was like, 'I'm gonna go on with my life, and I'm gonna do some thinking, so you take this and go on with yours.'
"And I walked, miles and miles and miles and miles. For the whole summer. I used to walk around Staten Island, just thinking, thinking, thinking, thinking thinking. And I caught an idea - an idea to make my own record company. An idea to do things. Ghost said he didn't wanna leave my side - so he remained to be around me.
"When I caught the idea, the first thing I did was I called a lawyer I knew, and said, 'I wanna start a record company. I want to get into the music business. Can you help me?' And he charged me a couple o' grand! And he formed a corporation - Wu-Tang Productions."
What was everyone doing at that stage to earn a living?
"Meth worked at the Statue Of Liberty, so did my brother Divine and a cat called Rade Da Ruckus, who was always getting locked up. Him and Meth used to make up all these acronyms. Rade Da Ruckus actually made the word CREAM, for Cash Rules Everything Around Me. Him and Meth would make up shit like Miss THANG – That Ho Ain't No Good, or BIBWAM – Bitch Is Busted Without A Man, and WABA – What A Boomin' Ass. We had a song called 'Mad Flavor' that had all them shits on; that was on my second album I did for Tommy Boy that never got released.
"But yeah, Meth and Rade and them were at the Statue, working as burgers and fries guys. I think Streetlife worked there, U-God worked there, all doing the same kinda thing. GZA always had a job: he was a bike messenger for at least three years. He was making good money though - I think a bike messenger, at that time, they could make up to five, six hundred dollars a week. I was a foot messenger, me and ODB. Like, in Derailed, I played a mail clerk, and the character I played was actually thinking of myself back in those days as a messenger. Dirty would walk in these places with a package and a 40! We got a 40 for breakfast every day, man. That was just us.
"I think Ghost never had a job aside from summer youth program, at 16, where you work for the summer to buy your school clothes and shit. I worked there also: I worked at the pool department. I think Ghost worked picking up garbage.
"I don't think Deck never had a job, because you know, he came home from being a street peddler: Deck did time. Cappa was just, you know, a criminal. Rae... Where did Rae work at? Rae may have did a little... Nah, Rae was a street criminal. Yeah, that's it."
So how did Wu-Tang go from being you and Ghost on 'After The Laughter...' to eight emcees on 'Protect Ya Neck'?
"We did a demo in my house that was called the 'Six Man Symphony'. It was me, Rae, Meth, Streetlife, my man Aysham and I think U-God. It was similar to 'Da Mystery Of Chessboxin'' – '...Chessboxin'' was my attempt to emulate 'Six Man Symphony', which I lost. It was recorded to cassette on a four-tracker in my apartment at Stapleton Projects, but I lost it moving house one time. All the guys got copies, but they don't have it. The one person who may have it somewhere is Rade Da Ruckus.
"I remember Streetlife's lyrics. He was like, 'Let me tell you my name, before you even ask me/First name Pro, last name is Nasty/Son o' my mother, her sister's nephew/Cousin, brother, mother of my...' I loved that rhyme.
"Streetlife wasn't part of Wu when we came out either - I don't know if he was in jail at that time or whatever. But I always held a spot for him, and I always held a spot for Cappadonna. U-God went to jail but he got home in time. We was all Wu-Tang: it was more like a crew of emcees who were wandering around Staten Island. Aysham never made it as a Wu member - he chose the family life.
"We had demos for days back in '91. There was the first 'Ice Cream' song, just Ghost and Method Man, Meth rapping. It wasn't even about girls. That was a neighbourhood hit! Everybody in Staten Island wanted a copy of that.
"Anyway, I was trying to do the 'Six Man Symphony' over, so I set up time in the studio for everyone to come and record a song. But instead of six men, there was eight. There was no Master Killa at that point – he was GZA's student."
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