Who talked about the decline of the Wu ?
The 8 members of the Clan are back with 8 diagrams, an album labelled as “a return to the source.”
Actually a whole lot of things are in preparation in the Wu family, RZA is currently working on his “Digi Snacks” his next album, GZA is working on a DVD with exclusive footages on the Wu family dating back to the early 90’s to nowadays, Raekwon is working on his next solo, Ghostface is working on his next solo and… a book !
They might be seen as veterans but they sure ain’t ready to retire yet!
The Wu Tang Clan was in Paris for a concert and we had a little chat with Ghostface and RZA right before they got on stage.
Here’s what they have to say.
TRACE TV: Can you tell us about your upcoming album 8 diagrams?
Ghostface: Ya’ll gonna find the real Wu Tang on this album.
We’re going back to the basics, we’re back with something new, something different, it’s gonna be just like when we first came out with 36 Chambers.
We trying to bring back the sound and the lyrical texture we were dealing with when we first came out.
TRACE TV : You guys have influenced soo many people, now I wonder who influenced you when you were growing up
Ghostface : Growing up I was listening to people like Slick Rick, Doug E fresh, Fat boys, Biz Markie, Kool G Rap, Rakim, Big Daddy Kane, Ol’school artists. I got a lot of respect for old school artists man! Back then it was something else… NYC was the mecca of Hip Hop, I’m talking about 86, 87 untill the early 90’s it was strong!
And when I joined the Wu these brothers influenced me. The first was RZA, then GZA, Method Man, Raekwon, they all inspired me… That was a blessing to be around these guys!
TRACE TV : Tell us about the changes/evolution in the way you write :
Ghostface : We’re growing…We ain’t kids anymore.
I wanna music people can really relate to, I wanna talk about real stuff ‘cause I ain’t got time to play anymore!
I wanna talk about our women, our men that are fucking up
I don’t wanna talk about selling crack ‘cause that’s not my life anymore…
We have to rap about to take care of our women, why is it that our women want to party all the time. Why is it that we live this crazy lifestyle, then we end up with diabetes and stuff…
We gotta tell our brothers, they don’t have to be high all the time!
That’s the kind of things I talk about I my raps now, real shit!
Things we deal with on a daily basis.
TRACE TV : Tell us about life within the Wu Tang. The conflicts… ?
RZA : Well in every familly there are conflicts.
Matter of fact we started with conflcts…
Cause some of us are from Brooklyn, some of us from Staten Island and these neighbourhood were always in conflicts.
But we decided to come together and erase all that, we decided to create a new force, a new entity, and that’s what we did.
And now, we’ve known each other for so long, that when we do have conflicts, it’s minute.
It’s like having an argument with your girlfriend over te phone but when you see her, you want to make love to her. You know what I mean
TRACE TV : Money in the Wu Familly ?
RZA : We have made a lot of money but you know how it is…
It ain’t enough though, it ain’t never enough.
Because time goes by and you have bills to pay, we all have bills to pay
TRACE TV : RZA since you are the mastermind of the family tell us about the evolution of the Wu Tang from 36 Chambers to 8 diagrams ?
RZA : Well it’s simple, with the Wu Tang , we came from boys to men in a way.
Now the thing about the Wu is that we’ve always been organized.
When I started this thing, the plan was to make us successful, rich nad famous.
I think we made it
With “Wu Tang forver” we got the number one spot in Europe and in the States.
Then we all went on to focus on our solo careers, and we lost a little bit of our energy in the process but when we got back with “W” it was a strong album…
But then we separated again…
And got back for “Iron Flag” but this time the label had a problem. Sony took over LOUD and they stopped the project in the beginning, so the album was great but the label messed up so it didn’t sell as much as it should have.
But the process continues, Method Man is now a mega movie star, Ghostface is signed on Def Jam, I became myself a movie composer, Masta killah came out on his own label.
And now, 10 years after the peak, we’re back to revitalize it
36 chambers was the foundation
Wu Tang forever was the high point, the ceiling
And now with 8 diagrams, we bring it back to the same level, we extend the house…
TRACE TV : Musical Production ?
RZA : Well you know I usually do all the productions myself
But on this album, I wanted to try something different. So I decided to come up with collaborations between different producers.
That’s the first time it happens and I’m really happy about it ‘cause sometimes you forget where you learned from.
Even myself at some point I forgot who I learnt from, we all have our ego, it’s a natural thing…But on this album since I wanted to go back to the basics i really wanted to work with the people who inspired me…
The first person I learned from as far as production is concerned is Easy Mo bee.
So I really wanted to do something with him, he’s present on the album.
The first producer to have samples with vocals was Marley Marl… He is also on the album.
We also have the producer of the the first hit in Hip Hop “Rapper’s delight”
Now if you go to the West Coast, who is the ambassador of the West Coast sound ? Dr Dre right ? And who infeluenced him ? George Clinton right ?
Well George Clinton is working on the album.
Now it’s not over we have Danny Harrison the son of George Harrsion from the Beattles who is also gonna be involved in the album…
That’s how powerful this album is !
You know what i mean ?!Can’t nobody mess with us!
SN
