Following the release of Wu-Tang Clan’s A Better Tomorrow album this month, frontman RZA spoke with NME to discuss the much-publicized opposition he faced from various Wu members during the making of the project.
“I’ll level with you, the chemistry’s not all that good right now,” RZA says. “We’ve all done this long enough to know this process isn’t just like, you make an album, then that’s that. It’s like a presidential campaign. You don’t just make the policies then sit back. You create your platform, then you gotta take it to out to the people…It’s like there’s an energy in the group that stops people enjoying their own success. They gotta sabotage it.”
Later in the conversation, RZA likened the album to a child that’s born “with one arm,” saying, “You gonna love that child, make the best out of that situation and help it have the best life it can.”
RZA also spoke on the purpose of the newly released album.
“The goal was always to change hearts and touch souls, man,” RZA says. “It’s like that from the minute you get it in your hands, from the cover. That’s an imagined city where everyone’s culture is respected. We got the Eiffel Tower. The Hollywood Hills. We got you guys’ wheel. It hit me that I thought the world had got better. But really, it had just got better for me, not for others.”
For additional RZA coverage, watch the following DX Daily:
If this group could stop being so dysfunctional, if RZA stuck to the original formula with his beats, and the clan supported each other to make that hot shit again…that would be a better tomorrow.
Basically
It’s not fair to place all the weight on RZA, who is the glue keeping this group together. Of all the members, he’s the most accomplished, savvy, and intelligent. He holds the most power in the group, and for some members like Raekwon and Ghost, that’s a tough pill to swallow. All the beats in the world can’t maintain the harmony of eight grown members with independent careers and agendas (nine if you count Cap).
That won’t happen in this lifetime, they are a collection of solo artists now that does not need to come together out of necessity (money) anymore. They feel they can make it on their own without WU Wear,Tours and albums. They already did that during the boom period of the mid and late 90s and some money got F’d around they feel. I liked about 5-6 tracks on the album, in fact it started out promising but had some mid sequence and ending issues. With all the issues they had just making the album and putting it out, its unfair to expect a classic at the end of the day. I thought it was a step up from 8 diagrams but nothing that will be in heavy rotation for me.
RZA is supremely intelligent, never disputed that. Every member in the clan is still sharp lyrically as well. The issue seems to be 2 things. First is the lack of unity/support for each other and secondly is creative differences/production of beats. RZA is trying to incorporate live instrumentals and writing music because he has grown as a musician. However that is not the Wu-Tang formula. The formula that made them the artists they are today was those grimey, aggressive, kung fu style beats along with the competitive rap environment each member set for each other lyrically. There was no public beefing either, they each supported each other. I want to see that for my own selfish reasons, but I want to see this group thrive again as well because they are still unbelievably talented. I’m hoping there is more left in the tank for the WU, but I’m not liking what I’m reading about not all is well within the clan.
this is the most educated post/ responses I have ever seen on hiphopdx
I still bump Wu-Tang Clan Forever double disc.
Album had some decent tracks..very sporadic tho. My WU fix is that 36 season. Ghost the only one still keeping that flag waving
RZA act like the doting dad of the Wu, but he doesn’t seem to realize that as a father, your role has to shift eventually. He seems to think the Wu exists at his whim and plesure, but the dynamic needs to grow up. Nobody wants to hear RZA’s musical growth ft. everybody else. They wanna hear the Wu.
Quite well said!
nobody cares about these washed up late 90s hasbeens. foh
Your homosexual Lil Wayne groupie. Go kill yourself.
He’s gotta point tho. These guys aren’t nearly as good as they used to be. The Wu hasn’t had a classic joint since “Triumph” dropped back in 1997. The whole genre of hip-hop/rap is a joke.
ghostface killah just performed in australia on the back of a flat bed truck outside a grilled cheese shop called toastface grillah
HAHAHAHA
irrelevent shine drakes shoes
Wash Drake’s drawers, homo.
this about to be 2015 and drake been running the rap game for a long time now. Drake is the king of this rap shit and these old heads can only revive their carreers by getting drake features. These hasbins should beg drake to revive their irrelevent carreers but they too broke to afford drake features.
Drake is a crying female.
rza always said at first wu was a dictatorship. but it ain’t that time no more. i’m sure those guys got one last good wu album in them but it will never happen with the way the ship is ran. this is not a g unit situation, where 50 humiliated those guys in public and they ran back to his side as soon as he snapped his fingers
Luck they have such a powerful catalog like Wu Tang Forever, 36 Chambers etc… Been able to survive some pretty mediocre albums and still highly anticipated
NEW MC EIHT ALBUM COVER FOR WHICH WAY IZ WEST ON EIHT’S TWITTER PAGE GEEAH IT’S A COMPTON THANG . BE ON THE LOOKOUT FOR THE STREIHT UP MENACE , ONE TIME GAFFLED EM UP BECUZ IT’S THICKER THAN WATER BABY ME AND YOU GEEAAAAAH 8 HYPE IS IN THE HOUSE WAKE YO PUNK AZZ UP GEEEEAAH
Rza fucked the chemistry wi his bullshit beats, wu new album shuda sound like what ghostface just put out
exactly…RZA suckin the life outta wu tryin to be artsy and shit…Rae, Ghost, Deck still out there killin it…and smh at all these new age music fans theres NO message
Hip-hop has changed. It does every 10 years because the new listeners always think their generation is the best but they don’t realized if Wu-tang did not pave the way there would be no Drake, Kendrick Lamar, etc.. By Homage to the greats. Wu-Tang 36 Chambers will crush about 90% of the new music today. I’m just saying pay respect. This new album might not be good but it will probably be better then 50% of what’s out there today.
Dear RZA: You suck. Why put out albums only to trash them 2 weeks later? No shit you guys don’t get along, we’ve been hearing it for 10 years now. You are the Abbot yet you have no connection with Hip Hop. Your beats are uninspiring trash that lead to uninspired lyrics. How it is even possible to continuously work with some of the most talented artists in Hip Hop history yet put out such sub-par material album after album? The first stage of your career is an untouchable legacy that we all hold in the highest regard and of course some failure to live up to the lofty standards you set for yourself over the first 5-6 years is expected…but you are permanently tarnishing the Wu Tang Legacy with each subsequent foray into musical “experimentation.”
i respect these guys. it’s been about 15 years since thy were great, but still living off that. how can you hate on that? times and sounds have changed, but you know there’s always gonna be something for them old heads at least.
The Wu tang album is banging to me. I’m missing the point.
niggas in the wu arent even about it anymore thats what hes saying.
On the real, don’t be disrespectful dude. And Like I said, the Wu album is banging to me. I’m missing the point.
stfu bitch ass nigga ill say what i want and you aint gon do shit about it
I like the album. It’s not 36 Chambers or Forever and nobody should expect that. But it’s a solid piece of hip hop music. I’d say 3-3.5 outta 5. Not classic but solid.
I think the solo work is better now. Deck sounds great on Czarface w/ 7L & Esoteric and features, and Ghost is just consistent.
I think as a group they just grew apart and it doesn’t seem that they really support one another anymore. Shame really.