At last night’s (May 15) 2013 Rock The Bells announcement, HipHopDX spoke to Wu-Tang Clan founding member U-God. The Staten Island, New Yorker will take the stage with his Wu brethren on this summer’s tour. DX asked the golden-arms emcee about his longtime affiliate Shyheim, and reports from Jay-Z’s Decoded book that “da Rugged Child” was initially planned to appear on 1996 Reasonable Doubt deep cut, “Coming Of Age.” Due to Sha’s mid-’90s incarceration while signed to Virgin/EMI Records, he would be replaced on the song by Jay’s longtime protege Memphis Bleek.
“Let me say one thing about [Shyheim]: I raised that little nigga,” explained U-God. “[The] streets raised him too, and I always told him: ‘You could always tell kids certain things in the streets, but it’s on them to carry it out.’ To me, he just got around the wrong crowd of niggas and succumbed to the bullshit. That’s a problem with our people…we self-destruct. He don’t even know that’s the environment he in, and sometimes that’s all a person really got, but that’s not really all you have. He made wrong choices that led him to that situation.”
While legal woes in the 1990s may have shorted Shyheim’s career, especially given his onetime mentorship by Big Daddy Kane, Jay-Z and U-God, those issues are still prevalent in the Shaolin emcee’s life. “You know he back locked up again right?,” pointed U-God of last month’s drug raid that may send Shyheim back to federal prison. “The craziest situation is I don’t even really think [the drugs are] his, ’cause I know how the hood is arranged. I could just look at it and say heat is in the crib and this was there in the crib. You in the crib, sharing it with four or five different mothafuckas who just living and eating; that don’t mean it’s yours…so I understand the whole situation.” While Shyheim has professed his innocence and criticized the New York Police Department’s tactics in an exclusive interview with HipHopDX, U-God asserts that no matter the outcome, there are bigger concerns. “People don’t really understand that poverty shit. Where you goin’ with the struggles…where your hardships are and he livin’ with three four brothers eatin’, and [they] might be sellin weed over here and he might be workin’. He might on some crazy psycho shit; it’s a mixture of nigga shit. I pray for the god, man. I hope he make it through the hardship he goin’ through right now… that shit fucks me up. That’s my little nigga, man. I seen that boy grow up. He love that gangsta shit, he do.”
The Rock The Bells 2013 tour begins in Southern California on September 13, and runs through October.
Additional Reporting by Jake Paine
RELATED: Shyheim Reacts To Drug Raid Arrest, Criticizes NYPD & Maintains His Innocence
Free shyhiem
“little nigga”
The Worst Nigga To Ever Come Out Of Wu-Tang Clan Reflects On A Irrelevant Nigga’s Recent Arrest, Blames Enviroment & Choices
Fuck you. U-God is fucking cool and always will be. Lookin well baby u! Golden Arms!
golden arms got bars
His performances on Wu albums have always been dope as fuck, even if his solo stuff wasn’t quite as dope.
DO YOU MEAN SURROUNDINGS??
OR DID HE GET ARRESTED DUE TO GLOBAL WARMING???
Environment – The surroundings or conditions in which a person, plant, or animal operates.
You pretentious prick…
Ethered.
…..lol….
this nigga straight from star trek.
i be tongue kissing vultures
he look like dr dre though
GIVE ME A CHANCE
Youtube is all about finding new artist, & though I been rapping for a while im still consider a new artist. I just want my music heard thats all, im not looking for no record deal, getting famous ‘r anything like that.! so please just spare a few sec. to check me out, & if you like what you heard please SUBSCRIBE so ill know you actually listen & support
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzBh55tD_eg
the nigga is out on bail right now, how could U God not know that?….
Shyheim ft Big L – ‘furious anger’, one of my favorite tracks, Big L just ripps it, Shyheim was lucky to have big L on that
U-god talking bullshit about environment, I heard 50 cent say something similar, go work in the docks if u really need to survive
you have no clue
Got damn bruh i see it like this if you never made a record or had a movement such as Wu-tang Clan shut the fuck up U-god may not have been method Man or Raekwon but he was a part of a collective that changed the face of hiphop. negative remarks show that you aint happy with yourself stop talking down it doesnt make you no better. U-god has made a name for himself what have you done?
Someone break out a violin.
Can U-God possibly be more eloquent? There comes a point in life when it’s time to converse like a grown man.
U-God that dude
Shyheim should have gone to barber school when he had the chance instead of playing at low level hustler, who’s worth is ZERO, toally disposable pawn nigga, just like the rest.
well u-god if you claim you raised shyheim then you did a real bad job my nigga
Did you read the full article? He went on to say a teacher can only teach, the student makes the choices. smh @ you.
U God, you’re a terrible pretend parent.
“He went on to say a teacher can only teach, the student makes the choices”
So U God was a teacher now? lol He was a lowlife who looked after a lowlife.
Stfu maggot u dnt know shit
Shyheim still releasing nice music if u check it out. U God too his new album gna be hardd