Following the feud and subsequent reconciliation between Wu-Tang Clan and Raekwon, Ghostface Killah was asked about new Wu work.
“They finishing it right now,” Ghostface says of a Wu album in an interview with Complex. “Raekwon, he threw his flag in and said, ‘Fuck it. I’ma do it.'”
For Ghost, this was an important moment because he felt the group had to “work it out.”
“You got to because it’s a family,” he says. “All we wanna do is make it right. It’s been 20 years. The fans want the music but you have to be right. I don’t wanna just give y’all something and I’m not comfortable with it because when the fans start talkin’ shit or say what they say, then it’s like I’m responsible for it because I signed off on it.
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“You can’t really get mad at it because look at all the groups you know that was from back then,” Ghost adds. “They replace them with new members and some niggas die off. That’s what happens. So, to try to keep this family together, yo, it’s fuckin’ hard, man. We love each other, but love and business is two different things. You gotta understand. We’re men now. We ain’t coming in on some Fat Albert And The Gang shit like we did early on. We got heads on our shoulders now. We got babies. Some of us is grandparents. So, you gotta make sure your foundation is right. Wu-Tang is the foundation.
“We love each other,” he adds. “Love ain’t going nowhere. Wu-Tang is forever, like we said.”
In May, Wu-Tang Clan announced a truce between Raekwon and RZA. This followed several comments from both regarding a potential reconciliation.
In April, RZA discussed his relationship with Rae.
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“I wanna clear one thing up on the Raekwon thing because the newest article in Rolling Stone, Raekwon says that I’m a bold-face liar, right? Which I’m far from,” RZA said at the time. “I don’t need to lie. Okay, I’m a grown man…But what happened was I did an interview a few weeks ago that just came out later. And I guess when it came out, he read it then, but I spoke to Raekwon about eight days ago. But the interview was probably 14 or 16 days ago. So, he says in his interview ‘RZA’s a liar. He spoke to me.’ No, when I did the interview brother, I didn’t speak [to you]. I hadn’t spoken to him in six months before that. Until recently. Last time I saw that brother was on tour in the summer. So, we didn’t get a chance to chop up the ideas of what I’m trying to do.
“But then we did speak a few days ago,” RZA added. “About six, seven days ago. And he gave me his demands. Which we presented to the company. Like ‘Yo, this is his demands.’ If they can be reached they can be reached. It they can’t they can’t. And if they can’t then we gotta reevaluate what we’re gonna do. But it was no lying there. And the only thing I would say is that I would respect if—like when I read something that Rae say I don’t really take it as if he said it cause he didn’t say it to me. I don’t know what these writers write…So, I wanted to say to all our Wu brothers that we should never take this press and media on face value. We can easily reach out to each other and get the facts. Don’t read the facts. Hear it right from the source.”
Also in April, RZA spoke about Raekwon not working with Wu-Tang.
“There’s two things that’s going on,” RZA said at the time. “Let me be clear with you so you can put this out. There’s an album called Once Upon A Time In Shaolin that will be a single piece of art in a beautiful encasing. That belongs in a museum or art gallery. That’s where it belongs. And then there’s another album that belongs to the consumers called A Better Tomorrow. And that belongs to the consumers because it’s a celebration of Wu-Tang and their fans. And Raekwon has not been participating with that particular record. I haven’t had a chance to really talk to him about why not. All I see is the press going back and forth. But I would say that maybe creatively we on different paths. I’m creatively different than I was in the ‘90s.”
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