RZA has made another lucrative deal regarding the Wu-Tang Clan catalog, which includes songs from Enter The Wu-Tang: 36 Chambers and Wu-Tang Forever.
After signing a contract with Hipgnosis Songs for approximately half of his Wu-Tang and solo catalogs in August, RZA and longtime business manager Mitchell “Divine” Diggs (who co-own Wu-Tang Productions) have made another deal, this time with Downtown Music Publishing.
According to a press release, the company will “represent Wu-Tang’s interest in songs from its back catalog of classic albums — as well as select works co-written or produced by individual Wu-Tang Clan members for solo releases, affiliates and other artists.” The writers represented under the deal include Ghostface Killah, GZA, Inspectah Deck, Method Man, the late Ol’ Dirty Bastard, Raekwon, RZA and U-God.
“We are excited to be partnering with Downtown and entrusting them to handle our historic back catalog,” RZA said. “Downtown’s system is ideal for us — they have the global reach and capacity of a ‘major’ while maintaining strong, highly personal relationships with their clients.
“Their customized approach to clientele accompanied with their focus in areas like rights management and distribution make Downtown an ideal partner for Wu-Tang Productions.”
The agreement also includes select solo works by RZA’s Wu-Tang brethren Cappadonna, Ghostface, GZA, Meth and The Chef, as well as other works contributed to by the covered writers, including Alicia Keys, Cardi B, Danny Brown, Drake, Justin Bieber, Lauryn Hill, Logic, Mariah Carey, Mary J. Blige, Mobb Deep, Pete Rock, Rick Ross, Swizz Beatz, The Game, The Pharcyde and Wyclef Jean.
“Wu-Tang Clan isn’t just one of Hip Hop’s most influential groups, it’s an iconic institution in every sense of the word — with a legacy that extends well beyond the realm of music,” CEO of Downtown Music Holdings, parent company of Downtown Music Publishing Justin Kalifowitz said. “As a New Yorker, representing some of East Coast Hip Hop’s most revered legends — whose stories are so ingrained in the culture of our city — is a tremendous honor.”
RZA Sells Off 50 Percent Of His Wu-Tang Clan & Solo Catalogs
Downtown adds the stacked Wu-Tang songbook to its catalog of represented works alongside other prolific legends such as jazz great Miles Davis and composer George Gershwin. Wu-Tang Productions was represented by longtime attorney Tim Mandelbaum of Fox Rothschild, LLP.
As for the deal with Hipgnosis Songs, the company has acquired 814 pieces of work from RZA. Hipgnosis has been buying up catalogs by everyone from Timbaland and Eurythmics’ Dave Stewart to Jack Antonoff and Jeff Bhasker. Between March 2019 and March 2020, the company spent nearly $700 million to acquire 42 catalogs.
Man when you own your masters I tell ya…wu tang still eating just from ownership I’m sure there is a time length on this distribution deal and his lawyer is a Rothschild ..that says a lot. Motivation.
who owns it when they r dead and gone the Music can be used as a programming mechanism.Just thinking of what they may have in mind for the future.
Whatever works I suppose.
700 million buying catalouges when u can download em all in a few hours never made sense to me but above my pay grade 1000 for a million streams cant be making many money & now with no events tuff biz
Streams don’t really have much to do with it. Every time one of those songs gets played on a TV commercial background music before a sporting event , using the songs and other music ,things like that. The company that owns the rights to those songs gets paid. So it said that company has a worldwide reach. So that company will make sure no one uses the content without paying them.
Thats right!!! There is big money in ownership of music catalogs. Otherwise you can rest assure that company wouldn’t be putting out that kind of scratch for music ownership. Just take Michael Jacksons once own catalog of the Beatles music and other greats. MJ purchased that catalog back in the early 1980s right after he put out Thriller so he was laced heavy with cash. He out bided a number of people for ownership of that catalog. Im not sure how much he paid for it but I do know after he passed away his estate sold that catalog for over three quarters of a billion dollars or somewhere in the area of $750,000,000. You can rest assure that Mike made a serious profit from that investment. Well his estate did. His kids got paid!! That catalog caused Mike a great deal of grief many powerful evil bastards did everything they could to get that from him including his share of ownership of Sony Music. Mike was a lot smarter than people know. The powers that be didnt like that a black singer wound up owning a controlling interest of music and company shares. Sorry I went off the subject some but it demonstrates the serious money that comes with owning music catalogs. Well the potential there of…
700Ms between the WU members is fantastic long as every member recieve their fair share.
Wu not getting 700 mil. The company that bought up that part of Wu has spent 700 mil on over 40 different catalogs. Doesn’t specify amount Wu will receive. But it’s a good move the Abbott always working, good move for all them brothers.
This may mean they will need a licence to perform songs from their own catalogue at concerts not that there will be any concerts due to cov 19 lol
RZA is signing to many deals like this one lately. I wonder if he is having financial problems
I hope he is sharing the money right with the rest of the Wu Tang clan???
Im very happy for RZA and Wutang as a whole. I say get that money man while the getting is good. I pray that all members of the Clan get a fair piece of the pie. I’ve seen some articles stating some members suing RZA for unfair dealings etc. Im not exactly sure what the complaints entail but it seems that some of the fellas felt they were being really short changed. I just hope its not the case. Break bread and pass it around. I love Wu-Tang clans music and their legacy. It would be ashamed to have that marred by reports of greed.