RZA was at the 2015 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) to check out the latest gadgets and to promote Wu-Tang Bombotix speaker.
He sat down with The Verge to give more details on the Wu-Tang Clan’s pay scale.
“I put myself on the lower tier,” RZA says, “because I don’t agree with the concept. I said, let’s go with the lower tier, and I’ll stay here for a year, and you upper-tier guys go get yours.”
RZA goes on to say the pay scale hasn’t worked because the upper tier hasn’t been satisfied.
“The upper tier started wanting to go a little upper,” he says. “There’s no end to it once you start something like that.”
He says that he hopes the pay scale ends soon because he sees all the members of the Wu-Tang Clan as equals. However, he wants to respect the process.
“It’s a democracy so I go with the votes,” he says.
In November, RZA spoke with HipHopDX first about the pay scale.
“When it penetrated I was like, ‘Yo, that really don’t make no sense,’” he said. “In that case just give me the most money. If you wanna just go stupid like that. But what I’ma do with that?”
RZA also discusses the secret Wu-Tang album, The Wu: Once Upon a Time in Shaolin. He confirms that the highest offer was $5 million, but Wu-Tang Clan has given the album to auction house Paddle8.
“These are a group of guys that see the vision of what we’re doing,” he says. “They respect the idea of music being returned to art. That’s the most important thing about anything we do. If you collaborate with somebody that understands your vision, then the vision can be achieved.”
For additional Wu-Tang Clan coverage, watch the following DX Daily:
these irrelevant broke bums need to quit. Lol like anyone would even pay over 10 dollars for their garbage. I feel sorry for the 10 fans that this putang clan has left. These hasbins need to realize this is 2015. In 2015 only drake matters in hiphop. Drake is the face of rap and all these other rappers need a drake feature to be relevent.
Wrong, wrong,wrong, wrong, wrong, and wrong. It’s 2015. Stop trolling,
hasbins? or has-beens?
Who is Drake? Isn’t that a type of duck or something?
Even Drake knows Wu-Tang is Forever : )
You type all that with Drake’s dick in your mouth?
these wu niggas need to retire, that kung fu gibberish was hot in 97 and thats a long time ago.
You f’ing nerds lol. Id listen to Rakewon and Ghostface, Method Man ANY DAY over all these new so called “artists”.
Fruity loops
Ghostface solo albums have obliterated anything wu tang clan has released since Forever raekwon did his thing too but ghost always had the best verses on them joints
Wutang is for the children.
And they are adults now and moved on from Wu Tang’s music.
I bet it was Raekwon’s idea. We ALL know who was involved in arguing for that upper tier and we all know GZA was in the middle.
lol these old kung fu niggas still rapping about guns and money. Get a life! Retire old men. It aint 1993 anymore its 2015
But that black dick in your mouth will not make you black
wu tang is forever
ZOOOOO!!!
It’s suuuuu, not zoooo you idiot, get it right.
i feel like rza is one of the only ppl who care about that.this article shows him
so sad that wu has so many walls they have to go through to make something… in a way the members are right to want what they want, but rza must have so much trouble dragging projects along… even emotionally! it’s unrealistic to ask so much of him, n’ b’cuz like, rae or ghost could never do what he does… meth n gza would’t even want to either, and I know inspectah’s pretty much cool with going along with projects… rae n ghost probably are the best, but they’re making it hard for it to work.
Selling an album to some rich guy is not returning music to art, its the music itself that makes it art not the monetary value
and yeah its sad they have this tier system, I guess they’re treating it like battle rap where they have their ‘top tiers’
“If I got twenty, my brother gets ten”…what happened to that?
But I do understand why Ghost and Rae are disgruntled. For some reason, they just have more of a grasp of what SOUNDS good and what the fans want to hear. Rza is my mothafucka, but he’s out of touch, I ain’t gonna lie. That shit he thinks is musically groundbreaking is boring and weak. I’d rather hear his weird experimental Bobby Digital shit than this new live instrument garbage. At least the weird shit is interesting. It’s like he has too much equipment and resources now, and doesn’t know what to do with all of it. He’d be better off in a small studio, with basic production equipment. Everyone in the Clan seems to understand that except Rza. The ‘lower tier’ members probably don’t say shit ’cause they know they don’t have a leg to stand on. But the members who are still doing well in their solo careers (Rae & Ghost, basically) don’t want to put out a weak product that their name is attached to. Those beats that are on Rae and Ghosts albums are beats that all of us wish were on the Wu-Tang album, and that Wu-Tang album is something we all wish would have been better, let’s face it. I’ve met a couple Wu apologists that have said they like the album, but I haven’t met one person sincerely impressed with it. I say all this as a lifelong Wu fan. Out of respect for them, I can’t just co-sign anything they do. That’s like not checkin’ your boy when you know he’s slippin’. Peace.
“But the members who are still doing well in their solo careers (Rae and Ghost, basically) don’t want to put out a weak product that their name is attached to. Those beats that are on Rae and Ghosts albums are beats that all of us wish were on the Wu-Tang album”… did you hear Immobiliarity? That frisbee contradicts everything you’ve just said.
wu-massacre is looked down upon & it’s that album with the “top tier” wu & different beatmakers. bunch of yall just weak minded & start believing the fallacies, that’s all
“Immobilarity” is a dope album. “Yae Yo”, “Casablanca”, “My Favorite Dread”, “Friday”, “Sneakers”, “Live from NY”, “The Table”, “100 Rounds”, “Heart to Heart”, “Real Life”….ALL dope songs. You never even heard that shit, stop frontin’.
these assholes should just be glad they have any fans left to buy their shit. I mean you had a great run but now its over. So what you should do is make some fuckin music for your fans and quit acting like bitches. Cause in ten years you gonna wish you made more money.
How did they decide who’s on each tier? I guess Rza put himself lower, but i can’t imagine any one of them being like, “yeah you are better than me, ok, i deserve less.”
And if your peers agree you are not top tier, how inspired are you? And, if one of those “top tiers” record some unmotivated bullshit (which is what that album sounds like), how you feel?
You can hear how they feel about the pay scale in their music. Sadly, its over…
Besides Method Man, Ghost & The Chef all these cats can fall off. Especially Rza….what the fuck happened to you Bobby???