RZA Says Recording With Wu-Tang Clan Is ‘Rare’ But Does Happen — Even Without Him

RZA has revealed that Wu-Tang Clan still records as a group, though it’s just a more infrequent occurrence than it once was.

In an interview with The Tor Guide on Hip Hop Nation shared on Monday (December 11), the Wu leader explained to host Torae that packed schedules makes it harder for the guys to come together — as they’re all superstars now — but where there’s a will, there’s a way.

“It’s rare. It’s getting rarer because of schedules, because of life, because of being fathers and movie stars and business men,” he explained. “But it happens. And the good thing is that whether it happens with me, it still happens. Mathematics – his production skill is razor sharp so we could just pop up and he’ll hit us with a joint. DJ Scratch just dropped a couple of joints off; Swizz Beatz dropped a couple of joints off.”

He continued: “In the old days, I was very dominant like, ‘This all my beats.’ And that’s because in the old days, I didn’t feel that other producers were giving the Hip Hop type of beat that I thought was dope for Wu.

“If you pay attention to Hip Hop and you listen to Wu, one thing you may recognize is that a Wu joint will come on and nobody will dance — everybody listen. And it’s because I don’t want you to dance, I want you to listen. And that means that while a lot of producers was producing for the club and trying to make people dance and produce a radio hit, I was producing for Hip Hop.”

You can view the clip below:

While fans may not be getting a ton of Wu-Tang Clan music these days, they certainly are seeing the guys all over. As a group, they just wrapped a U.S. tour with Nas and De La Soul, and individually, everyone is involved in a ton of different things.

Method Man is flourishing in his acting career and currently stars in the Power spin-off, Power Book II: Ghost.

Over the summer, Raekwon began construction on a marijuana dispensary in New Jersey — and he also got married with fellow Clansmen RZA and Ghostface Killah in attendance.

Ghostface Killah is in his writing bag and recently revealed plans to release his memoir next year. Rise Of A Killah, described as a “visual record and a real-feel narrative of a performer’s life” per a new press release, will be published by Macmillan in 2024.

And all of the Wu-Tang Clan helped oversee the recent series, Hulu’s Wu-Tang: An American Saga — which RZA believes “pioneered” Hip Hop TV shows thanks to its success.

“[Wu Tang: An American Saga] is what Wu-Tang really represents, which is always moving something forward. This is why you see 30 hours of TV from us, instead of two hours of a movie,” RZA said in an interview earlier this year.

“We got a great movie from N.W.A., Straight Outta Compton. That was a beautiful movie. They pioneered the Hip Hop biopic, and we got to thank them for that, but we pioneered the Hip Hop series, a new chapter — the same way, when Wu-Tang came in 1993 into the industry, we pioneered a new wave, a new sound, and a new part of the culture that was unseen.”

Wu-Tang: An American Saga debuted in September 2019, and concluded after three seasons in April 2023. The acclaimed series has won a pair of Golden Reel Awards, while RZA notched a nomination for a Primetime Emmy in the Outstanding Original Main Title Theme Music category.