RZA Talks to Rick Rubin About His Current Relationship With Wu-Tang
Written by SOURCE on June 10, 2020
On Tuesday, the newest episode of the Broken Record podcast, featuring RZA and Rick Rubin was uploaded onto YouTube. The pair talked for slightly more than an hour. The discussion stretched through a number of topics (more on that below), but for this particular sell, we’ll focus on RZA’s update on where he currently stands with the rest of the Wu-Tang Clan.
As it turns out, despite a pending lawsuit, everybody’s happy with one another. How could that be you maybe ask? Well, according to the icon himself, it’s because they’re far closer than your typical group, and they can separate their business and personal affairs.
“Always at peace, always at peace,” he said when he was asked about his relationship with the rest of the group. “We are a brotherhood. Look, my best example Rick is that I got a lawsuit, U-God is suing me, right? And this lawsuit has been going on for three years. And we were in Australia, last year. They did a Wu-Tang tour in Australia [at] the Syndey Opera House, and he gets there and his credit card isn’t working.
“So I took my credit card, put him in a suite, and took care of everything for him. And then GZA‘s like ‘Only Wu could do that. This ni**a’s suing you, and you’re feeding him and lending him money.’ I said [that’s] business, I love this man.’ I love my brothers, man.”
That’s when he opined that the difference between Wu and other artists is their abnormally tight bond.
“We have that love for each other,” he added. “And I think our parents would be proud that this was a community. Wu-Tang wasn’t just a bunch of guys…a lot of these bands, maybe two guys know each other.
“This is a group of men who, at minimum, [have] 25-30 year relationships. Me and Raekwon go back to the third grade (…) and that part of it permeates and seems to trump anything else.”
Here’s that answer intentionally cut out for easier consumption (though it doesn’t come until around the 38-second mark):
RZA also talked about what he’s been doing in quarantine (spoiler: a lot of work), when he enjoyed producing the most, and the origins of Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers).
Here’s the official sell from the YouTube page that does a lot better job than I just did:
In an extended cut of their interview, Rick Rubin checks in with RZA on Zoom and finds out he’s been peaking creatively while in quarantine. Their wide-ranging conversation covers RZA’s first experiences with hip-hop, ODB’s parkour-like skills as a child, the spontaneity of classic Wu-Tang recording sessions, and how RZA almost gave up all of his earthly possessions to live with monks in China’s Wudang Mountains.
If that doesn’t intrigue you, not sure what will. If you have an hour and nine minutes you can watch the entire episode below:
