I just finished Raekwon's book and here are some of my thoughts. This is from Rae's perspective, so of course there is bias, but he provides a lot of evidence to back up his claims. I'll put my thoughts in a spoiler.
The Wu was never as close as we thought 
. They've basically been broken up since Wu-Tang Forever. They don't hang out, not even Rae and Ghost. Everything they've done since Forever has been about getting a check. Their hearts haven't been in any group album since 36 chambers.
Most, if not all, of the Wu thinks RZA fell off beat wise. They haven't really felt anything since around 96-97. Most have been begging him to let other producers work on the albums, but RZA won't allow it. They wanna know how Wu would sound over primo beats, dre beats, or other legendary producers. RZA won't sample much anymore cuz he doesn't wanna pay royalties.
Most of the core Wu doesn't really fukk with the affiliates. They want them to succeed, but feel like they watered down the brand. Rae hated seeing artists he'd never met claiming Wu-Tang.
Raekwon respected the hell out of RZA, and his opinion and validation meant more to him than anyone else in the world.
Rae always just wanted to see the paperwork of how budgets and money is distributed, but Divine and RZA refused to ever show him. When he refused to do shows, the clan still got the same amount of money, but Wu-Tang management pocketed his cut instead of splitting it with the members. These type of discrepancies made him distrustful.
Power stole from Rae in their Icewater deal and they haven't been close since.
Rae wanted to make a RZA diss track after RZA bashed him in interviews, but Rae had too much respect for the clan.
All the members on Shaolin Vs Wu-Tang don't really fukk with RZA. That album was basically Rae dividing lines.
Busta is a good dude, and deserves a lot of respect.
Ghost is a wild motherfukka.
RZA has a hell of an ego. Ghost and Rae would make up names of hollywood people and ask RZA if he knew them and he'd say yes every time
Rae really cares about his legacy and Wu's legacy and it hurts him that the quality has fallen off.
Rae doesn't take responsibility for his own failures and always blames others for them.
Overall, a dope book, and Rae makes some good points about RZA and Divine. There was definitely some shady shyt happening, but we would need RZA's full response to properly judge him. Rae breaks down the making of all his albums, which is dope.
. They've basically been broken up since Wu-Tang Forever. They don't hang out, not even Rae and Ghost. Everything they've done since Forever has been about getting a check. Their hearts haven't been in any group album since 36 chambers.Most, if not all, of the Wu thinks RZA fell off beat wise. They haven't really felt anything since around 96-97. Most have been begging him to let other producers work on the albums, but RZA won't allow it. They wanna know how Wu would sound over primo beats, dre beats, or other legendary producers. RZA won't sample much anymore cuz he doesn't wanna pay royalties.
Most of the core Wu doesn't really fukk with the affiliates. They want them to succeed, but feel like they watered down the brand. Rae hated seeing artists he'd never met claiming Wu-Tang.
Raekwon respected the hell out of RZA, and his opinion and validation meant more to him than anyone else in the world.
Rae always just wanted to see the paperwork of how budgets and money is distributed, but Divine and RZA refused to ever show him. When he refused to do shows, the clan still got the same amount of money, but Wu-Tang management pocketed his cut instead of splitting it with the members. These type of discrepancies made him distrustful.
Power stole from Rae in their Icewater deal and they haven't been close since.
Rae wanted to make a RZA diss track after RZA bashed him in interviews, but Rae had too much respect for the clan.
All the members on Shaolin Vs Wu-Tang don't really fukk with RZA. That album was basically Rae dividing lines.
Busta is a good dude, and deserves a lot of respect.
Ghost is a wild motherfukka.
RZA has a hell of an ego. Ghost and Rae would make up names of hollywood people and ask RZA if he knew them and he'd say yes every time
Rae really cares about his legacy and Wu's legacy and it hurts him that the quality has fallen off.
Rae doesn't take responsibility for his own failures and always blames others for them.
Overall, a dope book, and Rae makes some good points about RZA and Divine. There was definitely some shady shyt happening, but we would need RZA's full response to properly judge him. Rae breaks down the making of all his albums, which is dope.
or overly exaggerated, so I can believe it
