KingsOfKings
🍊 Let's Talk Numbers 🍊
The Detroit News: Where were you at that point in your life when you were making the album?
Raekwon: I was still in the hood, still doing what I was doing. I believed in the movement. When things started to happen, for me, it was time to really focus and really go for this. So a lot of times I would be around RZA, spending my days with him, really hanging out with him heavy. That’s why you have somebody like me on the majority of the records that was made back then, because I was so overwhelmed with the fact of changing my life and finally seeing a light at the end of the tunnel.
I was happy, I was motivated. I felt like RZA was the best in the world at the time. And it was just the willpower that kept us all in the movement. When we were finally able to start doing shows, and things were starting to pick up, my money got better, and I finally decided to move out of the neighborhood. We knew that the world was looking for something new at that time, and we had exactly what they wanted. So when I got the opportunity to get out of the neighborhood, I was like hell yeah, I wanna be near this, because this is gonna be my job. This is going to be something that’s going to take care of me forever, and if we do it right, it’s going to take care of all of us forever. So that was the goal.
TDN: What was the vibe like when you were recording '36 Chambers?' Were the sessions late at night, early in the morning? How crowded was it in the studio?
Raekwon: When we were making the album, it was a lot of everything: early in the morning, late at night. We came late at night and we stayed the whole day. Some records were made in the daytime, too. This is back when records took, actually, a whole day to make. The clutteredness of everybody in the studio — it wasn’t a studio, it was actually RZA’s home where he was living. It was a small place, I’d say about 800 square feet, and we all couldn’t be in there all at one time. But we had them nights where it got pretty packed in there.
A lot of the production was made early, meaning RZA had certain records that he had already done, individually, in the stash. So when it came down to working on a particular record, nine times out of 10, he was already working with that person closely to get a blueprint of what he wanted to put on the album.
A lot of it was done organically, no pressure, because it was inside his house. It was really more about that day, RZA might have called to say yo, I’ve got this beat on the stove, I think it fits you, and then I would come through and check it out. Or sometimes it was just being in the right place at the right time.
TDN: How would you characterize your role in the group at that time? There were a lot of different personalities in the mix. Where did you fit in?
Raekwon: I was just a team player. It’s like dealing with a basketball team, you know. You make the cut, you come up and you do your job. We all come from the same (situation) and we’re trying to get out. We all believed that together we could make a move, so it wasn’t really too much different. Some guys are quiet, some are loud, maybe I might have come across as loud because I believed in it. You know what I mean? I was amped about everything. I would just say I was a team player, doing my part and excited to hear what was going to be the finalization of this album we was creating.
At that time, it wasn’t all about who was going to be the leader or the captain or the mascot, it was just about yo, making great music, you get in where you fit in. If it’s a record that you feel that you like, you get up there, and you be competitive with it, and you make brothers follow it or get involved with it the way that you got involved with the record.
If it was a record like 'Protect Ya Neck' and Inspectah Deck came and lit the wick with the first line, 'I smoke on the mic,' I automatically heard what he did and I picked up on him, and then the next person picked up on me. That's how these records got lined up. It was definitely a weird origin on how we did it, but that’s what you call organicness.
TDN: What were your favorite tracks on the album to work on?
Raekwon: 'Wu-Tang Clan Ain’t Nothing to F--- With' and 'C.R.E.A.M.' Those two records right there are so different, but they have so much energy. We knew that those two records would take us to stardom. Because you got an opportunity to hear energy and reality: reality music. You didn’t hear a lot of guys talking too much about where they come from and creating this acronym that came out to 'Cash Rules Everything Around Me.' We started putting our own ebonics inside the music, and that was something that people respected. They respected our struggle. They knew we were from the bottom, and you listen to a record like 'C.R.E.A.M.,' it’s so real and vivid, and you’ve got kids all over the world that live that same lifestyle. Those two records took us to where we needed to go.
Raekwon: I was still in the hood, still doing what I was doing. I believed in the movement. When things started to happen, for me, it was time to really focus and really go for this. So a lot of times I would be around RZA, spending my days with him, really hanging out with him heavy. That’s why you have somebody like me on the majority of the records that was made back then, because I was so overwhelmed with the fact of changing my life and finally seeing a light at the end of the tunnel.
I was happy, I was motivated. I felt like RZA was the best in the world at the time. And it was just the willpower that kept us all in the movement. When we were finally able to start doing shows, and things were starting to pick up, my money got better, and I finally decided to move out of the neighborhood. We knew that the world was looking for something new at that time, and we had exactly what they wanted. So when I got the opportunity to get out of the neighborhood, I was like hell yeah, I wanna be near this, because this is gonna be my job. This is going to be something that’s going to take care of me forever, and if we do it right, it’s going to take care of all of us forever. So that was the goal.
TDN: What was the vibe like when you were recording '36 Chambers?' Were the sessions late at night, early in the morning? How crowded was it in the studio?
Raekwon: When we were making the album, it was a lot of everything: early in the morning, late at night. We came late at night and we stayed the whole day. Some records were made in the daytime, too. This is back when records took, actually, a whole day to make. The clutteredness of everybody in the studio — it wasn’t a studio, it was actually RZA’s home where he was living. It was a small place, I’d say about 800 square feet, and we all couldn’t be in there all at one time. But we had them nights where it got pretty packed in there.
A lot of the production was made early, meaning RZA had certain records that he had already done, individually, in the stash. So when it came down to working on a particular record, nine times out of 10, he was already working with that person closely to get a blueprint of what he wanted to put on the album.
A lot of it was done organically, no pressure, because it was inside his house. It was really more about that day, RZA might have called to say yo, I’ve got this beat on the stove, I think it fits you, and then I would come through and check it out. Or sometimes it was just being in the right place at the right time.
TDN: How would you characterize your role in the group at that time? There were a lot of different personalities in the mix. Where did you fit in?
Raekwon: I was just a team player. It’s like dealing with a basketball team, you know. You make the cut, you come up and you do your job. We all come from the same (situation) and we’re trying to get out. We all believed that together we could make a move, so it wasn’t really too much different. Some guys are quiet, some are loud, maybe I might have come across as loud because I believed in it. You know what I mean? I was amped about everything. I would just say I was a team player, doing my part and excited to hear what was going to be the finalization of this album we was creating.
At that time, it wasn’t all about who was going to be the leader or the captain or the mascot, it was just about yo, making great music, you get in where you fit in. If it’s a record that you feel that you like, you get up there, and you be competitive with it, and you make brothers follow it or get involved with it the way that you got involved with the record.
If it was a record like 'Protect Ya Neck' and Inspectah Deck came and lit the wick with the first line, 'I smoke on the mic,' I automatically heard what he did and I picked up on him, and then the next person picked up on me. That's how these records got lined up. It was definitely a weird origin on how we did it, but that’s what you call organicness.
TDN: What were your favorite tracks on the album to work on?
Raekwon: 'Wu-Tang Clan Ain’t Nothing to F--- With' and 'C.R.E.A.M.' Those two records right there are so different, but they have so much energy. We knew that those two records would take us to stardom. Because you got an opportunity to hear energy and reality: reality music. You didn’t hear a lot of guys talking too much about where they come from and creating this acronym that came out to 'Cash Rules Everything Around Me.' We started putting our own ebonics inside the music, and that was something that people respected. They respected our struggle. They knew we were from the bottom, and you listen to a record like 'C.R.E.A.M.,' it’s so real and vivid, and you’ve got kids all over the world that live that same lifestyle. Those two records took us to where we needed to go.
