Finished the interview. If this was a political debate, I gotta say RZA came out looking like Obama and Rae out here looking like Hermain Cain. Just a totally different level of arguments, presentation, confidence, etc. RZA looks happy, he looks healthy, he sounds on point. Rae sounds bitter, desperate, and angry. I love Rae but that's the truth.
Shout outs to Ebro and Rosenberg. Going in I figured they wouldn't challenge RZA, but they did. They brought up the numbers, contracts, money, all the shyt that you wouldn't hear in a random internet vblog interview.
Yall know my position: I think RZA has probably taken some off the top, and owning the Wu name gives him a lot of power...but at the same time, the other dudes in the Clan were clearly not good stewards of their money. The only one eating is probably Meth and Ghost. Deck is doing well enough considering Czarface really revived his career. U-God made a million plus during the Wu Tang Forever era and was making good money on the road, but it's all gone now and he can't attract a buzz with music. Same with Cappa and some others. RZA didn't force them to waste their money. So that's point one.
Second point about RZA: he has fallen off, production wise. I don't think he's a good musician, but he puts a lot of time into it and thus believes otherwise. He clearly doesn't want to pay for samples anymore, like most smart producers. But I feel like the middle ground would be to sample and have a band re-create it, then dust it up a bit.
Final point: you can tell Rae demanded a ridiculous amount of money, perhaps even 200k. Again, he is desperate and hurting his brothers. U God would take 1/4 of that and be happy, so would Masta Killah. Rae has not proven that he's worth the money. I get the impression he thought FILA would be his big return and prove he had market value...but he can't even get a release date and has NO hype. No singles are popping, no nothing. Not a single Wu fan wants to hear him doing duets, yet his first single is a duet. He looks at MTV and see Rick Ross and thinks he can be that nikka. But he doesn't have that clout or the beats. So Rae probably bought a bunch of knock off trap beats, trying to recreate a Ross song, and failed. Now he's sitting on tons of records but can't think what to put on teh album.
Conclusion: Wu is probably done brehs. You can tell RZA has been watching Nas this month. Nas has been the toast of hip hop for a month, has a big documentary out, and is now caking off multiple big tour festivals. That could have been the Wu, easily. They could have had Quentin Tarantino doing a documentary for them. They could have performed at the Grammys in one of those weird musical pairings the show always does (like Wu+Cher or some shyt). All the Wu would benefit from that shine and be making money RIGHT NOW. Wu could be headlining Coachella right now, b.
Rae would make more money with the Wu than without it. But he'd rather stay bitter and alone than let RZA "lead" him. And we the fans will suffer. At this point fukk it, I'd just do the album without Rae and not invite him to the tour. If he wants to tour small clubs by himself, so be it. Wu will be rocking festivals and stadiums globally.
Couldn't agree more. I'll rep when I can!
