Do you think your Wu-Tang sword can defeat me?
The best sword style that I've ever witnessed in a martial art film
was the Wu-Tang sword.
If what you say is true,
the Shaolin and the Wu-Tang could be dangerous.
Yo. I got this idea of the Wu-Tang Clan.
Some of the best MCs are my homies, my peers.
They was different, yo.
It was something only Staten Island had developed.
COMPOSITION
I named it the Wu-Tang slang.
What's the deal?
Wu-Tang became the style that identify
the best MCs.
Method Man, Inspectah Deck, Raekwon, U-God, Ghost face Kill ah,
Cappa donna, Ol' Dirty Bastard, The GZA, The RZA, Masta Kill a.
25 years is a long time.
Even through all the trouble that we may have or cause among each other.
Any given time we come back together, there's a goodness of energy.
WU-TANG CLAN
Wu Tang. We started with camaraderie and brotherhood.
That's how I saw it. It has nothing to do with business.
The only way it makes sense is in brotherhood
and that's what we proclaim.
Start from the bottom in order to get to the top.
And once you get to the top
there's only one way to go.
These young motherfuckers from Staten Island, NY had captured
the world.
WU-TANG CLAN: OF MICS AND MEN
I think what made us different was the experiences we'd been through.
We was poor, looking for a way.
From where I came from...
...stage, this way.
...I'm grateful for everything.
It was rough.
I'm from the era where you're gonna get robbed.
Cut Era. Lawless.
Motherfuckers punching your face for your shit.
It was a nightmare, you know, but at the same time it was home.
The bible says that when the son of man returns
out of his mouth will come a double-edged sword.
Our tongue is our sword.
I was like, who are they, why are they superheroes that can rap?
It was unlike anything I'd seen.
I was like, what is this?
I was like, what is this shit? I don't know.
You hear about these dudes that roll up 100 deep everywhere.
The lights went out, and all of a sudden you hear "sooo, sooo."
You hear swords and you go "What was that? What's going on?"
These girls in the front got it. Everyone else was like...
What just happened?
Wow. I think I've seen The Wizard of Oz or some shit here.
It be years, though. Look good though.
ST. GEORGE THEATRE STATEN ISLAND
- What up, y'all. - It's good.
The only time we basically see each other now is at shows,
or the studio, if the studio.
Like this, do that.
But see, when we're all in the same room
and you genuinely miss it because of the lack of communication.
Because you know, dudes don't hang out with each other, shit like that.
All that shit goes out the window. You don't think about it anymore.
Ah, you smell good, Chef.
Method Man, nobody had his cadence, his flow, it was unique, original.
Colin Kap might take a knee,
I need action figure, that way it would take a knee just to Kaepernick.
"Take a knee just to Kaepernick," that's nice.
I still write my rhymes to impress these dudes here.
I know if they like it... my shit official.
I learned my flows from the rest of the Clan. RZA, Dirt, Rae...
I'm just a product of them.
The Ghost face Killer was the most dangerous villain
to ever hit the movie screen.
Ghost face killer!
And I felt that Ghostface's energy was that character.
Just the vibe alone around that time. You know what I mean?
Just... the spirit was good.
That was the beginning of the journey.
Right?
We did everything together. Like, our mothers know each other.
You know what I'm sayin'?
I don't know if our pops know each other and shit, but...
Most of us come from broken homes. Know what I'm sayin'?
Like, yo!
That's how far we go back, that's the real glue behind this shit.
You know what I'm sayin'?
This is where we live at, man.
It's the Wu-Tang monument right here, ya'll.
Raekwon the Chef. You know, Raekwon's like the street's elegance.
It says 2cent, and Kase right there.
All the names of the ones who passed away, who we ain't forget about.
But they're still alive in our hearts.
I always felt Raekwon had one of the best voices in the Wu-Tang Clan.
Once he got on a track, for some reason it sounded like a record.
This is where it started, the green. You're right on the soil, right now.
This is Shaolin right here. Just look at it.
Flash around. You see a lot of leaves and shit.
In the back of the projects was undeveloped land
and it had two ponds.
One pond was the white boy side of town, so we stayed on the black side.
It was our side.
We had mad crazy imagination. We'd just take old dirty rafts
and put tires underneath, long sticks and poles, and have raft fights.
Then we'd find salamanders and spiders, and dig up worms.
You know, just kids shit, man.
We was like The Little Rascals.
We used to build clubhouses, go-karts,
bows and arrows...
I mean, we did it all together, man.
Most of the Clan members are from Park Hill.
PARK HILL STATEN ISLAND
There it go, right there. There she go.
Verrazano.
U-God... he always had this aggressive violence about him.
He's a beautiful guy. When he smiles, the whole room lights up
and they're gonna smile a lot.
Inspectah Deck was like the guy who'd seen everything.
Maybe because his window was in front of that building.
He could look out that window and see everything that's going on.
Cappa donna.
He's a slang master.
Probably the strongest inspiration to a lot of MCs from Park Hill.
Me and him used to make tapes when we were kids, 14 years old.
Oh, look at the kids in the back plates.
Staten Island, we burn calories.
That's where we used to play at, right there.
- Kickball and shit. - Yeah.
We was really young. Raekwon, U-God...
You'd come out the block and see everybody. Meth was living in 55.
I was in 260. Raekwon was 225. Deck lived in 160.
I used to walk home from school with Chef everyday.
Me and Deck was in the same homeroom.
Shit done changed.
Used to come up here and think about the rest of the city.
Me and Cappa donna would come here and write our rhymes, freestyle.
Whatever it was. We just had big dreams of getting away from it all.
You know what I mean?
The hood is like an economic prison. You can't move out. You can't...
go where you wanna go, you can't go to certain blocks.
What you want is a kind of freedom. I think Wu...
It felt like the streets that I knew as a kid.
It felt like the 80s that I had just come up out of.
I felt like they were speaking to me, for me.
The violence on the streets was just very, very
familiar to me.
In the hood, you can feel like your life is so small.
Like, nobody sees you. Your story is not important.
I don't feel like TV represented where I come from.
You feel like that experience is completely erased.
You feel like people don't even see you.
And that's the importance of Wu and all these cats.
For me, I felt like... I felt seen.
You know, Masta Kill a was one of the last MCs to join the Cypher.
He started letting his lyrics loose, and through his realness
he became the Masta Kill a.
This is the first home I came home to from Brooklyn Jewish Hospital.
On your right side, that's the window I would look out every day.
My father was a singer. He was heavy into R&B,
and he would even come up the block singing sometimes, you know?
When I'd hear his voice, I'd almost jump out the window.
I was so excited that my father was coming home.
So, through trials and tribulations, when he left home for good.
That was traumatic for me, man. 'Cause you know... come on.
Pops was everything. That's like your first superhero, your father.
One thing he left was all his records.
He left all his records, and I'd play them everyday because
that's how I connected with him.
I remember him singing this record. I'd get it on the turntable
and listen to it, just to remember hearing his voice.
- Looking out of that window. - That's right.
I was too little to even cross the streets by myself.
But I'd look across the street and see legendary DJs like himself.
Divine Sounds and other brothers in the neighborhood
and hip-hop was just everywhere.
You know, I grew up on that kind of music in my house. But...
I didn't grow up with someone catching the break
and spinning it back and forth
and that's what I heard coming from the park.
I go down to this block party, and the DJ is cutting.
I'm just standing next to the DJ booth watching the dude do this shit.
And one dude comes out with an amp and a bass guitar
and all he plays was "The Breaks."
Know what I mean?
I used to have skates on at the jam. Sometimes one.
One skate, one sneaker. That's how nice we was.
They used to call us The Roller Derby Click.
Ghost used to breakdance.
We used to try to battle Ghost going to school.
Ghost would windmill. He was a floor general, man.
Got your windbreaker jackets on, on all them nice, slippery floors.
Just doing it, boom!
I was 12 when my feet started getting wet with the streets,
and now I'm magnetized.
My next-door neighbor Silky Dan took a Fischer-Price turntable
and he turned the volume down on the spin back.
And he'd cut, and his man would kick rhymes to the cuts.
Watching them doing that.
This is something I wanna be a part of.
We used to write on the walls in the hood. Meth used to write Rugbee.
Raekwon used to write Remo.
You know what I mean?
My first time meeting RZA was at a block party
and RZA was DJing. His name back then was Prince Rakeem.
Before RZA.
And I'm checking RZA, and thought,
"This kid just look like... he got a glow about him."
RZA started making beats with his 4-track. He used to give us tapes.
I'd take them home.
I'd just look out the window and just see everyone dancing.
DJs cutting. It was different, yo.
It just became you.
EAT GRITS CAUSE WE WAS POOR
GRAB THE PLIERS FOR THE CHANNEL
FIX THE HANGER ON THE TV
ROCKIN' EACH OTHERS PANTS TO SCHOOL WASN'T EASY
WE SURVIVED WINTERS SNOTTY NOSE WITH NO COATS
STAPLETON STATEN ISLAND
I was the only one from Stapleton.
Our project was known for our knuckle game.
Raekwon and 'em lived in Park Hill. We had to meet in the middle
to go to the same junior high school. That's how we got to know each other.
10 cent chocolate milkshake. Toasted almond ice cream shake.
You know? Probably one of the best ice creams I ever had.
Toasted almond, vanilla joints.
WELCOME TO STAPLETON HOUSES PROPERTY OF NYC HOUSING AUTHORITY
Life... father split with your mother, the regular shit.
It was like okay, mommy taking care of you.
Mommy had two kids with muscular dystrophy.
So that's hard on mommy. Mommy starts drinking.
I'm the oldest, so I gotta take care of the two brothers.
Pick 'em up, on the toilet, off the toilet, put 'em on the bed.
Dress 'em. Me. With my little body.
Maybe I was depressed, and I didn't know it.
My aunt used to say, "What's wrong with you?" You know, nothing.
"Why do you look sad?" "I don't know."
I don't know I look sad. Know what I'm sayin'?
Not knowing what my brothers is going through.
'Cause they can't go outside.
They sit and watch TV all day.
And I'm not knowing like,
"OK, let's go outside and push 'em around and take 'em outside."
Now, shit brings a tear to my eye, 'cause I wish I did that.
What kids would go through.
Wasn't no $300 Jordans. It was those kind of times.
NO LOITERING
Yo!
You see, oh shit! I mean...
Hold on, I'm comin' over there.
Are we gonna be on TV?
You live in these environments and you know you're broke.
But it don't matter, 'cause everyone around you is in the same situation.
Ayo.
This is my old school right here.
Not even old school, but true school. 'Cause we brothers is the same.
What's up, baby.
I didn't wanna go to the same school as my brother.
We went to the same school. When you have 4 pair of pants between 3 boys.
So, if I wore the black ones on Monday,
he wants Tuesday. By the time I get to Friday...
I'm back with the black ones, and my brother already wore them.
Going to different schools gave us a way to do the swaps.
Do you know Biggie Smalls?
Yeah, I know Biggie, I know Tupac...
This is Park Hill, Kill a Hill projects, 10304.
You can never get away from the reality of it.
The project is almost like a police state,
'cause you have housing police located in your projects.
And you're surrounded by a 4 block radius.
You've got your bodega, your barbershop, your pharmacy.
Your Shop 'n Save, your check cashing place.
It's designed so you don't have to leave, and a lot of people don't.
It's like a jail, the way it's set up. Like tiers.
We ain't glorifying it.
First hand. You wanna know what we're seeing in our lives.
We're talking about this.
And somewhere in the middle of that shit is that hope,
that one of us, or all of us, is gonna make it in this lifetime.
Now I say that about the projects.
Good ol' Bed-Stuy.
Do or die.
The GZA/Genius is the foundation.
He's the Genius, the way he thinks.
And his lyrics has that content.
This is where the All In Together Now crew started.
Right here on this block. At 719, Monroe.
I still live right there in that apartment up the steps.
The constant was RZA and GZA making moves, and they got a record deal.
One, two, three...
RHYTHM & SOUL 1991 PUBLIC ACCESS NEW YORK
- Oh, that sounds kinda ill. - Yeah.
Dirty, RZA and GZA are cousins. So they had a bunch of routines.
- There was a lot of battling, man. - Yeah.
Walking from borough to borough, looking for MCs, battling.
- Making routines. - We thought we the illest MCs in NY.
It was a hunger to be known as an MC.
Once we've seen these two brothers, the GZA and the RZA come through
and did they thing, that's when I know sooner or later
it was gonna be a bigger situation.
'Cause now it was somebody from Staten Island,
even though GZA is Brooklyn to the fullest, he was still...
That nigga Park Hill in his heart.
- Yeah, Park Hill. - He a hillbilly.
You know what I mean? But one of our brothers from our hood.
To have a brother who made it,
to still come around and see them, that was actually new.
He was our first local superstar.
That was the first video.
Ol' Dirty was in it also, doing the funky Ason slide.
So tell me, how did you guys get into rapping?
We was almost born rhymin'
-Born rhymin' -Yes, in our genes.
Been doin' it for a long time. Tearin' up parties, waxin' MCs.
Okay. Where did you get your style of rapping?
- It just grew on us. Natural talent. - Natural talent?
You gotta be born with raw talent. Definitively.
It's a family thing, too. He was always the hypest in his town.
Where he lived at he was the hypest MC.
- Where are you from? - Brooklyn.
I'm from the East. He's from Bed-Stuy.
He's the flyest MC in his town, like I am.
He's from Staten Island, flyest MC out there.
- How long have you been dancing? - Since I was a little kid.
- A little kid? - Yeah.
I always had a funky style when it came to dancing.
I got this dance called the Ason.
- Ason? - Yeah.
- Popping dance. - The funky Ason slide.
- Yeah.
Can you teach me that before you leave?
- Maybe so. - Maybe so?
That's crazy.
Even though GZA is the one that taught me hip-hop, exposed me to it,
the person I nurtured with is ODB.
Howdy!
So, Ol' Dirty Bastard.
This Ol' Dirty Bastard.
He was different from the others in the household.
So he realized he was a son that was unique.
He eventually chose the name Ason Unique.
As my cousin, knowing him...
Big Ra!
He had a personality...
We got the RZA in da house.
...that was just raw and unapologetic.
Yeah, man.
Just sit in the car, babe.
Good ol' New York.
Gonna sing a song or something.
Let's forget about Ol' Dirty Bastard, you know what I'm sayin'?
Let's get back to Rusty. My mama.
Cherry Jones. She called me Rusty Jones.
That's what my momma called me.
I had six. And I had them all before I turned 25.
- Yeah. - And I started at 19.
Like Rusty. Rusty was a mama boy.
My mama's the sweetest woman I've ever met.
I love you, mama.
I love you dearly. Thanks for bringing me here.
Our musical background is from our parents.
Matter of fact, Mom, you gotta mention that she and her sister...
- They were a group. - Tiny & Terry.
Tiny & Terry is my aunt and my mom.
My music was my life.
I never listened to rap. I hated it. I just don't like it.
I never did. And Rusty never listened to it.
I like Marvin Gaye, Otis Redding. I grew up on those songs.
All that singing stuff, that's natural.
That's how I feel. I'm like Pattie LaBelle, Millie Jackson.
My brother used to play heavy metal. All he played, rock 'n roll.
I started out playing drums.
My cousins RZA and GZA often came to our house in Linden Plaza.
We'd make our own hip-hop tapes. I'd take a headphone
and plug it into the input of the amplifier,
put it underneath a shoe box and play break beats on that.
We'd turn the volume up and get this loud sound - it sounded killer.
They would rhyme over the beats I would do, right in our bedroom.
They called it the All In Together Now Crew.
RZA had this rhyme about sex...
I won't even say it on camera.
TALENT SHOW 1991 HOT RODS NEW YORK CITY
The RZA told me everything I know about the way.
I remember back when he'd make me rhyme. He'd write lyrics for me.
If I ain't rhyme, we fought.
Ason in the motherfucking house. Gone! Peace.
I went and got a job. Statue of Liberty was hiring.
A lot of my friends worked there. I started, and I loved the job.
It was my first real fucking job.
Meth worked full-time. I just worked on the weekends.
I was a janitor. I used to take out all the garbages.
Clean up all the condiments. All the tourists were nasty.
The bathrooms, all types of nasty shit.
I had to steam the floor 'cause the seagulls shit all over the place.
The Statue of Liberty, given to us by the French. Supposedly a black woman.
- They say it is. - I don't know.
Mind you, we worked here for years and never went to see this woman.
Never one time, we went up there.
Wow.
- How you doing? - I'm good.
- How you been? - Good, thank you.
Still here. Still here.
Let me see something.
Mr. Hill was the owner of the restaurant at the Statue of Liberty
and he had us some bread.
That is the man right there. How are you, sir?
- How are you? You look great! - You, too!
Wow... Sir, how you doing, sir. Yes, sir.
- Are you doing good? - I'm doing good for myself.
- You've transitioned a bit. - A little bit.
- Absolutely. - What are you doing?
Wu-Tang. Still the same group.
You know, we're best friends. We transitioned to something else.
I have dreams where I'm working here.
For me, these moments are etched into my brain forever
'cause it was a highlight of my life. Even with the career and everything
this is still one of the highlights of my life. Best job I ever had.
Thank you. Still in Staten Island?
- Yeah. Same place. - Same place?
I mean, same borough.
- In a little nicer place. - Yeah, a nicer place.
My kids didn't have to grow up where I grew up.
That's the best part.
Let me see if I still remember it. I still got it.
How you doing, sir. Mind if I get this? Thank you.
That's what I was telling him, it's about getting the money.
Only thing that'll give you freedom is the money.
The truth. Dudes don't like to put emphasis on money.
That's the only thing that'll get you freedom.
Other than that, this is going to be,
I don't know man, it's just fucked up.
Look at her.
There's no way she's black.
You know, I think New York is a mecca of entrepreneurs.
Sometimes we'd be at the highway selling newspapers.
We sold newspapers on the Verrazano Bridge.
On the Verrazano. I remember RZA and them had those lanes.
They smart enough to know what lanes were jumpin'.
The worst you could get was the truck lane. Papers were 30 cents.
They give you a dime each paper. So you'd get about $15 a day.
For a welfare family, that's an important income, $15 a day.
I was working in Grand Central Station as a messenger.
Packing bags at the supermarket.
I worked for the Transit Authority.
Cleaning two cars a day.
My pops died when I was 6, so I tried to take a little,
a little bit of the pressure off my mom, trying to raise 3 kids.
Trying to make money any way I can, so I was working.
I grew up in a mostly white community, so
for me, hip-hop is the love of language
and it's beauty, and the amazing things you can do with it.
It's in me, because of my appreciation for it.
We live in an apartheid in America, I don't care what anybody says.
This is like apartheid.
And oppressed people on any level in the world
in the history of humans, you cannot destroy the strength of ideas
and the Wu-Tang celebrate that.
They are warriors of the imagination.
And the power of the imagination is far stronger than guns or money.
STATEN ISLAND 1988
RACIAL VIOLENCE DESTROYS US
APARTHEID END RACIST ATTACKS
STATEN ISLAND, STAND UP!
Staten Island is to me, the most racist of all the boroughs.
Our district was in a white neighborhood, so you know
some of us didn't like going to school, 'cause we wanted the mixture.
We wanted to see more black people too.
Park Hill niggas...
We went to 13. Where was 13? Rose bank.
Mini Mississippi.
This is Tufton's Avenue, Rose bank, Staten Island
Rose bank, Rose bank!
Don't get caught in Rose bank. They'll fuck you up in Rose bank.
Where's your basketball?
Black leaders on Staten Island say a black teenager was killed by a car
that may have escaped from a group of whites.
When I used to go to PS13.
I could have been nine, ten years.
I remember riding under this bridge trestle and it said.
"Kill all niggers. KKK."
That was really frightening.
I had to go to school every day like that, and we were just kids
on the fucking bus, like who the put that shit there?
That shit is still in me for a long time.
MARCH FOR DECENCY
Did you bring your crack with you?
Go home!
Go home and clean your...
As a nine-year-old, you're getting chased from school by grown men.
Damn, I'm somewhere I'm not supposed to be. No blacks.
Do black kids come around here?
ROSEBANK TEENAGER
They walk by freely.
So the guy said what are you niggers doing here?
Calling you nigger, get the fuck outta here, I'ma kill you.
Throwing shit at you, bottles busting in the streets. You're nine.
They chased me.
One guy had his car and he started chasing us.
They were like, "Let's have a whipping!"
You're running, bottles smashing around you.
A rock comes skipping, hitting you in the back.
They're calling for more guys like, "Hey Johnny! Come on!"
You think they're gonna kill you.
I'm like "Ah, shit".
Scared to death.
NEW DORP HIGH SCHOOL
New Dorp. Fights.
Sometimes a riot jumped off.
White boys chasing you.
You have to fight a bunch of these football dudes.
Hoping to make it to the bus.
Back then, the Italian white boys were tough.
They grew up like Richie Cunningham and The Fonz.
Coming to school in leather with no shirt under.
Bold motherfuckers, like Grease, those types of dudes.
It's why Grease is one of my favorite movies. Reminds me of those dudes.
In Park Hill, if you go to 350, 320...
That's Little Spain. They'll whoop your ass.
We got the Africans over here. They'll whoop your ass.
We got the Jamaicans over here. They'll whoop your ass.
You got us. We'll whoop your ass.
All the different sections of people that there is.
Fighting for everything.
Fighting for parking space.
Fighting for the same jacket from the same store.
It was always conflict.
ALLAH SCHOOL IN MECCA
ALLAH 7
Peace!
If I get your undivided attention, you'll learn what the 5% is all about.
We're about elevation. All of y'all
is us, one family.
So we build and tell our babies how to live right and exact
by giving them knowledge of the self so they can elevate themselves.
Being part of the Five-Percent, the Mathematics and the knowledge itself
let brothers be very unified.
We all could say we were totally converted after that.
Totally immersed into it.
So the Five-Percent Nation has its origins with a brother who
was called The Father, Allah.
His birth name was Clarence 13X Smith.
He was a student at Temple No. 7 under Malcolm X.
Malcolm X being an student of the Honorable Alliance of Muhammad.
But the Father said these lessons belong in the hands of the youth.
So he left the temple, took the lessons
and brought them to the streets of New York.
We are Five-percenters, poor righteous teachers.
We'll do our job in the poor parts of Earth.
The high intelligence people of planet Earth.
We gonna build a black nation that's all wise, and all righteous.
Ain't no difference. We all as one.
I was given knowledge of myself from my cousin, The GZA.
The GZA was the one who enlightened me at the time.
His name was Allah Justice.
- He explains the mathematics. - The Supreme Mathematics.
Knowledge, wisdom, understanding,
culture of freedom, power of refinement, equality, god,
build or destroy, born, knowledge, cipher.
This is the essence of the lessons we study.
Knowledge is to look, listen and also respect.
Wisdom is the way we keep the snakes in check.
Understanding is to see things clear.
Cultures makes the deaf hear.
The first lesson of Five-Percent teaching says,
Who is the original man?
The answer is the original man is the Asiatic Black man.
It's a powerful thing at a young age, learning about yourself.
We are not just children of slaves.
The original man is the Father of civilization.
Say who is the original man?
Who is the original man?
Say who is the original man?
Who is the original man?
The Asiatic Black man.
I feel like the Mathematics gave brothers high self-esteem.
It gave you a different outlook on life.
When you heard the black man was God, you was like what?
- Your chest got poked out. - Made you responsible.
And that wisdom and knowledge ended up as who we are.
A whole new outlook.
People said, "Why do you go off track, you got knowledge of self."
I had mental freedom, but I didn't have economical freedom.
A storm of Jamaicans came through our hood, in like 85 or 86.
Big chunks of gold on.
Gold in the mouth, the first time I'd seen that shit.
I was like "How did he get it there?"
The majority of people I grew up with was drug dealers now.
Everybody selling crack.
Typical workday: Get up at 5 in the morning, get a sandwich.
Pastrami and Swiss. Then go around the corner.
Find your stash.
It's on.
And you rock it. I was moving a brick a week.
U-God always tried to live his American dream, paying for college.
We wasn't partners. I was out there selling his shit.
Boom, next thing you know I'm out there with the pack, scrambling.
All of a sudden, this epidemic hit.
Now the neighborhood is worth 1/4 million a day.
That's interesting to me.
My older brother Divine was the hustler.
He was the source of the family in a way.
Come to my house, you see two 1200 turntables.
My brother got that from hustling.
In the midst of all this, we had been making tapes at RZA's house.
Gotta go to Rakeem's house, work on this music.
Hustling in front of the building, we should just say to hell with it.
Go see Ra at the Stapleton, ho hit them beats up.
- It's gonna blow, boy. - It was my dream,
but Divine contributed to that dream. But he got locked up.
A child can be guided on the right path
if you put that proper knowledge, wisdom and understanding inside,
and the proper opportunities.
When I got knowledge of self, I had to choose a name for myself.
I came with the name Rakeem.
There's not really an Arabic word for it,
so I defined the word as original.
Z-Zig Zag Zig means knowledge, wisdom, understanding.
I was going the right path, and then I got caught in a world
of trouble, turmoil, doing the wrong things.
And I zagged away. Which led to no more trouble for me.
Once Divine got locked up,
my mother had left NYC, she went to Ohio.
STEUBENVILLE OHIO
Steubenville, Ohio.
The birthplace of Dean Martin.
STEUBENVILLE'S DEAN MARTIN
I was 18 years old.
Me and Ghost face become roommates, and we got months behind the rent.
The only way to put bread on the table was back to street hustling.
Crack damaged the hood in an explosive way overnight.
There was a lot of cash flow, but the consequences was big.
I hated that shit. Hated selling on the block.
Dudes is getting murdered!
My brother got shot in the stomach a couple of times.
I got the phone call that Ghost got shot. My stomach dropped.
"Bitch nigga shot me in my neck, God."
No, I got shot out there. But that's not why we wrote "Protect Ya Neck".
That was a very scary time.
A lot of niggas, gone, in jail.
I got locked up for 3.5 ounces of coke and a gun.
Cappa was gone, in jail.
Yeah, I got smacked around 87. They sent me to Rikers Island.
Deck was gone, in jail.
I sold crack to an undercover officer.
Instead of stopping, we went harder.
TWO CITY MEN SHOT CHRISTMAS DAY
It's just a bad night, know what I mean?
SHOOTING AROUND 3 A.M.
ROBERT F. DIGGS
I got into some trouble, and violence ensued.
ROBERT DIGGS
K got shot.
DEADLY WEAPON
Led to me facing eight years in jail.
I went to trial.
Black dudes don't really go to trial and win.
ROBERT WAS HOLDING A GUN
The prosecutor wasn't making deals with me, he's taking me all the way.
THE DEFENDANT SHOT WALTERS IN THE RIGHT THIGH
I'm in prison, yo. I felt totally alone.
VERDICT-NOT GUILTY
I was blessed to beat that one.
My mother came and looked in my eyes
and said this is my second chance. Don't look back, walk straight.
Walk that straight and narrow path.
I did that. I zigged back.
I said, "Nah, I'm not Prince Rakeem. I'm The RZA."
I'm Rakeem Zig-Zag-Zig Allah.
I got out of jail, drove back to New York
and started making music.
I was ready to get serious again.
RZA'S APT MORNINGSTAR ROAD '92
And this part is clear, you know what I'm sayin'?
- Life is hectic. - I don't get you.
When RZA moved to Morning star, that's around the time
he got the idea of putting the Clan together.
Take that shit.
Yo, what he said sounded crazy, crazy threatening
but he wasn't adding to the violence being spoken.
- That's right. - Terrorizing jams...
He terrorizing jams, not old ladies, not little kids.
He terrorizing the jams like the troops in Pakistan.
Troops in Pakistan they was terrorizing.
I identified Staten Island and these poor dudes that I have cyphers with,
and these dudes in my house making demos,
are the illest.
Being around my brothers, rhyming and getting down is like,
"Damn, heard that shit? Say that part again, what was that?"
That's when the vision hit me. Everything came to me.
This is the road manager in Wu-Tang.
I don't know how in the world you keep these guys together.
I must shake your hand, 'cause I know it's a hard job.
Mook was our first manager back in the days.
They were my cousins. You know, RZA...
Not only my cousin, but my godbrother.
I was an entrepreneur, just like everybody else.
I had my first child, and I knew my life had to change.
Then I became a NYC bus driver.
RZA came and said, "I really want you to help me with my music."
I ain't got time for that bullshit.
I was... driving the bus.
When I'm talking to him, I'm looking at his eyes.
I see something in his eyes. He ain't bullshitting. He's for real.
So I told him, "Aight, I'll work with you".
But don't fuck with me. If we're gonna do this shit,
you gotta give me all you got. I'll do the same. The only way I know.
I knew nothing about the music business.
I was brand-spanking new. I just knew how to move a product.
To me, record was product.
First thing, "Protect Ya Neck". We gotta make people listen.
CLUB INTERNATIONAL 1993 PROVIDENCE RHODE ISLAND
December '92, I don't remember the exact date.
We were on Thursday nights.
Stretch happened to be out of town.
I was not FCC licensed.
I wasn't technically allowed to do a show on my own.
I don't know how to DJ. Now the door rings, and I open.
And there's five cats!
"Yo B, we got a new record. Play that song!"
"Yo, play it right now!" I'm like, chill!
I go into the studio.
It's a white label! With no fucking writing on it.
I put it on, and I hear martial arts.
Like, "What the fuck is this? This shit is dope". So I played it.
My man calls up, right after it's done.
"Yo, what the hell is this shit?" I don't know.
No video out. Steve Rifkind wasn't in the picture. Straight out the trunk.
Selling shit.
I'm taking the record to the DJs, the stores, the clubs...
Anywhere music is being played, I'm taking it there.
Rock and Soul. The number one hip-hop store back in the day.
The young lady, at first she didn't want to take the record.
So then I came up with a little plan.
Can I stand up when I say it?
I'm gonna send someone in the store and ask for the record.
"Their record, their record. It's a bunch of guys emceeing."
It was my cousin Vince. I swear to God this is true.
So I came back another time with my cousin.
I played it for him. All of a sudden he goes,
"That's it! The shit I was talking about! Heard it on Bobbito's show."
Bobbi to & Stretch Armstrong, first motherfuckers who played the record.
I swear to God, out of nowhere this other motherfucker came,
"Yeah! Heard it from Bobbito's show, I been looking for that!"
And another motherfucker, "Oh shit, been looking all over!"
Everybody in the store.
So I pull out the box, "Yeah, you can buy it."
She said, "No! Not in my store," and she grabbed the box.
And she bought the whole box. That was the first box I sold.
Damn! That shit work like that?
I did that shit in the Bronx, I did it in Brooklyn, I did it in Virginia.
We went from here to North Carolina, I did it everywhere.
Shit was going crazy.
Wu-Tang Clan, ya'll!
I remember we was in Rae's house.
Waiting for "Protect Ya Neck" on the radio. Just hearing that shit
on that radio, all the way through.
Man, I saw Rae jump so high.
Yo, he jumped like "Yeah!"
Like, oh shit!
Once I heard it on the radio.
Oh my fucking God, I was like, we goin'.
It was in front of 160. And I was still selling drugs.
Niggas was amped the fuck up. Everybody listening for their part.
My boy Shae B let it shot off.
Ha has a little 22, maybe a 38, who knows?
It just gave you a battery like, "Oh shit, yo!"
Yo, we made it!
Nobody thought the shit was gonna be anything.
I was one the dudes who came with RZA to every meeting in the beginning,
when he was shopping it, met with labels.
With Russell Simmons and Def Jam,
and everybody at first was like, "Yo, it's too many, man."
"Too many, man. Like how the fuck..."
"Nah, this ain't gonna work."
"Nine members? How are you gonna split the money?"
Why you worrying about how we gonna split the money?
We all sat with one goal in our minds.
If you're not taking all of us, you get none of us.
It's like this, you know what I'm saying?
People look at us as nine individuals who ain't gonna make it.
We ain't gonna let money break us up. Money is the root of all evil.
We gon' do this. Wu is never gonna break up.
- No... - Straight up.
The word Wu-Tang itself means.
"He who is deserving of God."
The legend is
that general Wu goes to the top of this mountain to meditate.
And he pondered all the questions of life
and the legend says he decides to jump off the mountain.
And when he jumped off, he re-emerged, it says,
as a spirit or a dragon
and became immortal.
And thus they named the mountain Wu-Tang.
Subtitles: Håkon Hoffart plint.com