Wu-Tang Clan: Of Mics and Men (2019): Season 1, Episode 1 - 101 - full transcript

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[swishing sword noises]

[birds singing]

[swishing sword noises]

[man chuckles]

[man] Do you think
your Wu-Tang sword

can defeat me?

[RZA] The best sword style

that I've ever witnessed

in a martial art film

was the Wu-Tang sword.

[sword swishing noises]



[man] If what you say is true,

the Shaolin and the Wu Tang
could be dangerous.

[fighting noises]

[RZA] Yo, I got this idea

of the Wu-Tang Clan.

♪ ambient music ♪

Some of the best MCs

that I've heard

are the homies I hang with,

my peers.

They was different, yo.

♪ Overachiever ♪

♪ Power-hungry over-eater ♪

♪ I-95, whip fly
like an overseer ♪



♪ I'm overconfident but some
might say I'm overeager ♪

♪ Or over-zealous, especially
when it's over cheeba ♪

[RZA] It was something
that only Staten Island

had developed.

I named it the Wu-Tang slang.

♪♪♪

♪ What's the deal, Conrad ♪

[RZA] Wu-tang became

the style that identified

the best MCs.

Method Man, Inspectah Deck,

Raekwon, "The Chef."

U-God, Ghostface Killah,

Cappadonna,

Ol' Dirty Bastard,

the GZA, the RZA.

Masta Killa.

♪♪♪

25 years is a long time.

♪♪♪

Even through all the troubles
that we may have

amongst each other,
cause each other,

at any given time,

when we come back together,

there's a goodness of energy.

[woman] Drinks?

Look at these.

[indistinct chatter]

[laughs]

[laughter]

It's sick.
Know what I mean?

[RZA] Wu-Tang...

We started with camaraderie

and brotherhood.

♪♪♪

That's how I saw it, and that's
nothing to do with business, yo.

The only way it makes sense
is in brotherhood,

and that's what we proclaim.

♪ jaunty music ♪

♪♪♪

[man] Brothers of the Shaolin.

Wu-Tang Clan strikes again.

The RZA! The GZA!

[crowd chants]
Ol' Dirty Bastard!

♪ Inspectah Deck
Raekwon the Chef ♪

♪ U-God, Cappadonna ♪

♪ Masta Killa,
Ghostface Killah ♪

♪♪♪

[man] Clan means family.

These are my brothers.

♪♪♪

[ODB] You have to start
from the bottom

in order to get to the top.
Know what I'm saying?

And once you get to the top,

once you get to the top,

there's only one way to go.

[man] These young motherfuckers

from Staten Island, New York,

had captured the world.

♪♪♪

[indistinct chatter]

[man chuckles]

♪ haunting rap
instrumental background ♪

♪♪♪

[RZA] The thing, I think,
that made us different

was the experiences
that we'd been through.

♪♪♪

[U-God] We was poor,

looking for a way.

♪♪♪

[Ghostface Killah]
From where I came from...

Which... which way to on stage?

- This way?
- Sure.

I'm grateful for everything.

It was rough.

[grunts]

Hiya!

[Ghostface Killah]
I'm from the era where

you're gonna get robbed.

[man] Cot era.

Lawless.

Motherfuckers will punch you
in your face for your shit.

[man] It was a nightmare,
you know,

but at the same time,
it was home.

♪♪♪

♪ Wu-Tang Clan
ain't nothing to fuck with ♪

♪ Wu-Tang Clan
ain't nothing to fuck with ♪

♪ Wu-Tang Clan
ain't nothing to fuck with ♪

♪ Wu-Tang Clan
ain't nothing to fuck with ♪

[RZA] The Bible said

that when
the son of man returns,

out of his mouth will come

a double-edged sword.

Our tongue is our sword.

♪ I be tossing, enforcing,
my style is awesome ♪

♪ Causing more family feuds
than Richard Dawson ♪

♪ And the survey say ♪
♪ You're dead ♪

♪ The Fatal Flying Guillotine
chops off your fuckin' head ♪

♪ Mister, who was that? ♪

♪ Hey, yo, the Wu is back ♪

♪ Making niggas go "Bo Bo!"
Like I'm Super Cat ♪

♪ Me fear no one
oh, no, here come ♪

♪ Wu-Tang shogun,
killer to the eardrum ♪

♪ Put the needle
to the groove, I gets rude ♪

♪ Forced to fuck it up ♪

♪ My style carries
like a pickup truck ♪

♪ 'Cross the clear blue yonder,
sea to shining sea ♪

♪ I slam tracks like
quarterback sacks of LT ♪

♪ So why try and test
the Rebel INS ♪

♪ Blessed since the birth,
I earth-slam your best ♪

♪ 'Cause I bake the cake,
then take the cake ♪

♪ And eat it too,
with my crew ♪

♪ We head state to state ♪

♪ If you want beef ♪

♪ Then bring the ruckus ♪

♪ Wu-Tang Clan
ain't nothing to fuck with ♪

I was like, "What?
What is this?

Who are these people?

Why are they like superheroes
that can rap?"

It was just unlike anything
I'd ever seen.

I was like, "Yo, what...
what is this?"

♪ The Meth will come out ♪

♪ Tomorrow ♪

♪ Styles, conditions
bizarre, bizarro ♪

♪ Flow with more afro
than Rollo ♪

♪ Coming to a fork
in the road ♪

♪ Which way to go
just follow ♪

♪ Meth is the legend
niggas is Sleepy Hollow ♪

♪ In fact, I'm a hard act
to follow ♪

♪ I dealt for dolo ♪

♪ Bogart coming on through ♪

♪ Niggas is like,
"Oh, my God, not you!" ♪

[Bobbito]
Like, "Yo, what the hell

is that shit?"

I'm like, "I don't know."

You hear about these dudes
that roll up

like, 100 deep everywhere.

[man] The lights went out,

and all of a sudden you hear,
"Suu!"

[all hollering]

You hear a [sibilant sound]

You're like,
"What was that?"

[laughs]
What's going on?

These girls in the front,
they got it.

Everybody else was like,

"What just happened?"

♪ calm orchestral music ♪

♪♪♪

[Raekwon] Wow.

I think I've seen, probably,
The Wizard of Oz

or some shit here.

It be years, though.

Look good, though.
Look good.

♪♪♪

- What up, yo?
- It's good, Rae.

[Method Man] Only time we
basically see each other now

is at shows or the studio,

if the studio.

♪♪♪

This the Batcave.

[Method Man] But, see,

when we all in the same room,

and you really genuinely miss
this motherfucker

because of the lack
of communication,

because, you know,

dudes don't hang out
with each other

and shit like that,

All that shit
go right out the window.

I mean, you don't even think
about it no more.

both: Ah!

[indistinct chatter]

Ah, you smell good, Chef.

You know how it goes.

Ah!

[Raekwon] What's going down?

♪♪♪

Love you too, dog.
No doubt.

♪ I'm hood, like the C ♪

♪ On my hood,
call me the champion ♪

♪ They say we wildin' out
in these streets ♪

♪ We popping cannons
in that heat, peel 'em ♪

♪ Put 'em to sleep
like popping Ambien ♪

♪ Rappers having
panic attacks ♪

♪ Go pop a Xanny then ♪

♪ We pop up
everywhere that you at ♪

♪ We'll pop your family then ♪

♪ Wu block
real and you're not ♪

♪ Make you a fan again ♪

♪ Turn around like Tupac ♪

♪ Spit it right
at the cameraman ♪

♪ Method Man handle them ♪

♪ No strings, no mandolin ♪

♪ I spit the gutter ♪

♪ No st-st-stuttering,
stammering ♪

♪ Touch of tamarind ♪

♪ With my group
we be samplin' ♪

♪ A-d-d-d-d undisputed ♪

♪ Call me the champion ♪

[man] Method Man.

Nobody had his cadence,

his flow.
It was unique, original.

Colin Kaep might take a knee.

I need action figure.

That where I'm at we take a knee

just to cap a nigga.

- I hear you rappers...
- "Take a knee

just to cap a nigga." That's nice.
- [Method Man] Yeah.

[Method Man]
I still write my rhymes

to impress these dudes here.

I know if they like it,

my shit official.

♪ The rhythm of the rhyme
that I throw ♪

♪ Is from the island, wilin' ♪

♪ Brothers need to stay out
from Shaolin ♪

♪ I feel it's real
for my peeps to be taught ♪

♪ That all my rhymes
originated ♪

♪ From a goddamn thought ♪

♪ Shimmy, shimmy on
shimmy yam, shimmy yay ♪

♪ Gimme the mic
so I can take it away ♪

♪ Adapt to the sound ♪

♪ That rocks
a ghetto blaster ♪

♪ Pop Glocks to set up shop
like newscasters ♪

♪ Radioactive rhyme ♪

[Ghostface Killah]
I learned my flows

from the rest of the clan.

RZ, Dirt, Rae.

I'm just a product of them.

[RZA] Ghost-faced killer

was the most dangerous villain

to ever hit the movie screen.

- Ghost-faced killer!
- [evil laugh]

[RZA] And I felt
that Ghostface energy

was that character.

[Ghostface Killah] Just the vibe
alone around that time.

You know what I mean?

Just the spirit was good.

That was the beginning of the...

the journey.

Right?

[Cappadonna]
We did everything together.

Like, our mothers

know each other.

Know what I'm saying?
Some of...

No, I don't know if our pops
know each other.

Shit, where we come from,

most of us come
from broken homes

and shit like...
Know what I'm saying?

[Cappadonna] Like, yo,

that's how far we go back.

[Cappadonna] That's
the real glue behind this shit.

Know what I'm saying?

♪ hip-hop music ♪

[Raekwon] This is
where we live at, man.

You know what I'm saying?

It's the Wu-Tang monument
right here, y'all.

[RZA] Raekwon the Chef.

You know, Raekwon is, like,
the street's elegance.

This say 2 Cent,

and this say "Case"
right there, right?

[Raekwon]
So you see all them names.

Them my other brothers
who passed away

that we ain't forget about,
you know?

But they still lie in our
heart, y'know I'm saying?

[RZA]
I always felt that Raekwon

had one of the best voices
in the Wu-Tang Clan,

once he got on the track,

for some reason,
it sounded like a record.

♪ It started off
on the island, AKA Shaolin ♪

♪ Niggas wilin', gunshots
thrown, the phone dialing ♪

♪ Back in the days,
I'm eight now ♪

♪ Making a tape now,
Rae gotta get a plate now ♪

♪ And ignorant and mad young
wanted to be the one ♪

♪ Till I got blaow! Blaow!
Blaow! ♪

♪ Yeah, my pops was
a fiend since 16 ♪

♪ Shootin' that "That's that
shit!" in his bloodstream ♪

[Raekwon] Well, this is
where it started from.

This is the green right here.

Y'all right on the soil
right now.

Know what I'm saying?

This is... this is...
this is Shaolin right here.

Know what I'm saying?
Look, look.

Just look at it.

Flash around.
You know what I'm saying?

See a lot of leaves and shit.

[man] In the back of the project
was undeveloped land,

and it had two ponds.

One pond was the white boy
side of town,

so we kind of went
to stay on our black side.

It was our side.

Had mad, crazy imagination.

We just take old, dirty rafts
and put tires underneath them

and go out there
with long sticks and poles

and just be on the rafts
and have raft fights.

Then we find salamanders
and spiders

and... and dig up worms.

You know, just kid shit, man.

[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.

[man] Most of the clan members

are from Park Hill.

[Cappadonna] There it
go, right there.

There she go.

The Verrazzano.

The virgin I know.

[RZA] U-God...

He always had

this aggressive violence
about him, you know?

I mean, he was a beautiful guy.

You know, when he smiles,
the whole room lights up,

because to make him smile
is a lot.

[laughs]

[RZA] Inspectah Deck...

He was, like, the guy
who's seeing everything,

maybe 'cause his window

was in the front
of that building.

He could look out that window
and see

everything that's going on.

Cappadonna.

♪ Place Staten Island
year '76 ♪

♪ Residents Park Hill ♪

[RZA] He's a slang master.

Probably
the strongest inspiration

to a lot of the other MCs
from Park Hill,

and me and him used
to make tapes

when we was kids...
you know what I mean?

14 years old.

♪ Double-check dialect ♪

Oh, look at the kids
in the back, playing.

Hear the kids
in the back playing?

♪ Staten Island-ry
We burn calories ♪

[Inspectah Deck]
Yeah.

[Cappadonna] That's where
we used to play at, right there.

[U-God] Kickball.
All that shit.

[Inspectah Deck] Yeah, B.

[Cappadonna] We was real young,

like, uh, Raekwon,
G... uh, U-God...

[Inspectah Deck] You come on
the block, you see everybody.

Meth was living in 55.
I lived in 260.

Raekwon lived down the block,
I think it was 225,

and Deck lived in 160.

I used to walk home from school

with Chef every day.

Me and Deck was in
the same home room.

Shit done changed.

Used to come up here, think
about the rest of the city

and what's going on.

We used to come up here,
me and Cappadonna,

write our rhymes, freestyle,

whatever you call it,
whatever it was,

but we used to just have
big dreams

of getting away from it all,
you know what I mean?

♪ contemplative music ♪

♪♪♪

The hood is like a prison,
and you know...

it's like a economic prison.

You can't, you know, move out,
can't, you know,

go where you want to go.

You can't go to certain blocks.
You don't know

what's gonna happen over there.

What you want
is a kind of freedom.

I think, um, Wu...

it felt like the streets

that I knew as a kid.

It felt like the '80s

that I had, you know,
just come up out of.

You know, I felt like
they were speaking,

you know, to... to me,
speaking for me.

The violence, you know,
on the streets...

you know what I'm saying...
was just

very, very... familiar to me.

When you come up in the hood,

you can feel like
your life is so small

and like nobody sees you

and your story is not important.

I didn't feel like
if I got on the TV,

If... I didn't feel
like it represented,

you know, where I had come from.

We feel like that experience
is completely erased.

I mean, you feel like these people
don't even see you,

and that's the importance
of, you know, Wu

and, you know, all of these cats

for me. I felt like...

I felt seen.

♪ percussive music
with vocals ♪

[RZA] You know, Masta Killa

was one of the last MCs
to join the cypher.

He started letting
his lyrics loose

and through his realness,

he became the Masta Killa.

[laughs]

This is the first home
that I came home to

from Brooklyn Jewish Hospital.

On the right side, you know,
that's the window

that I would look out of
every day.

My father was a singer,
you know?

He was heavy into R&B,

and he would even
come up the block,

singing sometimes,
you know what I mean?

And when I would hear his voice,

I would almost jump out
the window

'cause I was so excited

to know that my father
was coming home,

so through trials
and tribulations,

when he left the home for good,

that was, like, traumatic
for me, man,

'cause, you know,
it was, like, come on.

Pops was everything,
you know what I mean?

That's like your first superhero

is your father,
you know what I mean?

One thing he left
was all his records.

[laughs]

He left all his records,

and I would play them every day

because that's how
I connected with him.

You know what I mean?
I remember him singing

this record, and I would get it

and put it on the turntable

and listen to it
just to remember

hearing his voice,
you know what I mean?

Looking out
of that window right there...

- [Robert James Jones] Right.
- [Masta Killa] I was too little

to even come across
the street by myself,

right?
But I would look

across the street

and I would see legendary DJs

like his self, right here,

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... and that's what I heard
coming from the park.

[hip-hop music playing]

[man] Ladies and gentlemen,
tonight, in the place to be,

are you all with us?

All right.

♪♪♪

I go down to this block party
and, you know,

the DJ's cutting.
Never seen this before.

I'm just standing right there
next to the DJ booth

watching this dude do this shit,

and one dude comes out there

with a amp and a bass guitar

and all he played
was the breaks.

B-boom, boom.

B-b-boom.
You know what I mean?

Yo, I used to have skates on
at the jam.

Sometimes one.
One skate and one sneaker.

That's how nice we was.
They used to call us

the roller derby clique.
You know what I mean?

♪♪♪

Ghost used to break dance, man.
We used to try

to battle Ghost going to school.

Ghost would windmill,

and he... he was
the floor general, man.

Got your little, uh...

windbreaker jackets on

on them nice little floors,
them slippery floors,

just doing it.
Boom.

I was about 12

when my feet started getting wet

and with the streets

and now I'm... I'm magnetized.

♪ We just do it
You just don't ♪

♪ You don't, you don't,
you don't stop ♪

♪ Now we're rocking,
now you're rocking ♪

♪ You just throw,
you throw, you throw ♪

♪ You throw your hands
in the air ♪

My next-door neighbor,
Silky Dan,

took a Fisher-Price turntable

and he turned the volume down
on the spin-back,

and he would cut,

and his man would kick rhymes

to the cuts that he was doing.

Watching him and them do that...

this is something I want
to be a part of.

♪ You just shake, the shake,
the shake ♪

♪ The shake-a, shake-a,
shake-a shake ♪

♪ The shake, the shake,
the shake ♪

We used to write
on the walls in the hood

Meth used to write "Rugby."

Raekwon used to write "Reemo."

You know what I mean?

My first time meeting RZA

was at a block party

and RZA's DJing.

His name back then was the pr...

was Prince Rakeem.
[laughs]

Before RZA.
You know what I'm saying?

We got the prince Rakeem,
from Staten Island,

you know what I'm saying?

But I remember,
I was checking RZ,

and, yo, this kid
just looked like

he got a glow about him.

RZA started making beats with
that little four-track he had.

He used to give us little tapes.

I take 'em home...

♪♪♪

I could just look out the window

and just see everybody
in the front of the building,

just dancing, DJs cutting.

It was different, yo.

It was different.

It just became you.

♪♪♪

♪♪♪

I was the only one
from Stapleton.

Our project was known
for our knuckle game.

Raekwon and them...
they lived in Park Hill.

We had to meet in this middle

to go to the same
junior high school.

You know, and that's how
we really got to...

to know each other.

Ten-cent chocolate milk shit.

The toasted almond
ice cream shit.

You know what I mean?
Shit was, like,

probably one of the best
ice creams I ever had.

Toasted almond.

Vanilla joints.
Ha.

♪ somber music ♪

Life, you know, I mean,
is father split

with your mother,
like the regular shit.

It's like, okay,
mommy taking care of you.

You know what I mean?
After a while,

mommy got... mommy got...

had two kids
with muscular dystrophy.

You know what I mean?
So it's hard on mommy.

Mommy start drinking.

I'm the oldest, so I gotta take
care of the two brothers.

You see what I'm saying?
Pick 'em up off the toilet,

put 'em on the toilet,

put 'em in a bed,

dress 'em. Me.

I'm a little... my little body.

You know, maybe I was depressed
and don't even know

that you depressed.

You know what I mean?

My aunt used to be like,
"What's wrong with you?"

I was be like...
"You know, it's nothing."

"Why you look sad?"

"I don't know."
You know?

I don't know I look sad.

You know what I'm saying?

♪♪♪

And I know what my brothers
is going through,

because I'm young,

because they can't go outside.

They sit there and watch TV
all day,

and I'm not no one like,
"Yo, okay, yo,

okay, let's... let's go outside

and push them around
and take them outside,"

'cause now, when I look at it,

shit would bring a tear
to my eye,

because I wish
I would've did that.

What kids...

...would go through...

wasn't no $300 Jordans.

It was those kind of times.

♪♪♪

♪♪♪

You see?
Oh, shit, bro.

I mean...
Hold on.

I'm coming over there.

♪ Syl Johnson's "Is It
Because I'm Black" playing ♪

♪ Oh ♪

♪ Something is holding
me back ♪

Are we gonna be on TV?

♪♪♪

♪ I wonder ♪

♪ Is it because I'm black ♪

♪♪♪

You live in these environments,

and you know you're broke,

but it don't matter,

because everybody else
around you

in the same fucking situation.

Hey, yo.

This is... this is
my old school right here.

They true... not even old school.

Just true school,
'cause these brothers

is the same,
you know what I'm saying?

What's up, baby?
Get up in this...

I actually didn't want to go

to the same school
with my brother.

We used to go to the same school

and we only had
four pair of pants

between three boys,

so...
You know what I mean?

If I wore the black ones Monday,

he wore on Tuesday,

but by the time
I get to Friday...

[laughing] I'm back
with the black ones again,

and my brother
already wore them, so

going to different schools
gave us a better way

to do the swaps.

Do you know Biggie Small?

Yeah, I know Biggie.

Yeah, I know Tupac.
Yo.

[excitedly] Ha!

All right, this is Park Hill,
this is Killer Hill projects, man.

10304.

♪ I wanna be somebody
so bad ♪

♪ You see ♪

♪ I want diamond rings
and things ♪

[woman] That's nice!

♪ Like you do ♪

[man] Can never get
away from the...

the reality of it,
you know what I'm saying?

♪♪♪

[RZA] One thing
about the projects...

it's almost like a police state,
if you think about it,

'cause you have housing police

located in your projects

and you're surrounded
by a four-block radius.

You got your bodega,
your barbershop,

your pharmacy,

your shop-and-save,
your check cashing place.

You know what I mean?
It's designed

so you don't have to leave,

and a lot of people don't leave.

[Ghostface Killah]
Looking like a jail,

the way the setup is like that.

Like, yo, the tiers.

♪ That they hold us,
hold us, hold us back ♪

[Inspectah Deck]
We ain't glorifying it.

We just, yo...

first hand.
Y'all want to know

what we're seeing in our lives,
y'all want to know

what we talking about,
we talking about this.

♪ It ain't right,
it ain't right ♪

♪ That they hold us,
hold us, hold us back ♪

[Method Man]
And somewhere in the middle

of all that shit is that hope

that one of us or all of us

is gonna make it
at one point in time

in this lifetime and shit.

♪♪♪

I'll say that
about the projects.

This is the hood.
Good old Bed-Stuy.

Do or die.

[RZA]
The GZA... of course,

the Genius.
He is a foundation of it.

Uh, he's the genius,
like, 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.

719, Monroe.
I used to live right here,

in that... that apartment
right there up the steps.

[Method Man]
The constant was RZA

and GZA always making moves,
and they got a record deal.

One, two, three, hm.

[beat-boxing]

Oh, that sound kind of ill.

Yeah.

[Method Man] Like, Dirty, GZA,
and RZA are cousins,

so they had a bunch of routines.

♪ Let me tell you
about the Genius, yo ♪

♪ I have a style of my own ♪

♪ My hands
are like vice grips ♪

♪ Holding a microphone ♪

♪ I flow smooth
with rhymes that are rough ♪

♪ You know why
'Cause I can't get enough ♪

♪ So I want practice ♪

There's a lot of battling, man.

Yeah. Has it...

Walking from borough to borough,

looking for MCs,

and battling, making routines.

And f... and, you know,
we thought we was

the ill-est MCs in New York,
so we was...

it was a hunger
to be known as an MC.

Once we seen these two brothers

the GZA and the RZA, come
through and did their thing,

that's when I knew
sooner or later,

it was gonna be
a bigger situation.

You know, 'cause it was...

there always somebody
from Staten Island.

You know, even old Justice...
Br-Brooklyn

to the f... to the fullest.

- You know, he was still Staten Island
- [U-God] That nigga Park Hill.

That nigga Park Hill
at heart, nigga.

- [Raekwon] He know, Park Hill-
- No, he a hillbilly.

[Raekwon] You know what I mean?
But...

One of our brothers
from our neighborhood.

And just to have some brothers
that we thought made it

and still come around
and to see them

- that we actually knew.
- Exactly.

[Method Man]
He was our first

superstar, local superstar.

♪ Here I am lounging
at a hype party ♪

[GZA] That was the first video.

♪ With a pair of
bedroom eyes ♪

[GZA] Ol' Dirty was in
there also,

doing the funky Ason slide.

♪ Now check out the game ♪

♪ I said ♪

♪ Girl come do me ♪

♪ Do me, do me, do me ♪

♪♪♪

Do you?

So, um, tell me, how'd you guys
get into, uh, rapping?

We was, like...

you could say
almost born rhyming.

- [woman] Born rhyming?
- You know... yes.

- In our genes, you know?
- That's one way to put it.

And, um,

been doing it for a long time,

tearing up parties, waxing MCs.

Okay, where did you get
your, um, style of rapping?

Just, like... just grew on me.

- [ODB] It's from natural talent, you know?
- [woman] Natural talent?

Raw talent?
- Raw talent.

- Raw talent?
- Definitely.

[ODB] It's a family thing, too.

We was always the hypest
in each town.

Where he lived at,
he was the hypest MC. I lived at...

- [woman] Where are you guys
from, when you say...

- Brooklyn.
- [woman] Brooklyn?

- Brooklyn, you know?
I was from the east,

he's from Bed-Stuy.

You know, he's the flyest MC
in this town,

I am.
You know what I'm saying?

But he out from Staten Island,
flyest MC out there.

[woman] Okay.
How long you been there?

I've been dancing, you know,
since I was a little kid.

- [woman] A little kid?
- Yeah.

[ODB] You know, you know,
I always had a funky style

when it came to dancing.

I got this dance called the Ason.

- [woman] The Ason?
- You know... yeah.

[ODB] Popular dance, you know.

The funky Ason slide.

- [woman] The funky Ason slide?
- Yeah.

[woman] You're gonna teach me
that before you leave?

- [GZA] Maybe so.
- [woman] Maybe so?

- Yeah.
- That's great.

[RZA] Even though GZA's the one

that taught me hip-hop,

and exposed me to it,

the person
who I nurtured it with

is ODB.

Howdy!

[RZA]
So Ol' Dirty Bastard.

What's up?
This is Ol' Dirty Ba...

He was very different
from the rest of the people

in his household, so he realized

he was a son that was unique,

and he eventually went on

to choose the name Ason Unique.

♪ Yo, I'm the U-N-I ♪

♪ The Q-U-E ♪

♪ The G from the OD ♪

♪ I said I go
by the unforgettable name ♪

♪ Of the man called
Unique G well ♪

As my cousin and knowing him...

Big Ra.

[RZA] He had a personality...

We got the RZA in the house.

...That was just raw

and unapologetic.

Yeah, man.

Y'all... y'all just sit
in the car, right, baby?

Man, good old New York.

Make me want to sing a song
or something.

♪ If you need a strong hand ♪

♪ To guide you
through the night ♪

♪ If it means anything
to you ♪

♪ To know that I care
for you ♪

[ODB] Let's forget
about Ol' Dirty Bastard.

You know what I'm saying?

Let's go back to Rusty.
Rusty.

You know, m-m-my mama,
Cherry Jones

she called me Rusty Jones.

That's what my mama called me.

♪ somber music ♪

[Cherry] I had six.

I had them all
before I turned 25.

- [man] Yeah.
- [Cherry] And I started at 19.

But Rusty... Rusty was
a mama's boy.

[ODB] Well, my mom was
the sweetest woman I ever met.

♪♪♪

I love you, mama.

[laughs]

I love you dearly.

Thanks for bringing me here.

[Ramsey] Our musical background
was from our parents, you know?

Matter of fact, Mom,
you got to mention

that her sister and her...

- Mm-hmm.
- ...Were in... were a group.

- Tiny and Terry.
- [Ramsey] Tiny and Terry.

It was my Aunt Paulette and Mom.

Mm-hmm.
My music was my life.

[Cherry] I never listened
to rap. I hated it.

[Cherry] I just don't like it.

I never did,

and Rusty never listened to it.

[ODB] I like Marvin Gaye,
you know? Otis Redding.

You know, I grew up
on them type of songs,

and all that singer stuff

and all that... man,
that's just... that's natural, man.

That's how I feel my mus...
I'm like Patti LaBelle.

I'm like... I'm like
Millie Jackson, you know?

[Cherry laughs]

[ODB] And my brother... he used
to play heavy metal.

That's all he played,
was rock and roll.

[Ramsey] You know, I-I started
out playing drums.

My cousin RZA and GZA
used to come over to our house

in Linden Plaza.

We would make
our own hip-hop tapes,

so I would take a headphone

and plug it into the, uh,

input of the amplifier,

put it underneath a shoebox,

and play break beats on that.

We would turn the volume up

and get this loud sound,

and it sounded killer.

They would just rhyme over...

over the beats I would do,

right in our bedroom.

[Ramsey] They called their crew
the All In Together Now Crew.

RZA had this rhyme about, like,

sex and... and... and I
won't even say it on camera, but...

[RZA] One, two, one, two, yo.

♪ Sitting in my class
at a quarter to ten ♪

♪ Waiting patiently
for the class to begin ♪

♪ The teacher says "Students
open up your texts ♪

♪ And read the first paragraph
on oral sex" ♪

♪ Yo, oral sex
what kind of class is this ♪

♪ And the gal next to me says
"What's wrong with you miss" ♪

♪ Yo, this is the... ♪

[ODB] RZA taught me everything
I knew, by the way, you know?

Man, I remember,
back in the days, man,

when he used to make me rhyme.

So he used to write lyrics
for me, man,

and if I ain't rhyme,
we used to fight.

♪ Oh, yes, in pain ♪

♪ She yells out my name ♪

Rakeem!
Rakeem!

♪ And then I came ♪

- Peace.
- Oh, peace.

Ason in the motherfucking house.

Go on, Cipher, Divine.

Peace.

♪ smooth jazz music ♪

♪♪♪

[Method Man]
I went and got a job.

Statue of Liberty was hiring.

A lot of my friends
were already working there.

I started working.
I loved the job.

It's my first real fucking job
and shit.

[U-God] Method used to
work full-time,

but I used to work
on the weekends.

♪♪♪

I was a janitor.

I used to take out
all the garbages,

clean up all the condiments.

All the fucking tourists
used to be nasty.

The bathrooms, they used to do
all type of nasty shit in there.

Had to, um, steam the floors

out on the deck,
'cause the seagulls come in there

and shit
all over the goddamn place.

Know the history
of the Statue of Liberty?

It was given to us by the French

and supposed to be
the black woman?

They say it is.

I don't know.

Now, mind you,

we worked here for years
and never went

to go see this woman.

[U-God] Never one time,
we went up in there.

[Method Man] Wow.

♪♪♪

[laughs]

- [both] How you doing?
- I'm good.

- How you been?
- Good, thank you.

Still here.

[laughter]

Let me see something.

[U-God] Mr. Hill was
the owner of the restaurant

that's on the Statue of Liberty.

And he had a son, Brad.

Oh, that is the man right there.

How are you, sir?

[muffled]

How are you?
How you been?

You look great, Brad.

- You too.
- Wow.

Wow, sir.
How you doing, sir?

- It's been a long time.
- Yes, yes, sir. Yes, sir.

You doing well?

Uh, I'm doing well.
I'm doing pretty good for myself.

I see you've transitioned
a little bit

to old... old shows.

Absolutely, absolutely.

- What are you doing?
- Wu-Tang, you know?

- Okay.
- Wu-Tang group.

Same group.
Same group stuff.

Just, you know, me and him...

you know, we have...
we was best friends,

so, you know, we just
transitioned to something else.

- [laughs]
- You know.

You know, I have dreams

about... like, I'll be
in the dream

and I'm working here again.

You gotta understand, for me,

these... these are still moments

that are just etched
in my brain forever,

because it was a highlight
of my life.

Even though with the career
and everything,

this is still one
of the highlights of our life.

Best job I ever freaking had.

Thank you very much.

You still in Staten Island?

Yeah, same place.

- Same place?
- Really?

- Well...
- More or less.

- I mean the same borough.
- [laughs]

A little nicer...
a little nicer place.

A little bit...
a little nicer place.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
My kids...

they didn't have to grow up
where I grew up at.

That's the best part.

- The way it should be, right?
- Yeah.

[Method Man] Let me see
if I still remember this.

All right, I still got it.

♪♪♪

How you doing, sir?

Mind if I get this?
Thank you.

[U-God] That's what I was telling him.
Like, it's about getting that money.

Only... the only... the only...
only thing...

only thing
that's gonna get you freedom

is your money, is money,
tell you the truth,

and I know dudes don't like
to really, like,

to put... emphasize on money
like that,

but that's the only thing
gonna get freedom,

because other than that,

this is gonna be...

I don't know, man.
They just...

just... it's just fucked-up.

♪♪♪

Look at it, look at it.

♪♪♪

There is no way she's black.

♪♪♪

[RZA] You know,
I think New York is like a...

a Mecca of entrepreneurs.

Sometime, we'd be
at the highway,

selling the newspapers.

[U-God] We sold newspapers
on the Verrazzano Bridge.

[Raekwon] Yeah, on the Verrazzano,
and I remember,

RZ and them, they...

they had those lanes.

Like, they was smart enough
to know

what lanes was jumping and shit.

The worst that you could get
is the truck lane.

Papers going for 30¢,

they give you a dime all
for every paper,

so you get about 15 bucks
a day doing that.

For a welfare family,
that's an important income,

$15 a day.

I was working
in Grand Central Station

as a messenger, bro.

Packing bags at the supermarket.

I used to work
for the, uh, transit authority,

cleaning two cars a day.

My pops died when I was six,

so I'm trying to take a little...

a little bit of the...
of the pressure

off my mom, to try to raise

three kids,
you know what I'm saying?

Trying to make money,

just hustling any way I can,

so I was working, man.

♪ melancholy music ♪

[Jim] I grew up in a mostly
all-white community,

so for me, like, hip-hop

is the love of language,

and its... its beauty

and what... and what
you can do with it,

the amazing things
you can do with it.

It's in me because of
my appreciation for it.

We live in apartheid in America.

I don't care what anyone says.

This is like apartheid,

and, uh, 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.

♪♪♪

[woman singing]

♪♪♪

Staten Island is the...
the most racist, like,

to me, I think,
out of all the boroughs.

[Raekwon] Our district was in
a white neighborhood,

so, you know, some of us
didn't like

going to school because...

you know, we wanted to have
that mixture.

We wanted to see
more black people too.

[Inspectah Deck]
Park Hill niggas...

we went to 13.

Where was 13?
In Rose Bank.

Rose Bank...

...mini-Mississippi.
[laughs]

[man] This is Tompkins Avenue,

Rose Bank, Staten Island,

[crowd] Rose Bank!
Rose Bank!

Rose Bank!
Rose Bank!

Rose Bank! Rose Bank!
Rose Bank! Rose Bank!

[Ghostface Killah]
Don't be caught in Rose Bank.

They... they'll fuck you up
in Rose Bank.

[shouting, whistling]

♪ desolate music ♪

[woman] Black leaders
on Staten Island

say a black teenager
who was killed by a car

may have been trying to escape
from a group of whites.

When I used to go to PS 13,

you know, I don't know.
I only coulda been, like,

nine, ten years old,
and I used to remember

riding under
this bridge trestle.

It used to say
"Kill all niggers," you know,

"KKK," and I used to be like,

"Damn, that was
really frightening,"

and I had to go to school
every day like that,

and we was, like, kids

on the fucking yellow bus.
Dude, like,

who fucking put that shit there?

That shit...
you know what I mean?

That shit stood with me
for a long time.

[woman chanting]
♪ Hey, hey, ho, ho ♪

♪ Racism's... ♪

Go home and clean you off...

why, you look like you white!

As a nine-, ten-year-old,

you getting chased

home from school
by grown-ass men.

"Damn, I'm somewhere
I'm not supposed to be!

No blacks, not in this shit."

[reporter] Do black kids
come around here?

Uh, they walk by freely.

[teenager] So the guy,
he get r... get

in his car and he asks... say,

"What you niggers
doing down here?"

Calling you "nigger,"
"Get the fuck out of here."

"I'ma kill you, nigger,"

throwing shit at you,

bottles busting in the street.

You nine.

They chase me.

One guy had got in his car
and he started chasing us.

They like, "Oh, we're gonna
have us a whipping right now."

Bro, you running,

and the bottle come... kssh!
next to you... kssh!

A rock comes skipping

and some shit actually hits you
in your back.

They calling for more guys
to come.

"Hey, Johnny!
[nasal nondescript utterances]

Come over here! Yo!"
[nasal nondescript utterances]

You thinking they really
gonna kill you, man.

So I'm like, "Oh, shit."

Scared to death.
Scared to death.

♪ uneasy music ♪

Knew it all. Fights.

I remember sometimes,
a riot would jump off.

White boys chasing you.

You gotta fight a bunch
of these football dudes

hoping to make it to the bus.

You know, 'cause back then,
you know,

Italian white boys, they tough.

They grew up like fucking

Richie Cunningham
and all them niggas.

The Fonz.

Coming to school
with leathers on

with no shirt under.

You know, bold motherfuckers
like Grease, like...

you know, those type of dudes.

You know what I mean?

That's why Grease is one
of my favorite movies,

'cause it just remind me
of those kind of dudes

we went to school with.

You know, in Park Hill, you...

you go to 350, 320,

that's... that's Little Spain.

Them niggas will whoop your ass.

Know what I'm saying?

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.

The all the different sections
of people that there is

fighting for everything.

Fighting for closet space,

fighting for parking space,

fighting for the same jacket

from the same store.

It was always conflict.

♪ hip-hop music ♪

[indistinct chatter]

[indistinct chatter]

[man] All right, if I could get
your undivided attention,

you'll get a chance to learn

what the Five Percenters
are all about.

We're about elevation.

All y'all and us are one family,

so we build to teach
our babies how to live

right and exact

by giving them the knowledge
of themselves

so they can elevate themselves.

[cheers]

[RZA] Being part of the
Five Percent at that time...

the Mathematics
and the knowledge of self.

The brothers was very unified.

We all could say we was, like,

totally converted into that,

totally immersed into it.

♪ pensive music ♪

So the Five Percent Nation
has its origin

with a brother who was called

the Father, Allah.

His birth name
was Clarence 13X Smith.

He was a student
at temple number seven

under Malcolm X,

Malcolm X being the student

of the honorable
Elijah 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.

See, we are Five Percent,
the poor righteous teachers.

Five Percent is going to do
their job

in the poor part
of Planet Earth.

That's why we're the high, intelligent
people of this planet Earth.

See, we gonna be building.

We gonna build a black nation

that's gonna be all wise
and righteous.

You hear me speak...
ain't no difference.

We all as one.

[RZA] 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,

and he explains the Mathematics.

The Supreme Mathematics...

knowledge, wisdom,

understanding,

culture or freedom,

power or refinement,

equality, god,

build or destroy,

born, knowledge, cipher,

is the essence
of the lessons we study.

Knowledge is to look, listen,
whole soul respect.

Wisdom is the way we keep
the snakes in check.

Understanding is to what?
See things clear.

The culture frees the dumb
so the deaf will hear.

The first lesson
of the Five Percent teaching...

it says, "Who is...

the original man?"

The answer is the original man

is the Asiatic Blackman.

It's a powerful thing
at a young age,

learning about yourself.

[RZA] We are not just
the children of slaves.

You know what I mean?

The original man is the...

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 Blackman ♪

♪ Asiatic Blackman ♪

♪ The maker, the owner ♪

♪ The cream
of the planet Earth ♪

♪ The father
of civilization ♪

♪ Father
of civilization ♪

Pop it!

I felt like the Mathematics

gave brothers, like,
high self-esteem.

[U-God] You know what I mean?
It just

gave you a different outlook
on, um...

- On life.
- [U-God] On life.

[U-God] You know, when you
heard the Blackman was God,

it was like, "What?
Blackman is god?"

It was like, "Unh!"

Your chest got poked out.
You're like, "Yeah, it's real."

- Made you responsible.
- Yeah.

And that wisdom and knowledge...

that's why we ended up,

you know, who we are.

A whole new outlook.

[RZA] People would say,
"Why do you go off-track, RZA?

You got knowledge of self."

I had mental freedom,

but I didn't have
economic freedom.

Yeah.

♪ How many MCs
must take a chill ♪

♪ Before somebody says
don't fuck with Park Hill ♪

♪ Well, this one here
is called haunt you with the tec ♪

♪ Straight from the island
of Shaolin is direct ♪

♪ The rumble, got a killa bee
out to bust you ♪

♪ Pockets stay fat
like a muscle ♪

♪ Sharpen the mental ♪

♪ Hard to tell
what a nigga been through ♪

[Cappadonna]
Storm of Jamaicans

come through our hood,

like, '85, '86,

with big chunks of gold on,

gold in the mouth,
know what I'm saying?

That's when I first seen
that shit.

I was like,
"Yo, how are you getting that?"

♪♪♪

[Method Man] The majority of
people I grew up with

was drug dealers now.

Everybody was selling crack.

Typical work day, I get up

5:00 in the morning,

we get our little sandwich,

which was a little pastrami
and Swiss,

they go around the corner,

find your stash...

Mm-hmm.
[muffled]

♪ A hand in your pocket
and one by your side ♪

[U-God]
And then you rockin'.

I was moving, probably,
like, a brick a week, man.

You know, you've always
just tried to live

this American dream,
paying for itself

to get through college,
all that shit.

I ain't gonna say
we was partners.

We definitely wasn't partners.

I was out there,
selling his shit.

Boom. Next thing you know,
I'm out there with the pack.

I'm scrambling, I'm scrambling.

All of a sudden,
this epidemic hit, you know,

and now,
your neighborhood is worth

$1/4 million a day.

That's interesting to me.
You know what I mean?

My older brother

Divine was the hustler.

He was the source
of the family, in a way.

Come to my house, you see a pair

Technic 1200 turntables.

My brother got that
from hustling.

[Method Man] And in the midst
of all this, we had been making,

you know, little tapes and shit
at RZA's house for years.

Gotta go to Rakeem's house,

work on this music.

After we doing our little hustling
on the front of the building,

we should just say,
"The hell with it, man."

We go see Ra down in Stapleton,

go hit them beats up, okay?

♪ Ooh, what, grab my nuts,
get screwed ♪

♪ Ah, here comes
my Shaolin style ♪

♪ True B-A-ba-B-Y-U ♪

♪ To my crew with a ♪

♪ Suu ♪

It's gonna blow, boys.

[RZA] It was my dream,

but Divine contributed
to that dream,

but he got locked up.

You know a child can be guided
on the right path

if you put
that proper knowledge,

wisdom, understanding
inside of his head.

You know what I mean?

And the proper opportunities.

When I got knowledge of self,

I had to choose a name
for myself.

I came with the name Rakeem.

Uh, there's not really
a Arabic word for it, either,

so I had to find the word

that's... it means to be original.

Zig-zag-zig

actually means "knowledge,
wisdom, understanding."

I was going on the right path,

and then I got caught
into a world

of trouble, turmoil,

doing the wrong things,

and I zagged away,

which led to nothing
but more trouble for me.

Once Divine got locked up,

my mother had left
New York City.

She went to Ohio:

Steubenville, Ohio,

the birthplace of Dean Martin.

♪ somber synth music ♪

I was, you know, 18 years old.

That's when me and Ghostface
became roommates,

and next thing you know,
we got months behind the rent,

and the only way
to put bread on the table

was to get back
to street hustling.

♪♪♪

[Method Man] Crack damaged
the fucking hood

in an explosive way,
like, overnight.

[Cappadonna] It was
a lot of cash flow involved,

but the consequences w-was big.

I hated that shit.

I hated selling on the block.

Dudes was getting murdered.

My brother got shot
in the stomach couple of times.

- You know what I'm saying?
- [gunshots]

I got the phone call
that Ghost got shot.

- My stomach dropped.
- [gunshots]

"Yeah, a bitch nigga
shot me, in my neck."

No.
I got shot out there,

but that's not the reason
why we wrote "Protect Ya Neck."

That was a very scary time
right there.

A lot of niggas gone, in jail.

I got locked up

for 3 1/2 ounces of coke
and a gun.

Cappa was gone, in jail.

Yeah, I got smack around '87,

and 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 gunshots]

It was just a bad night,
you know what I mean?

[sirens wailing]

I got into some trouble
to... as, uh, violence ensued.

[gunshot]

- Kid got shot.
- [gunshot]

Led to me facing
eight years in jail.

♪♪♪

I went to trial.

You know, black dudes
don't really go to trial

to win, you know what I mean?

The prosecutor wasn't making
no deals with me.

He was taking me all the way.

♪♪♪

I'm in prison, y'all.

I felt totally alone.

[cell doors slamming]

And, you know,

I was blessed to...
to beat that one.

My mother came out
and she saw me.

She looked me in my eyes and said
this was my second chance.

Don't look back.
Walk straight.

Walk that straight
and narrow path.

I did that.

I zigged back.

You know, it was like,
"Nah, I'm not Prince Rakeem."

I'm the RZA.

I'm Rakeem Zig-Zag-Zig Allah.

♪ Yo, life is a struggle ♪

After I got out of jail,

I drove back to New York

and started making music.

[indistinct rapping]

♪ I be the best by far ♪

♪ Bust it up ♪

[indistinct shouting]

I was ready to get serious
again, you know what I mean?

[indistinct chatter]

Hey, they don't know
where you coming from.

[Inspectah Deck] When RZA
moved to Morningstar,

that's around the time

where he got the idea

of putting the clan together.

Kick that shit, Deck.

♪ I smoke on the mic
like Smokin' Joe Frazier ♪

♪ The hell-raiser,
raising hell with the flavor ♪

♪ Terrorize the jam
like troops in Pakistan ♪

♪ Swinging through your town
like your neighborhood... ♪

Check him out, man.
Yo, what he just said...

it sounded crazy,
crazy threatening,

but it wasn't really no
actual violence being spoken.

[RZA] Terrorize the jams.

He terrorizing jams...
not... not... not old ladies,

not little kids, not... not spu...

He terrorizing the jams
like troops in Pakistan.

Troops in Pakistan.

You know, they was
terrorizing Pakistan.

[RZA]
I identified Staten Island

and these crew of dudes
that I go have cyphers with,

and these dudes is coming
to my house, making demos

all the illest.

♪ I'm blow up your projects ♪

♪ Then take all your assets ♪

♪ 'Cause I came to shake
the frame in half ♪

♪ With the thoughts
that bomb shit like math ♪

Like mathematics.
You know what I'm saying?

[Inspectah Deck] Being
around with my brothers

and we rhyming
and we getting down,

it's like, "Damn,

have we heard that shit?"
Like,

"Say that part again.
Like w-what was that?"

♪ So if you want
to try to flip ♪

♪ Go flip on the next man ♪

[GZA] Oh, don't flip on us.

♪ 'Cause I'll grab
the clip and ♪

♪ Hit you
with 16 shots... ♪

And that's when
the vision hit me.

Everything... the righteousness...
everything came to me.

A'ight, this is... this the road
manager here of Wu-Tang.

- Yeah, what's up?
- I don't know how in the world

you keep
all these brothers together.

I must shake your hand on that,

'cause I know it's a hard job.

[U-God]
Mook was our manager,

our first manager
back in the days.

♪ somber music ♪

[Mook] Well, my cousins.
You know,

RZA.

Not only my cousin.
He's also my god-brother.

Yeah, I was a entrepreneur,

just like everybody else,
you know.

Had my first child

and I knew my life
had to change.

Then I became
a New York City bus driver.

RZA came to me and said, "Look,

I really want you to help me,

help me, you know,
with my music," and,

"Uh, man, I ain't got time
for that bullshit."

I was driving the bus.

And when I was talking to him,

I'm just looking at his eyes.

I-I see something in his eyes

that was, like,
he ain't bullshitting.

He's for real.

So I told him, "A'ight,

I'll work with you,
but don't fuck with me, man.

If we're gonna do this shit,

you gotta give me all you got,

'cause I'm gonna give you
all I got.

That's the only way
I know how to do something."

I knew nothing
about the music business.

I was brand-spanking-new.

I just knew how
to move a product.

To me, records was product.

First thing to come in,
"Protect Ya Neck."

We gotta make people
listen to it.

♪ Wu-Tang Clan coming at ya ♪

♪ What, what,
Protect Ya Neck, yo ♪

♪ Russell, set it off ♪

♪ What, what
the Inspectah Deck ♪

♪ I smoke on the mic
like Smokin' Joe Frazier ♪

♪ A hell-raiser
raising hell with the flavor ♪

♪ Terrorize the jam
like troops in Pakistan ♪

♪ Swinging through your town ♪

♪ Like your neighborhood
Spider-Man ♪

♪ So, uh, tick-tock,
keep ticking ♪

♪ While I get ya flipping off
the fresh that I'm kicking ♪

♪ The Lone Ranger,
code red, danger ♪

♪ Deep in the dark
with the art ♪

♪ To rip the charts apart ♪

♪ The vandal
too hot to handle ♪

♪ You battle, you're saying
goodbye like Tevin Campbell ♪

♪ Roughneck, Inspectah Deck's
on the set ♪

♪ The Rebel, I make more noise
than heavy metal ♪

♪ Yo, the way I make
the crowd go wild ♪

♪ Sit back, relax,
won't smile ♪

♪ Rae got it going on, pal ♪

♪ Call me
the rap assassinator ♪

♪ Rhymes rugged and built
like Schwarzenegger ♪

[Bobbito] December of '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 was not technically allowed
to do a show on my own.

I don't even know how to DJ.

Now, the door rings,
so I open up the door

and there's five cats.

"Yo, B, we got
this new record, yo.

Yo, play that song.

Yo, play that.

You know, yo,

Yo, yo, play that.
Play that right now."

I'm like, "Yo, chill, chill."

I go into the studio.

Yo, it's all white labeled.

That shit don't even have
no fucking writing on it.

I put it on, I'm...
I'm hearing, like,

martial arts.
Hoo! Ha! Ha!

Like, what the fuck
is this shit?

But I'm like,
"Oh, this shit is dope,"

so I played it.

♪ For short, Mr. Meth ♪

♪ Moving on your left, uh ♪

♪ And set it off, get it off,
let it off like a gat ♪

♪ I want to break, fool,
cock me back ♪

♪ Small change, they putting
shame in the game ♪

♪ I take aim and blow
the nigga out the frame ♪

♪ And like Fame
my style will live forever ♪

♪ Niggas crossing over
but they don't know no better ♪

♪ But I do,
true can I get a ♪

♪ Suu ♪
♪ 'Nuff respect due... ♪

♪ to the 1-6-ooh ♪

♪ I mean, oh, yo,
check out the flow ♪

♪ Like the Hudson
or PCP when I'm dusting ♪

♪ Niggas off,
'cause I'm hot like sauce ♪

♪ The smoke from the lyrical
blunt make me, uh ♪

♪ Ooh, what, grab a nut,
get screwed ♪

♪ Oow, here comes
the Shaolin style ♪

♪ True badass
who, baby, you ♪

♪ To my crew with a ♪

♪ Suu ♪
♪ Yeah-eah, yeah, yeah ♪

♪ Come on baby, baby
come on, baby come on ♪

♪ Baby, baby, come on ♪

♪ Oh ♪

♪ Yo, you best protect
ya neck ♪

[Bobbito] My man calls up

right after it's done.

He's like, "Yo, what the hell
is that shit?"

I'm like, "I don't know."
There's no video out.

Steve Rifkind
wasn't in the picture.

This is just
straight out the trunk

selling shit.

♪ Yeah out loud my style
is wild so book me ♪

♪ Not long is how long
that this rhyme took me ♪

♪ Ejecting styles
from my lethal weapon ♪

♪ My pen that rock
from here to Oregon ♪

♪ There's more again, catch it
like a psycho flashback ♪

♪ I love gats;
if rap was a gun ♪

♪ You wouldn't bust that ♪

♪ I come in in all types
of shapes and sounds ♪

♪ And where I lounge
is my stomping grounds ♪

♪ I give an order to
my peoples across the water ♪

♪ To go and snatch up props
all around the border ♪

♪ And get far
like a shooting star ♪

♪ 'Cause who I are living
the life of Pablo Escobar ♪

♪ Point blank as I kick
the square biz ♪

♪ There it is, yo, with pros
and there it goes ♪

[Mook] I'm taking
the record to the DJs,

I'm taking it to the stores,

I'm taking the record
to the clubs.

I mean, anywhere music
is being played,

I'm taking the record there.

Rock and Soul... that was
the number one

hip hop store, back in the day,

and the young lady there...
you know,

at first, she didn't want
to take the record,

so then I came up

with a little... plan.

I can stand up?
Want me to sit?

[man] Yeah, stand up.

[Mook] I'm gonna send someone
in the store

and ask for the record.

"That record.
That record, you know.

There's a bunch of guys

and they're MCing..."

It was my cousin, Vince.

I swear to God, this is true.

And so I come back in
another time.

My cousin in there,

and I play the record for him.

[record static]

All of a sudden,

he's like, "That's it!

That's that shit
I was talking about!

I heard it on Bobbito's show!"

'Cause Bobbito...

Stretch Armstrong... their show?

First motherfuckers
to play the record.

And I swear to God,
out of nowhere,

this other motherfucker
just came.

"Yeah!
I love that song!

Yeah, I heard that shit
on Bobbito's show, too!

I've been looking
for that shit!"

And then another motherfucker...

"Oh, shit! I've been looking
all over for that record!"

Next thing you know,
everybody in the store,

so I pulled out the box.
I'm like this:

"Yeah, yeah, yeah,
I could buy this...

They said, "No, no, no, no,
not in my store."

She grabbed the box and said,
"No, no, no, no, no, no.

She came over this...
She bought the whole box.

That was the first fucking box
I sold,

so I said, "Damn,
that shit work like that?"

Mm.
I did that shit in the Bronx,

I did it in Brooklyn,
I did it in Virginia,

I...

we went from here
to North Carolina.

I did that shit everywhere.

Shit was just going crazy.

- Wu...
- [crowd] Tang!

- Wu...
- [crowd] Tang!

And we out.

Brothers,

Wu-Tang Clan, y'all!

[indistinct chatter]

[Cappadonna] I remember
we was in the house.

I was with Rae

waiting for "Protect Ya Neck"

that we heard on the radio.

Just hearing that shit

on that radio

all the way through.

Man, I saw Rae
jump so fucking high, yo.

Yo, he jumped like, "Yeah!"

Like, "Oh, shit."

Once I heard it on the radio,

oh, my fucking God.

I was like, "We going."

And we was in front of 160,

and I was still selling drugs.

Niggas was amped the fuck up

and shit,
you know what I'm saying?

Everybody listening
for their part.

And my boy Shabby
let a shot off and shit.

He has a little...
it looked like a little.22,

might have been a.38...
who knows... and shit.

Like, Bao! Bap! Bap!

♪♪♪

Eh, it just gave you
your battery.

Like, "Oh, shit! Yo.

Yo, we made it!"

Nobody thought this shit
was going

to be anything.
Know what I'm saying?

Like, I was one of them dudes

that came with RZA
to every meeting

in the beginning,

when he was shopping everything.

We met with different labels.

With Russell Simmons and Def Jam

and everybody was all...
at first,

was like,
"Yo, it's just too many, man.

[Raekwon]
It's too many of y'all, man.

Like, how the fuck?

No, this ain't gonna work.

[Inspectah Deck]
"Ah, nine members.

How you gonna split the money?
How's this gonna work?"

And our thing was like,
"Why are you worrying

about how we gonna split
the money, bro?"

And we all sat

with one goal in our minds.

"Like, yo, if y'all
ain't taking all of us,

you can't have none of us."

It's like this.
You know what I'm saying?

'Cause people,
they looking at us

as nine individuals,

then we ain't gonna make it.

We ain't gonna let
this money shit

break us up, and we know

that money is the root
of all evil,

you know what I'm saying?

We gonna do this, man.
We ain't gonna...

Wu is gonna
never break the fuck up, man.

[Cappadonna] You know?

[Raekwon] They know.

[RZA] 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

that 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.

♪ Uh, I bring it back
to that boom-bap ♪

♪ Original gun claps
and the moon's black ♪

♪ Now tell Stella this is how
she get the groove back ♪

♪ Way before The Source ♪

♪ my main source was the move pass ♪

♪ That extra P in 9-1 ♪

♪ Used to walk this way ♪

♪ When DMCs might run ♪

♪ Son, my trends are culture
in the slum ♪

♪ I done bleu cheese telling you ♪

♪ I'm Cs where I'm from ♪

♪ Be real, you don't wanna ♪

♪ Get killed in Cypress Hill ♪

♪ Them boys get beastie ♪

♪ And they licensed to ill ♪

♪ And out-scratch what my homies ♪

♪ Have for real ♪

♪ Need a hit squad starring ♪

♪ The gang mass appeal ♪

♪ I got a tribe
and a so-called request ♪

♪ 'Cause I'm nice on the mic
with a little salt and pep ♪

♪ Yep, that's a fact, salute ♪

♪ That's respect ♪

♪ You get beat nuts, you know ♪

I go psycho for less?