RZA on What Brought Wu-Tang Clan Together

I got one Wu-Tang question. Was Wu-Tang design- Hold on, hold on. Sorry. I like the way you start the quest of this shit. I'm like, you did me? You did like this? And you syllable that shit. Yes, I did. Was- Yo, look, this is- Okay, okay. Go inside. Come on, son. I'll fuck with you, go ahead. Okay, let me say. Was Wu-Tang the vision and the design of Wu-Tang? Was it designed to fall apart? And when I say fall apart, was it designed where a group of individuals that were getting their equal due respect needed a bigger platform so everybody see them at one time? Ooh. Did you get that question? Yeah, yeah, yeah. What he's saying is you were also- This is the reason I said- You were also talented, but together you were bigger. Were you designed to elevate- What I'm saying was- The profile of all the members. And the reason why I say this years ago, years ago, years ago, years ago, I had a sketch group years ago. Years ago I had a sketch group. It was 12 motherfuckers. Everybody had different personalities. Everybody was dope. Everybody could be a star in a different writing, whatever, but nobody had to plan to get the people to see that everybody is nice. Right. Nobody- I would say this, right? Wu-Tang was designed to come together for a common cause, right? And that cause, of course, being to express our art, to rise ourselves out of poverty, and to feed our families. So that was a foundation, but it's not designed to fall apart. In fact, Wu-Tang, that's why on our second album, it's called Wu-Tang Forever. Right. Meaning no matter what we do, no matter if I go make movies or Met the Man make movies, or you go write books- You come back together. Yeah, we always got to come back together. But this one I would do this- Wu-Tang is forever. But hold on, let me finish the last thing. But now to put us all on the same, like to expose it all to the world through one outlet. Yes. It had to be that. It had to be that. Yeah, it had to be that. It had to be that. And the reason why I said it, because when I had my sketch group- I had my sketch group years ago, it was called Secrets Society when I was doing it. I remember that. I had this manager, and she came- This was before the Dave Chappelle show. It was just a thing. I was like, I'm gonna do these jokes on my plate. I'm really watching you, bro. Look, and then I said, one of the managers I was working with, she was like, the name of my group was Secrets Society. She said, I had Mike Epps, I had Mark Thiebaugh, I had Red Grant, I had some bad motherfuckers. And she said, Darnell, I think Secrets Society is falling apart. I said, nigga, it was supposed to fall apart. It was supposed to fall apart. But where it was fall, does it land somewhere you could grow something else? Like, I knew it was only three people that were gonna be stars, but it was four other people that were gonna be writers. Right, right. It was two other motherfucker that was gonna be- it was different shit, but we needed that. Okay, I got you there. You know what I'm saying? So fall apart, that word, you said fall apart. I didn't mean it in the negative. I meant like- You meant more like spread his wings. Spread his wings. Yeah. And like, even though, like when I said that, I mean it like, even though like, everybody, for the most part, everybody wanted to be a superstar. Everybody had the chops, everybody wasn't a superstar. Right. And it's proven to this day. Some people's like this, guess what? This motherfucker wrote on eight different shows. We won. Right. This dude is touring in Europe. We won. Exactly. You know what I'm saying? It was like, when I say fall apart, it was like, it was gonna go there, and then it was just gonna be like, it fall like this, yo, yo, it was good. We all got it. You know what I mean? That they're strong enough that they could exist independently. Independent in different areas. But always come back together if they want to. That's why we called ourselves, we was like, we were telling forums like Vultron. So you watch Vultron. Yes, yes. Each of the Lions, cause the fuck us up. Yeah. They could fuck some shit up. But when you need the blazing sword, everybody gotta come together for Vultron. So we took that philosophy, and we knew that within all of our crew that any one of us was, first of all, Wu-Tang is a bunch of alphas. It wasn't like, What? It wasn't no sucker dude. Nobody at Wu-Tang got jeans that fit, but you. You the only one that got the jeans that's the size of you, son. I'm saying. Niggas are 32-38, son. All day, son. Stupid. You say, I got jeans that fit. I've been saying. It's true, he's right. It's true though, son. I know Zippy like, come on, son. You already know what you know, Coach, that nigga waits a 32-38 42s all day and double up on it built. 90s baggy, right? Yes, yeah. That's what I dig it. You know, back in those days, man, you might have on three pair pairs. Right. Yeah. And in the summer. Yeah. You know what I mean? But the main thing is that to be able to, you know what I mean, to have the alpha energy, right? And then come to us into an industry that was lacking that alpha energy. I know, I was in New York. Well, you had mystical philosophy behind it too. Oh, of course. But that was the thing about it is like, Wu Tang was inexorably connected to Kung Fu. Right. Like, there was like, there was... That's the Wu. Yes. The ancient Chinese Kung Fu philosophy was a part of the music, man. It was like, there was a thing about you guys that you were spiritual. There was like a, there was an intelligence. And then of course you had ODB who was off the rails, which was beautiful about it is that you guys all existed together. You know what I'm saying? And even though you had this sort of spiritual Kung Fu kind of energy to it, you also had people just off the rails partying. But then you get wild fire too. Yo, they had New York on fire. Niggas used to have a fucking Wu Tang sightings and there wasn't even a Wu person in there. They just be like, Wu Wu's there. That was Wu Wu like, oh shit, I heard Wu Wu was up there. Like that, like, I don't know if there's ever been a group that you could just mention that anybody from Wu Tang was there. It was a whole bunch of not Wu Tang motherfuckers getting a lot of pussy. Yeah. Just because... Still, and still, and still do. Yo, it's to this day, son. And yo, there was a guy... And yo, there was... It's a true joke, it's a joke, son. There's a guy that went on tour. I'm expecting Asian like, oh shit, dick, it's like my dick Wu Wu. And yo, there was a guy who went on tour as the fake Capodana. Oh my God. He didn't get caught till he got about 70 grand or something like that. Where was that? In Baltimore? Atlanta, but he just did the tour. He just went out. Because so many of us, you might not know how a motherfucker looked. You ain't gonna know. You know what I'm saying, man. Right. You're not gonna know. When they start getting in... And then you think about this, this ain't Wu's. So, they think about this, Wu got kids. Wu got kids. Now, it's like, we at the point now, I'm old school. Wu kids got... Trying to have kids. So, it's baby Wu's. Oh my God. It's everywhere. The most beautiful thing. But some people took advantage of it. Well, the most beautiful thing though, you know, that's the beauty of art, creativity, and being, you know, the spiritual aspect, the alpha aspect, all these aspects multiplied us to be a unique version of the American dream. And when you look at, you know, we did the documentary of Mikes and Men on Showtime. And you can see that it's more like, it's like the lotus leaf grows out of mud. Right. But it's a symbol of Buddhism, which is all this peace and beauty, but it grows out of mud. So, we're like that, which grew out of the mud. So, that's the beauty of Mikes and Men on Showtime.