My takeaways after finishing Raekwon's new book, From Staircase to Stage.

[nieman]

Rae was salty that RZA turned down the Leonardo Dicaprio deal. Leo was probably gonna be in the movie and Rae saw dollar signs. RZA told him if he could find a deal that he would listen but Rae believes RZA didn't think Rae would actually find anything legit. So, when he showed up with Leo and RZA dismissed it, Rae was hurt pretty badly by that. He says they were gonna make the show without his character in the show, and he says there was a teaser of the making of Cream without Rae there. That's when Rae said he told them he was gonna sue them. RZA worked out the money and then Rae met with Shameik. Rae is mad the other Wu members aren't listed as producers, and made it sound like him and them have no input in the show.

That's fabricated for the book as well. I posted the BC interview when he said what happened. First off, Rae thought the movie could be made with 10M. Rae just wanted a movie. RZA did tell him to see what he could do, and RZA ended up having several meetings with Leo's team trying to work out the logistics after Rae brought them in. In the end, he had to sign off on the show before they could work out the kinks for a movie. Rae was just salty cause he wanted a movie, and wanted that producer payment. Looking back he may have felt that RZA wasn't gonna do the movie, but you can't say it wasn't given serious thought.

Another instance is RZA was right. No way could you include 10 rappers, Math, Divine & Power all in a 2.5 hr movie. I want to see this teaser. There's no reference to CREAM in season 1, so if anything, it was probably a pitch to gauge the tone of the show. There's probably no Clan members in it

And I doubt Rae knows or cares about other's involvement. According to RZA the writer's room is open to them...Meth been on set and Ghost said he's spoken to the writers a few times, Divine has hella input...and other members said they've been in contact with their actors and storylines.

 

[KFBF]

The fukk? You got a problem with the producer who also raps on the project getting a producer and artist cut?

The breakdown I read was RZA was getting 50% for the producer credit and then the other 50% was split amongst the other rappers on the songs. So if there's 6 dudes rapping. Rza is getting what 58% and every other member is getting 8%. Now this was how rza broke it down in an interview someone posted in some other thread where people were calling Rae salty.

Whether it's legal or fair is different than how other members of the group feel knowing that's the breakdown. Also don't know how you spin Rae not showing up for a project and instead of other members getting a larger cut it's goes into Wu Tang Corp/divines pockets.

 

[Sonic Boom of the South]

Mafukkas who aint spent a day in Wutang really act like they got more truthful info than nikkas that actually was in it

 

[up in here]

That's fabricated for the book as well. I posted the BC interview when he said what happened. First off, Rae thought the movie could be made with 10M. Rae just wanted a movie. RZA did tell him to see what he could do, and RZA ended up having several meetings with Leo's team trying to work out the logistics after Rae brought them in. In the end, he had to sign off on the show before they could work out the kinks for a movie. Rae was just salty cause he wanted a movie, and wanted that producer payment. Looking back he may have felt that RZA wasn't gonna do the movie, but you can't say it wasn't given serious thought.

Another instance is RZA was right. No way could you include 10 rappers, Math, Divine & Power all in a 2.5 hr movie. I want to see this teaser. There's no reference to CREAM in season 1, so if anything, it was probably a pitch to gauge the tone of the show. There's probably no Clan members in it

And I doubt Rae knows or cares about other's involvement. According to RZA the writer's room is open to them...Meth been on set and Ghost said he's spoken to the writers a few times, Divine has hella input...and other members said they've been in contact with their actors and storylines.

Rae wouldn’t give 2 shyts if Divine, Power or Mathematics was in the movie. To Rae, the Wu-Tang Clan is the dudes who rap on the group albums only.

And based on how he thinks they should have tiered pay for albums he probably wouldn’t even care if Ugod or Masta Killa was in the movie for more than a second.

 

[Tommy Gibbs]

The breakdown I read was RZA was getting 50% for the producer credit and then the other 50% was split amongst the other rappers on the songs. So if there's 6 dudes rapping. Rza is getting what 58% and every other member is getting 8%. Now this was how rza broke it down in an interview someone posted in some other thread where people were calling Rae salty.

Whether it's legal or fair is different than how other members of the group feel knowing that's the breakdown. Also don't know how you spin Rae not showing up for a project and instead of other members getting a larger cut it's goes into Wu Tang Corp/divines pockets.

I don't see a problem with it. it's how publishing works. Publishing is a 200% pie(really 100, but I'll explain). There is a 100% of the writing and 100% of the lyric that is split. If Rza does the beat, that 50 of the publishing he owns. If he writes a verse, then he splits that 100% piece(really 50%) with all of the lyrics writers. Some groups don't do this and just split the pie evenly, but If I'm a beat maker and lyricist, I'm going by the book and getting my 50% for the beat and piece for the lyrics too. And I wouldn't care who had a problem with it. Business is business

 

[Rayzah]

I’m glad y’all not buying his side of the story either. From what I gathered, after forever they all wanted to go do their own thing and 99% of that shyt didn’t hit the same. Meth found red man and had a good run and ghost did his thing. RZA went to Hollywood to produce and eventually direct movies. No they weren’t great movies but he made a lane out there for himself.

The rest of them dudes put out garbage to barely decent albums. Rae included, so for him and trash ass U god of all people to say the RZA fell off and held them back sounds crazy to me. I believe these books are fabricated to generate sales by over exaggerating tension they had. But what do I know. I could be biased

 

[KFBF]

I'm going by the book and getting my 50% for the beat and piece for the lyrics too. And I wouldn't care who had a problem with it. Business is business

Certainly his right to do so. But it's also everyone else's right to be salty about it. Also could see how they'd be looking at RZA and Divine funny when theyre pushing all the family, unity, but at the same time saying business is business when it directly benefits them.

I’m glad y’all not buying his side of the story either. From what I gathered, after forever they all wanted to go do their own thing and 99% of that shyt didn’t hit the same. Meth found red man and had a good run and ghost did his thing. RZA went to Hollywood to produce and eventually direct movies. No they weren’t great movies but he made a lane out there for himself.

The rest of them dudes put out garbage to barely decent albums. Rae included, so for him and trash ass U god of all people to say the RZA fell off and held them back sounds crazy to me. I believe these books are fabricated to generate sales by over exaggerating tension they had. But what do I know. I could be biased

I don't get how Rae picking wack beats somehow means RZA didn't fall off. Both can be true.

 

[up in here]

The breakdown I read was RZA was getting 50% for the producer credit and then the other 50% was split amongst the other rappers on the songs. So if there's 6 dudes rapping. Rza is getting what 58% and every other member is getting 8%. Now this was how rza broke it down in an interview someone posted in some other thread where people were calling Rae salty.

Whether it's legal or fair is different than how other members of the group feel knowing that's the breakdown. Also don't know how you spin Rae not showing up for a project and instead of other members getting a larger cut it's goes into Wu Tang Corp/divines pockets.

If they ain’t like the splits, them nikkaz should have started making beats.

on the real though, they wanted Rza to take the same cut as them, despite him putting in way more work putting the albums together. Granted they came through and spit some legendary verses, but by all accounts, they would come through the studio, spit some shyt and bounce. Rza was in there all day and night putting them albums together for months on end.

And the thing is, he actually told them from The W onwards, if any of them wanna take over he would fall back and let them put together any group albums they want. 22 years later and none of em actually stepped up to make it happen. The only person who did was Mathematics in 2017, and U god wasn’t even on that shyt.

 

[up in here]

I don't get how Rae picking wack beats somehow means RZA didn't fall off. Both can be true.

Cause Rae was hating and picking wack beats long before Rza fell off.

 

[Rayzah]

Cause Rae was hating and picking wack beats long before Rza fell off.

Exactly what I was going to say

 

[KFBF]

Cause Rae was hating and picking wack beats long before Rza fell off.

I get it RZA is infallible in your eyes.

 

[up in here]

I get it RZA is infallible in your eyes.

Nah Rza has definitely fell off. A Better Tomorrow was wack. Iron Flag and 8 Diagrams were only ok to me. But Rae was saying Rza fell off in 97. That’s some bullshyt.

 

[pimpineasy]

Agree.
RZA's early run is UNMATCHED. But even then, I thought he was stretching himself too thin with all those projects.
In my opinion, and I've said this before, RZA's true genius is in producing AND sequencing/arranging albums. He didn't do most of the beats on Supreme Clientelle, but his signature is all over the album, and is part of what makes it a classic album.
Side projects, film scores, and maybe raising a family AFTER Forever took RZA's focus away and the falloff is clear as day.

Scratches chin. Very very very true. Rza executive producing that album was very evident.

 

[pimpineasy]

And I don't get the fall off talk.
It's a natural arc to life.
Rza has moved on. Same with Rae and gfk.
They not the same people when they were wilding out.
It will be reflected in there words and music.

 

[Tommy Gibbs]

I’m glad y’all not buying his side of the story either. From what I gathered, after forever they all wanted to go do their own thing and 99% of that shyt didn’t hit the same. Meth found red man and had a good run and ghost did his thing. RZA went to Hollywood to produce and eventually direct movies. No they weren’t great movies but he made a lane out there for himself.

The rest of them dudes put out garbage to barely decent albums. Rae included, so for him and trash ass U god of all people to say the RZA fell off and held them back sounds crazy to me. I believe these books are fabricated to generate sales by over exaggerating tension they had. But what do I know. I could be biased

Gza had some good projects, especially Pro Tools and his work with Muggs, and Deck just had a resurrection teaming up with 7L & Esoteric for the Czarface projects. the project with Doom was fire. U God wrote a book that was a great read.. So a lot of them had dope projects and great things going for them outside of Wu. Cap and Masta Killa, are 2 that didn't really do too much outside of the Wu. From Wu's debut in 93, ODB only lived 11 years and 3 of those were in prison. So he didn't really get a chance do a lot after Wu stopped doing group projects. These guys should have used that Wu brand to do other things.