RZA REVEALS Wu-Tang Clan's GROUPIE SEX SECRETS In GQ & how group's references run deep in 'Iron Fists'
Legendary hip hop producer turned movie director RZA appears in the November issue of GQ where he talks about his progression from music to movies and the making of The Man With The Iron Fists, which he created and also produced the soundtrack for. He also has a way with words when talking about his sexcapades with groupies. Here are the highlights:
On turning to Quentin Tarantino in order to execute his vision for The Man With The Iron Fists:
I knew the vision [for Iron Fists] was in my head. I knew I could do it. But I knew I had to learn how to do it. I went to a proper teacher, and he [Quentin Tarantino] accepted me as a student.
On his time with the Wu-Tang Clan:
I just had to get out the cage, kid. Had to get out the cage. And I enjoyed that shyt, man. I had a lot of fun. For two years straight, I had super fun. I had all kind of pu**ies, spent millions of dollars for hundreds of bytches, you know what I mean? I really ran wild and had five girlfriends, probably. Anything. Id f*ck anything. I was on it, kid.
On the Wu-Tang Clans rule of not permitting girls in the studio:
Dirty always tried to break the rule. Argued with me over it. No women. I mean, in the beginning, on the first album, maybe somebody would bring a bytch and everybodyd f*ck her on the roof, like a gang bang. But no, not in the studio. Not in the studio.
On Wu-Tang Clan's References In New Movie
In a scene in the ultra-violent kung fu saga The Man With the Iron Fists a movie written, directed and co-starring Wu-Tang Clans founding father and sonic architect the RZA the hip-hop superstar-turned-filmmaker portrays a runaway slave. He survives a shipwreck and washes up on a rocky shoreline in China more dead than alive and is discovered by a band of kung fu monks. These Wu Chi disciples bring the character back to health and set him on a righteous path, teaching him philosophy, acupuncture pressure points, discipline the way of the Wu.
If the monks sequence in Man With the Iron Fists seems like a metaphor for how the Tao of the Wu forever changed the rapper-directors destiny, thats because, well, it is. To me, that philosophy part had to be in there, yo, RZA said. Thats me paying super respect.
Famously, the RZA was running wild on the streets of Brooklyn and Staten Island, selling drugs and dodging bullets, before he went on to Grammy-winning, platinum-selling musical success (to say nothing of his new career as a filmmaker, detailed in a recent Calendar story). Until, that is, RZA connected the cultural dots between the chop-socky kung fu flicks he used to binge-watch and early '90s New York hip-hop to split the cultural atom by forming Wu-Tang Clan.
Man With the Iron Fists is certainly the most ambitious movie ever directed by a hip-hop star. Filmed entirely on location in China, the film is jam-packed with hallucinatory martial arts sequences and stars Oscar-winner Russell Crowe as a sex-crazed English mercenary with a whirling machete gun. But it is indisputably a piece with RZAs Wu-Tang oeuvre. Moreover, the film is shot through with references to Wu-Tang Clan.
On a recent morning in Hollywood, the RZA was kind enough to break some of them down for Pop & Hiss.
Crowes character, Jack Knife, for one, was inspired by Wu-Tangs most colorful member, the late Ol Dirty b*stard. The connection with Dirt McGirt is made implicit given Knifes gusto for booze and weakness for women in one sequence, the character is shown engaging in a menage a quatre, frolicking with no fewer than three ladies of the evening in a custom-designed S&M boudoir. And in another scene, a classic banger from ODB soundtracks the moment when Crowes character swings into outré violent action.
Me and Russell got into a tight spot when time was running out, RZA recalled. I said, Look, ODB, who was one of the backdrops for this character, came in [to the studio] so late and drunk. He did the song in one take the song Shame on a nikka. To this day, the [expletive] is fat.
You know what Russell did next? My name is Mr. Knife
I have come to your fine village
he killed that in one take! he continued.
Wu-Tang Clan lore also came in handy when two actors grew so angry with one another on the set that they almost started trading round-house kicks for real. Muscle-bound pro wrestler David Bautista and Taekwondo expert Rick Yune had come to loggerheads over how to enact a fight sequence. And the only person who could put them back on the peace path was RZA.
He regaled them with stories of Wu-Tangs legendary in-fighting how the RZA-rector himself frequently used to butt heads with Method Man and how two other Clansmen hated each other's guts until they were united in Wu.
I used some of the Wu-Tang stories to diffuse situations, RZA explained. Me and Meth always used to argue. Its natural. When steel rubs against steel, it makes both blades sharper. Raekwon and Ghostface started off as enemies in the neighborhood. They grew to be best friends after joining the Wu-Tang.
