A new Wu Tang track has emerged today. RZA played this on New York’s Hot 97 radio show last night so download it and stay tuned to find out whether this track will be part of a 20th Anniversary release or from A Better Tomorrow.
If you want more fresh Wu goodness, head here.
The Wu-Tang are back with a skate video for new track “Diesel Fluid”. Filmed and edited by NYC skate videographer RB Umali, the footage for the Clan’s new music features Billy Rohan, Danny Supa, Eli Reed, Gino Ianucci and many more.
Watch it and click here for a review of the Wu Tang’s latest trip to the UK.
WU-TANG “Diesel Fluid” feat. Method Man, Trife Diesel & Cappadonna Skateboard Video from RB Umali on Vimeo.
Wugazi have unleashed another cut from their upcoming 13 Chambers album, dropping this Wednesday [July 13th] and featuring O.D.B. shimmy-shimmying his way over the tune.
If you’ve not already checked it out, have a read of our exclusive interview with Cecil and Andy, the men behind the masterpiece here.
Fugazi and the Wu Tang Clan are two iconic groups, both defining the sound of a scene and making everyone sit up and take notice of their music and their message. So what happens when you mix the two together? Well, thanks to Doomtree‘s Cecil Otter and fellow Minneapolis musician Swiss Andy, of The Swiss Army and The Millionth Word fame, we now know.
Sleep Rules Everything Around Me mysteriously appeared on Soundcloud and within half a day, the track had garnered 20,000 listens, with over 100,000 in a week. It has been one of the most talked about topics in music of late and we caught up with the two brainchildren behind the project to discuss the process of making the music, how long it took and even preferred fighting styles.
Ladies and Gentlemen, enter the Chamber of the Wugazi!
Words: Abjekt
Photo: Ben LaFond
Straight out the slums of… Minneapolis?
Cecil: Yes Sir, the centre of the Universe!
The big question first – how did you come up with the idea of putting Fugazi and Wu Tang together? Are you both big fans of both acts so know their catalogue extensively?
Cecil: Andy had been kicking around the idea for a few years before he brought it up to me. We had both been huge fans of each group since we were young, so it was easy to fall in love with the idea of WUGAZI.
Andy: Yeah, that is pretty much all that was in my headphones during the 90s.
Cecil: A one point in his life, Andy sold his guitar amp just so he could go see a Fugazi show. I sold my tickets to that same Fugazi show and bought an ice cream cone and shared it with my friend. I later broke into that show, caused a scene and got screamed at by Guy from Fugazi. He kept telling everyone that he saw me eating ice cream outside with my friend…over and over…I didn’t enjoy that at all, but the ice cream was good.
Andy: Asshole.
Did you decide on the tracks you wanted to use first or did you just play it by ear and see which Wu track fit with which Fugazi?
Cecil: We would listen through every Fugazi album and take notes on where the drum breaks, bass loops and guitar loops were. After that I would put them into Protools accordingly, find a close enough tempo to fallow the song, chop everything onto a grid and start cranking away at a song structure.”
Andy: I had a few Fugazi tracks I really wanted to use, but they were just too fast or slow for us to fit under an acapella.
Cecil: We let the samples loop in the background and begin to play Wu Tang acapellas over the song until we found the perfect match. When we found that, we would place it in the session and begin to cut, paste and stretch each verse to fit the track…then we get detailed.
Andy: We would try to use more than one song in each track. Using them more as samples for producing, than just putting one thing on top of the other.
Were there any tracks that you tried to mash together that just sounded horrible?
Cecil: Oh yeah, that’s why we put a full year into this. We have a handful of half done songs that just wouldn’t marry each other or we didn’t have a clean enough acapella to work with. The hardest thing about making the album (well, one of them) was the limited Wu Tang acapellas that we had access to. There are so many Wu Tang songs that we would have loved to do, we probably would have been able to call it Wugazi: 36 Songs if we had all the acapellas!
You’ve got 13 Chambers dropping in July, is there anything you can tell us about it other than it houses the track Sleep Rules Everything Around Me?
Cecil: Well, it will have 12 more songs and they will all be different and they will all have drums and bass and guitar and vocals, never forget the vocals!
Also, Sleep… hit 20,000 plays in 12 hours, did you think it was going to be as huge as that in such a short space of time?
Cecil: Not at all. We we’re very excited about the tracks because our friends loved them so much. We had no idea that the two groups would work together so well. We made S.R.E.A.M. the first night into the project. We lost our shit when we stretched the vocals in and took the first listen. After that night, Wugazi was pretty much a reason to get together with a friend and lose ourselves in the moment. I don’t think either of us had any idea that so many others would like it as much as we do, but then again…it’s Wu Tang and Fugazi, who doesn’t like them?!
Andy: When Paddy Costello almost started crying, I knew we were doing something right. But never thought this would spread like it has.
Would you like to see the two bands work together, maybe do a one-off live show where Ian MacKaye battles Ghostface? Or have Guy Picciotto go hard against Method Man?
Andy: All those guys are such great musicians. Even after Fugazi, Guy produced that amazing Blonde Redhead record and Joe put out that album with John Frusciante. Putting Ian in a room with RZA, I wouldn’t even know where to start…
Cecil: Without a doubt. That would be one of the happiest days of my life.
If you had a sword style, which you would have to train in the mountains of Tibet to perfect, what would it be called?
Andy: Drunken Monkey
Cecil: Drunker Monkey
It seems like Raekwon releases videos every other day, just like his albums, but this is definitely worth a watch.
Harking back to the days when Wu Tang first burst onto the scene, the beat on Butter Knives is killer and The Chef’s vocals are as potent as ever. Kick back and enjoy!
Raekwon – Butter Knives from LRG on Vimeo.
Wu-Tang member Raekwon has announced that he is planning to begin work on his autobiography soon. The rapper who played the HMV Forum this month, his second UK show spoke to AllHipHop and commented on his latest mission: “That’s in the making soon. I just gotta deal with certain things at certain times in my life. When it’s time to happen, yeah I got a great story and I’m going to tell the truth. It’ll be something that you can jump on a plane or get on the bus and say: ‘Yo that kid evolved as a man‘”.
Of his life, the rapper said: “I aint perfect, nobody’s perfect. We all do dumb shit and we all get caught up in certain situations but at the end of the day I know I became a man. I’m not no sucker nigga running around not doing right by my children, or raising them the wrong way. I’m in their life, I wish I could be in their more. But daddy gotta work. I got a vicious story that I’ma tell sooner or later“.
Look out for updates on this via his tweets and click here for a review of his London show.
The Kill City crew are back with another skate park edit this week.
Expect slomo tailgrab feebs vs Wu Tang with Caradog Emanuel, Jess Young and flow riders Sam Pulley and Jake Collins as they warm up at the Worcester public park before hitting the streets to film for Rookies, their forthcoming DVD.
The Forum, London
18.03.11
Opening for Raekwon can never be easy. Let’s face it, everyone is there for the main man and whilst there were plenty of people in the venue, it wouldn’t have been a surprise to see the support acts find it difficult to get motivated infront of a crowd who only had the Wu member on their minds. However, as UK stalwart Verb T stepped to the stage with Fliptrix and Jam Baxter, along with their man behind the decks, DJ Madnice, the energy was top notch from the off. All three rappers gave their all, bouncing around, pumping fists and even bringing the crowd out of their slumber for some call and response – a sterling effort and proof the UK can still do it big.
Then it was time for the main event, though at almost 10.45, Rae had kept people waiting enough for his entrance. Still, all that yawning and feet aching was forgotten when C.R.E.A.M. blasted out over the speakers and the portly, beanie-clad MC appeared from the back to face his adoring fans. He ran through tracks from his recent albums, Cuban Linx 2 [Ten Bricks and House of Flying Daggers were stand-out] and his current release Shaolin v Wu Tang whilst interspersing with classic Wu Tang material, which, of course, got the biggest cheer from the crowd.
Slow to warm up, he was soon in his zone imploring the crowd to look after their mothers and grandmothers whilst telling his fans that he never thought he’d ever get the chance to play in London, let alone keep coming back and enjoying every second. In fact, he said, he was looking forward to going to the nearby Jamaican food spot because the owners love his big belly. A lot more charismatic than most people would think, the Chef then bigged up ODB and Nate Dogg before his DJ dropped a medley of classic old tracks that influenced him and Wu in the early days.
It wasn’t the greatest show ever, but clearly Raekwon is an MC to be admired and respected. Stopping a track after one verse was a bit tiresome but when you’ve got so many bangers, it’s hard to fit everything in. Overall, a good night was had and the amount of Ws in the air was testament to the popularity of the crew – Wu Tang never dies!
Abjekt.
RZA has spoken out on why he’s suing The Game.
The Wu Tang member produced the track Heart Breaker on Game’s recently released free mixtape Purp & Patron but the beat was originally due to be used on R.E.D. the upcoming album from the West Coast rapper. However, due to clearance, the track couldn’t be used and was put on the mixtape. RZA stated:
“We got an offer to have the tracked purchased by someone else…So this is not anything personal, and RZA has nothing but love for Game, but this is business and in all fairness, it would have been cool if they would have just let us know what the intent was, because we began soliciting the track for purchase and its looks like this was a double sale issue when it wasn’t.”
Time will tell what’ll happen. In the meantime, grab the latest installment, Purp & Patron: The Hangover here.
Fancy a lazy Xmas hip hop mix to lounge to whilst you are off work? Jack Brooks just popped up on the old Crossfire Facebook page to share this mixtape for you to listen to.
Click here for the goods and send yours.