On the Eve of...

...either the Wu-apocalypse or the arrival of 8 Diagrams. While the big day is about to be here (actually is here for most international fans) there is some more of he-said-this, he-said-that from Raekwon, who continues to insist that he will spearhead a new RZAless Wu album called Shaolin vs Wu-Tang. But even with all of Chef's naysaying, he does retain the good sense of endorsing the album & he recommends that fans go cop it tomorrow. Then, Meth also drops in for a spell, & his tone & statements seem to not quite coincide with what was reported in the "VH1" piece from the other day, pointing once again to the probable fakeness of that report. Still, Meth is both candid & in the end, much more loyal toward the RZA than either Ghost & Rae have been in the leadup to 8 Diagrams.

The Streets Is Talking: News & Notes From The Underground

Raekwon the Chef recommends that you go buy the Wu-Tang Clan's 8 Diagrams LP when it comes out Tuesday, but he can't honestly say it's the Clan's best work.

"I'm supporting it," he said backstage at the recent J.A.M. Awards, which took place at New York's Hammerstein Ballroom. "Go get it. I'm on it. I laid down the dressing on that. But like I said, it could've been stronger! I know the capabilities that we all have when we all sit in the room together. And then, at the end of the day, it was leaning towards RZA's world. I told RZA, 'This is a Wu-Tang Clan album. This ain't RZA's album.' If we say, 'We need this to proceed,' respect what we need to proceed.

"You dealing with a whole crew collectively, and [our] collective thoughts," Rae added. "You gotta keep that a part of the protocol. That wasn't a part of the protocol — we still try to give this man as much props as he deserves, 'cause he did so much. It's like listening to [Michael] Jordan, saying, 'Follow my hand.' But at the same time, Jordan ain't been around for a while. So now it's gotta be about the team. Ain't no I's in team. When Jordan's head gets too big, you gotta tell Jordan that's what it ain't about. It's team."

The Clan's dirty laundry has been aired out in recent weeks, with Rae and Ghostface Killah alleging creative and financial neglect by the RZA. The pair say they've basically been speaking for the rest of the group.

"It's a lot going on, and like I said, this is not no publicity stunt," Rae maintained. "This is more or less about men understanding men and men respecting men. At the end of the day, I got a family to feed, kid. ... I got children that's going to school that I'm paying for shit for them to make it, and I refuse to sit here and act like another n---a is gonna tell me how I need to do what I gotta do. If it ain't how it used to be, then something's the matter. So, at the end of the day, it's just a nigga's water broke. Like a bitch being pregnant, she can't take it no more, her shit go blow!"

The Chef told us he explained his discontent to the RZA a while ago.

"I let nigga know about his wicked ways before I [came] out and [addressed] this [in public]," he said. "So nigga never say, 'Oh, Chef did it out the blue on some ...' Nigga, you know how I feel. ... It's tough love, but you gonna respect me. ... I can [opine] on how I feel, and if I feel it ain't right ... like I told RZA, 'Yo, I don't get nothing outta trying to shoot at you. I hope you don't get nothing out of shooting at me.' But respect that we supposed to be like this. The ill shit is, it's 10 years later, 15 years later. You mean to tell me you don't look at me like a general? You got a problem."

Method Man, who was under the impression that the album was being pushed back until next year, is also not pleased with how the project turned out and even more disappointed that the dissention has been made public.

"When niggas went in to do the album, it was little discrepancies here and there," he admitted. "Everybody talking and shit. Everybody talking at RZA and not to him. Him being who he is and where he came from, of course he's goanna poke his chest out. And it's gonna be a standoff. [8 Diagrams] is the results of it right here. I don't think anybody is listening to anybody. What I did as a constant, I spit on what I was required to spit on. I'm not trying to throw no monkey wrench in anything. I strived to make the album sound like an album."

Meanwhile, the author of 1995's classic Only Built 4 Cuban Linx ... album says he's spearheading an LP called Shaolin vs. the Wu-Tang and that it will feature basically the entire Clan, except for the RZA.

"That's how I feel right now," Rae barked. "It's coming and it's gonna be a lesson learned. That's a lesson to bust the Abbott's ass and let him know what we do. At the end of the day, if nobody don't do nothing, Chef's gonna show and prove. You [can only] hold in but so much, my dude."

While Meth feels that the LP could have been better, the RZA remains his brother.

"I love the shit out of RZA; that's my muthafucking nigga, right there," Tical said. "Thick and thin and back again. However nigas feel about the god, that's how they feel. But they can't speak for everybody. So if my name pops up in anything and you ain't hear it from the horse's mouth, don't believe what you heard.

"Hell yeah, on my behalf," Meth continued about whether the fences can be mended. "I speak for myself: Shit can be salvaged. Yep. Hell yeah, and the gods know how, too. I ain't at liberty to say with you, but niggas know how they can fix it with me."

In the meantime, remember to go get a copy of the 8 Diagrams album sometime tomorrow.

& The Winner Is...

Voila more Ghostspeak, this follow up clip to a previous Ghost interview from the other day, specifically addressing his absence on the Life Changes track. Ironman insists the true fault lies with the RZA--didn't see that one coming--saying that the beat was never delivered to him. One could go on & on trying to hash out what all this means or who is telling the truth & who is not--I lack the energy to keep breaking it down. & in the end it has become too painful as the back & forth has sped up instead of dissipating. One thing that comes to mind is that the way Ghost goes on & on about how something wasn't delivered to him & all of the other shitty little reasons why he isn't on the song, it makes you wonder why he never asked about the track, as he'd known about it for two years & after all they were playing it at several shows along the Rock the Bells tour. Oh yeah, Ghost didn't show for most of those dates...

The initial intention of this blog project was to celebrate the arrival of the album, not chronicle the demise of the Clan. Come on guys, can you stop going to the media as your middle-persons, & call each other!

Don't Speak Much...Deluxe Plus Imagination

Ghostface has a new response for the RZA. The Rhapsody interviewed Ghost recently in advance of his approaching solo album Big Doe Rehab. The report begins with the standard prealbum fare, but soon becomes interesting as Ghost addresses/denounces both Tony Yayo & prior collaborrator Lord Superb [Lord "If you don't bring me some motherfuckin' cognac I'll kill you" Superb]. Then Ghost turns to 8 Diagrams & the RZA.

Shifting to the upcoming Wu album, how would you say the music on 8 Diagrams measures up to classics like "Da Mystery of Chessboxin'"?

Could never match up. You crazy?!

Raekwon recently had voiced his displeasure with 8 Diagrams’ musical direction. Are you happy with how the album came out?

That shit is wack. I heard RZA was changing some of the beats around the last minute. I didn’t hear that. I don’t know what y’all listening to out there. I never heard it. I’m with Raekwon.

Both you and Rae had spoken about being owed money by the Wu hierarchy. RZA stated in an interview with Tim Westwood that he doesn’t owe anyone money.

I just won my court case from them niggas. The suit been in there for three years. So put that out there. They just lost their fuckin’ case. So who don’t owe who money? Let’s get it straight, RZA. That’s all I’m sayin’, baby. It was a loss, they lost. L-O-S-T. That’s really it.

How you and RZA’s relationship now?

I don’t see RZA, man. That nigga’s real sneaky. I love him, though. Ain’t no bad blood. Ain’t nobody doing no bad to him. It’s just that you can’t get money with a nigga.

Meanwhile, Big Dough Rehab drops Dec 4th, a week before 8 Diagrams. Like the Rhapsody writer mentions in his/her intro: there used to be a time when the world would be excited to get a new solo one week & a new Clan album the next. Perhaps the time to return to that sort of mindstate has arrived.

* * *

& now SOHH has their own interview with Ghostface, where he continues his separation tactic. But Kanye & Pharell? Ghost & Rae might have more credence if they didn't continually have bad ideas & questionable projects.

"RZA ain't listening," Ghost revealed. "He wanted to make [8 Diagrams] how he wanted it and it ain't come out right. He wanna always do the whole thing himself, produce the whole album. We're like, let's bring in some other producers too. Bring in Kanye, bring in Pharell. You ain't gotta do the whole thing yourself. He wanna make his own instruments and shit and it sounded real horrible."

"So now it's like when fans come up to me like, 'Ghost, why you let them put that out,' it's like nah, we ain't taking the blame for that," Ghost continued. "That's what Rae was saying. We ain't co-signing that. It's like, the game is different. It's not how it was 10 years ago. We're trying to tell him, you can't just put a Wu-Tang album out and just think it's gonna sell just because. We been gone for what, six years? It's hard to win new niggas. A lot of the fans now was in fucking diapers when we first started doing this. That's why a nigga like me drop every year. I stay relevant."

* * *

& now even more from Ghost, this one from MTV, in which he calls the album "bullshit" over & over... is anyone else starting to get tired of all of this?

Video of RZA on Tim Westwood

Check out the above video featuring RZA's recent conversation with Tim Westwood on UK Radio. The interview proves very insightful into the Abbot's current mindstate in regards to the impending 8 Diagrams, & he directly responds to Raekwon's recent negative comments. The quotables from the RZA are too numerous & he becomes quite animated a few minutes in, finishing with a flourish in which he forcefully insists that he neither owes nor has owed money to anyone. Interesting bits are all over the video, one of the most interesting being the fact that it took GZA a few weeks to really appreciate the album, but he now loves it. RZA's comment about how his Wu-Tang presence differs from his Bobby Digital persona (vis a vis his original Thug World verse) is noteworthy as well. When RZA begins naming himself "a master producer" (especially now that the album has leaked) you can't help but want to agree, perhaps begrudgingly for some. The production on the album is, if nothing else, extravagant & forceful.

Meanwhile, an overall look at the Wu's discord heading into the release of the album can be found on MTV's website. The article is pretty thorough & has some good insights into all aspects of the construction of the album, from the tension within the Clan to RZA's production techniques to some reviews of tracks. Pretty much the best overall article on the state of all things 8 Diagrams that can be found in a single friendly dose. The following section is particularly interesting:

"When you read on the Internet that Ghostface is upset that his album is coming out the same day as the Wu-Tang's album, that's because after the tour, Ghost was gone for two or three months into his own world [and] we went back into our own world," RZA added. "So nobody was in synergy of what's really happening and that's what makes the problem. You've got to build every day. ... I can honestly say, though, we did come together to do this record, and it was recorded without money. Nobody got any money in the beginning to do this record — we worked the deal out later — but to sit down and do it, we were still negotiating, but every MC came to the table. Method Man came to that studio, his lawyer called him up [and said], 'Meth, don't go to the studio.' But he came. I think Method Man gave one of his most vicious, most hungriest performances in years on this album. U-God was the first one to come to the studio and said to me, 'You know brothers are trying to say that your production is on left. Let me hear what you got, brother.' I start playing the music and he was like, 'Man, we're going to be on fire. This is beautiful.' When he said that he loved the music I was producing, I knew I was on the right track, because he's the one that that really will say, 'Fuck you.' I took it on face value that we all came because this is what we believe in. Now I think it's a little different, because all this flak is popping up, and it's like, 'Wow, I thought we were all on the same page.' "

Also, if you listened closely to 16th Chamber, the last track from the album leak, perhaps you picked up on the detail RZA reveals about the former Wu names.

That unified sentiment was the inspiration for the album's title, 8 Diagrams. RZA was watching a kung-fu movie almost 15 years ago, and the light bulb turned on. "There was a movie called 'Eight Diagram Pole Fighter,' which features a group of brothers all fighting for their country," he explained. "Their loyalty to their country and their loyalty to each other really struck a nerve to me, and when we first formed Wu-Tang Clan, we actually was called Brother Number One, Two ... Brother Number Five — that's originally how we did it. As time went on, we just took different names and abandoned that idea. For me, it's time to bring that idea back in effect, and that's what the 8 Diagrams is helping to do."

But perhaps the biggest thing to question from this video/article update is do you believe RZA when he says the differences between he & Rae have been resolved?

Reviews: HHC, Spin

Some reviews are starting to find their way to the net. HHC reveals a new final tracklist along with clarifying a few other details.

1 Campfire
2 Take It Back
3 Get Em Out Tha Way Pa
4 Rushing Elephants
5 Unpredictable
6 The Heart Gently Weeps
7 Wolves
8 Gun Will Go
9 Sunlight
10 Stick Me For My Riches
11 Starter
12 Windmill
13 Weak Spot
14 Life Changes
15 Tar Pits
16 16th Chamber ODB Special

Their review follows:

‘CAMPFIRE’
Meth opens the album, spitting steady over a heavy warped plodding beat that definitely cocks a nod towards the ’36 Chambers’ days. Ghost declares “We gon’ have a ball – might as well pick a testicle.” We hope he’s talking to the ladies.

‘TAKE IT BACK’
Subtle flip of a classic break with the Wu lining up to rhyme over it – these days there’s a good argument that you don’t really need your older rap gods to do anything more than that. Rae sounds fresh, and Ghost spits hard.

‘GET ‘EM OUT THE WAY PA’
Big beastly electric bass tones underpin this, and it’s a reinvigorated Meth who takes the spoils again while Ghost and Rae tag-team on the chorus.

‘RUSHING ELEPHANTS’
Rae’s talking about “Excalibur swords, T-Rexes”, GZA’s explaining “energy that shifts in colours”, and RZA’s mush-mouthing about, er, the Lord Of The Rings. This is the Wu getting their nerd on.

‘UNPREDICTABLE’
Ramping up the tempo, this rattles along a fair treat with all sorts of percussion mixing with some punchy horn stabs. Deck destroys it with his verse (though “Wu-Tang – keep it fresh like Tupperware” might not be his most assured punchline) and RZA references Meth’s recent crowd surfing tendencies. A Wu-Tang toe-tapper and not a million miles away from U-God’s overlooked ‘Wildstyle Suppafreak’ or Masta Killa’s ‘Digi Warfare’.

‘THE HEART GENTLY WEEPS’
AKA the one that’s meant to get indie rock kids to buy the album. Not as unhinged and exciting as Ghost’s original solo take, it admittedly sounds much better in the middle of the album than on its own, and Meth’s great on it, basically rapping as if he were his character Cheese from The Wire. It was blatantly meant to be titled ‘My Gun Gently Weeps’ though.

‘WOLVES’
There’s some animal predatory nonsense going on in the chorus while the beat’s again got that mystical vibe to it. Not one of the essential album moments.

‘GUN WILL GO’
Some late night dark alley business, Rae opens rapping in that hush-hush style he’s been rocking on and off for a while now, then Meth builds on it talking about “Poverty Island”. Two-thirds of the way through RZA throws in some almost dubby echo effects, but this would be a billion times more brilliantly menacing if they ditched the singing on the chorus.

‘SUNLIGHT’
Basically a skewed Wu-Tang funeral march, with RZA holding down all duties on the mic. Not too far removed from ‘Jah World’ on ‘The W’, and a suitable mid-point for the set.

‘STICK ME FOR MY RICHES’
Unless it’s sampled from an old soul record, you really don’t want to hear a modern Wu-Tang Clan track open with a whole minute of singing, as happens here. The bounce style hi-hats seem out of place too. Possibly the ‘Ugh!’ moment of the album.

‘STARTER’
The Wu talk about girls, in their own inimitable way: “She acting all shy but she likes handcuffs”. Again, there’s a lot going on in the background with the beat, but the singing in the chorus could go. What happened to rowdy chanting?

‘WINDMILL’
RZA in soundtrack mode, this is an atmospheric slow-burner with a low key vibe to it. At the risk of getting repetitious, it’s a pleasant surprise how motivated Meth
sounds across the project, spitting self-referential boasts like “In living proof I’m the wittiest unpredictable/Most talented rap motherfucker you ever listened to.”

‘WEAK SPOT’
Classic breakbeat with the Clan in straight braggadocio mode: “You can never find Zig’ weakspot – stop looking,” throws down RZA. There’s a small ODB interview snippet at the end of it to boot, which segues into…

‘LIFE CHANGES’
Seven minutes of ODB tribute, with short laments from the Clan split up with a simple chorus. Deck gets the most introspective (“And I share the blame ‘cos you was calling for help kid/Shoulda coulda woulda had the time – I was selfish,”) while RZA’s tribute is the most comprehensive, revisiting Dirt Dog highlights. Not a verse or word from Ghost though, which doesn’t look good…

‘TAR PIT’
Too much mentalist ranting at the end scuppers this. One to skip.

‘16th CHAMBER ODB SPECIAL’
Bonus ODB from the vault business, suitably dusty sound quality and all, but it would have been nice if it followed straight on from ‘Life Changes’.

THE VERDICT
RZA’s definitely on something different with the production here, but it’s definitely in the lineage of the original ’36 Chambers’ style – the off-key and warped moments just sound sonically clearer these days. (It wouldn’t be too out there to suggest that during the recording the Abbott was listening to a lot of vintage Bjork and Timbaland while taking breaks out from the board to watch the Lord Of The Rings trilogy.)

Meth’s all over the album – and generally sounding really up for it – and on the basis of this you imagine locking him and RZA in a studio together would produce something very tasty.

Edit out the few too many tracks with sing-songy choruses, trim a little of the flab (‘Tar Pit’, ‘Wolves’), and you’ve got a set to please the Clan’s faithful fan base if not something to endear them to a whole new generation. Which was probably their intention at the start of the project anyway. Job done.

Spin follows with their own take, though their tracklist cuts off after track 14, Life Changes. The question arises, will the UK version have the two final tracks, & if so, why?

Spin's take:

Much controversy has circulated on Wu-Tang's forthcoming album 8 Diagrams, the group's first set since 2001's Iron Flag; from losing their indefatigable spirit ODB, a.k.a. Ol' Dirty Bastard, in 2004 to the recent licensing deal for the Beatles' "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" to rescheduling the record's original release date to accommodate Ghostface Killah's forthcoming LP, 8 Diagrams has been somewhat of a feat. De facto frontman RZA has also earned the wrath of both Raekwon and Ghostface for his alleged micromanaging and recent guitar-playing trysts.
Produced by RZA, the 14-track 8 Diagrams -- out Dec. 11 via SRC/Universal -- harbors the usual martial arts-inspired themes like on "Weak Spot" and "Rushing Elephants." Still procuring mostly antique beats and drab sounds, Diagrams is as much a revival as it is a throwback. Check out our notes from last Friday's listening session. RODNEY DUGUE

1. "Campfire" -- Sampling Curtis Mayfield's "Gypsy Woman," 8 Diagrams begins with an old kung-fu master preaching about kindness and justice, evidence of their long standing fixation with martial arts. Method Man's voice emerges rapping: "cruising on the interstate follow me while I innovate." He later adds: "I don't eat berries" except Halle [Berry]. Impossibly accurate it would seem.

2. "Take It Back" -- "Before you had a name / You were screaming Wu-Tang" is a great indication of what Wu-Tang means to Wu-Tang as a united group despite the recent divisiveness. Co-produced by Easy Mo Bee, the dusty sparse chills are pure nostalgia. The title doesn't disappoint, appropriately taking it back to antiquity.

3. "Get Them Out Ya Way Pa" -- Ghostface provides the chorus, "If he drunk and he runs his mouth then we stomping him out" and then the refrain ("Get them out Ya Pa"). The tough guy ethos feels a bit out of place, but fits well with the grungy brassy beat.

4. "Rushing Elephants" -- GZA talks about his "big booty cousin nasty Nadine" -- and then double-teaming her. Incest notwithstanding, it's a great track.

5. "Unpredictable" ft. Dexter Wiggle -- Inspectah Deck and Raekwon split the lyrical duties manhandling this spooky off-key instrumental. Lines like "we keep it fresh like tuberware" only rival "bitches ride like the scream machine." Complete chaos reigns on one of the best tracks on album.

6. "The Heart Gently Weeps" ft. Erykah Badu, Dhani Harrison, and John Frusciante -- Falsely billed as the first successful Beatles-sampling record of modern day, Ghostface makes most of the hype. Ghostface talks about taking his "bitch to Pathmark" then lamenting about getting his shoes dirty before realizing he's out of bullets. The sort of inscrutable oddball genius Ghost is famous for.

7. "Wolves" ft. George Clinton -- George Clinton paints some weird yet effective imagery of running in the forest a la Little Red Riding Hood. With a distinct western whistle in the background, U- God cements the song with his running verse and pertinent drink choice -- "the apple martini of course is stirred." Our early favorite.

8. "Gun Will Go" ft. Sunny Valentine -- Over these really articulate strings, Atlanta-based rapper Sunny Valentine sings an irresistibly charming hook about gun violence, remarkably. Raekwon spits an immeasurably deft verse, cautioning: "Y'all n**** be making shapes / Ours is art / Yours is trace."

9. "Sunlight" -- Executive producer RZA makes one of two rapping cameos, performing a paean to Allah on a stormy, indiscreet track. "Allah is the most gracious / He made the earth so spacious," he raps stoically.

10. "Stick Me for my Riches" ft. Gerald Alston -- The appropriate backlash for the rags-to-riches stories that dominates hip-hop these days. The hollow chute pistons ingratiate the track really well in spite of the tried theme.

11. "Starter" ft. Sunny Valentine and Tash Mahogany -- A nasty sports/porn allegory persists where the female in question is the "number one draft pick." Don't forget about the "human highlight," either. A really wet misogynistic track, naturally.

12. "Windmill" -- There's no formal chorus on here, just a disorganized lyrical exercise built on a guitar trapeze. "Nobody can't fuck with me I'm too nice / Smack a kid / On his head every time I'm right" stands the test of memory.

13. "Weak Spot" -- Inspired by a kung-fu theme, this stuffy track, courtesy of the chafe bass line, is a chest-pounding, good time harkening back to some of the Wu's older material.

14. "Life Changes" -- The heartfelt and emotionally sharp ODB eulogy that everyone chimes in on, accordingly. Raekwon pays his final respects, "My son gonna remember you / Rubbing a statue on his lap / That resemble you." An appropriate tribute? Yes, definitely.

Though the Spin piece makes a few obvious errors ("Executive producer RZA makes one of two rapping cameos"--obviously there are more) interesting information can still be gleaned. For one, they get Wolves right, while HHC mentions it as a throwaway, which is basically retarded. Also, the track known as Thug World throughout the pre-album festivities has been renamed Unpredictable. The 2nd track from yesterday's Wake Up Show leak is Windmill. It is also interesting to note the similarity of some of these track titles to older Wu tracks, Windmill vs Windpipe, Sunlight vs Sunshower. RZA does indeed have a verse on Life Changes, though Ghost is lamentably absent. How great is it that there's a track named Rushing Elephants?

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Meanwhile, MTV is still pushing the dissension angle: Meth refusing to really comment, followed by more self-centered stuff from Ghostface:

"Wu-Tang will survive." God, we hope so. Wu-Tang Clan fans everywhere have been shaking their heads lately — not so much in disbelief (they've had public squabbles before), but in disappointment at the Clan's recent round of airing dirty laundry. Ghostface Killah, Raekwon and RZA have all spoken their piece on the subject, but what about the most visible member of the triumphant hip-hop unit? Method Man is keeping his mouth shut for now.

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"There's a reason why I ain't spoke yet," said Meth, standing next to the RZA recently in New York. "When the album drops, we can talk.""We're here though," RZA added. "We're spreading the culture."Ghostface Killah, who was the first Wu member to go public with the group's dissension, talked to us on Friday, just a couple of hours before he went onstage at the Hip Hop Live tour with Rakim. He let it be known that he doesn't stand firmly behind the new Clan album, 8 Diagrams.

.

"I love the Clan and all that, but we got certain problems right now," Ghost said. "Am I supporting the album? What's going on in the air right now and all that ... I'm supporting what I gotta do for right now for Ghostface. No disrespect to the album, I haven't really listened to the [project] like that, but I heard the responses and I kinda had an idea it was gonna turn out however it turned out. ... No telling how [the group situation] is gonna be tomorrow — a nice conversation or something to make your heart feel good. But as of right now, it's two weeks before my album The Big Doe Rehab comes out on December 4; I'mma do what I gotta do for Tony Starks. I can't worry about all this other stuff that's trying to take me out my game.

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"Everybody is grown men on that side," he added about Wu-Tang. "There's no way in the world we shouldn't make the best album. You got me on your team, you got Rae, you got Meth, you got a dream team. The people been waiting for us for years, and to try and bake something that's not all the way baked and ready and rushing, I don't agree to that. So I'm not signing off on that. Don't put my name on that. I don't want people looking at me like, 'Ghost, what did you do?' I didn't do nothing. Nobody wanted to listen. Yeah, I came in [during] the ninth inning because I been played with the past couple of years, so I wasn't really going in on the Wu album. I was like, 'Forget that, I'm not doing that. N---as owe me money.' What I look like?"

Diagrams Details

After the longish, more exciting news of the past couple days, some small details from an interview between BET & the RZA are revealed.

Initial reports said the Wu-Tang album had more outside production than usual…

The original album, we had a song from Marley, a song from DJ Scratch, a beat that was produced by Q-Tip, Easy Moe Bee. At the end of the day though, we only ended up with the Easy Moe Bee track, a Mathematics produced track and that’s it, mostly because of samples. Marley’s track, the sample wasn’t gon' clear in time. DJ Scratch, who had a crazy ill fucking song, he had a couple of songs he brought in. But the one that we finally got lyrics on, we couldn’t clear the sample. So the sample clearances kinda threw off my rhythm of plannin’ the album. At the end of the day too, the Clan didn’t verbally attack every song. Even the Q-Tip song, which I thought is a unique production, we collaborated on. We kinda wanted Ghost to spit on it, but he didn’t really set it off and shit, so we kinda put it to the side.

What’s going on with your solo joint, The Cure?

To be honest with you, I wrote The Cure. The way this world is, it kinda discouraged me. Even on the new Wu album, I tried to give you a little taste of what my heart be at as far as lyrically. And I’ve had to take some of those songs off, because sometimes the brothers just feel that sometimes the God is going in too deep. The world ain’t with the deep shit. To me, this whole album 8 Diagrams, is vegetable, son. It ain’t hamburger, it ain’t french fries either. You can’t get it at Mickey D’s. You gotta go to the health food store to get this shit. That’s what we need. It’s time for that balance. Even us as an artist, it’s hard to accept balance in my life. I know I love some ghetto, Cuban Linx shit. That’s the epitome of the Wu. At the same time, we got enough niggas, I’ll still kill and all this other shit. Who gives a fuck if you killed, how much money you got and all this other shit, yo? It’s about the heart and the mind.

It's pretty amusing that people are still asking about The Cure at all. Furthermore, I could kick whoever it is (probably Raekwon, judging from past reports) giving the veto to some of RZA's more metaphysical stylizations. After all, his lyrical prime, in some ways, was in '97, with his performances on Forever and the second Gravediggaz album, The Pick, The Sickle & The Shovel. A plethora of RZA verses would do nothing but benefit 8 Diagrams.

These tidbits are also interesting because it shows that RZA is not entirely obstinate in the making of this album, as Rae seemed to indicate in his most recent video interview. Watch Your Mouth will be missed, & I think everyone really wanted to hear the Q-Tip collab. This perhaps indicates that Thug World is also gone, which would be unfortunate.

* * *

The following appears in a new MTV article about the Ghost & Rae situations. For the most part, the article recaps the growing fued between the participants. It ends thus:

In a 2003 reader-generated interview with Blender magazine, Method Man designated RZA's business partner, Divine, as the #1 person on his "shit list" when presented with the question. Meth claimed the Wu-Tang Management associate "took something major from me that he had no intention of giving back."

A representative for the RZA, when reached by MTV News, said the RZA's only comment in regards to the financial dispute Ghostface and Raekwon are claiming was that, "It's all his fault, and he'll take the responsibility."

So RZA continues to play the role of peacemaker while Ghost & Rae rely on complaining publicly. Regardless of the facts of the situation at hand, RZA remains the only participant acting appropriately. If only this were simply for the publicity...