Windmill HQ + RZA Speaks on UK Radio

Though definitely not CDQ, this is the best version of Windmill yet to be released. The track is from a RZA interview on the Choice FM radio station in the UK--what follows is a loose recap of what the RZA spoke about during the conversation. If we are lucky perhaps the full feature was recorded & it will make its way 'round the internet soon...

"No platinum Wu-Tang records have come out since they stopped coming to me. Meth is a 2x plat artist guaranteed, until he stopped messing with me. ONLY ONE GOLD WU TANG RECORD CAME AFTER 2001"

"[in 1994] Busta Rhymes was the only artist who kept it real with me, other rappers wouldnt tell me how much they were making off a platinum album when 36 chambers went platinum and i wanted to know how much people are getting for selling a million"

"I got $4 million just to hand in Wu Tang Forever [not counting royalties]"

"I signed away all of their contracts with me in 2001, $23 million for free, as long as I kept the Wu Tang name"

"I paid for Wu Tang's solo managers at $70,000 a year, for each of them"

"I was at the club dancin to Soulja Boy with the ladies, but I'm not buying his album, I dont want to own it..."

"I pretty much left hip hop in 2003, I was pretty much retired, I went hollywood"

"I used to think.. yo Ghost and Meth are on Def Jam? Rae is on Universal? everything is good, I could leave..."

"The only rap albums I've bought are Jay Z (Kingdom Come and American Gangster)"

on 8 Diagrams...

"Ghostface is the only one who didn't rap on the ODB Life Changes tribute song... I was really disappointed he wouldnt give me a verse for it... aside from Gza, Ghost used to be closest to Dirty.... me and Ghost and Dirty were running partners in the streets from 89 to 92...maybe he'll do one on his album"

"U-God and Inspectah Deck said they would do it if the music is good, they didnt mention money. I was impressed by their responses compared to some of the other ones."

"Our 2007 European tour and Rock The Bells tour are some of our most successful ever"

"If you ad up Meth's 5 million sold, Wu-Tang's 10 million sold, Ghost's millions sold, Rae's million sold, Dirty's millions sold, add it up and it's easily over $300 million off raw hip hop, it only takes maybe $1 million to make a Wu-Tang member album.."

"My agents hate it when I make hip hop again, because Cali is making us rich"

Starter, Rushing Elephants, Unpredictable, More on BBC Radio

The BBC Radio show 1Xtra played 5 Wu-Tang songs on last Sunday's show, including Take It Back, Rushing Elephants, Unpredictable, Starter, & Windmill. You can listen to the entire show here, but as of now the tracks are unavailable individually. But this is only a matter of time--with the final version of 8 Diagrams in so many different people's hands at the moment, a full retail leak cannot be too far off. For now, enjoy the new tracks.

Starter reuses the main sample from Certified Samurai off of the Afro Samurai soundtrack, & does feature some unnecessary singing between INS, GZA, U-God, & Streetlife's leadoff. Nonetheless, the song is full of wit & the beat is on par with the excellent work we've heard so far from the RZA.

Windmill is longer here than we've heard before, featuring Meth & Cappadonna verses, & it remains a great track. Rushing Elephants has a light, almost cartoony sample, but that is not a bad thing. Yet again Rae appears on the track. For all the vetoes he handed out against the RZA, perhaps the Abbot should've returned the favor, as Rae seems like he's on every song. GZA follows Rae, & then RZA has a verse. Finally comes Masta Killa. The best thing about these tracks is that there are plenty of members per song.

Unpredictable, formerly Thug World, ends the broadcast. The quality of the broadcast seems to fade in & out, yet the track seems more interesting mastered, with some added elements in the beat, & a fairly weird hook. The beat switches up for the RZA's verse, then the horn stabs come back in--there is plenty guitar added to the track, but in an aggressive way.

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Update!


Starter


Rushing Elephants


Unpredictable


Windmill