VIDEO: RZA SPEAKS ON RAEKWON, GHOSTFACE, AND METHOD MAN JOINT ALBUM

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We've been hearing some buzz about a joint album featuring 3 of the biggest names from the Wu Tang Clan Raekwon, Ghostface, and Method Man. MTV sat down with The RZA to hear his thoughts about this album.

“I think it’s a great idea,” RZA said of Raekwon, Ghostface and Method Man teaming up. “I was pushing that idea to them years ago. Back in the day, we was gonna have a branch called ‘The Brothers From the Grain’ that was kinda those guys right there. I’m gonna see Meth tonight in the studio to see if I could add on something to that project. Add some depth to it. They are three of the most prolific voices in Wu-Tang. Ghost would call it ‘Three the Hard Way Doing Their Thing.’ ”

RZA says the Clan are at a point where everybody is strong individually, which makes it even greater when they combine.

“We’re at a period of life, if anybody from Wu-Tang needs me, I’m there for them,” he elaborated. “Everybody has grown and matured to where we don’t need each other. … Everybody is now independent, and sometimes we become what I call interdependent. We don’t need each other, but it’s good to work with each other and use each other’s energy for the whole brand and the whole Clan. U-God reached out to me and said, ‘I want you to produce my whole album.’ I’m like, ‘It’s all good.’ When I worked [on Only Built 4 Cuban Linx... Pt. II] with Raekwon, he was like, ‘How much you gonna charge me?’ I said, ‘It’s on the house, baby. Just give me my publishing. My rights. But you don’t have to give me no money to work with you, baby.’ “

- Drew

RZA - THE TAO OF WU

The RZA, the Abbot of the Wu-Tang Clan and hip-hop culture’s most dynamic genius, imparts the lessons he’s learned on the journey that’s taken him from the Staten Island projects to international superstar, all along the way a devout student of knowledge in every form he’s found it—on the streets, in religion, in martial arts, in chess, in popular culture. Part chronicle of an extraordinary life and part spiritual and philosophical discourse, The Tao of Wu is a nonfiction Siddhartha for the hip-hop generation —an engaging, seeking book that will enlighten, entertain, and inspire.

The legions of Wu-Tang fans are accustomed to this heady mix—their obsession with the band’s puzzlelike lyrics and elaborate mythology has propelled the group through fifteen years of dazzling, multiplatform success. In his 2005 bestseller The Wu-Tang Manual, the RZA provided the barest glimpse of how that mythology worked. In The Tao of Wu, he takes us deep inside the complex sense of wisdom and spirituality that has been at the core of his commercial and creative success.

The book is built around major moments in the RZA’s life when he was faced with a dramatic turning point, either bad (a potential prison sentence) or good (a record deal that could pull his family out of poverty), and the lessons he took from each experience. His points of view are always surprising and provocative, and reveal a profound, genuine, and abiding wisdom—consistently tempered with humor and peppered with unique, colloquial phraseology. It is a spiritual memoir as the world has never seen before, and will never see again.

The book can be pre-ordered through the Penguin Books website for $25 USD, with an official release scheduled for October 15th, 2009.

- Drew