The RZA - The Wu-Tang Manual

R IVERHEAD B OOKS

An imprint of Penguin Random House LLC

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THE WU-TANG MANUAL

Copyright 2005 RZA Productions Inc.

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The Wu-Tang logo is a registered trademark of Wu-Tang Productions.

Special acknowledgment to Frank Media Group, LLC

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PRINTING HISTORY

First Riverhead Books trade paperback edition: January 2005

Riverhead Books trade paperback ISBN: 978-1-59448-018-8

Ebook ISBN: 978-1-101-66750-7

This book has been catalogued with the Library of Congress.

Version_1

And the RZA, he the sharpest motherfucker in the whole clan, he always on point. Razor sharpwith the beats, with the rhymes, whatever...

AKA

The Abbot, Bobby Digital, Bobby Steels, Prince Rakeem, the RZA-recta, the Scientist, Prince Delight, Prince Dynamite, Ruler Zig-Zag-Zig Allah

BIRTH NAME

Robert F. Diggs, named after the second Kennedy brother, Robert F. Kennedy

DROPPED

July 5, 1969

PROVINCE

Brownsville, Brooklyn, official Shaolin resident at age fourteen; original group, All in Together Now, with GZA and ODB.

STYLE ANDPROFILE

Organizer, producer, and mastermind of the Wu-Tang Clan. Creator of one of the most influential sounds and styles in hip-hop history. Favors scientific rhyme attack and verbal chi gong.

JOINTS

Ooh We Love You Rakeem EP (1991); RZA as Bobby Digital in Stereo (1998); RZA as Bobby Digital: Digital Bullet (2001); The World According to RZA (2003); Birth of a Prince (2003)

Wu-Tang niggas are famous for having lots of names, lots of pseudonyms and alter-egos. Its been like that from the beginning. I personally have gone as Prince Dynamite, Prince Rap Delight, the Rap Scientistwe used to do that all day, think up rap names. Dirty and I had at least ten names apiecefor a while, he was Prince Delight and I was Prince Dynamite. But before long, the names started to become real.

When I did my first record, I was Prince Rakeem, and I had a song called Pza Pza Pumping. That song was big in my neighborhood, but niggas used to call me Rza Rza Rakeem because I wrote Razor as a graffiti tag. Niggas would say, Rza Rza Rakeemyou razor sharp still. So the sound was already in my head, floating around, ready to take form.

Then, my teacher in Islam had us removing the Ss. He was saying, We dont need no S anymore. Were completing ourselves with a Z. In Divine Mathematics, the Z stands for Zig-Zag-Zig, which means knowledge, wisdom, and understandingthe last letter of the alphabet and the final step of consciousness. So finally, I just thought of the name as letters, not a word. R Z A. It stands for RulerKnowledge-Wisdom-and-UnderstandingAllah.

These names reflected changes I was going through. There was a war going on inside me then. Back in the 80s, I lost it. I became a problem for the world. I wasnt living righteous. And, in one moment of clarity, I saw that. I looked to GZA, who was my teacher in Islam, and I said, Yo, youre doing the same thingbecause he was down with me in the negativity. And we changed, both of us. We had no choice. It was either that, go crazy, or go starving.

So today, one of the names people still call me is the Resurrectorlike I bring people back to life. In a way, the first one that I resurrected was me.

And the GZA, the Genius is just the Genius. Hes the backbone of the whole joint. He the head, lets put it that way. We form like Voltron and the GZA happen to be the head.

AKA

Genius, Justice, Allah Justice, Maximillion, the Scientist, the Head

BIRTH NAME

Gary Grice

DROPPED

August 22, 1966

PROVINCE

Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn

STYLE AND PROFILE

Cousin of RZA and ODB, founding member of the Wu-Tang, and first Wu MC to record an album, Words from the Genius, out a few years before the Clans debut. Known for the invincible dopeness of his rhyme style.

JOINTS

Words from the Genius (1991); Liquid Swords (1995); Beneath the Surface (1999); Legend of the Liquid Sword (2002)

Theres something about GZA, something about the way he talks that makes niggas tremble.

One day me and a few of my brothers were pinned down inside an apartment building. Some guys from the projects had beef with us and we were trapped in there by maybe eight guys. GZA, he was the first one who had knowledge of himself, but he also had this kind of naturally dominant vibe to him. So he puts on this Muslim crowna kind of skullcap with a tassleand puts on his star, and walks out there alone. He strides out and he says, Im Allah Justice, boy! From Brooklyn!

And everybody submitted to him! They saw him, heard him, and they knew they didnt want problems with him. You didnt want problems with the gods back then. But GZA, he had this extra power in his presence.

Justice is his righteous name. The full name is Allah Justice. Thats why you look on the cover of Protect Ya Neck single, its spelled J-I-Z-Z-A. His name back in the day was Gangsta G. He was Gangsta G and Dirty was the Genius. Then Dirty became the Professor for a while, and we traded off. Finally, it was clear who the Genius was.

Rakim, Kool G Rap, KaneIve listened to them since day one. Ive met them, and theyre exceptional MCs. I mean, exceptional MCs. But to my personal taste, none of them could touch the GZA. I knew it in my heart way back before the Wu-Tang, and I strived to be like him, not like them. GZAs the only one with a style that actually instilled fear in me.

On his first album, there was this one rhyme: I met a young brother/How young/About eight/Smooth, intelligent/And rather quite straight/So I greeted him/And struck a conversation/To see if this youngster had some self-motivation... Its simple, but its intentionally simple. Its slow, deliberate, and fierce. This was back when niggas were using all kinds of big words and trying to rap fast and fill the space up with syllables. But GZA was taking it down to something else. You caught real drama off his rhymes and his style. He could make cat and rat sound