This week’s episode of the Rolling Stone Uncut podcast features RZA of legendary hip-hop group Wu-Tang Clan!
RZA joined the show ahead of the group’s farewell tour of Australia this March, with stops confirmed in Brisbane, Melbourne, and Sydney.
On the episode, RZA discusses ‘The Final Chamber’ tour, which has already made its way through the US, saying goodbye to the crew after three decades, passing the baton to the next generation of hip-hop, and what’s next for the rap titan.
Listen to or watch the full episode below.
Saying goodbye to Wu-Tang Clan
“The chance of this happening again is a comet, you know what I mean? When we was contemplating doing this… the main thing I said to the guys… we haven’t travelled around the globe together since really the 90s, and a lot of places we haven’t done correctly together. We’ve been around, and we’ve been around for years, but we need to commit to travel around this globe one more time and say peace to our fans collectively.
“Method Man may come back next year, Ghostface may come back next month, right? But that amalgamation of all that talent of the Wu-Tang Clan assembled as Voltron. This is the chance to see it.”
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Conversations within the group of one final tour
“I was spearheading it, but the resistance came in different forms.
“We do these Wu Wednesday calls, right? They’re usually bi-weekly, like on slow months… and when you’re in the mix of it, it’s weekly. It was weekly calls at this time, but it took two weeks for everybody to say, ‘Yo, we agree.’ I said this to the team, I think it’s gonna take about 100 to 150 stops to touch the fan base. That may take a total of three years, too. It’s a commitment.”
Is hip-hop in safe hands?
“Yes, I’m saying yes in two capacities. Yes, not just in the artists that are popular now that are selling out stadiums and streaming billions, but I think also the unknown artists who got a chance to learn from all of it, right? Think about the kids that can actually not just go into Wu-Tang’s catalogue, but go into Kendrick’s, Tyler, the Creator, Freddie Gibbs, Eminem, you know what I mean? He can even go into Post Malone, he could go into Taylor Swift. Hip hop has found its way into every branch of music.
“I wrote my first lyric at 9. I can imagine that kid who’s 9 years old, got his fucking book or tapping in his phone, and he has a plethora of data to try to translate his vision. When I did it, it wasn’t even 200 people that was doing it! It had to be self-generated. And I think now the generations have a chance to take the best of everything and form something that’s even better, so I think in that capacity, it’s in great hands.”