RZA Keeps Busy (Ghost's lawsuit, Achozen, 36 chambers tour, babylon a.d.,...)

RZA Keeps Busy (chartattack.com)

Though he may not be in the spotlight as much as your Kanye Wests or Lil Waynes, The RZA manages to keep himself busy with a multitude of projects, many of which have little to do with hip-hop. ChartAttack recently caught up with Prince Rakeem himself to discuss such non-musical aspects of his career, such as directing his own movies and being sued by fellow Wu-Tang Clan members.

ChartAttack: Can you set the record straight about Ghostface and Raekwon "defecting" around the time 8 Diagrams was released?
RZA: Ghost and Rae both were being deluded. They were saying some stuff that was straight-up untrue. They were saying I took their money. Took your money? I gave y'all more money than I was supposed to! There's no facts to that shit. Everybody in the business side of the industry looks at me like a fool for the advances I gave the group. As a producer of the album, I'm writing 50 per cent of the music. If we get $500,000 and I make half the music, I'm liable for $250,000. I didn't do that. I let everybody else take $50,000 each. I was giving up my money.

Ghost took me to court, and we still saw each other [outside of court] and we talked, and I wanted to talk about the court case. He didn't want to talk about it. We got to court, and he got on the stand, and I couldn't believe that Ghostface stood up there and said lies. He was saying he didn't get money for this and that. I was like, "Hold on, buddy." When I was doing a deal for Wu-Tang Records, that's my deal. People came to me, I'm the executive, and they gave me some money. I still cut Ghost in for a piece of the action! Come on, man. But you have to understand how we are sometimes. It's a money thing. Sometimes business can cause confusion. My plans for future Wu-Tang shit is to never be involved with their money again. Maybe Ghost could get a million dollars to make his own album and pay me a fuckin' hundred grand to rap [laughs]. So I don't wanna do that no more.

Have you reconciled since then, or is there still some friction?
There's never no friction, though, that's the funny part. We see each other and it's all real love. That's why I felt it was stupid. I was like, "If we ain't got no problem, then what's the problem?"

GZA recently did a tour where he played his Liquid Swords album in its entirety. Do you see the entire Clan getting together for a 36 Chambers tour any time soon?
That's a great idea for hip-hop. That's good for hip-hop to take it to another level. It's definitely for the older audience. Bringing a band and doing a concept tour, that's the way to go. The thing I was telling GZA was that he needs to plan it so that he could get everybody who's on the album to get out there with you! He was doing everybody's verses, and that's cool, but schedule it so that people can come out and do their verses. That's what Wu-Tang is about. I'll come up and do a song for free.

You recently worked with Hans Zimmer for the Babylon A.D. soundtrack. What was that like for you?
The studio didn't want to hire me because it was a big movie. They wanted to hire someone they felt safe with, like Hans, but [director Mathieu] Kassovitz wanted me, so we worked together. It was cool. Hans Zimmer is a genius, and he has a whole team of people where he can come up with an idea and they can make it real. I had a team also, with Shavo [Odadjian, bassist of System Of A Down], and a lot of people came by the studio, like George Clinton.

What's the status of your project with Shavo?
We did an album called Achozen. That shit is crazy. It ain't finished yet. It's been two or three years now. Shavo, he produced the album as well. I'm the lead singer. I can't even describe it. It's the future, though. When Mathieu Kassovitz came to me for the soundtrack, I said, "I'm working on this project with Shavo. I think this is the kind of music you need for this movie." We invited him to the studio and he said, "This is the future." You're going to love it.

What about making movies? Do you see yourself working with Quentin Tarantino or Ridley Scott again?
I have a few movies on the table. I'm waiting to see how they unfold. I'm doing Afro Samurai right now, and part two comes out in December. That's going great. I'm also doing my own movie, called The Man With The Iron Fist. I'm doing it with my buddy Eli Roth. I've got the blessing from Quentin already. It's my directorial debut.

Can you tell us a bit about that? Is it a kung fu movie?
[evil laughter] I checked with Quentin, and he's my teacher, so I asked, "Am I ready to direct films?" I'm like the grasshopper. I asked him, and I felt ready, and he said, "OK, you are ready." I'm very happy about that. For me, life is unpredictable, but if this goes well, this will be the creative crest, a high point. This is something I've wanted to do for years.

[Wu-BeggaZ]

nice, thanks for posting

[THE W]

archived

[Paranoid]

Interesting

[Huggasaurus Sex]

it's hard to imagine how ghost would be the deluded one when rza declined to mention that he lost the lawsuit.

and i also don't see how he can accuse ghost of lying in court and in the next breath say everything's cool between the two of them. talk about deluded...

[Konii blaze]

Matthieu kassovitz is one of the best french director so the movie should be cool

[Jammin]

the movie sucks


and ghost won that case, rza did not say that huh !

[Jasperz]

Originally Posted by Konii blaze

Matthieu kassovitz is one of the best french director so the movie should be cool

actually, he said he was disgusted with the movie because the studio took a lot of it out of his control. he described it as "pure violence and stupidity" and said "parts of the movie are like a bad episode of 24." (i got this from wikipedia).

also what pisses me off is the american version is 11 minutes shorter than the european version. i'm fucking sick of that shit. so i'm not seeing this movie until it comes out on dvd hopefully in the full version.

[pmack215]

fellas, dont overlook the great news........rza said "my plans for FUTURE wu-tang shit is to never be involved w/ their $$$$ again."

so, this means rza does expect & plans for their to be more wu material in the future!!!!!!!
*(that is all i care about!)*

they just gotta change up their business operations a bit, then can move on.

we obviously dont know who's right w/ their legal situation. obviously GFK sees a certain way as being right, and rza sees another way as being right.
i think, bottomline, its just a misunderstanding. i have my own opinion, but hinestly, i dont wanna hear that kinda news out of the wu camp anymore. i want it to die down - ALL of the controversies! i want it to be kept all in house. if it goes on, i dont wanna hear about it.
we never heard about that shit before 2002.
peace.

great find, by the way.

ODB/wu-tang 4ever.

[venex]

thanks, interesting read

[junius]

x

[Prince Rai]

Originally Posted by pmack215

so, this means rza does expect & plans for their to be more wu material in the future!!!!!!!
*(that is all i care about!)*

you actually believe that?

[Rob Swanson]

The future?


at least 3-4 of have gray hairs at this point in time....

[Huggasaurus Sex]

Originally Posted by junius

re: Ghost versus RZA lawsuit

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

1) NOBODY here knows, or is telling if they do

2) Who decided who "won"? A judge? A jury? Did they settle out-of-court?

3) What case # was this and in what court?

There's at least one talentless asshole here who is lawyer but I see he's keeping that secret too.

Some of ya'll younger cats will realize, if you ever get a job researching things, how idiotic some of the speculation is when the ANSWERS are pretty easily available... if people know here to look.

(Like why did it take so long for the whole Officer Ross thing to come out, except that knuckleheads didn't bother to look?)

I'm not even choosing sides, tho' "8D" >>>>> RZA-less, "8D"-less tour + "Pro Tools" combined. (Almighty S.H.I.T. isn't even as good as "Yin and Yang," get the fuck real.)

ghost said in an interview that he went to court with rza and rza lost. he did not say what case number rza lost or which courthouse he lost in. just that he lost.

but it should be noted that while rza is an excellent musician and executed some great business ideas in the past, hiring his brother to be in charge of handling wu-tang's money was a terrible idea. wu chess level terrible.

[Energy Turtle]

Originally Posted by pmack215

so, this means rza does expect & plans for their to be more wu material in the future!!!!!!!
*(that is all i care about!)*

come on let's be real ... wu haven't been interested in wu since forever came out ... once they achieved RZA's goals they got nothing left to prove as a group ... it's every man for himself ...

look at the debacle and mess surrounding 8D behind the music ... there's clearly massive problems and they can cover it and say "we're all cool" and they probably are but i doubt there'll ever be a wu joint where they're on page with each other which means another disappointing release which chips away at their legacy