The Last Word: Raekwon on F.I.L.A., Cuban Linx at 20 and Wu-Tang's legacy
The Wu-Tang legend shares his thoughts on family, religion, his new record, the twentieth anniversary of Only Built 4 Cuban Linx, and the controversial duo of new Clan records
Late last year, Wu-Tang Clan released their first full-length in eight years, A Better Tomorrow. The fact that it dropped in December would already have been enough to help it slip under the radar, even if it hadn’t been put firmly in the shade by the surprise release of D’Angelo’s Black Messiah a fortnight later, but in truth, the album had already been overshadowed by its turbulent gestation process. The Clan’s de facto leader, RZA, had a very public difference of opinion about the record’s direction with Raekwon, who only contributed verses at the last minute after months of disagreements.
On the day A Better Tomorrow was released, The Chef clearly had other things on his mind; he made no mention of it on social media and declined to appear on David Letterman to promote it, instead spreading the word about his long-overdue new solo effort, Fly International Luxurious Art. It’ll finally be released as Raekwon makes plans to mark the twentieth anniversary of his seminal debut LP, Only Built 4 Cuban Linx, and it finds him, ironically, a long way from the mafioso trappings of his classic work, instead aiming for hip-hop universality with a slew of high-profile features. On a trip to London that saw him share a stage with Kanye West at KOKO, the rap icon took time to discuss his legacy, his family and the true current state of the Clan.
"When you think of Raekwon, you think “he’s internationally known, he’s respected in the game, and he makes luxury art on wax” – Raekwon
ON FLY INTERNATIONAL LUXURIOUS ART...
When you think of Raekwon, you think “He’s internationally known, he’s respected in the game, and he makes luxury art on wax.” The title just fit perfectly to where I’m at in my life right now, twenty years on from Only Built 4 Cuban Linx. I feel like I’m at my best again; it’s like you’re dealing with a new Chef, from yesterday to today. If I was a piece of art, you know I’d be an expensive piece, put it that way. It was a rough road to stay consistent, but I’m in the zone again, I’ve rediscovered my passion, and you can hear that on Fly International Luxurious Art.
ON COLLABORATING WITH THE LIKES OF AKON, FRENCH MONTANA AND SNOOP DOGG ON THE ALBUM...
I was just trying to get out and do some work with some of the friends I have in the business, that I’d never had the opportunity to work with before. I wanted to make a record with a really universal feeling; it wasn’t about just keeping myself in that box that people associate with Wu-Tang, you know? It’s not like I have anything to prove anymore; I’m just trying to be a great artist. One thing about The Chef is that I’m not in it just for numbers – I’m in it for quality purposes, to make a head-to-toe great album.
ON THE TWENTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF ONLY BUILT 4 CUBAN LINX...
I look back and think about that album, and I realise how important I am to this music business, and much respect that I got. It’s just an honour that people are still recognising that record; there’s a lot of love for it, all around the world. I wanted to make sure I celebrated it this year, which is why we’re giving the fans an in-depth documentary, The Purple Tape Files – we get to go down memory lane and give you a visual idea of how that record was created, of how it all went down. I’ve got a lot of anniversary shows lined up, too, and you’re going to start seeing other things, through my social network pages, that pertain to the celebration of that classic record. We’re definitely going to pay homage, and on top of that, you get a dope album from me this year, Fly International Luxurious Art.
ON HIS CREATIVE RELATIONSHIP WITH GHOSTFACE KILLAH...
Me and Ghost, we’re like The Odd Couple; we were meant for each other, but we have a different way of doing things. We’re inseparable because of our styles – they complement each other perfectly. Ghost is a part of the family; he had a lot to do with Cuban Linx. Even though it was my album, I always thought of it in a collective sense – that it was our album. When we were making it, we were also making Ironman, and that’s why those two records really share a moment in both of our lives. That was when we both started to realise that we sound great together, which is another reason to pay homage to that time.
ON A BETTER TOMORROW...
I wasn’t pleased with it. I thought it could have been a lot better, but at the end of the day, I could only really do so much, because it was RZA’s creation, and they were his thoughts going into the concept of it. I think the record is decent, but I know it could have been a whole lot better. I didn’t really want us to put something out if I didn’t feel like we’d knocked it out of the park. Like, when I think about the idea of coming together to work on a Wu-Tang project with the rest of my brothers, all I see is fire, you know? And that’s what we didn’t give, because we didn’t really communicate together as a team. I believe in doing things that way, in doing them collectively, but everybody was following RZA’s lead.
And we did speak about it: we said, “yo, we feel it could’ve been a little bit stronger if we had time to make some changes.” It just didn’t seem like RZA was trying to make it happen like that. This is not me taking shots at him, because I’m tired of that – I don’t need to get in the press and talk shit about my brother, that shit is corny – but I do tell the truth, and let eveybody know where I’m coming from. I just felt it could’ve had more energy, and felt more like classic ‘us’, and I think the Clan wanted more too. Plus, I got the opportunity to see how the fans felt; I told RZA that I was with him regardless, but that we had to listen to what our fanbase was telling us, too. I think there was definitely a lesson learned.
ON INTERNAL RELATIONS WITHIN THE CLAN...
I recorded those verses on A Better Tomorrow so that I wouldn’t let the fans down. I didn’t want to have that on my fucking sleeve. I didn’t want people to be thinking, “Oh, Chef is on some cocky shit.” First and foremost, I’m about my business. I’m forty-five years old, and I have a family back home that I have to be father and a provider too. You can’t play with a grown man’s money, and the business side of that record was tacky. A lot of times, people think there’s issues with us as a crew, but that’s not true. I don’t have no problems with none of my brothers – I love them to death, and they love me. We go back and forth, we argue, but a lot of the beef wasn’t even based on us. It was based on dealing with management. They had a wacky way of doing shit sometimes, and we all had to go back to them to let them know, "Don’t fucking play, man, because I’m too old for this shit.” The fans always think it’s just us, but it’s a little bit more than us. Shit gets misconstrued because people think Wu-Tang is dysfunctional, but the things that frustrate us come from outside the group.
ON LIVING APART FROM HIS FAMILY ON THE ROAD...
It gets a little rough. The most important thing to me in this world is my children and their wellbeing. It’s tough when I have to tell them, “look, daddy do everything he do so that you can have a better life.” It’s all about balance: they know I’ve got to work. I have a son, and I tell him the same thing, that when he’s got his own family, he’ll think of all the time I spent away and all the shit I had to do to provide for him, and he’ll be doing the same things for them – he’ll know that feeling, too. And then, I’ve got a five-year-old who doesn’t really know what’s going on – it’s just “when I see daddy, is daddy gonna take me out? Is daddy gonna be around to play with me?” It ain’t like the nineties, when I didn’t have those responsibilities. I have to remember that I’m coming out here and working my ass off so that I can get my just due, and go home to share it with my family.
ON THE PLAN TO PREVENT THE BUYER OF ONCE UPON A TIME IN SHAOLIN FROM MAKING IT PUBLICLY AVAILABLE FOR EIGHTY-EIGHT YEARS...
I don’t like that. There should be a reasonable time limit, because who the fuck is going to wait eighty-eight years to hear the album? None of us are actually gonna be around to hear it! I understand the thinking behind it; it’s to make sure that whoever the buyer is understands the importance of what he’s getting. Whoever gets it needs to treat it like a Mona Lisa. On the flip side, it wouldn’t have been right if the buyer had just thrown it out there straight away, either. That’s not what we felt was part of the plan. A project like this puts us at a certain level of greatness, so a lot of this shit is less to do with our own thoughts as Wu-Tang Clan – it’s about the fact that we’ve created something that’s going to be an important part of our legacy. The buyer is buying it the same way you’d buy an expensive painting at auction, and whoever gets it, good for them.
ON STATEN ISLAND, AND METHOD MAN’S PLANS TO WORK WITH YOUNG LOCAL RAPPERS ON HIS NEXT RECORD...
I go in and out a lot, but a lot my friends that I grew up with aren’t there any more. Staten’s a different place now. I always try to drop in and keep my head to the street, and if there were young guys who I knew had the potential to be successful, I would always try to help them, for sure. The thing is, I’m running my own label now, but I’m not just looking back home for talent – I’m looking all over the world. I got my fingers burned once before, too; I gave a shot to two guys in the hood, and they didn’t step up. You’ve gotta remember, I’m a businessman, and I’m like Phil Jackson – if you ain’t playing right, then I can’t put you on the team. I can’t make you a starter if you ain’t putting in the work.
Staten’s the home of the brave, it’s where everything started for me, but I haven’t seen a guy out there who really wants it yet. If I do, you bet your ass I’m going to do everything in my power to help them do their thing, like when Mack Wilds came to the table from an R&B perspective and I worked on his album and played shows with him; he’s from Staten. It’s just that you’ve got to put the work in, too. Kids think, “If I know the right people, I’m gonna get on,” but it ain’t like that. You’ve got to work your fucking ass off. You’ve got to prove you’re taking it seriously.
ON A NEW GENERATION OF WU-TANG FANS...
It’s inspiring for us, but also, you want to feel as if the kids are coming to us for inspiration, you know? We were trendsetters, and now we represent a certain era of hip-hop. I think a lot of them are just wanting to follow in the same footprints we gave them, and they can, too; they can bring their crew and follow the same blueprint and end up doing it even better than we ever did, just as long as they put in the work.
ON HIS SOCIAL MEDIA PRESENCE...
It’s crazy important. This is my way of marketing, my way of getting the word out there, and my opportunity to hear the comments people have to make about me and my artistry. I’ve got 700,000 followers on Twitter, and when I see that, I know that they’re down for me, and that I have to communicate and let them know I’m still here. Whether I’m giving them music, or showing them that I’m busting my ass at a show, or reminiscing with them on why I love my job, it doesn’t matter – it’s just the fact that I’m interacting that’s important. I’m a politician – I have to know how to reach the people.
ON HIS RELIGION...
First and foremost, I walk with God, and it means so much. Having that spirituality in your heart, it determines how you think, in both the best of times and the worst of times. It becomes more important the older you get; you have to be more spiritual, and more understanding of the blessings you get. To each his own, obviously, but I think that everybody should be spiritual to some degree. There’s nothing wrong with believing in your saviour, regardless of who it is. It’s just about believing in something.
ON THE WU-TANG UK DATES LINED UP FOR JUNE...
I won’t be there. I’m already scheduled to do some other stuff, and being honest, I wasn’t fully informed of everything that was going on, from a Wu-Tang perspective. I’m celebrating the Cuban Linx anniversary this year, as well as promoting Fly International Luxurious Art, so I’ll be doing a lot of touring of my own. I wish them success, but I’ve got contractual agreements that are set in stone. I went and worked on A Better Tomorrow, just to show that I’m still involved with the Clan, but I’ve got to do my own business, too.
ON THE CLAN’S NOTORIOUSLY POOR RECORD OF FULL ATTENDANCE AT LIVE SHOWS...
Like I said, I didn’t know anything about this run that the management put together. This has always been a problem, and it has nothing to do with the artist – it’s down to the management. I hate that the fans might think I’m coming to somewhere and I don’t show up. Even if I’ve got a show, and I fuck around and miss it, I go home feeling fucked up about that, because it’s like, “Damn, I feel like I let my people down.” One thing I’m never going to do is lie to you all, and I didn’t have a clue what the fuck was going on with a Wu-Tang tour. Nobody has called me, or my staff, to see if we were going to be involved or not. You can’t come at me last minute; that’s like if I called you tomorrow and said, “Yo, Friday, we out!”, and you’re like, “Hold up! I didn’t even know about this!” You can’t do that to grown men – we’re not children no more. That’s not to take a shot at nobody, and it’s got nothing to do with my brothers. It’s just me giving you the facts.