All Episodes
Jan. 1, 2025 - The Joe Rogan Experience
02:02:02
Joe Rogan Experience #2250 - Raekwon
Participants
Main voices
j
joe rogan
46:41
r
raekwon
01:09:13
Appearances
Clips
b
bushwick bill
00:39
j
jamie vernon
00:03
| Copy link to current segment

Speaker Time Text
unidentified
Joe Rogan Podcast, check it out!
The Joe Rogan Experience.
Train by day, Joe Rogan Podcast by night, all day.
Oh, we're up.
joe rogan
That's it the chef is in the building ladies and gentlemen, what's up?
raekwon
What's up?
joe rogan
Pleasure to meet you man You are a part of the most iconic band in all of hip-hop.
There is no question.
There's one Wu-Tang There's only one Wu-Tang nothing else is even close You guys are so different than every other band that ever existed.
It was a giant group of you.
raekwon
No Yeah, man.
joe rogan
And everybody was a killer.
raekwon
Fucking mob, man.
joe rogan
It's a crazy band, man.
If you think about it, there's been a lot of hip-hop duos.
There's been a lot of producers and MCs.
There's been a lot of people that get together in small groups.
But there's only one Wu-Tang.
There's only one group of nine assassins.
raekwon
I tell niggas that all the time.
joe rogan
It's kind of crazy.
raekwon
You ain't gonna get another one of these.
joe rogan
It's crazy that it worked.
raekwon
Yeah.
joe rogan
Because it's so hard to keep all those alphas together.
raekwon
It really is crazy.
To make it work, the most illest shit, some shit that I never would have thought would ever exist, it was able to exist because we tried it, but it wasn't It wasn't normal.
joe rogan
It wasn't normal.
It wasn't normal.
You tried it, but it almost seems like it was just instinct.
Like, it's not like a business strategy that anybody would ever come up with.
raekwon
Right.
joe rogan
Nine dudes?
raekwon
Nah.
joe rogan
And nine of the realest dudes?
Like, the rawest, realest dudes?
raekwon
Yeah.
joe rogan
And it worked?
raekwon
Yeah, and it worked.
It worked.
joe rogan
And it worked?
raekwon
I tell people all the time, it was like when RZA, you know, he came with this whole philosophy of wanting to do it, it was like hitting a lotto for him.
Like, he didn't know what to expect.
It was more a reputation thing for us.
It was like, yo, I want to do this.
And, you know, he came to block and he talked to some real dudes that really had other shit planned in their life.
You know, but hip-hop was always like that backpack that we wore every day.
But everybody had different plans, so he really literally came in and started to pick motherfuckers that he felt had potential.
So it's like the mob.
It's like, you know, Lucky Luciano, prime example.
You know, he knew that motherfuckers had potential, right?
He knew dudes had potential in any way.
He's from a different part.
But yo, what we could do right here is we could make money.
So put your fucking feelings down or whatever the case may be.
And let's talk about some money.
And that right there, kinda like, yo, you start shaking hands across the table.
Yo, I know you didn't really fuck with me like that, yo.
I never had anything against you like that, though.
But it was just something that he felt like at the end of the day.
Let me try this shit.
joe rogan
Well, RZA's a genius.
And it's amazing that he was able to coordinate that.
Because that's often the case, right?
With other killers, like when a dude's a bad motherfucker, they always assume that everybody else doesn't like them.
They always assume that everybody else is the enemy or competition.
So to have nine of you guys together like that as one group, you know, we always, I told you when I sent you a message, I said that we play Protect Your Neck.
raekwon
I know.
joe rogan
Whenever we have a police escort, that's what's the most hilarious thing.
So we do arena shows, we hire a police escort.
unidentified
So it's like fucking sirens and shit, Protect Your Neck!
joe rogan
It's like the perfect song to play when you're getting a police escort.
raekwon
Nah, I know.
I know.
Trust me.
joe rogan
These young kids that I have at the club, like I was explaining Wu-Tang Clan to them the other night.
I go, you have to understand how wild this band was.
I go, when Old Dirty Bastard was in Rikers, they went to Rikers and performed in Rikers.
raekwon
You remember that?
unidentified
Yes!
raekwon
I don't fucking remember that.
unidentified
I told everybody, I was like, do you know how crazy that is?
joe rogan
You're talking about like the biggest rap band in the fucking world and they're performing in a penitentiary to one of the members who's one of the biggest fucking hip hop stars in the world who's in jail and then you guys go into the crowd.
raekwon
God bless his soul, first and foremost.
joe rogan
Oh my God, Old Dirty Bastard was a classic.
raekwon
Yo, Joe is the funniest shit because when we came in and when we seen him, he was eating a cheeseburger, laughing and shit.
You know, he reminds you, he never was, you know, dirty.
I don't even think, I never seen him eat meat like that or whatever the case may be, but we came in, he was eating a cheeseburger and shit laughing.
So we was dying laughing.
And they kept, you know, the people up in there, they kept telling us like, yo, y'all can't, y'all can't go into the, to the, to the, to the crowd with everybody.
You know, we not going to hold no responsibility if something happened.
unidentified
So, you know, be like, all right, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, hang on in.
raekwon
Once we got on that stage, it was like, fuck the stage, man.
We out there touching everybody.
joe rogan
Wow.
raekwon
It was love, man.
It was a lot of love.
unidentified
What year was that?
raekwon
Man, it had to be what?
I say what?
unidentified
90...
raekwon
What?
unidentified
90...
raekwon
98?
97?
joe rogan
Wow.
raekwon
98?
joe rogan
No internet.
raekwon
Yeah, none of that shit.
joe rogan
None of that.
Is there even a recording of that anywhere?
raekwon
Nah.
I don't think so.
I don't think so.
unidentified
You know how wild that video would be?
raekwon
I never knew that people seen that.
I don't know how the fuck you knew that shit.
Oh, I heard about it.
joe rogan
Yeah, I heard about it.
raekwon
But they loved that stuff.
joe rogan
It was in the news back then that you guys performed in Rikers.
raekwon
Yeah, yeah.
joe rogan
The 90s for hip-hop, it was like people need...
You have to understand, for young people, you grew up with hip-hop, you're only 20 years old, I get it.
But you have to understand from my perspective, in 1980, there was no hip-hop.
In 1992, that was all anybody gave a fuck about.
That is crazy.
For a new art form...
raekwon
To emerge, right?
joe rogan
Right.
I mean, there was, like, Sugarhill Gang.
There was some hip-hop, but it wasn't the thing until the 90s.
And 90s hip-hop...
raekwon
It got big.
It got big.
joe rogan
It got so big.
raekwon
I remember...
It's so crazy you said that because I tell people all the time, like, disco, to me, was hip-hop before hip-hop was.
You know, disco, R&B, Everything was a mixture.
It was a mixture.
So really when hip-hop came, like you said, it came like maybe, I'm gonna say, 80s, 85?
joe rogan
It had to be 84 because I was in junior high school.
raekwon
Yeah, yeah.
We was young boys, right?
So I would definitely say you heard something and it was like, oh shit, motherfuckers is rhyming.
You know, this shit sound cool, though.
You know what I mean?
It sound cool.
But really, it was a way to bring people together, you know, that was going through different shit in their life, you know what I mean?
joe rogan
Yeah, and you know what?
It was earlier than that, because in 84, I was in high school, so it had to be 80. Because I was a freshman in high school in 81, so I heard Sugarhill Gang when I lived in Jamaica Plain, which was in 1980. So that was the first time I'd ever heard any kind of hip-hop.
raekwon
Yeah, so like, yeah, like we said, yeah, 80?
Yeah, I was 10 years old, so...
Me probably really, really gravitating to it.
I probably was like 12, like you said.
joe rogan
12. What was the first hip-hop that really grabbed you?
Do you remember?
Do you remember like what was the shit that you were first into when you were a kid?
Alright folks, it's that time of year.
Everyone is on a mission to improve their health and wellness habits and set the tone for 2025 by sticking to a routine.
And while sticking to a healthy routine isn't always easy, it's so worth it.
And you all know that I've been using AG1 for years.
It's honestly been so supportive of my foundational nutrition.
AG1 is a daily health drink that combines vitamins, minerals, superfoods, and more in just one scoop.
And many traditional supplements are poorly absorbed, but AG1 is designed for maximum nutrient absorption.
And is packed with micronutrients that are hard to get in your everyday diet.
You can also add a few drops of their vitamin D3 plus K2 for added immune support.
It's a game changer, especially during the winter months.
So, set the tone for a healthy year ahead with AG1. Simply put, it's a way to invest in your health now and in the long run.
And that's why I've partnered with them for so long.
Try AG1 and get a free bottle of vitamin D3, K2 and five free AG1 travel packs with your first subscription.
At drinkag1.com slash Joe Rogan.
That's a $76 value gift for free.
If you go to drinkag1.com slash Joe Rogan, seriously folks, check it out.
The start of a new year is the perfect time to get organized, set goals, and prioritize what matters most.
For me, a top priority is financial wellness, which feels more important than ever, and that's where Rocket Money comes in.
They show you all of your subscriptions right in one place and help you easily cancel ones that you forgot you've been paying for.
Rocket Money also pulls together all of your spending across your different accounts so you can clearly track spending habits and see where you can cut back.
You know how it goes.
Something might seem like just what you want at the time.
Maybe you really need to see that show on that random streaming service.
Or perhaps you love pickles so much you signed up for a monthly delivery box full of them.
But then that show gets canceled and you realize there's only so much vinegary goodness a person can take.
The money still leaves your account every month and you just never quite get around to canceling it because you're a busy person, right?
That's the beauty of Rocket Money.
Rocket Money is a personal financial app that helps you find and cancel your unwanted subscriptions, monitors your spending, and helps lower your bills so you can grow your savings.
They'll even try to negotiate lower bills for you.
They automatically scan your bills to find opportunities to save.
Then you can ask them to negotiate for you.
Rocket Money will deal with customer service so you don't have to.
And that's why Rocket Money has over 5 million users and has saved a total of 500 million in canceled subscriptions, saving members up to $740 a year when using all of the app's premium features.
Cancel your unwanted subscriptions and reach your financial goals faster with Rocket Money.
Go to rocketmoney.com slash JRE today.
That's rocketmoney.com slash JRE. Rocketmoney.com slash JRE. The first shit that grabbed me was, like how you said, Sugar Hill Gang, you know?
raekwon
Rap is the light.
joe rogan
Yeah.
raekwon
Rap is the light.
joe rogan
Hip is the hip.
raekwon
Hip is the hip.
That was the shit.
Now look, I had cousins.
I had cousins.
I had wild cousins and shit.
They was wild.
They was selling drugs.
They was smoking weed and sniffing coke and doing whatever they was doing.
They used to live two floors above me.
And I used to sneak up there and shit, and you know, just be in their business, be in their world, and they would be playing music, they had the record player, you know, you see coke on the table and weed and everything, and my cousins, they was cool, they was like, yo, come in, man, we don't give a fuck, like, just don't tell your mother that you was around and shit, you know what I mean?
Nah, nah, I ain't gonna say nothing.
I ain't gonna say nothing.
And I would just be watching and you know, I would see weed on the album covers and you know what I mean, just motherfuckers running back and forth in the room and you know they in the shit, but they always was playing music and a lot of the music was R&B, you know, disco.
You know, and the next thing you know I heard this fucking record, Sugar Hill Gang, and I'm like, The groove was dope.
I'm like, holy shit.
Like, this is what I want to be.
You know what I mean?
I'm looking at the whole vibe.
I'm like, this is who I am right here, you know?
joe rogan
It's so crazy how it emerged.
I mean, it emerged.
raekwon
Yeah, nobody expected that, bro.
joe rogan
Well, it was a totally new thing.
And there was a lot of resistance.
I mean, for people that don't know, those little warning labels on your, when you used to have CDs, that all came from Al Gore's wife.
raekwon
Get the fuck out of here.
joe rogan
Al Gore's wife, Tipper Gore, she was a Democrat.
She wanted to censor rap music.
raekwon
Oh, shit.
joe rogan
Because this was the first time anybody heard, like, Ice-T, you know, like, 6 in the morning.
Everybody's like, what the fuck is this?
raekwon
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
joe rogan
You know, and that kind of explicit lyrics, they wanted to put a stop to it.
And that's why they put...
And these dumbasses, they didn't even understand, it sold way more albums.
raekwon
Yeah.
joe rogan
Because that's what kids are looking for.
They don't even swear.
raekwon
Get this shit out of here.
Once they got the label on it, it's like, I want it.
unidentified
Exactly.
joe rogan
Once the floodgates got open and kids got turned on to like real hardcore hip hop, you couldn't sell the regular shit.
Get out of here with that.
I mean, there's a few guys who got through with regular shit, but it just didn't last.
raekwon
Nah, it definitely didn't last.
But like you said, though, everybody wanted the raw shit.
And you gotta remember, at that time, it was a tough time, man.
Too much shit was going on.
I mean, it was to the point where it's like, yo, in our neighborhood, we had, like, crazy people.
Like, if they catch you at night, they'll kill you.
Like, they'd be dressed up like a fucking drag or whatever, all this makeup on, and...
You know, I remember one time going to the incinerator room.
My mom's made me go.
She made me go to take out the garbage and shit.
I forgot to take it out.
And she came home later that day and I was laying down and she fucking smacked me in the head with a broom like, yo, didn't I tell you to take out the fucking garbage?
So now I'm going out to the incinerator room, you know, walking.
It's on the same floor.
And I remember when I cut the corner I seen a motherfucker sticking his head out.
And he had his hair all wild.
His shit was like green and red and all this.
And he had lipstick on all crazy.
And his eyes was all fucking bugged out looking.
And he looked at me.
And I got the garbage pail with me.
And it's like, yo, once I seen him, I just dropped the shit and ran.
Mom!
You know what I mean?
Back then, you know, you yell your mother name and shit.
You think that that was something cool back then.
You know, she's your hero at that time.
Came back, the nigga was gone.
But I think if he would have caught me in that incinerator door when it was closed, he was going to probably try to run in there and probably try to fucking kill me or something.
And that shit was going on back then because the drugs, the drugs was crazy back then.
joe rogan
Right, that's the big shift is crack.
raekwon
Yeah, crack.
joe rogan
That's also in the 80s.
raekwon
Yeah, but see, before crack, You had that dope, that dope, that dope.
So motherfuckers is mixing dope and coke together and getting high and shooting it.
Yeah, everything.
You know what I mean?
It was a serious time back then, man.
But, you know, that's how far to me...
Music went back, you know, listening to Ladies Night.
You know what I mean?
I had people in my store that had a candy store right on the same floor, but it wasn't a candy store.
They had a bunch of penny candy just to make kids feel cool, but really they were selling coke in the back.
Coke and dope, though.
So, you know, all this was going on in the community, man.
unidentified
Wow.
raekwon
It was a serious time, scary times back then.
Mm-hmm.
joe rogan
But if it's not for those scary times, you don't get the kind of band that Wu-Tang was.
That has to emerge from an authentic experience.
raekwon
Absolutely.
joe rogan
It has to.
And that's part of the appeal of it is that everybody kind of knew that.
You know, it was part of the appeal.
There's never been, like, a genre of music like that that's so connected to, like, the grind and poverty and crime and ghettos.
Like, the whole genre of music, to be authentic, you had to come from that.
You couldn't be, like, some rich kid from the suburbs that was talking about some shit you never actually experienced.
Nobody wants to hear it, which is kind of crazy.
raekwon
Right, that's true.
I mean, you know, back then, Hip-hop was really an expression for the ghetto.
Being that we was living in fucked up situations and nobody had shit, nobody had no fucking jobs like that.
It was like, yo, we needed something to keep us cool, keep us in a vibe mode.
Back then, gangs was still relevant.
We never looked at ourselves as a gang.
We might have looked at ourselves as a tribe.
That, yo, when you from a neighborhood and you stick to your neighborhood, you know what I mean?
And that's why even back then it was like a lot of times, you know, you would beef with people that wasn't from your neighborhood just because you wasn't from here.
It's like, yo, what the fuck you doing over here?
You don't live over here.
You know, then it creates this animosity thing.
And I remember for us, you know, being...
Being in an area where it was like you go up the block, up the block, stayed up the block, down the block, stayed down the block.
So for me, I was in the middle.
So, you know, I leaned more towards up the block, you know, but then we would go down the block just to start trouble, and, you know, then they would come up the block and they would start trouble, and next thing you know before you know it, we all fucking with each other, you know what I mean?
So that was our way of getting to know each other, is to test each other's heart, and whatever may happen was happening back then, though.
But the music, believe it or not, the music was keeping a peace.
Now, the music was keeping the peace because they would do block parties, right?
They would do block parties and everybody knew all these different DJs was coming from different places and going to play some music and shit.
So we knew every time they did that, we knew something was going to happen at the end of the night.
It was just mandatory.
It was just because people from all over, different neighborhoods would come out, and everything would be nice.
And next thing you know, you see a motherfucker riding down the street all crazy, you know, trying to hit motherfuckers and swinging a golf club out the fucking...
Out the window and shit.
Somebody's mother might have got knocked out.
You know what I mean?
But the music is still playing.
So, yeah, that's the type of shit that, to me, that made it fun but made it spooky.
But it still was fun because it was something to remember.
joe rogan
Well, it's fun because you survived.
raekwon
Yeah, definitely.
The survival, yeah.
But we were young, so we didn't care about Whether we live or die at that time, we didn't give a fuck.
It was like, whatever's gonna happen is gonna happen.
joe rogan
That's wild.
raekwon
But the music, the music is what kept things in order for us, you know, because we always felt like that was a vessel to being calm.
You know, when you come from somewhere that's fucked up, Joe, And there's nothing there.
You can't get a job because of your community.
Your zip code don't allow you to be like, yo, he's hired.
No, it's just too infested over there.
So you kind of become relaxed with that mentality of saying, well, fuck it.
I'm going to live off the land.
I'm going to sell weed.
I'm going to do whatever I think that is going to make me survive.
So everything is just survival.
You know, when music always kept us calm and you always want to listen to what's next being played.
Like, I grew up on R&B music, like disco and, you know, all that fun shit, roller skating.
You know, I knew motherfuckers in the neighborhood that was roller-skating.
You know, we would get off of Staten Island sometimes and go to these different parks and jams in the city.
That was fun too, though.
That was fun times for us.
joe rogan
So was it RZA that was initially all nine guys?
Like, how did it get formed?
raekwon
Well, number one, it was RZA, his cousin JZA, and his other cousin, Old Dirty Bastard, that they were super close.
Now, Old Dirty Bastard and JZA, they were from Brooklyn.
RZA is from Staten Island.
We all Brooklyn babies too, the majority of us in the Klan.
We all resided in Staten Island, but the majority of us grew up in Brooklyn.
But anyway, it was those three that were close as shit.
So RZA... Back then, RZA, he had knowledge of self, which was, you know, being involved with the Nation of Islam and also JZA and Old Dirty.
They were a part of the nation at that time.
So they would go to a lot of rallies.
This is a place where everybody go when they build.
They talking about mathematics and all of this.
But it was JZA and Old Dirty who instilled the hip hop into RZA. So RZA was a DJ back then.
But he knew how to rhyme, too.
And he knew how to rhyme because of his cousins.
So they kind of had this gang called, not a gang, but they had this thing called the All In Together Now Crew, which was them three, and they would run around and they would battle different guys from different cities and move around.
So, you know, some of us kind of knew what they were about.
You know, a lot of us, you know, found out later who they were, but when Jizza and Old Dirty came to Staten Island, they came and they hang out with their cousin.
So, you know, we started to see them a little bit more and know that, you know, yo, I heard about your rhymes and, you know, and Dirty, he was just a crazy motherfucker back then.
He was crazy, but, yeah, they had their own little thing going on.
And then, you know, next thing you know, JZA caught a record deal.
He caught a record deal, which was rare back then.
Like, if you fucking caught a record deal, that mean that you had to have relationships, you had to know where to go, you had to have some type of connects.
So that's what gravitated RZA into wanting to do it, because he's seen that his cousin...
I was able to, you know, crack the code on making a record.
So when that happened, it was almost like it magnetized RZA to be like, yo, I got to make a record now too.
You know, and the next thing you know, they had their movement going on.
So us from the outside looking, it was like, oh shit, yo, we know them.
We know they super passionate about everything.
You know, being in the game and doing whatever they're going to do, but we wasn't thinking that far.
We just loved the music in general.
joe rogan
Wow.
So RZA is essentially the mastermind to put all the pieces together and to bring all you killers under one roof.
raekwon
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
joe rogan
Amazing how he saw that.
Because again, that's not something that existed.
raekwon
Yeah.
joe rogan
It's like Eric B and Rakim, you know, there was, you know, there was a few, EPMD, there was a few people.
raekwon
You know your shit, dude.
You know your shit.
joe rogan
Gangstar.
There was a few people that were together, but it wasn't like you guys.
raekwon
Nah, nah, because that was...
joe rogan
It was kind of scary.
It was like, god damn, when you guys had a show, I mean, I heard stories that it was just like you guys would show up like 300 people.
raekwon
Yeah, that was some neighborhood shit, but yeah, like you said, that was so rare to see a group that come out like that.
And it was really a mistake.
It wasn't really designed to be that way, but when RZA had a record situation and they tried to make him be something that he wasn't...
Always the case.
You know what I mean?
He was like, yo, fuck that.
I don't even care about this shit at this level no more.
I want to create this now.
And I'm bringing in all my guys and, you know, he just put that number together.
So, believe it or not, I was one of the guys that he called first because we used to hang out.
Like, I tell people all the time, like, yo, I might have been RZA's first, you know, big fan.
So I kind of seen something in them already.
I seen something.
I'm like, yo, this guy really, you know, him and his cousins.
And I'm like, yo, these motherfuckers really got talent.
You know, not only the ability to rhyme, but they was clever.
Like, I'm talking about clever rhymes.
joe rogan
Right, right, right.
raekwon
You know, and they was mixing it with the knowledge and, you know, smart rhymes.
Not these fucking regular Humpty Dumpty lines.
Like, I'm talking about serious rhymes.
I'm like, damn, you know what I mean?
Like, yo, so, you know...
This is something that I felt like I would want to go chill with them just to be in the mix and be a fly on the wall.
Wasn't even thinking about being no fucking rapper.
I didn't give a fuck.
I just love the music, but I'm watching these motherfuckers, y'all.
I'm like, something about these motherfuckers that I love.
And next thing you know, when RZA... Went out there and he came back to the community.
He was like, yo, I caught a record deal.
So, you know, I was there.
I'm like, let me see this shit, looking at this shit.
Let me see what the fuck is...
Oh, yeah, I'm looking down here like you said, the what's the name?
joe rogan
Fine print.
raekwon
Yeah, the fine print and shit.
I'm like, yo, this motherfucker made a record.
Holy shit, yo.
Bow, Staten Island, that's what's up.
We up.
You know, but his situation ain't work out the way he wanted it to.
And that's when he came back and he started to be like, yo, chef, this is what I'm trying to do.
joe rogan
Well, the dangerous thing for young artists in every industry is when you have potential and you're young, you sign a fucking contract and you don't know what's going on.
And then you get locked into these people.
And then a lot of times you're getting fucked.
And you don't even know you're getting fucked.
raekwon
It's a mandatory.
joe rogan
Mandatory.
raekwon
Mandatory, yeah.
joe rogan
You're getting fucked, which is how they make their money.
They make money by fucking young artists who don't know any better, and by the time someone gets to a prince's level, he's like, oh, you owe me?
I'm a fucking squiggly line.
Suck my dick.
He performs as a symbol.
I mean, that's why he performed as a symbol, because they owned him.
It's crazy.
You take the most talented people in the world, and they get owned by people who provide no value.
Especially today.
Today it's even crazier, right?
Because there is no record sales anymore.
It's all gone.
raekwon
It's all gone.
joe rogan
For a young artist, it's so important that they stay independent as long as they can.
Like you're hanging off a bridge.
Hang on!
Hang on and keep grinding.
Don't sell it.
Don't sign.
If you sign, you're going to be fighting that shit 10 years from now.
You're going to be in court 10 years from now.
raekwon
Yeah, you're right.
joe rogan
Somebody's gonna be getting not just 50% but like some fucking insane like Bill Burr was explaining this about his first comedy CD that he got a 60-40 deal he's like oh great 60-40 but it's not really 60-40 because he has to pay for all the distribution all the all the printing of the CDs everything came out of his money let me ask you a question Put yourself in an artist situation, right?
raekwon
You have talent, right?
You have talent.
Here it is.
I got everything you want.
joe rogan
Yeah.
raekwon
You're going to have to make some sacrifices.
joe rogan
For sure.
raekwon
Because you know that, yeah, you may feel like, yo, I got talent, but I don't have the resources.
joe rogan
Right.
raekwon
So those resources come and tell you, yo, look, I'll give you a shot.
I'm going to give you a shot, but...
Either you take the shot or you stay in the hood.
What are you going to do?
joe rogan
You're going to take the shot.
You're going to take the shot.
And I agree with everybody who takes that shot.
I'm just letting them know.
raekwon
Right.
joe rogan
I'm just letting them know.
You're getting fucked.
raekwon
You're getting fucked.
But see, it's the sacrifice that I'm trying to explain to you that every artist takes.
They take that sacrifice because at the end of the day, you have to start from somewhere.
Right.
So even when labels are being them...
In my mind, I'm saying, yo, I get a chance to have a job, Joe.
Niggas ain't never had no fucking job in they life.
And now we get a chance to do something that you could maybe think that you could change the world with and love.
It's like you're going to go for it.
So for us back then, being kids, we didn't give a fuck.
We didn't care about signing.
Yo, I signed because what the fuck I got to lose?
I done been through everything.
I done been over here.
I done been kicked out of everywhere.
Fuck it.
I just want to be heard.
So a lot of time that be the protocol is just to be heard.
To be heard, to be able to say, yo, something happened.
I don't give a fuck.
A lot of artists got robbed.
A lot.
A lot of artists, and especially our OGs that did it before us.
Like, you know what I mean?
Sugar Hill Gangs, all these different guys.
They all have been manipulated to do what they had to do, but it almost gave them power too, because they became famous, they became big, they became legendary.
joe rogan
There's an argument for that, but I think it should be more fair.
raekwon
Oh, listen, I'm with you.
joe rogan
Of course you are.
raekwon
I'm with you on that.
unidentified
Of course you are.
raekwon
But we just talking about the sacrifice.
joe rogan
What you gotta do.
You have to do it.
raekwon
Sacrifice is everything.
joe rogan
If you're a young kid and that's step one and now you're on the runway, okay, you gotta take it.
raekwon
You gotta take it.
joe rogan
But it just should be more fair.
raekwon
Oh, I agree, I agree.
And I'm sure later on, things worked out, and you know, now that you proved yourself...
joe rogan
Once they become undeniable.
raekwon
It's like I tell a motherfucker this.
I'm like, yo, imagine you were a hustler, right?
And you run into the Kinect, and the Kinect say, yo, you talking like you know how to move shit.
I'm going to give you 50 pounds of marijuana back then.
You know what I mean?
Now, you may feel like at the end of the day you can handle it, but a motherfucker tell you, Joe, I'm giving you these fucking 50 pounds.
I need my money back today at this time.
You can either take the 50 because you're so fucking confident or take one and say, yo, I'd rather take my time.
You know what I mean?
I don't want to be in debt with you.
What are you going to do?
You got to take the 50. Oh, you?
Oh, yeah.
unidentified
You got to take the 50. He wants to fucking get his head fucking chopped up.
joe rogan
You got to take the 50. I don't know.
You got to know people and you got to bring everybody in and you got to share the money.
raekwon
See, you got to know people.
joe rogan
You got to share the money.
You gotta know people.
raekwon
If you ain't competent in knowing what the fuck you need to know, I advise you don't take them.
joe rogan
You shouldn't be having that conversation if you don't know anybody.
But if you know some people and you're generous, that's the thing.
You gotta make it worth these people's while.
You gotta say, listen, we're all gonna get something out of this.
raekwon
And see, now look, that philosophy that you said is what we took on.
We took that on.
We said, you know what?
At the end of the day, we'll take this little bit of money, but we're going to be willing to sell ourselves to get to this level because we know what we believe in.
See, it all starts from what you believe.
If you don't have the belief in yourself to make it happen, You fucked.
joe rogan
It's a rising tides, lifts all boats thing, too.
Oh, absolutely.
And with Wu-Tang Clan, that was for sure a big thing.
Because anybody that was associated with Wu-Tang Clan was automatically respected.
Automatically people wanted to listen.
Automatically.
raekwon
Yeah.
joe rogan
Automatically.
So that just lifts everybody.
But it's hard for people to see that.
Everybody thinks about themselves, especially when you're struggling.
When you're struggling, then you're scared.
And scared money doesn't make money.
unidentified
That's what it is.
joe rogan
Everybody gets paranoid.
And they think, no, that's when you've got to bond together.
That's when you have to find real people and stick together.
raekwon
You said the key word.
You've got to sell that 50. Talk to Carlos.
joe rogan
Go down to the bodega.
Let's make a deal, man.
We gotta make some deals.
We got 10 hours.
raekwon
I guess that's what Rizzo did.
He danced with the devil for the right reason.
We took some scars.
We got hit.
joe rogan
It was a different world back then, too, in terms of the industry.
Because today, all you need is a social media account, Spotify, SoundCloud.
You can blow up.
You can blow up today.
Back then, you needed the radio.
You could sell mixtapes.
But it's hard.
You had to be some undeniable talent.
We always play the video of Biggie when he was 17 on the street.
Remember that video?
raekwon
Yeah, when he was in his neighborhood.
joe rogan
That's undeniable talent.
That's the kind of talent.
If he stays alive, you can't stop that train.
raekwon
Absolutely.
joe rogan
That train's running everything over.
You know what I mean?
There was guys like that back then.
But man, to get out there and get your name out there, you had to dance.
You had to dance with that devil.
raekwon
You had to work.
joe rogan
Mm-hmm.
And that business was so dirty back then.
It still is, but real dirty back then in the record-selling days.
raekwon
Yeah, of course.
But that's what made us learn is that we had to go through those growing pains.
We had to get jerked to learn how to say, yo, that was a lesson.
So everything is a lesson at the end of the day.
It's like if you're willing to sacrifice yourself and your time to learn something, I would always say go for it.
Yes.
You know, go for it.
joe rogan
Definitely.
Go for it.
It's so much better than not going for it.
raekwon
Yeah, because then you're going to be sitting in the same situation and you're going to realize at the end of the day, damn, I should have took that opportunity.
Some people are scared of opportunities when they come.
And it's like if a person offers you an opportunity, nine times out of ten it may not work for you the way you want it to work, but it may be an opportunity to help you.
You know, it's all about you trying to help yourself and get out there.
It's like watching Scarface and a nigga told him, he said, yo, give you five grand.
And if you fuck this up, Chico...
Scarface looked at him and said, man, the fuck is you talking about?
We built for this shit, man.
You know, when he lost his man in the mix, but...
He was able to prove to himself that I could do it.
That's how I look at rap.
It's like, yo, I don't give a fuck.
Yeah, we'll take this little bit of money, but we're going to prove to y'all later on that we know what the fuck we doing.
joe rogan
And for young people listening to this, every chance you take where you fail, that's a lesson learned.
raekwon
That's a lesson, baby.
joe rogan
And you just keep taking chances.
raekwon
That's right.
joe rogan
Keep going.
Pick yourself back up.
Figure out where you fucked up and learn from that and now you're better.
raekwon
That's right.
joe rogan
Now you have more experience coming into this next thing.
Just keep going.
Just keep going, man.
Especially as artists.
It's just like so many artists, they don't hit until they do.
raekwon
That's right.
joe rogan
And then when they do, it's like, oh, and then people want to go back in their past stuff.
Like, oh, this guy had fucking three albums before this.
unidentified
Yeah.
raekwon
Think about it.
Think about all our favorite artists out there.
You know, Eminem, you know?
Eminem been trying to fucking get on, you know?
Mm-hmm.
You know...
Rakim, Slick Reg, all these guys, they went through a lot to get on, you know what I mean?
Biz Markie, you know?
Nobody wanted to fuck with Biz at first, but, you know, he finally figured the code out and was like, yo, this is what I'm gonna do.
You know, he start rocking shows in different communities, and next thing you know, people start hearing about him.
You're like, oh shit, yo.
This guy is dope.
But it's that sacrifice, man.
I tell people all the time.
Gotta sacrifice.
joe rogan
Yeah, it's time put in.
Time put in, energy, effort, determination.
And you gotta have some talent.
Yeah, you gotta have some talent.
Talent is just, God just gives you something or doesn't.
You know, some people just got it, you know, some people it's also like artistic families like Nas, you know, he grew up in this like intellectual artistic family and that's why his rhymes are so good.
raekwon
Yeah, his pops, man, his pops is a musician.
joe rogan
Yeah, like Rewind.
Yeah, that's like one of the greatest songs of any genre anybody's ever written.
It's a genius song.
raekwon
So crazy.
I was listening to that shit yesterday.
Genius song.
The bullet goes back in the gun.
joe rogan
Yeah.
unidentified
Genius song.
joe rogan
The whole song backwards.
raekwon
You fuck with lyrics.
joe rogan
Oh, I love Nas, especially for lyrics.
His lyrics are incredible.
They were so good.
They were so good.
And unusual, like that.
Deciding, I'm going to be the first guy to make a rap backwards.
And make it work perfectly.
You know?
I mean, it's just...
Hey, did you ever listen to any of the shit where the Brand New Heavies got together with a bunch of rappers?
raekwon
The Brand New Heavies?
I know the name, but I'm trying to...
joe rogan
The Brand New Heavies are like a jazz band.
They did a collaboration with Gangstar, Cool G Rap, a bunch of guys.
Some of my favorite shit of all time.
raekwon
Yeah, they was more musical, though.
Like I said, they was more musical.
joe rogan
Have you ever heard of Cool G Rap's Death Threat?
Oh my god.
raekwon
Jamie, play that.
joe rogan
Play that.
Find that.
We've got to put on the headphones for this.
This is in my, along with a bunch of Wu-Tang, this is in my Spotify playlist.
This is Cool G Rap in like, I want to say 92?
Yeah, 92. Listen to this.
unidentified
Some think that I'm a flake, but I'm no fake nigga, cause I think I'm a bitch.
Bigger man with your burners ass at the stake.
I've never heard this shit before.
How good is this?
Ooh.
Ooh.
One of my favorites right there.
joe rogan
Turn to chicks with small dicks.
unidentified
Nice.
joe rogan
So good.
raekwon
Nice.
joe rogan
So good.
raekwon
So this was on the Brand New Heavies album.
joe rogan
Yes.
The Brand New Heavies did one with Gangstar.
They did a bunch of different artists.
raekwon
Nice.
What year was this?
joe rogan
92. Phenomenal.
raekwon
See, this is the beginning.
Yeah.
joe rogan
I was on a road trip.
I was doing a gig in Connecticut with a buddy of mine who's a comedian.
unidentified
Right.
joe rogan
And he turned me on to this.
Like, you got to listen to this shit.
And I was like, oh my God.
And then I had a CD and I lost it.
And I couldn't find it forever.
And then someone brought it up like a few years back, like six or seven years back.
And I was like, God, you got to be able to find it.
And that's the beautiful thing about today with like YouTube and, you know, some of these platforms, people upload shit that you totally forgot about.
Like Tim Dog.
People forgot about, like Fuck Compton.
Remember that?
unidentified
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
raekwon
He was a wildcat, but he was real.
joe rogan
It was good, though.
unidentified
He was good.
raekwon
Fuck Compton, yeah.
He was wilding back then, yeah.
joe rogan
Great shit, man.
raekwon
Yeah, he was wilding back then.
joe rogan
But Coogee Rap, that to me was like, that defined like road gigs for me in the 1990s when we would drive.
That was when Cockblocking came out.
Remember that?
unidentified
What?
Remember that?
joe rogan
Oh my god, that song is amazing.
raekwon
Yeah, man.
Damn, so you really pay attention to this fucking hip-hop shit like that, man.
joe rogan
Yeah, hip-hop was a big part of my childhood or my young adulthood.
You know, when I was driving around a lot doing comedy gigs, like a lot of Ghetto Boys.
I was a huge Ghetto Boys fan.
Yeah, me too.
The other day in the green room, I was playing Fuck A War for these young kids.
I was like, listen, this is a song from the 1980s about the Iraq War.
This is about George Bush in the late 1980s.
And it applies today.
raekwon
You remember Fuckin' War?
Nah, you fuckin'...
joe rogan
Come on, headphones are comin' back on.
Let's go.
raekwon
You ain't fuckin' schoolin' me on shit.
Like, what the fuck?
joe rogan
I talked to Willie D. Willie D told me he wrote this song in 40 minutes.
raekwon
Wow.
joe rogan
Yeah, he was just angry.
Wrote this song in 40 minutes.
unidentified
Fuckin' War.
joe rogan
And this is ghetto boys in their prime.
raekwon
Mmm.
unidentified
Hello, can I speak with Bushwick?
raekwon
You know that album.
joe rogan
Bushwick Bill.
unidentified
Hello.
raekwon
That was my guy right there, man.
unidentified
Motherfuckin' Bill.
joe rogan
This is Bushwick motherfuckin' Bill.
unidentified
Yes sir, I'm calling you for me that you've been drafted into the United States military.
91. 91. Look at that big phone he's got.
Yeah, yeah, I had one of those before too.
Yeah.
Fuck a war.
raekwon
Fuck a war.
unidentified
Yeah.
Fuck a war.
That's how I feel.
Sending a nigga to the dead to get killed.
Cause two suckers can't agree on something.
Thousand motherfuckers died for nothing.
bushwick bill
You can't pay me to join an army camp or any other motherfucking military branch.
unidentified
Of the Saudi goddamn states of that bitch America.
Be a soldier at four.
They putting niggas on the front line.
But when it comes to getting their head, they put us away behind.
I ain't getting my legs shot off while I put your lights on TV playing golf.
When you're gonna do that draft shit, I'ma shoot you.
Yeah.
raekwon
Talking crazy.
bushwick bill
Woo.
unidentified
Woo.
Oh shit.
bushwick bill
Oh shit.
raekwon
Yeah.
bushwick bill
Yeah.
raekwon
He was in the N.W.A. chamber.
He was in the N.W.A. chamber right there.
joe rogan
That shit was good.
raekwon
And that applies today.
joe rogan
We were all talking about what's going on right now with Gaza and Palestine.
raekwon
I know.
joe rogan
Iran.
I was like, listen to this.
raekwon
And see, this is why we love hip-hop so much is because it was educational, too.
It was giving us jewels.
It was talking about things that...
We're going on in the world, and that became the television for us.
The music, the music, the music.
joe rogan
It became the news, too.
Like, you need to know what was actually going on.
Like, fuck a war tells you what's really going on.
raekwon
What's going on, yeah.
So when I think about those Compton boys, those N.W.A. cats and all of that, that was expressing themselves, it was like, that's what we all were feeling.
Facing and living amongst.
And, you know, like I said, I never heard that song before.
So I could tell that was made around the time when N.W.A. was doing a thing.
And, you know, you're hearing about all these riots and shit going on and things happening.
You know, us living all the way on the other side of the world.
It's like, yo, we not.
Yo, what the fuck was that?
unidentified
Right.
raekwon
But you heard it in a song and you knew it was real.
You respected it.
And to me, those perspectives in music were important for us because we were learning as we were getting older about society.
You don't think about society when you pour into And living in fucked up positions.
You just think about survival.
You see what I'm saying?
Survival is the only thing on your mind.
And you're dealing with things that's in front of you that, at the end of the day, you're like, damn, the fuck was that that just happened?
Or what was this shit?
But then when you heard it in rap and motherfuckers like D's was talking about it and all that, it's like now you're like, oh!
Okay, I see what the fuck is going on.
It's not just here.
It's all over.
It's in every ghetto or whatever the case may be.
That's what was happening.
So I never heard that before, though.
You just put me on some real shit.
And that's one of my favorite groups right there.
joe rogan
I love Ghetto Boys.
raekwon
Ghetto Boys is real shit right there.
joe rogan
The 1990s Ghetto Boy era.
raekwon
Crazy.
joe rogan
I remember the day I found out about N.W.A. I was teaching Taekwondo in Revere, Massachusetts.
And I was at the gym riding on a stair climber.
And I had just picked up this cassette.
And I was like, N.W.A., I keep hearing about this.
And Fuck the Police was the first song I listened to.
And I remember when I was on the stair climb going, this is wild.
unidentified
See?
raekwon
You see what I'm saying?
You see what I'm saying?
joe rogan
This is wild.
raekwon
Yeah, yeah.
joe rogan
You're hearing people talk about the police, like they're getting harassed by the police in a way you never heard before.
raekwon
I heard them say it, yeah.
unidentified
Exactly.
joe rogan
Fuck the Police coming straight from the underground.
It was like, wow!
raekwon
Coming straight from the fucking underground.
joe rogan
It was a totally different kind of music.
It was...
It was like they were rapping and no one was listening.
It was like they were rapping for themselves, right?
They didn't give a fuck who was listening.
They were rapping like they were doing it for their friends, but they were doing it to the whole world.
And the whole world was like, whoa!
100 miles and running, the whole world was like, whoa!
This is crazy!
raekwon
So look, you had them, you had Public Enemy.
All of them type of guys were giving us information that...
It was relatable in our community that they became a voice.
joe rogan
KRS-One?
raekwon
KRS-One, the teacher, you know.
joe rogan
Boop, boop, that's a sound of the police.
raekwon
All that shit right there to me was knowledgeable, knowledgeable rap, hip-hop.
I ain't gonna call it fucking rap, hip-hop.
Informational.
joe rogan
Especially KRS-One and Public Enemy.
They were saying something.
But it wasn't contrived.
It wasn't like, you know, you see people say shit today like, ah, you're just doing that for claps.
They were saying shit to let people know about some information that you're not aware of and this is why you're getting fucked.
raekwon
Period.
joe rogan
This is why we're all getting fucked.
raekwon
Absolutely.
Come on.
Come on.
Even when fuckin' Spike Lee made Do Do The Right Thing.
unidentified
Yes!
raekwon
One of my favorite movies right there.
That's a classic right there.
joe rogan
Classic.
raekwon
Classic.
Classic shit.
Wow.
joe rogan
Classic.
raekwon
But like you said, we was getting information and, you know, you gotta remember, you know, at the end of the day, You know, a lot of people that coming out of the hood and just being like, I know you, you come from the hood.
Well, I was born in Newark.
Yeah, he was born in Newark.
Shout out to Newark.
So you seen it.
joe rogan
I wouldn't exactly say I come from the hood because I went to high school in the suburbs.
raekwon
Yeah, that's true.
joe rogan
I lived in Newark.
I was telling you, I lived in Newark when I was 23 for about six or seven months.
And I told you my next door neighbor, he was selling dope and the police raided his house while I was there.
They battering rammed his door and everything.
He had a nice Audi.
I looked at him like, how does this dude have a nice car?
Selling dope.
He was selling dope.
And they got him.
raekwon
But he was around it though, so he was able to, you know...
joe rogan
Well, that was also the time that I was the most into hip-hop, too.
I mean, that was 1991, I guess.
That was a wild era, because that's when hip-hop was just exploding.
raekwon
Yeah, you're right.
joe rogan
Exploding.
raekwon
Yeah, I would say definitely 91. You had Naughty By Nature.
joe rogan
Oh, yeah.
raekwon
They had emerged on the scene, like you said.
Rakim and Big Daddy Cane.
joe rogan
Oh, yeah.
raekwon
Easy E's and Ice Cubes.
joe rogan
To this day, I go to work because it's one of my favorite workout songs.
Big Daddy Kane, I'll go to work.
unidentified
Oh my god, I go to work.
joe rogan
He was so smooth and so fast too.
Big Daddy Kane had a very particular style.
It was energetic.
You heard his style, like your blood started pumping.
You started getting moving.
raekwon
And see, those are the type of guys that paved the way for us to be so, you know, outspoken on the mic.
You know, when I sit here, when I think about the Klan, you know, the Wu-Wang, how we, you know, formed Voltron, each one of us had a superpower that related back to those guys.
You know, all these guys that we talking about today, they was the light bulb in the house.
You screw that shit on.
This is what I see right now.
I see Slick Wreck.
I see Rakim.
I see Cube.
I see fucking, you know, all these guys that paid the way for us.
So the Klan at that time, we were so, you know, inclined on knowing about all these guys that No, a majority of them, we kept a piece of them in us that helped us become who we are.
Like, I tell motherfuckers all the time, I say, yo, let me tell you something.
When we came out, Naughty by Nature was the shit.
They was fucking shit up on the East Coast side of things, you know.
And at that time, you had them, you had EPMD, you had Queen Latifah, Roxanne Shante, all of these, you know, artists back then were blowing up.
LL, can't front on LL, LL. Oh, yeah.
joe rogan
LL was huge.
raekwon
Coogee Rap, one of my favorites.
I know that's one of your favorites.
You know, the Fat Boys, all these guys were just...
joe rogan
That's right, Fat Boys.
raekwon
You know, these guys was giving us so much food for thought that we knew that if we didn't come on that level, we wasn't built to be in the game at that time.
joe rogan
Well, there was so much high quality.
raekwon
High quality, that's the word.
joe rogan
The level was very high.
Absolutely.
The lyrics were so good.
Like, you would hear lyrics and just go, oh!
raekwon
Oh, shit.
Yeah.
unidentified
Oh!
joe rogan
That was the thing.
That was the thing about hip-hop.
raekwon
Listening to the lyrics, I love that.
joe rogan
I love lyrics.
Lyrics is everything.
raekwon
That's right.
joe rogan
That was the style back then.
It was like the most clever guy, the most clever lyrics.
It was so important.
You know?
There's so many guys that just had...
Everybody was battling for...
So it was like more and more cleverness and more and more intricacies and more and more twists of what they were saying.
raekwon
Yeah.
joe rogan
And it was just a vibrant art form, man.
Like, how many people cheated on their significant other because of OPP? How many?
raekwon
How many relationships?
joe rogan
People were cheering!
It was like a license to fuck.
People were cheering.
Hip-hop had so much influence on the culture and it emerged out of nowhere.
That's what's so crazy.
Like, 10 years ago it doesn't exist.
Boom.
I mean, even rock and roll.
I mean, rock and roll, you had the 50s, it starts to emerge, then the 60s really takes off, and, you know, it'd been around for a while.
raekwon
Right, absolutely.
joe rogan
To have something like hip-hop just explode and make a lot of other things look lame.
raekwon
Yeah.
joe rogan
You know, especially for young kids because when you hear guys like you and, you know, Ghostface and, you know, Method Man and like, you're dealing with real dudes who are talking about real shit and everybody else just look kind of lame.
unidentified
You know?
joe rogan
It was like they didn't even swear.
You guys were wild.
It was fun and it was clever.
And I think RZA did a genius thing by naming it Wu-Tang Clan.
Because it connected it to this kung fu mindset.
raekwon
I know you big on kung fu shit.
I'm coming through your shrine and shit.
He got all kind of fucking...
Shogun warriors, assassins.
joe rogan
Oh, I have a real samurai outfit out there.
unidentified
Yeah.
raekwon
But nah, but you know what's so crazy?
I tell people it's like, when RZA, when they was on they Wu-Tang shit, we wasn't on that.
I grew up watching more like Scarface and Mafia movies.
Once Upon a Time in America.
joe rogan
Oh, yeah.
raekwon
One of my favorite movies.
joe rogan
Oh, it's a great one.
People forget about Once Upon a Time in America.
raekwon
That's my fucking movie right there.
That's my movie.
So we were like...
We were living in this...
We were living around a lot of hustlers.
A lot of drugs was being sold in my community at that time, right?
So when Rizak came with the whole Wu-Tang philosophy, it was almost like, yeah, we love karate flicks.
We were watching...
You know about the karate flicks, 3 o'clock, 3 o'clock.
We come over to school, them shits is on, Channel 5, all of that shit.
But if you notice and you look at those karate movies, it was about a place that...
You know, was filled with a lot of crime and aggressive people that were doing things that bothered other people and you either had to protect your people Or you had to make a name for yourself.
Now, when you think about Wu-Tang, I'm going to just give you a quick lesson on what Wu-Tang was.
Wu-Tang was a school that was in Shaolin.
This particular school, these niggas was crazy.
They was fucked up.
They got kicked the fuck out of Shaolin.
joe rogan
Really?
raekwon
They got kicked out.
Yo, y'all bugged out.
Y'all wildin', y'all.
But these guys were very good, but they just couldn't sit in Shaolin because they had a different way of looking at shit and doing shit.
So when RZA came with the whole philosophy of it, it's this movie that's called Shaolin vs.
Wu-Tang, right?
Check it out whenever you get a chance.
So whatever was going on in that movie, he made a reality of it because really, at the end of the day, that's how we were living.
Back in Staten Island.
You know, so we wind up changing the name and calling it Shaolin because we were the forgotten barrel.
You know, when you think about Brooklyn, Bronx, Queens, Manhattan, we don't really talk too much about fucking Staten Island.
That bothered us.
So we didn't, we felt rebellious like, yo, you come out here, you ain't from here, you better know somebody.
You're not fucking coming into projects thinking you're going to fucking act like you're going over to your friends.
I remember we used to see UFOs come through.
We call them UFOs, unidentified flying objects.
What the fuck he doing here?
Yo, follow him.
Yo, we came to see.
You know what I mean?
Because we had so much to prove, but it was the same thing that was going on in the karate flicks.
Like, yo, you go to a new neighborhood.
Who is this guy?
Either he's coming to play you, he's coming to play you, or...
Or you gonna play him.
This is all the shit that's going on in the karate movies.
You know, the brotherhood.
Yo, oh shit, my brother got hurt.
What happened?
Oh, hold up.
Let's go.
We gotta go get back to that.
We gotta go figure that out.
All this shit that RZA was thinking about at that time was a reality check for us in Staten Island.
So even when he came with the name, it was almost like, yo, wow, that shit is interesting.
You know, Wu-Tang Clan, yo.
Back then, he was hanging in Ghost's community, which was Stapleton.
So, Stapleton was a place that was maybe like 10, 15 miles away from Park Hill, where I'm from.
I'm from the hill.
Up there, they were selling drugs and getting crazy with it, and Jamaicans, and Westerners, and Guyanese.
You know, it was a melting pot.
You know, it was a melting pot of different nationalities of motherfuckers.
You had the Spanish motherfuckers over here selling dope.
You know what I mean?
You had the white boys over here fucking doing what they doing.
All these things was going on, but in Stapleton, it was nothing but criminals and motherfuckers that want to fight and rob and steal.
RZA was hanging out there a lot, you know, so they came up with this whole, you know, Wu-Tang mentality thing that they brought up the block to us.
So when RZA came with it, it was like, oh shit, we like that.
That's kind of dope.
You know, we see the vision of that, you know?
But it was never for us to look at it at any given time like, yo, you trying to portray us as some fucking ninjas or some shit.
You know, a lot of times people thought, yo, your niggas no karate?
You know no fucking karate, motherfucker.
We don't do that.
But we grew up, our older brothers and sisters, they grew up on it.
That was some early 70s shit right there.
Yeah.
So, you know, back then you might have had a cousin that was a martial art.
He knew the arts and shit.
You know, you looked up to him like, yo, this motherfucker's ill right here.
He know the arts and shit.
He know how to fight.
You know, your motherfucker would be in the back of the building with two Doberman pinches and shit.
You know what I mean?
Beating him with fucking laundromat hoses and shit and...
You know, grabbing him and hanging him on shit.
Back then, that was dope to see your cousins and all of them do it.
But RZA, when he came with this philosophy, it kind of fucked us all up.
But we agreed with it right away.
Because Wu-Tang, to them, was always something like an expression.
So if you drinking, this is Wu-Tang drinking.
You over here, this is some Wu-Tang shit or whatever.
Because he was trying to say that we were just like them in the flicks.
It's crazy.
joe rogan
Wanna hear something crazy?
Whenever I kill an elk, I go bow hunting every year.
Whenever I kill an elk, when I text my friend Cam, I text Wu-Tang.
Like, whenever I kill something, I'll show you.
I'll show you that that's true.
raekwon
I've seen some of the pictures in there.
joe rogan
I know, but I want to show you that that's true.
I'm not making this up.
It goes back years.
It goes back years.
This is like our tradition.
Whenever I kill an elk, well, I'm going to find this.
I'm going to find one the last time I said Wu-Tang.
I text him every day, so it's going to take a second to get back into some pictures.
But whenever I get one, I say Wu-Tang, and then I send him a picture.
raekwon
Oh, shit.
joe rogan
Crazy.
raekwon
Crazy.
joe rogan
It's gonna take a while because I do scroll, but this is important to show you.
This is real.
Come on, motherfucker.
Go back and search Wu-Tang and it'll show you.
Oh, it'll show you?
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
Oh, okay.
Oh, look at Jamie.
Under Cam Haynes or just Wu-Tang?
Then when you find Cam Haynes, it'll show you.
Oh, look at Jamie telling me how to do it.
Sorry.
Here we go.
See all.
Here it is.
Right there.
Wu-Tang.
raekwon
Holy shit.
Holy shit.
joe rogan
And then the elders down.
That was from October.
But I go back like five years of doing that.
Like every time I shoot a elk, I text Wu-Tang.
raekwon
When you started hunting, since you came out here?
joe rogan
No, I started hunting in 2012. I shot that deer, that deer, that head that's right there.
That was the first animal I hunted.
And then I was like, okay, that's what I'm doing.
raekwon
Wow, crazy.
joe rogan
It was either for me it was that or become a vegetarian.
I watched too many of those PETA films.
You know, those animal factory farming films and torture films.
I was like, fuck this.
Like, either I'm gonna be a vegan or I'm gonna learn how to hunt.
And my friend Steve Ranella took me hunting.
I shot that deer.
I'm like, alright, that's what I do now.
And I've been doing it ever since.
So I've been hunting for 12 years.
raekwon
12 years?
joe rogan
Yeah.
raekwon
So you consider yourself a marksman then?
joe rogan
Uh, well, it's like, I'm not really good, like, compared to real marksmen.
You know, that's like saying you're a black belt when you're not really a black belt.
You know, like...
raekwon
I go through the courses.
joe rogan
Yeah, like, how good are you?
I mean, I'm good for regular people.
Yeah, if you didn't know, you'd think I'm really good.
Yeah, but like, for people that are really good?
raekwon
No.
joe rogan
I'm not nearly at their level.
But you know, there's like professional archers that are like super accurate out to 100 yards.
They can shoot like a softball sized group at 100 yards consistently.
raekwon
I got a couple of homeboys who can shoot like that though.
joe rogan
It's a lot of discipline.
raekwon
Yeah.
joe rogan
A lot of discipline.
raekwon
Yeah, but they come from, they live on this side of town too though.
joe rogan
Yeah, well there's a lot of bow hunting in Texas.
raekwon
Yeah, that's what I'm saying.
joe rogan
A lot of bow hunting in Texas, yeah.
It's fun.
raekwon
Yeah, yeah.
joe rogan
I like it.
raekwon
I gotta get out there one day, man.
joe rogan
I told you.
We were talking before the show.
If you want to learn, I could put you on some people that will 100% teach you how to do it.
Because you're fairly close.
That's an easy thing to do.
We could hook it up.
raekwon
Definitely.
joe rogan
You would enjoy it.
It's also a nice discipline to clear your mind.
You set a target up in the backyard and just shoot the target.
It just clears your mind.
Because you have to really concentrate on it.
And while you're doing it, you don't think about nothing else.
For a guy like you, busy, so much shit going on.
It's good to have a thing like that.
raekwon
It's like a sport to me.
It's like something to learn and kind of master.
That's important.
joe rogan
But it's one of those things like shooting a free throw.
Like at that moment, you can't think of anything else other than what you're doing.
If other shit gets in your head, it's like you don't have any room for it.
You've got to push it all out.
And that kind of stuff cleans your mind.
It's like it flushes your mind out.
raekwon
That's what it's all about at the end of the day, man.
Just kind of like get a peace of mind and vibe to something different though.
joe rogan
Yeah.
I always say that for artists too.
You should find some other thing you like to do.
Just to give you a little break mentally from whatever you're trying to do.
raekwon
Exactly.
joe rogan
You could get too close to something and lose sight of the big picture if you're all wrapped up in it.
raekwon
Because you're so stuck into one.
joe rogan
Sometimes you need something else that you also enjoy outside of it and then you can look at what you're doing.
Okay, what am I doing?
Different.
raekwon
Exactly.
joe rogan
Maybe I should put a new wrinkle in this.
Maybe I should take a new turn, you know?
Mix it up.
raekwon
That's important, man.
That's important, man.
joe rogan
You know what's another cool thing about today is that it used to be thought at one point in time, I think it was like the early 2000s, that rap had That hip hop had a shelf life.
And that there wouldn't be classics.
You know what I mean?
Like the Rolling Stones were still touring.
You know, they were 58 years old back then.
Like, this is crazy.
The Rolling Stones are back on the road.
But that was like a new thing.
It was like old rock and roll guys out touring was a new thing.
But with hip hop artists, if you weren't in now, if you weren't new now, people weren't in to go and see you.
raekwon
Right, yeah.
Well, when I see guys like LL and Kane and them perform and Slick Rick and Ice Cube, it gives me more leverage and more strength to want to do it because I see some of my legends still doing it today.
But yeah, man, like you said, just to see a lot of guys like the Rolling Stones and Mick Jagger and them still performing, it's like, why not?
joe rogan
Why not?
raekwon
Why not?
Why give up on it, you know?
joe rogan
But with hip-hop, it wasn't really a thing for a long time.
raekwon
Nah, because you didn't think that it would last.
joe rogan
Right.
raekwon
You know what I mean?
So you felt like...
You would get a five-year run.
They say any artist that was coming out back in the 90s, they was already putting a cap on how long or how far they felt you was going to go.
So even for us, we was like, yo, hey, we do this shit for like three or four years.
We good.
Yo, we'll be cool with that.
So they always put us in a...
What's the word I want to say?
What's that?
joe rogan
A box?
raekwon
Put us in a box.
joe rogan
Yeah.
raekwon
To make us feel like at the end of the day, yo, this shit is going to be here for a minute, then it's over.
But seeing guys still doing it, I don't give a fuck.
I listen to Billy Joe.
I'm a Billy Joe fan.
That's my fucking guy right there.
That's hilarious.
I know people would be like, get the fuck out of here.
That's hilarious.
joe rogan
I love his old shit.
Until he had that supermodel wife, then everything got real soft.
And then he got too much good pussy.
Too much good pussy.
He got supermodel pussy.
unidentified
And it's like, uptown girl, she's been living in her uptown world.
joe rogan
Before that, you go back to his other shit, you know?
Owen the good Diane.
He's got some great stuff, man.
Scenes from an Italian restaurant, that's a great song, man.
Captain Jack, ooh, Captain Jack's a great song.
raekwon
Billy Joe, man.
joe rogan
But when he got older, it just became, you know, he was changing as a human.
raekwon
He in New Yorker too, right?
joe rogan
Yeah.
raekwon
New Yorker to the heart right there, right?
joe rogan
That guy sold out Madison Square Garden like 300 times.
raekwon
See what I'm saying?
joe rogan
Still going.
raekwon
Still going.
joe rogan
Yeah, still going.
raekwon
So those are our heroes.
Those are guys that we look up to that, you know, they still doing anything, man.
joe rogan
Yeah.
It's just beautiful that hip-hop is like that now.
raekwon
Yeah.
joe rogan
Because I feel like in the 2000s, it was more overseas was showing you guys love.
raekwon
Yeah.
joe rogan
Like a lot of Europe.
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
A lot of my friends that were maybe bigger in the 90s, they had to go over to Europe.
raekwon
To come check out hip hop.
And I tell people all the time, being from the States, being where we from, I think they appreciate it more because they never really got a chance to grasp it as much as we did.
So they come out more.
Right.
joe rogan
They're more enthusiastic.
raekwon
They love it more.
joe rogan
They can't believe you're there.
raekwon
Yeah, they can't believe it.
But for me, I think I love performing a lot more when I go out there because they come out and they never, ever make you feel like they don't appreciate you.
You know what I mean?
And even to this day, it's like the Klan still goes out there and makes a ton of cash.
We see a lot of people.
And we see young generations of kids now, too.
It's like, yo, you look in the crowd.
You're like, fuck.
How old is that fucking kid that we just put him on stage and he knew the fucking words.
Like, yo, he might have been like 17, 16 years old.
Like, yo, he wasn't even fucking born.
joe rogan
Well, there's classic hip-hop now.
You know what I'm saying?
Like, when I was a kid, there was classic rock.
You listen to Led Zeppelin.
It was classic rock.
Now there's classic hip-hop.
raekwon
Wow.
joe rogan
Which is amazing.
raekwon
Yeah, you're right.
joe rogan
Well, it just shows that the culture has completely accepted it as an art form.
And so now young kids that get into hip-hop, maybe one of their friends will be like, hey, you ever heard of this?
And then they turn them on to new stuff.
raekwon
Exactly.
joe rogan
And they're like, wow, yeah, yeah, this is 1992, you know?
raekwon
That shit, you know, and I think that that's how we were.
We always were infatuated with the music before our time, you know?
I'm like how you just said, like, yo, you know, listening to Sugar Hill Gang, you know?
I actually had them in one of my videos before.
joe rogan
Really?
raekwon
Word, you know how that, and I brought them to my hood, too, so you know how that felt for me.
joe rogan
Oh, wow.
raekwon
To have fucking Sugar Hill Gang come out to my community.
joe rogan
That's amazing.
raekwon
That was dope, though, right there, man.
But yeah, man, you know, that's why I always feel like, yo, I tell people all the time, you have to respect the people that did it before you, man, because they gave you something to dream about.
joe rogan
Yes.
raekwon
To be able to instill in yourself.
Like, if you don't have that, then you're not moving the way you're supposed to be moving.
unidentified
Yeah.
raekwon
You know, I remember old man would tell us, if you don't know where you came from, you'll never know where you're going.
So having that history, that history is an experience that sticks with you forever.
You have to have that.
Don't try to front on that.
You know, and I think a lot of times people, you know, they look at hip-hop and they think certain things is hip-hop.
It's like history...
Of hip-hop is something that you gotta know, man.
You gotta know it.
You gotta know it.
joe rogan
You should know it like the history of the United States.
Exactly.
It's something, if you're an artist, like, that's what lit the fire.
Somebody had to light the fire.
And if these young guys don't know, like, hey, this shit didn't even exist in 1979. It didn't even exist.
That's not that long ago.
And then all of a sudden, now it's everywhere?
Like, what happened?
Somebody lit the fire, and if they didn't light that fire, you wouldn't have it.
You wouldn't have the embers.
You wouldn't have this desire to try this thing.
raekwon
Exactly.
Now look what it's doing.
Look what it did.
It's like, yo, one of the biggest genres of music is like, you know, and there's a lot of times people take shots at it.
Like, you know, y'all ain't talking negative.
Y'all ain't talking this.
They talking that.
It's like, my thing to that is always like, yo, it's no different from going to see a scary movie.
joe rogan
Exactly.
raekwon
Jason.
joe rogan
Exactly.
raekwon
This motherfucker's killing motherfuckers in the woods.
I hated camp.
You know what I mean?
Based on that, Heat is one of my favorite movies.
joe rogan
Great fucking movie.
raekwon
I love Heat.
You know, De Niro and Al.
joe rogan
But why is it okay to do that in a movie, but it's not okay to do that in a song?
raekwon
Right.
I don't understand it.
I don't, you know, but...
joe rogan
It's hypocritical.
raekwon
You know, it's hypocritical.
joe rogan
It is.
It's hypocritical because they say it encourages violence.
And that's the same thing they'll say about video games.
Like, you know, doesn't hit everybody.
raekwon
Yeah.
joe rogan
So what's going on really?
What's going on really is you have a bunch of disenfranchised people that don't have any hope.
And if they are around a lot of violence, maybe something will get them excited about violence.
If they're not disenfranchised and they have hope, they're not inclined towards violence.
unidentified
Right.
joe rogan
It's a societal problem.
It has nothing to do with the art itself.
The art itself is representative of real experiences.
So if you're telling people that they can't express themselves about real experiences, you're just going like this.
unidentified
La, la, la, la, la.
joe rogan
I'm not listening.
That's all you're doing.
raekwon
That's how you're feeling at the end of the day.
joe rogan
This is these people's lived expression, which is why Wu-Tang was so good.
The reason why it was so good is because it was real.
No one was questioning the authenticity of anybody that was in the Wu-Tang Clan.
So it's like that...
The message that you guys were putting out, the way you were putting things out, like Wu-Tang Clan ain't nothing to fuck with.
It was like from you to the world.
And if someone doesn't like that, you don't have to listen.
You don't have to listen.
But if you slap a warning sticker on it, you're just going to sell more albums.
raekwon
You're going to listen to it anyway.
You're going to get caught up in it anyway.
It's like, look, prime example.
When we made the record Cream, right?
Cream was a record that didn't have nothing to do with anything but the realness of what we were looking at.
It wasn't really a song to rap to or have fun with.
It was a reality.
It was a picture we was trying to paint.
joe rogan
Cash rules everything around me.
raekwon
Cash rules.
Around me, not me.
Should never fucking rule you, but around me.
You know, and a friend from the neighborhood, he actually came up with that acronym.
But I tell people all the time, my cousin, I had a cousin from Brooklyn that he used to come to Staten Island and he used to sell drugs for us and he came up with that word, cream, because he was like, yo...
Y'all, as long as I can make my cream, I'm good.
I'm like, what the fuck is cream?
Like, you know what I mean?
He's like, yo, cream, yo, you ever see Tom and Jerry, the movie, and, you know, he make those big fucking sandwiches and all of that, and he splash all that cream on it, and, you know, I'm like, oh, the Tom and Jerry, the sandwiches, right?
Yeah, when he made the big sandwiches, and stuff them in your mouth and all.
Nah, real shit, real shit.
So the cream that was splashing all over the place, he was looking at that as that's his money.
Like, I just want my cream.
I just want my cream.
You know what I mean?
So we like, yeah, you're going to get your cream.
You sit up in the fucking spot all day, you're going to make your cream.
You're going to get it.
joe rogan
So who came up with the acronym?
raekwon
A good friend of ours from the neighborhood.
His name is Raid, right?
And him and Meth, man, they was like real close, like brothers.
So when we was in the studio, right into it, he was there and he just sat back and he just came up with Cash Rules, everything around me.
And him and Meth, they put it together and next thing you know, that was a hook.
You know, at that time, for me, I was still writing a lot of stories.
You know, so I wrote, believe it or not, I wrote two verses for Cream.
I didn't write.
My rhyme never started off as I grew up on the crime side.
I was writing about drug dealers in the neighborhood, like, yo, I know this kid by the name of Giganti.
Giganti a Teflon Don with a Diamante.
You know, the Diamante's back in the days was like the, you know, the five series Benz's for us back then.
And a good friend of mine was like, oh, that rhyme is cool.
I think it's all right.
Like, why you don't like the rhyme?
Everybody else like it.
He was like, it's cool.
I like it.
So he made me go back and change it.
And when I changed it, I started to think before I wrote it.
I'm like, damn.
He said, yo, if you need to rhyme about shit, that's something that we could relate to, that we're dealing with around what the fuck we wake up to every day.
And that's when I came with, I grew up on the crime side, you know, the New York Times side.
joe rogan
So he just told you harder?
raekwon
Yeah, he just told me to think harder.
joe rogan
Harder, yeah.
raekwon
He said, yo, chef, you could be a little bit more creative.
joe rogan
Well, Kareem is crazy because it became viral.
Saying dollar-dollar bills, y'all, became viral.
raekwon
But you know where that come from, the dollar-dollar bill, y'all.
Dollar bill, y'all.
Dollar-dollar-dollar Teela Rock.
Oh, wow.
You remember that record?
joe rogan
Yeah.
raekwon
Money.
It takes money.
Yeah.
Whatever he was saying back then.
unidentified
I haven't heard that forever.
raekwon
Yeah, that's an old-school record right there.
Fly shit, though.
But yeah, Meph and my man Ray, they sat down and they came up with cash, fuel, everything around me.
And it was a perfect symbol of what we were trying to express, that we were always trying to get money, but we was dealing with certain things in our community that we were trying to get past first to try to make some money.
And it was a sacrifice.
It was like, yo, you do this shit, you might be able to get out of it alive, or you might not.
So that record wind up blowing up so big, it wind up being one of our biggest records.
And it didn't have nothing to do with...
I guess, to me, it didn't feel hip-hop.
It just felt like real realization, like real shit is we need to start listening, like how you just played the Gettos Boys shit, you know what I mean?
We're trying to give off a message, a message.
And that's what I think that people love about Wu-Tang is that we give out messages.
We give out...
We like an emotional rollercoaster group.
We can give you the Wu-Tang Clan ain't nothing to fuck with.
And then we can give you the tears where it's like, oh shit.
joe rogan
Yeah.
raekwon
The fuck?
He's right.
unidentified
You know what I mean?
raekwon
Yo, we gotta be careful.
We gotta look at things for real.
So all that had a lot to do with being around smart guys.
You know what I mean?
The smartness allowed us to write the way we wanted to write.
Right.
joe rogan
It's contagious.
raekwon
It was contagious back then.
Yeah.
joe rogan
That's what I'm saying about really good lyrics and high quality rap.
It's contagious.
raekwon
Yeah, yeah.
joe rogan
Because then everybody else's shit has to be tight too.
raekwon
Yeah, and you know when you come in with a group of guys that, yo, he kill it, you better come in.
joe rogan
Right.
raekwon
You have to come in and say some shit that makes sense.
I give a lot of credit to our first record, Protect Your Neck, and I know that's one of your favorite shits.
When Inspector Deck said, I smoke on a mic like smoking Joe Frazier, the Hellraiser, raising hell with the flavor?
joe rogan
Yeah.
raekwon
That right there opened up something with all of us.
joe rogan
Yeah.
raekwon
You know, and...
I always tell Deck, I'm like, yo Deck, you are like a Scotty Pippen.
You're always going to hit if you get the ball in your hand.
And he did that.
He created those that first verse that you notice me I jumped right in my honor.
Yeah Like Schwarzenegger.
joe rogan
Yeah, the meth came and you know, I mean everybody kind of like that's what's so amazing about All these killers all these different voices all these amazing lyrics all on one song.
raekwon
Yeah, yeah But we wanted to show the world that Each one of us had a style that was unreckoned.
Each one of us can paint a picture within our own way that you will love all of us.
So it's better to get us all now You know, we'll sacrifice the little look for the bigger look later.
joe rogan
Right.
raekwon
You know, and that was one of the situations where we had to dance a certain way to be like, okay, yeah, we'll take a little bit of money, but we know we're going to be able to sell.
Like you said, yeah, give us those 50. We'll sell them.
Now, we know you're telling me you don't got the money, but you got the relationships.
Okay, cool.
As long as you got the relationship.
As long as you got the money.
We're going to go out there and we're going to work to make it happen, but this is what's got to happen.
I give all the credit to Steve Rifkin.
Steve was the guy that owned Loud Records back then.
He was a part of RCA back then.
And he believed in us.
He's like, yo, I'll give y'all that deal.
I'll give y'all that deal.
And next thing you know, when everybody started taking off, now you got Method Man over here.
You got Jizz over here.
You got Holy Bastard over here.
So we did something that was so new to the world that...
It's like, oh shit.
joe rogan
From the outside, it felt different because it felt like a movement.
raekwon
Right.
joe rogan
It's like Wu-Tang was like a movement.
raekwon
Exactly.
joe rogan
It was different.
But everybody tried the boxes.
raekwon
Everybody tried the boxes as a group.
joe rogan
Yeah.
raekwon
So even though we knew we were a group, in our minds, we looked at it, like you said, as a movement being created that would eventually spread out.
And hit all corners of everything.
And that was the plan all the time.
That was a premeditated plan.
Because they wanted us to still be a group.
It was like, nah, we...
Look, we sacrificing this and that, but we not going to box ourselves.
joe rogan
Right.
raekwon
You know, so by us doing that, it kind of like really paid the way for other groups and other artists and everybody to kind of You know, follow this blueprint.
So now you have, you know, these other guys coming out and creating their own labels and bringing in artists that they wanted to do.
So to me, this kind of made hip-hop a little bit more interesting because it showed that artists were starting to get more smarter, which is important.
You know, we didn't want to be just Like you said, yo, just coming in and you sell your soul and you just stay there.
Nah, we can't just stay there.
joe rogan
Is one of the hardest parts getting the right beat?
raekwon
Oh.
The beat is everything, bro.
joe rogan
Because it seems like all you guys are very prolific.
Everybody can write.
But if you don't have a great beat, and how many great beats can you make, right?
If you got an album, then another album's coming out next year, like, whoa, you gotta have 16, 20 great beats, and then you gotta pick from those beats what goes with what song, and try different ways out, and you gotta make sure everybody shows up at the studio?
How hard was that?
raekwon
That shit was real, bro.
I mean, I tell people all the time, number one for us, being around so many different lyricists, lyricist guys, Beats are important.
You know, I remember one time a fan asked me, he said, yo, what's the most important thing to you, the rhyme or the beat?
He fucked me up the whole day with that.
I was fucked up.
And I answered him, I gave him an answer like probably like three or four minutes later and I was like, you know what?
Nobody never asked me that.
I said, the beat.
I said, you know why the beat?
Because the beat Makes you think about what you want to say and what you want to get across.
Anybody could make rhymes.
I can have you sit with me for fucking a month and you could be an ill fucking rapper.
You!
I can take you there.
But to be able to have that combination factor of making...
work or that sound that you want you need to have the right production so a lot of times Wu-Tang wrote to whatever they felt it's like how you can listen to Protect Your Neck and you get that energy from us you know you get a certain energy because of that production then you get this energy when you get You get a cream, you get that.
So for me, I always tell people that beat is everything.
And us just sitting down and waiting for RZA to come up with something.
One thing about RZA, he was so clever.
He had a team of guys that was around him that was assisting him.
To helping him come with different sounds and, you know, he played with different things.
And of course, you know, just having his ear for music and listening to other people's stuff, he was able to isolate himself away from everything and start brainstorming for us.
So it's like a...
He was like a...
He was like the Steelers back in the fucking 80s, you know what I mean?
When they won four Super Bowls in a row.
He was like that when Terry Bradshaw was playing, Lin Swan.
joe rogan
He was in a zone.
raekwon
He was really in a zone.
joe rogan
Especially because it became successful.
raekwon
Yeah.
joe rogan
And then there was a lot of motivation behind it, a lot of energy behind it.
raekwon
Yeah.
joe rogan
I hear what you're saying, but without the lyrics, the beat is not the same.
I see from your perspective as a lyricist and as an MC that you would think that the beat is more important because it's important to you to get started.
raekwon
To get started.
joe rogan
But damn, as a fan...
You have to have those lyrics.
Just the beats by themselves, that's not enough.
raekwon
Look.
joe rogan
No, no, no, no, no.
raekwon
You know how many times me and Wizzy would argue about that?
And I would tell them like, yo, listen, bro.
It took all of us.
Yeah, you had that.
You had this, we had that.
joe rogan
It's a 50-50 proposition.
It's always like that.
I think it's more 60-40.
I think it's more 60 lyrics because the thing is, the lyrics are the thing that make you go, oh!
A great beat makes you move your head and gets you going, but lyrics make you go, oh, shit!
Rewind that.
raekwon
Well, you know, me is 50-50 all the time because if I have nothing to give me that energy to write, then how can I give it to you if I don't have nothing?
joe rogan
It's a collaboration for sure.
It's a collaboration for sure.
But it's interesting that people would think, like, what's more important?
Like, what's more important, breathing or having a heartbeat?
Shut the fuck up.
Like, you need both.
You need both.
raekwon
Yeah, you gotta balance it.
joe rogan
You have to have both.
But that's where the collaboration comes in.
Yeah, I had Scott Storch in here the other day.
raekwon
Oh, what?
joe rogan
Oh, yeah, I love that dude.
He's so fucking talented.
So out there, you know?
His glasses on, his fucking chin.
Like, you see him feeling the music.
It's like a rare savant.
There's dudes like that that are like beat machines, you know?
Like, he just feels it.
It comes into his head, and he feels it, and it's just coming out of his fingers, you know?
raekwon
Yeah, he's a super talented.
joe rogan
Oh, so talented.
raekwon
I love him.
I love him.
joe rogan
But, like, that kind of guy is so special.
And, you know, to team the kind of guy like that up with Dre or, you know, with, you know, 50 or any of these people that he collaborated with, it's like, that's special.
raekwon
And that's why, like I said, you know what I mean?
You can't never front on the maestro, you know what I mean?
You gotta remember that, you know...
DJing started it all.
Let's be honest.
joe rogan
You know what I mean?
raekwon
The DJ game.
joe rogan
Scratching records.
raekwon
That was so important.
Scratching.
You know, they created a synergy to the artists to be like, yo, let me try this.
Even if you go back to, like I said, look at Quincy Jones, man.
Look what the fuck he did, man.
joe rogan
Right, right.
raekwon
You know, look at Frank Sinatra.
Like, who the fuck was handling his fucking music, man?
joe rogan
Right.
raekwon
He was so clever.
He needed a vibe, though.
He needed something to...
Who was that guy?
joe rogan
You ever hear of Frank Sinatra when he was young?
raekwon
Oh, he was fucking...
joe rogan
Before he was smoking all those cigarettes?
It's a super high-pitched voice.
It's crazy.
raekwon
It's crazy, right?
joe rogan
It's crazy.
You listen to the difference, like, wow, it had so much range.
raekwon
Who was the production, though?
joe rogan
I don't know.
raekwon
He never really got famous, I guess.
joe rogan
Well, I think the whole thing back then was Elvis or whoever it was.
Whoever was the person that was in front, everybody behind the scenes didn't really get that much respect.
raekwon
Right, right.
But he was a talent.
Yeah.
joe rogan
Who was that crazy dude that wore the wigs that shot that lady in L.A.? He produced all the Beatles shit.
He got tried for murder, and every day in the courtroom he'd wear a different wild wig.
He created the wall of sound.
Fuck, what's his name?
He was really insane.
Phil Spector.
raekwon
Phil Spector.
joe rogan
Phil Spector, back in the day, he was known for pulling guns on people.
He'd pull guns on people, stick them in their mouths and shit.
He was a complete psychopath.
raekwon
White guy?
joe rogan
Yeah, and he's a Jewish guy, I think.
And he shot this lady in the mouth.
Was he Jewish?
I don't want any Jewish people mad at me.
Jewish people get mad when you say someone's not Jewish and they did something terrible.
raekwon
Hey, look guys, we not here to fuck with nobody.
unidentified
I'm just saying a lot of talented, successful Jewish people in the entertainment business.
raekwon
Be clear, man, yeah.
joe rogan
But that dude, he was responsible for the wall of sound, the Beatles.
That was a big thing with him.
He was known for being a guy that would change people's music.
Russian-Jewish, boom, nailed it!
raekwon
And he was from the Bronx, right?
joe rogan
From the Bronx, yeah.
Wild, wild boy.
And shot some lady, picked up some lady at a bar, took her back to his place and shot her in the mouth.
raekwon
Holy shit.
joe rogan
Yeah, he would put guns in people's mouths.
Like, he was known for threatening people.
Like, you want to get out of this fucking contract and just shove a gun in your mouth.
unidentified
Wow.
joe rogan
What's that?
He pulled a gun on Cher!
Shay recalls stopping Phil Spector in his tracks when he pulled a gun on her.
He couldn't pull that shit with me.
Right, right, right, right.
We had this really strange relationship.
You don't say!
You don't say.
Well, it's like the music business at one point in time was run entirely by gangsters.
raekwon
Of course.
joe rogan
That's the story about Hendrix.
You know, the story about Hendrix is that his manager killed him.
That's the conspiracy, was that his manager killed him because it's more valuable for Hendrix to be dead.
His music, he's a...
My maestro like a one-in-a-billion-year talent and that they knew that they had all these recordings of him and they could kill him.
And so that's why his girlfriend jumped on top of a building.
Yeah, to own his shit because he was gonna leave his management.
His bodyguard wrote a book about it years later and it just came out like I want to say like 10 years ago?
Wasn't that long ago.
Whereas the bodyguard said, yeah, the manager killed him.
Killed Hendrix and threw the girlfriend off a roof.
raekwon
Didn't they do a movie of him too?
joe rogan
Oh yeah, they did a bunch of movies on Hendrix.
They need to do a real Wu-Tang movie.
I know Hulu had a series, but they need a real, like, Quentin Tarantino needs to do a Wu-Tang.
raekwon
That's me, man!
joe rogan
I know Quentin Tarantino.
That's what I think.
I think we talk Quentin Tarantino, because he wants to do one more movie.
How about he does a fucking Wu-Tang movie?
The real Wu-Tang movie.
raekwon
Tell Quentin I'll laugh.
joe rogan
Hulu's great, but it has to be on Hulu.
You can only get that so wild on Hulu.
For it to be real real, it has to be a movie.
raekwon
Let me tell you something.
I wrote a book, right?
And inside my book I talked about how Q-Tip, a good friend of mine, Q-Tip, he had me and Leonardo sit down.
joe rogan
Leonardo DiCaprio?
unidentified
Huh?
joe rogan
Leonardo DiCaprio?
raekwon
Leonardo DiCaprio, right?
And I remember Q-Tip was like, yo, set up a meeting for you and Leonardo to meet in Brooklyn at this small pizza shop, one of Leonardo's favorite spots, and he want to talk to you.
I said, yeah, that's what's up.
So me and Leonardo, we started talking, and he was like, yo, Q-Tip was telling me that you was thinking about trying to, you know, get guys together to create a movie.
I was like, yeah, this is what I was thinking.
So, to make a long story short, I set up a meeting with RZA, myself, Leonardo's peoples in L.A. And I told RZA, I said, listen, before we do this Hulu thing, which...
At the end of the day, it was a RZA's production thing or whatever he was doing.
I said, I think we need to make a realistic, real-life movie of us.
I said, it shouldn't be nothing that we should play with because people need to know our real story.
So RZA entertained the conversation, but...
I don't know.
For some reason, I guess he felt like he was committed to doing whatever he wanted to do with Hulu.
joe rogan
He might have already had a deal.
raekwon
Yeah, yeah.
And you know, like I said, at the end of the day, the Klan, you know what I mean?
Yeah, yeah.
joe rogan
Jamie, fast with him.
Jamie's the best.
raekwon
It was that night, and I remember that.
unidentified
Wow.
raekwon
I wish we could have been able to sit down with him, because the way I had him looking at it, It was almost like I told him, I said, this would be like a slash of Goodfellas and Menace to Society.
joe rogan
Yeah.
raekwon
Mixed in one.
joe rogan
Yeah.
raekwon
You know, to kind of talk about our story and whatever.
And he was super open.
He was like, yo, chef, what we got to do?
Yo, who do we need to talk to?
But at that time, RZA was already in pocket on what he wanted to do.
So I said, you know what?
One day...
You know, maybe I might get a chance to show my version of it.
Because, come on, how many Pablo Escobar movies we looked at?
joe rogan
Right, right, right.
unidentified
You know what I mean?
raekwon
You got these guys telling it, you got the people from the community.
unidentified
Oh, for sure.
joe rogan
It can still be made, for sure.
raekwon
So it can still be made.
joe rogan
100%.
Just because there's a Hulu, that doesn't mean shit.
raekwon
Right.
But I think that at the end of the day, you know, God willing, we would really give you guys another taste of really how we really see it.
joe rogan
Well, I think it would be hugely successful.
I think for music, from a movie, rather, perspective.
raekwon
Would you rather see it as a movie?
A movie.
There you go.
joe rogan
Or you do it like on Netflix where you can get wild.
Netflix has shit like Ozark.
They get wild on Netflix.
You can get wild.
That's how it has to be.
It has to be grimy.
raekwon
That's how you want it, right?
joe rogan
It can't be in any way ABC after school specialified.
You know what I'm saying?
It can't be cleaned up through a filter.
It has to be good, too.
It has to be good narrative.
It has to be set up.
The scenes have to be set up.
Because it's very hard to take an insane career of nine of the best MCs to get together under one mastermind with all these genius talents.
And they form this movement, and you're going to condense that to two hours?
raekwon
Yeah.
See, that was one of his beats right there.
He was like, yo, Ray, yo, yo, blah, blah, blah, yo, you know what I mean?
But I think it could be done.
That's what I said.
I said, yo, look, come on now.
I said, people do it all the time.
I said, yo, look at Prime Example, look at N.W.A. I thought N.W.A. movie was dope.
You know what I mean?
Straight out of Compton.
I thought they did a good job, but that was Dre and Cube and, you know, I'm sure you're always going to have somebody around that be like, yo, no, that ain't it.
But it was so realistic that when I seen ours, it was like, all right, I get it.
You know, Rizzi even said to y'all, you know, this is more for the younger generation to kind of gravitate to.
And once everybody loved it, they loved it.
So it was like, okay, y'all love it.
We love y'all for loving it.
joe rogan
It's great.
It's great.
But hear me out.
Opening of the movie, Rikers.
Opening of the movie, you guys show up at Rikers to do the concert.
We're all daddy bastards inside.
That's the opening of the movie.
That's the opening of the movie.
raekwon
You want all the real gritty.
You want the gritty.
joe rogan
But that should get everybody on the hook right away.
And then you bring them back to the beginning.
Right after that.
You know, you put the year, whatever it was.
raekwon
And that's how you make movies.
You pick all the greatest moments.
joe rogan
Yes.
raekwon
And then you start showing and threading.
Right.
joe rogan
Yes.
That's a no-brainer for a Wu-Tang movie.
You start with Rikers.
You start with Rikers, which is, what year was that?
95?
What year was that?
raekwon
When did...
joe rogan
What year was the Old Dirty Bastard and Rikers concert with Wu-Tang?
raekwon
Yeah, I was about to say, look up that.
joe rogan
And what year did you guys start?
What was the very first year?
We started in late 92. So you start the movie with Rikers and then you bring it back to 92. Back to 92. That's what it is.
That's what it is.
I mean, just think about the incredible...
Amount of talent, not just, not just rapidly.
JZA is like a world champion caliber chess player.
99, 2000 or so?
99, 2000?
jamie vernon
Yeah, I got an interview, RZA talking about it.
joe rogan
And doesn't JZA have some degree in physics?
raekwon
Smart motherfucker, man.
joe rogan
Doesn't he have some crazy degree?
raekwon
Smart.
He's like a...
joe rogan
Look that up, please.
raekwon
Yeah, yeah.
joe rogan
So, you just, that alone in the movies, like, come on, this is real?
raekwon
Yeah, this is something people was looking forward to looking at.
joe rogan
Yeah, think of a movie like that.
Think of a movie that starts up with the gates opening and you guys going in, put all your belongings in the basket, the whole shit, getting frisked, checking everybody down, the guy reading you the rules, the warden telling you, do not go into the crowd, do not do that.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Okay, cool, cool, cool.
raekwon
Yeah, we got you.
joe rogan
Yeah.
raekwon
Wow.
joe rogan
Think about it.
That's the beginning of the movie.
That's an incredible opening for a movie.
And it really happened.
This isn't bullshit.
This isn't a bunch of dorks sitting around a table coming up with some nonsense.
This is some shit that you lived through.
That would be an incredible opening for a movie.
raekwon
And it's just so incredible even more on how we connected because...
Like I said, everybody come from almost the same poverty bullshit, but everybody had different philosophies on how they felt their lives was going into.
You know, I tell people all the time, you know, my neighborhood was about making money.
You know, Ghost Neighborhood was about taking money, you know what I mean?
Taking shit from you, you know?
GZA being one of the MCs that could have been down with the Juice Crew.
You know who the fuck the Juice Crew is.
He turned it down.
It's like they was the hottest shit back then.
Master Ace, Biz, Kane, Cool G-Rap.
All these dope MCs, they asked him, yo, we want you to come and get down with us.
He's like, nah, you know what, nah.
All these things I remember yesterday.
You know what, you turned down the Juice Crew?
He was like, I love the Juice Crew, but I just was in this chamber right here.
You know, us with Old Dirty, like, yo, you know, Old Dirty always wanted to be like Biz, Biz Markie.
He had that personality, that charisma, that energy.
So like you said, these are the things that I wanted to see.
Each individual, like...
You know, and like I said, you know, shout out Hulu, man, for doing a great job.
But I do agree, like you, we need another movie where it really defines who we are.
joe rogan
Yeah.
raekwon
You know?
Yeah.
That was his side of how he wanted to tell it.
joe rogan
It's a great story.
It's fine.
The Hulu thing's fine.
But I think there's something missing.
And I think the something missing is a movie.
It's got to be a movie.
It's got to be a big screen, big thing.
And it could be done, man.
raekwon
Y'all heard it first, man.
Y'all heard it first.
I ain't have to argue with my brothers about it.
joe rogan
I mean, just imagine when ODB does Baby, I Got Your Money.
raekwon
Oh my God.
joe rogan
Come on.
Imagine that, and that becomes this massive hit.
Come on.
Massive hit.
raekwon
You know he had the most hits out of all of us, right?
joe rogan
He was so fucking talented, man.
And so real.
Remember when he was on MTV and they started talking about like, what are you gonna give?
Who are you gonna give your money?
He's like, I gave my money to nobody.
raekwon
He was like, yo, you gonna give back?
He was like, no.
Yo, yeah, I remember that shit.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
joe rogan
And everybody was crying.
raekwon
Everybody loved the moment.
joe rogan
Because it was so real.
It wasn't like, well, I think it's really important that we establish some sort of a community fund.
Shut the fuck up.
raekwon
He was just having fun.
You know what I mean?
But, you know, we always gave back in our own ways.
joe rogan
Of course.
Well, by existing, you give back.
By existing, you inspire others.
By existing, how many rap careers, how many hip-hop careers were inspired by Wu-Tang Clan and all the members?
Countless.
Countless.
So many.
raekwon
I say that we definitely had a piece of watching the new generation grow and kind of build their arc the way we built ours.
That's important to reflect on that.
Back then, like you said, nobody wasn't giving motherfuckers this kind of money.
We was the first group that ever had a million dollar video.
Wow.
I remember that day, me and RZA was coming up with the storyboard.
What video was that?
Triumph.
Wow.
We did the Triumph shit.
It was like, we came up with all this shit.
It was like, yo, this shit's gonna cost a million dollars.
We're like, what the fuck?
It's a million dollars.
Like, do it.
You know, and at that time, you know.
joe rogan
Is this it?
unidentified
Oh, let me hear this.
raekwon
Yeah, yeah.
unidentified
This is what my guy Brett Ratner See the bees coming through and shit Information This just ends.
Police are reporting that there's a man on top of a skyscraper ready to jump.
I'm told that he is possibly old dirty.
A member of the Wu-Tang Clan.
The police suspect that there could be some connection between this old dirty man and the killer beast.
raekwon
Old dirty man.
unidentified
Say that now!
I'm atomically...
Socrates, philosophies, and hypotheses.
Can't define how I be dropping these mockeries.
Lyrically perform armed robbery.
Flee with the lottery.
Possibly they spotted me.
Battles, guards, shogun.
Exposure when my bin hits.
Tremendous.
Ultraviolet shine blind forensics.
High in spec view through the future.
See millennium.
Killer beast sold 50 gold, 60 platinum.
Shackling the masses with drastic rap tactics.
Graphic displays melt the steel like blacksmiths.
Jump, jump, jump. jump.
joe rogan
takes me back to the good old days of the clan Is it weird looking back now?
Does it feel almost surreal that you guys did it?
raekwon
A little bit to me, yeah.
joe rogan
It has to.
raekwon
Yeah, to me for sure.
I mean, you know, I always believed in my group, man.
I mean, these guys is, like you said, very talented, very talented.
Sometimes we don't know our power when we come together, but we might be the only group that stuck together so long, you know, because we all feed off each other every time.
So to be able to reflect back when we was in our prom...
It was like we still didn't even give our best.
It was almost like, okay, yeah, we're going to do it because we have to.
Not do it because we're all in a happy vibe, a happy moment.
A lot of times we make great things happen out of nothing, you know, under pressure.
Might have been turbulence in the room, might have been an argument that happened that day, but we still managed to come out with something great out of that whole time of that moment.
joe rogan
That's what's incredible, is that through all the disputes, you guys still stay together.
Because there's no way you're gonna have nine dudes and not have disputes.
raekwon
Exactly.
joe rogan
Especially nine alphas, nine killers.
raekwon
It's hard, man.
It's hard because, you know, everybody has an opinion.
And you want to respect everybody's opinion, you know.
But it made me think about sports and it made me think about how coaches and people, you know, outside of the group are so important.
See, how we were designed, we...
We huddled up, but we never really had people around us kind of like push the narrative more to show us our true power.
So we made a lot of mistakes, you know, of being great, but still handling the business a little bit different from if we had some...
Some coaches.
joe rogan
Some guidance.
raekwon
Some guidance.
joe rogan
The problem was, back then, no one knew what was going on.
raekwon
Nobody knew.
joe rogan
Because it was so fresh.
It was so new.
The whole genre had only existed for six or seven years.
So it was emerging, and it was chaotic, and it was so exciting, but there wasn't a lot of experts in how to manage it.
It's like, today, a young artist could come to a guy like you.
And say, hey, what should I do?
Help me out.
What's the path that you think that I should take?
And you could give them real advice.
Where back then, who knew?
raekwon
Who knew Wu-Tang was going to work?
joe rogan
They would have told you that's not going to work.
You can't get nine dudes.
That's crazy.
How are you doing that?
But it worked.
It didn't just work.
It accelerated everybody.
It amplified all the voices.
That's what was so crazy about it.
It didn't just work.
It worked better than being by yourself.
raekwon
Yeah, yeah.
I tell people all the time, the Klan, I think we all got better based on us as a collective.
joe rogan
100%.
raekwon
Has to.
Nobody couldn't have did it by themselves and be great.
joe rogan
Iron sharpens iron.
That's right.
raekwon
Steel sharpens steel.
joe rogan
Yeah, you guys had so many killers together, there's no way it couldn't be great.
That's what's incredible.
unidentified
It's like, it's so hard for people to do that.
joe rogan
That's why it's never been done before, which is amazing.
If you think about the history of hip-hop, how many artists have come up and not one group has come together and made like a, oh, they're just like Wu-Tang.
raekwon
Not one.
joe rogan
Not one.
raekwon
Yeah, even when it comes to, you know, sales and, you know, each one of us was blessed to be able to go platinum and gold.
But we talk about that.
You know, sometimes when we all are together, we laugh and we say, damn, you know, no other groups did what we did, like, come with guys that...
Everybody in the group went gold and platinum and this and that.
I couldn't name one person.
They was like, yo, name one person.
Name one group that did what we did at that level back then.
I couldn't name it, you know what I mean?
joe rogan
Well, the Kettle Boys branched out.
Scarface obviously went on to have a massive career.
raekwon
Yeah, yeah.
joe rogan
Did you see his little Tiny Desk performance?
raekwon
Oh, yeah.
unidentified
Phenomenal.
joe rogan
Fucking incredible.
raekwon
That's one of my greatest friends too, man.
joe rogan
And so different than anything else.
Like the way he did it, like he adapted the lyrics to the environment.
Yeah.
Oh, it was incredible.
Incredible.
raekwon
Scarface is a real guy too, man.
joe rogan
One of the all-timers.
One of the all-time greats.
All-time greats.
raekwon
Have you had him come to your show yet?
joe rogan
I haven't yet.
No, I'd love to have him on.
I love that dude.
I've had Willie on.
I think that there's so many amazing talents that came out of that 90s hip-hop era that for a young guy coming up...
Someone who's interested in a career in it now, it's imperative that you go back.
Go back.
You have to.
unidentified
You have to.
joe rogan
You've got to explore the classics.
You've got to see what started this whole thing.
And you've got to put yourself in this mindset like...
It's hard to imagine my experience of it, because you're not going to be able to have it.
It's always been around.
But for me, when it came around, it was this totally new thing.
Totally new sound.
Totally new avenue of music that existed.
And everybody was like, wow!
And all the young people were excited.
Everybody was excited.
Like, this is crazy!
This is so different than everything else.
So for the people that are making a career in it now, I know there's a tendency to think you're the fucking man and everything else sucks.
I'm telling you, you've got to abandon that.
Abandon that thinking!
Go back and educate yourself, because it's free.
Just get on YouTube, get on Spotify, educate yourself.
There's so much classic shit from the 90s that you're missing.
raekwon
And all we were doing really was just, like you said, just expression, you know?
Being in the studio, smoking a lot of weed, you know?
And a lot of times when we were smoking and just vibing, it's like we were mentioning things that...
You know, like today, like prime example, you know, I own a cannabis business in Newark called Hash Story.
You know what I mean?
See you representing us.
You know, we said in rhymes, like, can it be also simple?
Yo, I want to have me a fat yacht and enough land to go and plant my own sass crops.
But for now, it was just a big dream.
You know, so we kind of like spoke things into existence that...
At the end of the day, like, you know, now as I sit here and I'm an owner of a cannabis business, I'm like, wow, we was talking about things.
Yo, my first joint and it went gold.
I put it on my mother's, you know, my mother's living room wall.
You know, we did that.
So we were kind of like saying things that meant so much to us back then, but still dreaming of it being a reality.
The next thing you know, it happens.
You know, like how you said, you know, JZA being so intelligent and talking about science and, you know, meth, you know, talking about certain things.
And, you know, now today he's in the movie world and RZA's a director.
And, you know, these are the things that were going through our minds as we were just smoking and listening to production.
And just saying, yo, what the right next?
Where do we want to go, you know?
And I think that that is important as an artist, is to dream and be creative.
Don't sit in one box.
Like, that's the shit that just be driving me crazy a lot.
With hip-hop today, it's like, yo, it's just sounding too fucking repetitious.
Like, let's make it bigger.
Let's...
Let's take it over here, over here, over here.
But sometimes it's just sitting in one fucking box where it's like, yo, come on.
It's not just that.
It's about opening up the doors for everybody to be able to see so many sides.
Like, now it just seems like the hip-hop shit is just being controlled by one person that's saying, yo, we want y'all to stay right there.
We want you to talk ignorant.
We want you to not grow.
We want you to just...
joe rogan
Whatever they think is gonna sell.
raekwon
Why is that the case?
I don't get it.
joe rogan
The same reason why they were trying to take the RZA and change him and turn him into something he's not.
People always do that.
They do that in comedy.
They do that in podcasting.
They do that in music.
There's always some executive that thinks they know better and they're gonna mold you and shape you and change you and this is what we're gonna do.
We're gonna hire an image team.
It's all just bullshit.
It's non-artists interfering with art.
That's what it is.
It's when you have middlemen.
You have these people that profit off of your talent, and they think they're gonna steer it in a way that's gonna be the most profitable.
They don't give a fuck if you're earnestly and honestly expressing yourself.
That doesn't mean anything to them.
They just want you to stay in that box, because that's the box they're selling.
And once it sells once, they don't want you to change it up.
Remember when Ice-T started a fucking heavy metal band?
raekwon
Oh my god, yeah.
joe rogan
Ice-T, who played a cop on TV for like fucking 30 years, he had a song called Cop Killer!
Body count.
And everybody wanted him to be the rapper.
And Ice-T was like, I'm gonna do a hardcore album.
I was like, what?
raekwon
I'm a motherfuckin' cop kill!
joe rogan
It's like, what is this?
What is this?
This is crazy!
But it's like, he just didn't listen.
He's like, I don't give a fuck what you say.
I'm gonna do what I want to do.
This is what I want to do now.
And you have to give an artist that ability to do that.
They have to be able to change it up anytime they want.
Whatever, because whatever got them to the dance is going to keep them dancing.
And they might dance to the beat of a different song, but it's going to be the same person, that same creative force that created whatever you liked in the beginning.
Well, you probably like this new direction they're going to go into because it's going to be just as good.
You were saying you like Billy Joel.
We both like Cool G Rap.
It's very different.
You wouldn't want to see the two of them at a concert together.
But that's what you have to give room for an artist.
And these executives and these people that are profiting off of art without being creative, their input's always terrible.
It's always terrible because they don't have a vision.
They don't really, unless you're like a Rick Rubin, like one of those cats that's just like super eccentric, weirdo, genius dude who just knows what he likes and go, hold on, hold on.
Do that again.
unidentified
Stop that.
joe rogan
Stop, stop, stop.
unidentified
Do it again.
Do it again.
joe rogan
Do it that way.
Okay, can you make it echo?
unidentified
Do it.
joe rogan
Do it.
Give me an echo.
raekwon
But he's working with you because he sees something.
joe rogan
Right, right, right.
He's barefoot and shit and fucking doing yoga.
raekwon
One of the geniuses.
joe rogan
Super weirdo.
A Scott Storch type character.
raekwon
These guys be great in their own way though.
joe rogan
They're artists though.
It's like, that's different.
But when you get these suits and the suits get involved and they know that, oh, we made, you know, Raekwon sold a million and seven hundred thousand CDs doing it like this.
So this is what we want from this one too.
We want it to be the exact same way.
We want to do it like that.
Do it like that again.
Like, oh, no, no, what's this new thing you're doing?
What's this new thing where you're talking about discipline?
No, no, no.
But that's one of the most important things about hip-hop, too, is songs inspire people to change their lives.
Like Gangstar's song Discipline.
That song inspires you to have discipline.
It's a great fucking song with great lyrics.
raekwon
Like I said, this shit became knowledge to us, man.
You know, that's what I miss about hip-hop is the knowledge factor, you know, raising our kids to be smarter and, you know, not hiding anything from them.
Like you said, once you put that warning stick on there, don't look at it, they're gonna look at it anyway, so why not let them see for what it is and then say, yo, look, you can make these choices, but you go that way, you know what you're getting.
You go this way, you know what you're getting.
joe rogan
I think all it takes is someone today to do what you guys were doing and blow up.
And then everybody would want to do it that way.
If someone today became this genius lyricist who was pointing out things in society and became a huge artist, But you think that music is still, you think the radio will play it?
I don't think the radio means jack shit anymore.
I think what means something now is people sharing it.
That's what means something.
raekwon
How do they get it out there, though?
joe rogan
Put it on Spotify, put it on SoundCloud, put it on YouTube.
Someone sees it, someone hears it, you send it to somebody, they send it to ten people, and then it goes viral.
That's what it's all about now.
I think it's just be undeniable.
Be undeniable.
Have some shit where you listen to it and you go, oh!
raekwon
Be confident.
unidentified
Yeah, yeah.
joe rogan
And you have your friends like, you gotta listen to this, listen to this, listen to this, listen to the first lines, first lines.
raekwon
Yeah.
joe rogan
Yeah, listen to that shit.
Oh my God.
raekwon
That's how we always sold it anyway.
joe rogan
Oh my God.
Yeah, come out of the gate with a fucking haymaker.
unidentified
Nah.
Boom!
raekwon
This is what we do though, you know?
joe rogan
Yeah.
raekwon
See, damn, you talking like how I feel about my album I'm about to drop.
joe rogan
When is it coming out?
raekwon
I feel that way.
Well, you know shit, I just, I just been working on this documentary, right, for the Purple Team.
Let me just be honest with you, take you back.
I've been working on, you know, Only Built For Cuban Links is my What's Going On album, my Thriller album that I made 30 years ago.
This year, 2025, would be 30 years.
So what we done was we went back and decided to do a documentary about it, a real life film.
So it's called The Purple Tape Files, because remind you, Only Built For Cuban Links was the name of the album.
But being that I came with it as a cassette, Everybody started to call this album The Purple Tate.
So now, you know, we came back and we decided to do, you know, me and my team from my camp.
You know, the clan, of course, the clan.
But this is something that was my intellectual property that I said, yo, you know what?
Me and my guy sat down.
My team sat down and said, yo, you need to do a documentary about this album because you can make 50 albums.
People are still going to talk about Only Built For Cuban Link.
So I said, damn, you know what?
You're right.
So what I did was I said, you know what?
Let me invest in it and kind of tell the story of what helped us inspire that album, what helped us be a part of the culture, and how it still allows me to still exist today.
Like, if you see a lot of these guys today in the game, they still win Cuban Link chains.
You know what I mean?
So who would have ever thought that I'm calling my album Only Built For Cuban Link niggas?
Now everybody in their mother is wearing Cuban link chains today, 30 years later.
So you know that been something that I've been working on and believe it or not we've been working on it for 10 years.
So I got over 50 influential people that was in my life that was affected by that album.
To be a part of this documentary.
So now, this is all in the making.
We didn't actually go out there and start pitching it yet.
We're finally getting ready to do it right now as we speak.
As we speak.
Once the New Year kick in and all that, we will be ready to go out there and position ourselves to go do a deal with a network with this project.
It's going to be ill.
joe rogan
It's a great idea.
raekwon
You know what I mean?
So my thing is to talk about it in a way to where the way we made the album, all the experiences, all the things that we went through, and eventually that would wind up becoming a movie later on because the storyboard of how I talk about it It's gonna blow people's minds because it's like, damn, this is what you was going through?
This is how your mindset was?
Because I just want people to know that that album was made because I love hip-hop, man, and, you know, we were in a position to make something golden that, at that time, I was already thinking cinematic.
I was already in my Martin Scorsese mindset because when I came into Klan, I was like, yo, I don't do all the karate shit.
I don't know how to rhyme like that.
I don't even know about drugs and hustlers and trying to get from here to there and turn my life around for the positive, you know?
So we talk about this in a documentary and we go through some of the songs and like I said, you know, I got some of my guys that, you know, we had, you know, we had conflictions with some artists out there like Biggie back then.
Everybody thought we had a beef and It becomes interesting, but the bottom line is that's what I've been working on alongside with working on some other music.
So I just said, yo, let me get this done the right way first, and then I'm going to drop some new music.
So I got definitely a new album getting ready to come out.
joe rogan
And when is that going to come out, you think?
raekwon
The new album, I'd say probably like between second quarter right now.
Yeah, and I never even mentioned the name of the album, but I'll mention it.
On your show, the name of the album is going to be called The Emperor's New Clothes.
You ever heard that Dutch folk tale, The Emperor's New Clothes?
joe rogan
Yeah, The Emperor Wears No Clothes.
raekwon
Yeah, so that's going to be the name of it because I feel like the status quo today, everybody follows bullshit.
Nobody wants to be genuine no more.
Nobody wants to call out shit that makes sense.
It's like, oh, if you believe it, oh, I'm supposed to believe it.
I'm supposed to believe nothing that don't feel like what it's supposed to be to me.
Goes back to like you said, and I'm listening to everything you're saying about you have to do it from this way.
Fuck that.
Fuck radio.
Whatever is going to stop you from being you.
You know what I mean?
So this is the same mindset that I'm thinking with my hip hop, my new album that's coming.
Like, yo, I'm not going to let you tell me that this is not what people still love.
You know what I mean?
I don't care.
I'm just I know what I know from coming up as a kid who loved hip hop and what inspired me.
I'm going to have a ball this year, man.
I got a lot of great things that I want to give the world.
But yeah, that's going to be the name of my new album.
joe rogan
People still love it.
And I'm telling you, these young kids that I have at the Comedy Mothership, when I play them 1990s hip-hop, they go, oh!
They just don't know yet.
raekwon
Yeah.
Yeah.
joe rogan
They just don't know.
raekwon
And we can't fault them because they wasn't alive probably at that time.
joe rogan
Also, they got so much shit coming their way.
unidentified
Exactly.
joe rogan
They're getting inundated by all these new artists and all these new TikToks.
raekwon
There's so much shit going on.
joe rogan
There's so much shit going on.
raekwon
There's so much going on.
But, you know, I always say that it's always a lane for people that love music.
You know what I mean?
I don't care.
It's like you could be 50. You know, today I'm sitting here as a 55-year-old man that still have that kid in him to love music.
What helped me be who I am today.
I'm still at my best when it comes to making music.
Today, The Chef is more of an architect artist now.
I don't consider myself a gangster rapper or funny rapper.
I'm an architect rapper.
Because I like to reflect on things about growth and development.
When people hear this album, they're going to be like, damn, he still fucking got it.
I tell people all the time, don't ever think we're going to lose that shit.
That's like sitting here saying Mike Tyson can't fight.
When you know at the end of the day, he ain't lose a fucking bit.
When it comes to how he feels that passion for boxing or whatever, I feel the same way with my music.
So get ready.
But like I said, the name of the album is called The Emperor's New Clothes.
Check for that shit.
joe rogan
I'm ready.
I'm ready.
Listen, brother, thank you very much for being here.
It was a real honor.
unidentified
Of course.
joe rogan
A real pleasure.
raekwon
You're my god, man.
joe rogan
And thank you for everything you guys have done over the years.
I've been endlessly entertained by Wu-Tang Clan for a long fucking time.
raekwon
There you go.
joe rogan
And I hope somebody listens to this and makes that fucking movie.
Make that movie.
raekwon
Well, we gonna make it happen.
joe rogan
Do it the right way.
raekwon
We gonna figure it out.
joe rogan
I wish I made movies.
I wish I was a movie maker.
I would make it that way.
I would open up with that fucking Riker scene.
raekwon
Listen, Joe, it's never too late for us to do what the fuck we want to do.
joe rogan
Never too late.
Never too late.
Thank you, sir.
raekwon
Love you.
joe rogan
Love you too.
unidentified
Thank you very much.
Appreciate it.
Export Selection