My friend’s uncle, a huge French Canadian guy who was like 6’7” 400lbs and looked exactly like the wrestler Earthquake, came to visit my friend’s family in New York in the ‘90s. They went to Macy’s and on the sale rack there was a XXXL white leather Wu Wear jacket with the big red W on the back. They were like, wow we finally found a good quality jacket in his size, and had no idea what the W sign on the back meant. When he put in on and walked around Manhattan people came up to him thinking he was Wu Tang Clan’s bodyguard.
@@kluethomas2052 100% facts....They can blame RZA all they want.... but at the end of the day its equivalent to every man and woman on here blaming they parents for all their mishaps in life and not giving them any credit for your successes
@@kluethomas2052 okay but at some point all of that is out the window especially since he needed them also it's not like he was already in the game he had a little success but flopped and they gave him new life
@@MsDipsetkilla have U seen how some of the wu are doing the past two decades? Brotherhood and Glory not putting food on the table. Cap was driving a cab to survive.
@@kaijin7840i think he just means in general… I sort of feel the same way about The Rza. I still love and admire him, and musically he still is one of the greats. Its alllllll the things that have started to come out these past few years with books being released, tv shows being made, interviews being aired, documentaries being created etc. You end up hearing so many things that you dont want to believe about these people you always admired from a distance in your life. I still have TONS of respect for The Rza, and you cant change the fact what he did musically… it was historical. Hes a mad scientist, who ran a mafia/cartel gambit on the entire music industry… let alone his production and side groups and all of that. There just seem to be too many things for it to be deemed a “coincidence”. Like the fact that Rza started doing all that Gravediggaz and Killa Army shit before he even finished all of the Original Clan Members debut solo albums. Or letting everyone out of their deals by the early 00’s, except for Ol’ Dirty. It took so much time and extra efforr once he got out of Jail. But I guess again, we are all just outsiders speculating from the outside… none of us were there or involved. I just cant seem to get past it, when ive heard every member of the Clan and every member of the management team say something off-putting about The Rza and his narcissistic ways 😔
@Cayenne Captain all depends, the ones you speak that too usually act fake as fuck, and then be the main ones paranoid that their own people will play them.
If you were to listen to any of his music you'd know that his vocabulary is more than capable. He probably chooses to speak the way he does because of the environment he was raised in. Why should he speak proper and pretend to be something he's not?
Rza, Power and Divine shafted the Wu brothers. Even the Wu series that's out now is more like a Rza story. The love n respect those dude have for Rza says a lot about the Wu Tang. I'd be popping off
If it really went down that way, there is no way I could accept that. 40 bands is alot of money, and if the clothing line was doing that well, where the money at???
I know it had to be hard to just say forget about the $40,000 he and the other members put in but that shows that the love he had for everyone involved was deeper than money!! That shows a lot about his character!!
And that is exactly what it is all about... If these dudes all got tight over Rookie mistakes with money that THEY ALL MADE! these guys wouldnt be sitting here today making DOCUMENTARIES, BOOKS, MOVIES, ALBUMS, etc...
They all made alot of BONEHEAD mistakes....DIVINE. POWER.RZA.. every clan member..but they still here 25-30 years later pushing that W FLAG...real honorable
Shame. I owned couple of things from Wu-Wear, like jean shorts and shirts, mind you in early 2000s it was actually good quality clothes, compared to crap everything in 2021 I still have Above the Rim series by Reebok, and it lasted me over 20 years so far, and I worked out in those shorts and played ball, and they are still perfectly fine. Nowadays with clothes you will be lucky to get 2 years out of it, before it starts disintegrating
You aint lying! I got a pair of so cld "good" jeans in oct and they already shrunk. I as like wth, something is not right with the quality. I air dry and washed in cold water as well.
Wow so each member invested 40 racks in Wu Wear and Wu Wear was hot for 2-3 years making 20+ mil per year and they didn’t see no bread off of that? So Wu Wear made at least 60 mil over all and these cats didn’t even get their original investment back at least? They should’ve at least seen double their money back the minimum. That’s some foul stuff right there.
Google Wu Wear. By 1999 they were billionaire's off Wu Wear. They all invested it into film: movies and the Wu Series on Hulu. Rza played some role of a Father figure among his friends who were all grown men and that shit wasn't right. Pay them. If they fuck it up it's in them but he wanted a legacy by any means necessary and it hurts them more than helped them. Once they made that billion off Wu Wear in 1999 they're music has been damn near garbage as far as The Wu Tang Clan. Solo albums saved them as a group. Rza, Gza, Ol Dirty, Power, Mook, Ghost Face and Divine and Divine's father ate and ate well.
@@grandmasterciphersupreme7751 they didn’t make a billion off Wu-Wear. Both Power and Devine said it was about 20 mil a year for a good 3-4 year run that means they made max 100 million. Only Power and Devine owned Wu Wear. None of the other members got ownership which is what Raekwon was saying in the video. Meth said it too. Same with the Black and White movie, video game and the Wu Hulu series belong to Power, Devine and RZA.
@@r2g210yeah Divine explains it somewhere that when the requested to be dropped from their label they gave up their rights to go solo. He told them from the beginning their were stronger as a unit and how and where to put the money to grow (invest in real estate in their communities) they didn't. So they lost out.
Always learn from the ones that came before you. Get yourself a great lawyer and always own your stuff like licensing, brand name, masters and publishing. Learn from your mistakes, but most importantly learn from the mistakes of others.
25 mill turnover is not the same as profit though, Maybe the 40k at the time was lost and later on it blew up with further investment elsewhere, we dont know
Here's the thing: in the 90s, everybody and the momma had a clothing line that supposedly 100% black owned by them... Puff Daddy, Naughty by Nature, Master P , Rocawear. All these clothing labels reppin black economic power so it cracks me up when these very dudes don't see revenue????
After watching the wu tang saga and interviews like this. I would really like to hear RZA, Divine and Powers version of events. There’s always more than one side to the story. Such a shame an iconic group became fractured as hell . But was bound to happen with so many members and different opinions.
the show was produced by RZA so that was his side of the story. And what about the $2million dollar album on auction doing it without the member knowing? business and childhood friends is a hard thing to muster
@@jbronz213 yea i know the show was produced by RZA, yet i still think it didnt paint him in much glory, like how he handled with ODB’s solo deal. Regardless, they’re legacy will live on.
Check out the documentary of Mics and men, all members are together talking about all kinds of stuff. In one scene Deck emotionally says to the rest `I love you man`, to which they all say it back. There is a lot that divides them now but at the end they all still got each other's back, and they all realize they should have done some things differently.
Advice for future artist... even though it's hard to do the branding yourself... social media gives you powers the wu members never had a chance to have. Cnt get crossed over if your solo
If you’re the artist why are you trying run your own marketing campaign? Yes you can do it, but it’s better to hire out and continue to focus on what got you here. Read the book “E-Myth “ it explains the problem with the do everything mantra.
After watching the Wu Tang documentary and hearing RZA talk about the Once Upon A Time in Shaolin situation, as well as watching many other Wu Tang interviews, it really comes across like from RZA's perspective the Wu was ultimately a family business venture, and the Wu members were essentially contractors. Maybe this was actually made somewhat clear from the beginning and the other guys just failed to educate themselves on business, but either way it's pretty rough, and makes me lose some love for RZA. Especially hearing him try to defend the Once Upon A Time in Shaolin thing, which is really indefensible to be honest.
I agree with you on everything, bro, except the last part regarding Once Upon A time. I think it didn’t work out so well, because even tho Cilvaringz was his protégé, he wasn’t really a made guy in the eyes of the rest of the clan, which made it easy to dispute the validity of the album and other things when it was finally released. I know that RZA co-signed the 88 year thing, but that’s just one more mistake in their saga of wins.
@@iREZARECTEM From my understanding, basically Cilvaringz decided he wanted to produce an album and essentially tricked all the members into contributing verses, but they were never informed that it would be packaged as a Wu Tang album. Somehow he managed to get RZA onboard in order to give the project some kind of authenticity, and at some point the idea of making it a one off work of art came about. But it's basically an overpriced Cilvaringz mixtape. Made Cilvaringz and RZA a bit of money and the unexpected publicity caused by the Martin Schrelli situation apparently provided huge promotion for the Wu Tang brand which mainly benefited RZA. And it left the other Wu Tang members feeling pretty disgruntled and not really benefitting financially except for what they were paid for their verses.
@@wakazuzu , agreed. I heard that too. I think of it as just part of the business. When you fail to negotiate your price properly, you get the cash price. Those artists got the cash price and it all went straight to their pockets like it was supposed to. If an artists chooses not to negotiate royalties, copyrights, publishings, and other revenue channels, then that is lost revenue the artist probably would’ve deserved, but failed to properly claim when the contracts were written. The artists are mad, and that is understandable, but they should be mad at their selves for not knowing the legal side of the business better. It seems like nobody understands it better than the RZA as he continues to stand alone at the top tier of this empire.
I remember growing up in ATL in the early '90s and a bunch of NY rappers started moving to the town. I lived on Peachtree Street and I was a huge, one of the bigger Wu-Tang fans and to my surprise, I lived right across the street from the first-ever Wu-Wear flagship store outside of NYC which was right on Peachtree Street. I got to meet all of the Wu-Members and affiliates. But I do remember that establishment having SHITTY customer service so I only bought like one or two things and stayed outta there unless I knew some Clan member was there. Wu-Wear was really fly, I could see them being like the Black label's version of Polo by Ralph Lauren because they had a similar color palette and were doing rugby's, chinos, varsity jackets, leather bombers, blue jeans, and parkas,etc. Not too many Black-owned fashion brands back in the '90s had a more expansive clothing line and believe me the '90s were the height of entrepreneurship in the hip-hop space --damn near everybody had a line but Wu-Wear and Sean John stood out the most. They had their own space up in Macy's next to Hilfiger, Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren, Kenneth Cole, and shit. This was when MACY's was like the Mercedes-Benz of departments stores so I'm not surprised they were moving that kind of product. I still see young people rocking Wu-Wear today, mostly white kids too, so that's dope!
Love Rae and all the Wu but he often comes across unclear in exactly what he's trying to say. It feels like he's either avoiding some hard truths or keeping certain things private. I can understand the latter because ultimately it is his business to either put out there or not. Still 40K from 7 or 8 people is roughly 300K. That kind of money should've been in some sort of contract to be paid back and then some if the investment actually made money. Sounds like a few people took advantage of the family atmosphere.
Basically sounds like Wu Tangs CEOs Power and Divine finessed all the members of Wu Tang and none of them did anything about it, like most situations in music business history.
@@numba1stunna885 Which is disgusting when you think about it because they didn't have to do that if that's the truth as they would still make a lot of money. Greed is weird
He’s given them probably 10x that, probably. Watch the show and listen to Raekwon’s words on Wu Forever. The Wu would come and go as they pleased or flat out miss shows/studio sessions. RZA was there everyday before and during… now it’s spilled milk (for some).
Exactly you don't do nothing else give them dudes the 40000 back or some lucrative asset that is worth 40 grandeur or the return on investment that the 40 Grand would have used it because let's be honest you can make 40 Grand but you just can't get the time back
RZA is a snake and got sucked into Hollywood, shucking and jiving for his masters. He’s just like Jay Z when it comes to screwing over his own people and trying to be up the White man’s backside, because they feel it’s better.
Insane. Insane. Damn. $40,000 of investment capital. No return of the original $40,000? No preferred return percentage on the $40,000? No equity percentage for the $40,000 injection? WTF? Someone needs to have his fingers smashed.
Power won the most messing with wu tang… didn’t rap or make a beat or anything but invested early and got to beat his “guys” over the head for M’s and still got accepted back into the crew without them even getting their 40k back… Cold game
If it's one common theme among people, it's that friendships and business rarely mix. A lot of guys bringing the bro code of the streets into the business get their feelings hurt. One thing I can say about Wu Tang is that in spite of the friction behind the scenes, they still seem to maintain a strong front and still consider each other brothers. Lol all the shit U God talked about RZA but they all tour together and RZA can still chop it up with U on a podcast.
That’s because there’s still money to be made on Wu Tang tours. No matter if some of the members didn’t make as much money as others RZA came through with the master plan to change their lives for the better and be part of music history. Even with some of the shady business deals the Wu members gotta appreciate RZA for that,
i couldn't imagine being them knowing you invested in something that made a bunch of money and not only did you not share in that, you didn't even get your initial investment back, it's definitely not to late to sue tho.
Its also messed up how when Deck and U Gods beats got damaged RZA didnt try to remake them and basically started just doing his own thing and left them to figure it out for themselves. Good thing Cappa got Tru Masta do work with him.
From the series I could tell Power was on some Wu-wear is his type shit.. But to take the bros 40k with no return is fucked up yo! Alot of dem cats could use that 40 ball rite about now.. & shit it at least should have quadrupled 20 yrs later.. ijs
I remember going to the Wu Wear store in downtown Atlanta in the '90s. It wasn't open yet but the sign was up on the building. Far is I can remember it never opened or it wasn't open that long.
Whenever I think of Raekwon, can't help but think of his line in the icecream video "shaloins finest, what up dog peace your heiness" with the plastic knife in the side of the mouth (a style in late 90s)
That's not true...RZA can't over look at those individuals and conduct his own daily affairs... If any killa bee wants to use the W...they pay the license fee. Stop acting like yall don't know anything about licensing a image or logo owned by a corporate entity...
I graduated high school in 97. It baffles me real, raw talents like Wu-Tang, Terror Squad, Pastor Troy, Drag-On, Lady of Rage, Vita…etc never was able to flourish in the rap game. Yet others made millions & are wack AF!
They still could do good numbers w the clothing thing if they invested some time into a good website, merch and advertising. I had the black and red Wu-wear wallows and was on my way to the navy and sky-blue joints before they were discontinued. If you know you know
“It worked itself out the way it worked out. But no, I never got my $40k back.” Wait, what? So basically they just robbed you of $40k and allowed themselves to continue making money off of his investment. Got it. This was just dumb. It isn’t an investment if there is no ROI and there were no documents signed. What these people thought was an invest,net from their perspective turned out to just be a loan, which the other parties decided not to pay back. They could be taken to court, but they wouldn’t receive anything more than the initial $40k.
Sounds crazy but this is the reason I don’t buy merch and stopped purchasing albums from a lot of people I always thought if they wasn’t going eat off this , why support it. 😢
@@smokescreenFromThe6ix N artists still don’t learn nothing from it . Learn to Get your business in order because you are the business . But if you don’t know what you are doing someone will do it for you, and you’ll be crying on deaf ears.
Damn. That's rough. Hurts to hear. I got what I think is one of the early wu wear T shirts. I wore it with pride, and it just hurts to know that none of my money went to them guys.
@@truthhurts79 if you’ll fuck me and my family out of money do you think I care about a brotherhood. He clearly didn’t or almost all the members wouldn’t be saying stuff like this
@@SunniMerlot there's 2 sides to every story... What about the part when rza says they became lazy off their success... Came to shows late, Didn't show up to studio sessions and then they wanna gripe about how they lost out on money
My friend’s uncle, a huge French Canadian guy who was like 6’7” 400lbs and looked exactly like the wrestler Earthquake, came to visit my friend’s family in New York in the ‘90s. They went to Macy’s and on the sale rack there was a XXXL white leather Wu Wear jacket with the big red W on the back. They were like, wow we finally found a good quality jacket in his size, and had no idea what the W sign on the back meant. When he put in on and walked around Manhattan people came up to him thinking he was Wu Tang Clan’s bodyguard.
Lmfaoooo
thats funny lol i remember the all white W u Wear jacket with the red W
Lol
😆 hilarious
That's a dope story
The OG's suffered so much and had the real talent!!
Now imagine the OGs before them, like G Rap, KRS & them guys 🥴😬😬
@@Buddafrm4th Now imagine the OG's before them KRS/G-Rap like Melle Mel and Kurtis Blow
@@brianholmes7144 I'm witcha homie, shit crazy
Honest truth!!!💯💯💯💯
Tbh I’d run up on somebody cause they received no money from their brand
The more and more I hear this Wu story, the more I'm surprised these dudes didn't pop off more than they did.
Because as fucked up as it sounds to you and me they know or feel they wouldn’t never of made it out of Shaolin if Rza didn’t lead em.
@@kluethomas2052 100% facts....They can blame RZA all they want.... but at the end of the day its equivalent to every man and woman on here blaming they parents for all their mishaps in life and not giving them any credit for your successes
@@kluethomas2052 okay but at some point all of that is out the window especially since he needed them also it's not like he was already in the game he had a little success but flopped and they gave him new life
@@Stonecoldalston
Not true...Gravediggaz project was successful...idk why they didnt address that in the WuTang series.
@Mike Anthony I don’t agree with what he did but definitely would of got far enough without them
Massive blessings to da boy Rae, respect how he use his words. Stand up kat,point blank
Neva got my 40 joints back 😂 classic NY slang! I love it
Knowledge was in the Wu Wear store and saw the whole thing on the news it was getting funky out there
We had to give it to a couple security guards.
I roll dolo from state to state ha ha!!!
Ike love 😂😂😂
James Gilliam you from North Carolina or Virginia or New Jersey or New York?
@@thahomiesandme599IS THIS DA ILLEST NIG*A IN NEBRASKA????
This is making me reevaluate how I cut friendships off for even saying the wrong thing 😆
I do the same but I don’t regret that shit later gotta watch what you saying to people
Nah they bugging
Wu Tang is a brotherhood...it goes deeper than just some friendship...
Nah don’t reevaluate nothing. Cut people off over $4 dollars so they never make it to 40 racks
@@wisechoice1319 the way u put it sound like some hatin ass shit
Watch the full interview now as a VladTV RUclips Member: ruclips.net/channel/UCg7lal8IC-xPyKfgH4rdUcAjoin
honeslty i may consider. BUt how many parts are there to this interview..
these dudes needed LAWYERS smh. Rza, Power and Divine made MILLIONS
True..But the Brotherhood and the Glory these dudes have...No money can replace
@@MsDipsetkilla have U seen how some of the wu are doing the past two decades? Brotherhood and Glory not putting food on the table. Cap was driving a cab to survive.
@@MsDipsetkilla there is no brother hood if you're brother ain't giving you the money you are owed
@@MsDipsetkilla that aint gonna do shit for their grandkids
@@MsDipsetkilla Nah, that's bullshit
I can’t even look at rza the same, and I know Raekwon ain’t lying, cuz you can tell he always kickin the truth and coming from the heart with it
But Rza and Divine were not even part of that wu-wear shit . Power ran this shit
@@kaijin7840i think he just means in general… I sort of feel the same way about The Rza. I still love and admire him, and musically he still is one of the greats. Its alllllll the things that have started to come out these past few years with books being released, tv shows being made, interviews being aired, documentaries being created etc. You end up hearing so many things that you dont want to believe about these people you always admired from a distance in your life. I still have TONS of respect for The Rza, and you cant change the fact what he did musically… it was historical. Hes a mad scientist, who ran a mafia/cartel gambit on the entire music industry… let alone his production and side groups and all of that. There just seem to be too many things for it to be deemed a “coincidence”. Like the fact that Rza started doing all that Gravediggaz and Killa Army shit before he even finished all of the Original Clan Members debut solo albums. Or letting everyone out of their deals by the early 00’s, except for Ol’ Dirty. It took so much time and extra efforr once he got out of Jail. But I guess again, we are all just outsiders speculating from the outside… none of us were there or involved. I just cant seem to get past it, when ive heard every member of the Clan and every member of the management team say something off-putting about The Rza and his narcissistic ways 😔
Kick the truth to the young black youth!
Message: your own people rip you off while you talk that mY pEoPLe mess
sounds like jayz
@@1lifestyle112 like he did state property
bidnezz and family never mix well because someone wishes your farewell...
@Cayenne Captain all depends, the ones you speak that too usually act fake as fuck, and then be the main ones paranoid that their own people will play them.
Yeah I don’t have “my people”
One of the best speakers. The vocabulary he has is so awesome and entertaining.
If you were to listen to any of his music you'd know that his vocabulary is more than capable. He probably chooses to speak the way he does because of the environment he was raised in. Why should he speak proper and pretend to be something he's not?
Na mean nom sayin
Rza, Power and Divine shafted the Wu brothers. Even the Wu series that's out now is more like a Rza story. The love n respect those dude have for Rza says a lot about the Wu Tang. I'd be popping off
Nah these dudes are just bitter and finding way to blame rza for everything. I’m surprised rza puts up with these guys.
No they didn't. Bc Power ran Wu Wear, not Divine or Rza. They ran the music side.
And that’s why nobody knows your name.
Nah they probably smoking boolies not giving a fuck 😂
Ghost need to Teddy Pendergrass RZA
If it really went down that way, there is no way I could accept that. 40 bands is alot of money, and if the clothing line was doing that well, where the money at???
I know it had to be hard to just say forget about the $40,000 he and the other members put in but that shows that the love he had for everyone involved was deeper than money!! That shows a lot about his character!!
And alot about the character of the one they gave their doe to also smh
Power pocketed that over $300,000
Ain't that much love in the world foh!
And that is exactly what it is all about... If these dudes all got tight over Rookie mistakes with money that THEY ALL MADE! these guys wouldnt be sitting here today making DOCUMENTARIES, BOOKS, MOVIES, ALBUMS, etc...
@@dirkdavenport9777 I hear u, I wouldn't have taken it and kept doing business with anyone until they made it right but that's his decision!!!
They all made alot of BONEHEAD mistakes....DIVINE. POWER.RZA.. every clan member..but they still here 25-30 years later pushing that W FLAG...real honorable
Lol yall are all right tho,but imagine caking off so hard you can just not even worry about 40 racks, must be nice 😂
Shame. I owned couple of things from Wu-Wear, like jean shorts and shirts, mind you in early 2000s it was actually good quality clothes, compared to crap everything in 2021
I still have Above the Rim series by Reebok, and it lasted me over 20 years so far, and I worked out in those shorts and played ball, and they are still perfectly fine.
Nowadays with clothes you will be lucky to get 2 years out of it, before it starts disintegrating
Wu skateboards
Lol buy some new fucking clothes!!! Ffs!
You aint lying! I got a pair of so cld "good" jeans in oct and they already shrunk. I as like wth, something is not right with the quality. I air dry and washed in cold water as well.
GOATED.
Some gear I had from 2002-2003 never faded after being washed 15-20 times
Wow so each member invested 40 racks in Wu Wear and Wu Wear was hot for 2-3 years making 20+ mil per year and they didn’t see no bread off of that? So Wu Wear made at least 60 mil over all and these cats didn’t even get their original investment back at least? They should’ve at least seen double their money back the minimum. That’s some foul stuff right there.
Thats nasty. ☠️
Google Wu Wear. By 1999 they were billionaire's off Wu Wear. They all invested it into film: movies and the Wu Series on Hulu. Rza played some role of a Father figure among his friends who were all grown men and that shit wasn't right. Pay them. If they fuck it up it's in them but he wanted a legacy by any means necessary and it hurts them more than helped them. Once they made that billion off Wu Wear in 1999 they're music has been damn near garbage as far as The Wu Tang Clan. Solo albums saved them as a group. Rza, Gza, Ol Dirty, Power, Mook, Ghost Face and Divine and Divine's father ate and ate well.
@@grandmasterciphersupreme7751 they didn’t make a billion off Wu-Wear. Both Power and Devine said it was about 20 mil a year for a good 3-4 year run that means they made max 100 million. Only Power and Devine owned Wu Wear. None of the other members got ownership which is what Raekwon was saying in the video. Meth said it too. Same with the Black and White movie, video game and the Wu Hulu series belong to Power, Devine and RZA.
@@r2g210 Google it. I said that in my comment. All you had to do is see it for yourself. Smart dumb Niggaz and shit. 🤦🤷
@@r2g210yeah Divine explains it somewhere that when the requested to be dropped from their label they gave up their rights to go solo. He told them from the beginning their were stronger as a unit and how and where to put the money to grow (invest in real estate in their communities) they didn't. So they lost out.
Always learn from the ones that came before you. Get yourself a great lawyer and always own your stuff like licensing, brand name, masters and publishing. Learn from your mistakes, but most importantly learn from the mistakes of others.
This is why another Wu Tang would never Happen. Folks today wouldn't trust a leader.
Wisdom
Hind sight is 20/20
@@Rellbronjames9 Thank you!
@@Ro1Up 😥
Wow
25 million a year, 40 thousand investment,and no return on investment, damn I have some Wu wear gear if I knew this I wouldn't have purchased.
25 mill turnover is not the same as profit though, Maybe the 40k at the time was lost and later on it blew up with further investment elsewhere, we dont know
Handshake contracts don't work!! On another note Mathematics should be a multi millionaire for designing that logo!!!!
They saw him as the horse to walk in order to get the water
Here's the thing: in the 90s, everybody and the momma had a clothing line that supposedly 100% black owned by them... Puff Daddy, Naughty by Nature, Master P , Rocawear. All these clothing labels reppin black economic power so it cracks me up when these very dudes don't see revenue????
After watching the wu tang saga and interviews like this. I would really like to hear RZA, Divine and Powers version of events. There’s always more than one side to the story. Such a shame an iconic group became fractured as hell . But was bound to happen with so many members and different opinions.
the show was produced by RZA so that was his side of the story. And what about the $2million dollar album on auction doing it without the member knowing? business and childhood friends is a hard thing to muster
@@jbronz213 yea i know the show was produced by RZA, yet i still think it didnt paint him in much glory, like how he handled with ODB’s solo deal. Regardless, they’re legacy will live on.
Check out the documentary of Mics and men, all members are together talking about all kinds of stuff. In one scene Deck emotionally says to the rest `I love you man`, to which they all say it back. There is a lot that divides them now but at the end they all still got each other's back, and they all realize they should have done some things differently.
Advice for future artist... even though it's hard to do the branding yourself... social media gives you powers the wu members never had a chance to have. Cnt get crossed over if your solo
There’s always two sides to every story
@@mrmotown1004 yeah ...if your the only one involved then it only one side
Yeah you can there’s tons of other people you have to deal with lol
Can still get crossed over... just by randoms, not your friends
If you’re the artist why are you trying run your own marketing campaign? Yes you can do it, but it’s better to hire out and continue to focus on what got you here. Read the book “E-Myth “ it explains the problem with the do everything mantra.
After watching the Wu Tang documentary and hearing RZA talk about the Once Upon A Time in Shaolin situation, as well as watching many other Wu Tang interviews, it really comes across like from RZA's perspective the Wu was ultimately a family business venture, and the Wu members were essentially contractors. Maybe this was actually made somewhat clear from the beginning and the other guys just failed to educate themselves on business, but either way it's pretty rough, and makes me lose some love for RZA. Especially hearing him try to defend the Once Upon A Time in Shaolin thing, which is really indefensible to be honest.
Whoever gets to hear it in 100 years won’t care lol
I agree with you on everything, bro, except the last part regarding Once Upon A time. I think it didn’t work out so well, because even tho Cilvaringz was his protégé, he wasn’t really a made guy in the eyes of the rest of the clan, which made it easy to dispute the validity of the album and other things when it was finally released. I know that RZA co-signed the 88 year thing, but that’s just one more mistake in their saga of wins.
@@iREZARECTEM From my understanding, basically Cilvaringz decided he wanted to produce an album and essentially tricked all the members into contributing verses, but they were never informed that it would be packaged as a Wu Tang album. Somehow he managed to get RZA onboard in order to give the project some kind of authenticity, and at some point the idea of making it a one off work of art came about. But it's basically an overpriced Cilvaringz mixtape. Made Cilvaringz and RZA a bit of money and the unexpected publicity caused by the Martin Schrelli situation apparently provided huge promotion for the Wu Tang brand which mainly benefited RZA. And it left the other Wu Tang members feeling pretty disgruntled and not really benefitting financially except for what they were paid for their verses.
@@wakazuzu , agreed. I heard that too. I think of it as just part of the business. When you fail to negotiate your price properly, you get the cash price. Those artists got the cash price and it all went straight to their pockets like it was supposed to. If an artists chooses not to negotiate royalties, copyrights, publishings, and other revenue channels, then that is lost revenue the artist probably would’ve deserved, but failed to properly claim when the contracts were written. The artists are mad, and that is understandable, but they should be mad at their selves for not knowing the legal side of the business better. It seems like nobody understands it better than the RZA as he continues to stand alone at the top tier of this empire.
@@iREZARECTEM but these where his brothers he took advantage of the fact that they didnt know anything about the business this is clear.
Wu wear was everywhere. Even here in a small place in Scotland
I remember growing up in ATL in the early '90s and a bunch of NY rappers started moving to the town. I lived on Peachtree Street and I was a huge, one of the bigger Wu-Tang fans and to my surprise, I lived right across the street from the first-ever Wu-Wear flagship store outside of NYC which was right on Peachtree Street. I got to meet all of the Wu-Members and affiliates. But I do remember that establishment having SHITTY customer service so I only bought like one or two things and stayed outta there unless I knew some Clan member was there. Wu-Wear was really fly, I could see them being like the Black label's version of Polo by Ralph Lauren because they had a similar color palette and were doing rugby's, chinos, varsity jackets, leather bombers, blue jeans, and parkas,etc.
Not too many Black-owned fashion brands back in the '90s had a more expansive clothing line and believe me the '90s were the height of entrepreneurship in the hip-hop space --damn near everybody had a line but Wu-Wear and Sean John stood out the most. They had their own space up in Macy's next to Hilfiger, Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren, Kenneth Cole, and shit. This was when MACY's was like the Mercedes-Benz of departments stores so I'm not surprised they were moving that kind of product. I still see young people rocking Wu-Wear today, mostly white kids too, so that's dope!
Same with Kani
N Rocawear 1999
Karl Kani..cross colours...no limit...seam john...Rocawear
I guess it proves they like family, Shit like that would tear friends up but not family
If wu wear would’ve been more put together right it would’ve been still big till this day
I agree 1000% I believe it still can be popping off till today only name or logo of any entertainers I would wear is that off Wu tang
Up till this day if they sold them it woud be considered classic antic..specially if they well design with Good products
@@jimone732 absolutely
It is still big I see ppl from all walks of life rocking wu shirts well for last summer and the summers before that and I see ppl rocking hoodies
@@GRINDETHIKSMIXTAPESHOW yeah the logo with the wording but 90s wu wear was next to tommy and polo it was some fly shit
That’s really big of Raekwon. Handled this question amicably. But in reality where did the money go?
Love Rae and all the Wu but he often comes across unclear in exactly what he's trying to say. It feels like he's either avoiding some hard truths or keeping certain things private. I can understand the latter because ultimately it is his business to either put out there or not.
Still 40K from 7 or 8 people is roughly 300K. That kind of money should've been in some sort of contract to be paid back and then some if the investment actually made money. Sounds like a few people took advantage of the family atmosphere.
Yeah...he cant voice it like he wants...he want that hulu money
Basically sounds like Wu Tangs CEOs Power and Divine finessed all the members of Wu Tang and none of them did anything about it, like most situations in music business history.
He did seem to say a lot here without saying what happened to the money
@@numba1stunna885 Which is disgusting when you think about it because they didn't have to do that if that's the truth as they would still make a lot of money.
Greed is weird
Yes he is! Well put!
Rza should be a honorable man and at least give them 40k back . He’s done movies, producing and directing movies. I know he got it
That would probably hurt ya boy. He probably got it. But it would hurt him.
He’s given them probably 10x that, probably. Watch the show and listen to Raekwon’s words on Wu Forever. The Wu would come and go as they pleased or flat out miss shows/studio sessions. RZA was there everyday before and during… now it’s spilled milk (for some).
40K with interest
Exactly you don't do nothing else give them dudes the 40000 back or some lucrative asset that is worth 40 grandeur or the return on investment that the 40 Grand would have used it because let's be honest you can make 40 Grand but you just can't get the time back
RZA is a snake and got sucked into Hollywood, shucking and jiving for his masters. He’s just like Jay Z when it comes to screwing over his own people and trying to be up the White man’s backside, because they feel it’s better.
Insane. Insane. Damn.
$40,000 of investment capital.
No return of the original $40,000?
No preferred return percentage on the $40,000?
No equity percentage for the $40,000 injection?
WTF? Someone needs to have his fingers smashed.
if the guy you gave the 40k to is a killer and you not, what can you really do?
Maybe Power and RZA invested alot into the Wu members to and help them make millions
Gotta interview Power Next!
Power won the most messing with wu tang… didn’t rap or make a beat or anything but invested early and got to beat his “guys” over the head for M’s and still got accepted back into the crew without them even getting their 40k back… Cold game
RAEQWON IS BESTFREINDS WITH POWER 😂 SOMETHING AINT ADDING UP
If it's one common theme among people, it's that friendships and business rarely mix. A lot of guys bringing the bro code of the streets into the business get their feelings hurt. One thing I can say about Wu Tang is that in spite of the friction behind the scenes, they still seem to maintain a strong front and still consider each other brothers. Lol all the shit U God talked about RZA but they all tour together and RZA can still chop it up with U on a podcast.
so many groups breaked up back in the day [money ruins alot]
BS. Greed is Greed period!
That’s because there’s still money to be made on Wu Tang tours. No matter if some of the members didn’t make as much money as others RZA came through with the master plan to change their lives for the better and be part of music history. Even with some of the shady business deals the Wu members gotta appreciate RZA for that,
Rae is such a great interview. Man is is legend
i couldn't imagine being them knowing you invested in something that made a bunch of money and not only did you not share in that, you didn't even get your initial investment back, it's definitely not to late to sue tho.
& they suppose to be brothers. Never mix business & friendship as adage goes
I beefed with my homeboy from childhood for like five years over five dollars, I don’t know what I would do if she stole 40 racks from me.
Its sad. They know rza controls it all but they need him too to go on as a group and make money. So they have to put up with so much nonsense.
smh sad
Just saw this on the last episode
I was def on wu wear hard… and I had some wally’s😂😂
Yes mon.their wallys look hard af
We rocked wu wear
I used to see them every morning on victory boulevard in front of the wu wear store on my way to school
U didn't stop by and get sum wuwear
where was the store?
After hearing U-God in an interview, and now Raekwon. I'm not really feeling RZA. 🤦🏾♂️
U god went off on RZA 😆
Its also messed up how when Deck and U Gods beats got damaged RZA didnt try to remake them and basically started just doing his own thing and left them to figure it out for themselves. Good thing Cappa got Tru Masta do work with him.
Power pocketed the WU-Wear money...? Damn son shit foul word is bond!!
I Can Believe That
He the one that brought power into the mix
From the series I could tell Power was on some Wu-wear is his type shit.. But to take the bros 40k with no return is fucked up yo! Alot of dem cats could use that 40 ball rite about now.. & shit it at least should have quadrupled 20 yrs later.. ijs
Watching this and now remembering WuWear.
Love is greater than money!! Great ending!
I remember going to the Wu Wear store in downtown Atlanta in the '90s. It wasn't open yet but the sign was up on the building. Far is I can remember it never opened or it wasn't open that long.
Ain't what you want baby aint what you need baby satisfaction guaranteed baby. wu wear for the new year
I’m from Texas but before I flew out to Germany I bought a wu wear T-shirt and got ❤ for it
They should rebrand Wu Wear & the fans will hold them up.
wu clothing still sells til this day i see people with wu emblem caps and the other dude just got beat up with a wu hoodie on lol
Yeah there's tons of licensed clothes around
They need to collab with another clothing company.
no need its selling like wildfire overseas
@@sharonosborn1320 for distribution purposes. We have to wait months for an order to arrive in Canada.
Whenever I think of Raekwon, can't help but think of his line in the icecream video "shaloins finest, what up dog peace your heiness" with the plastic knife in the side of the mouth (a style in late 90s)
Thats crazy!!! Mannn, I'll be mad as hell! This is our brand and we not getting no coins from it???
Lol
Business is Business not a fun game straight up !
Everybody knows everything about the music business in the comments. So many experts, it's amazing
Seems to be a trend with the clothing side of this business. Rocawear and state property springs to mind
I still rock wu-wear
Knowing your favorite rappers will never see a single penny. F wuwear, will never buy again.
Don't tell nobody that Tony🤦🏿♂️... now we know you a bum.. stop ✋ wearing Rocawear too bro.. it's dated. Ijs
😂😂 Lemme guess, you still wear Buffalino(B-Boots) and Lugz too???
Money changes things.
Have lost some respect for RZA the last few years with a lot of shit like this coming out.
Every Day, another drop 👊
I’m wearing wu wear right now ‼️🤨
Post a short video n prove it🧐
Cap lol
@@BlackInkGod I just posted it 🤨⚔️👐🏾🐝
@@wesleymills560 check again 🤨
I had a few "Wu-Wear" in my yesteryears, lol..... 🎶Aint what chu want baaaby its whats you need baby 🎶.
Fun Fact Rza is the sole owner of the Wu Tang Clan from day one if any members want to do anything under the Wu Banner they have to ask Rza
Yup. They gotta pay a percentage when they use the logo.
Waaaaaaaatttt that's crazy dictatorship
Rza is a partner but not total control,,,,Vine and power run that side. we banged out over 100,000 t-shirts in 2 months summer 95
@@Ilovechicago100 which mathmatics was cheated out of the original designer
That's not true...RZA can't over look at those individuals and conduct his own daily affairs... If any killa bee wants to use the W...they pay the license fee. Stop acting like yall don't know anything about licensing a image or logo owned by a corporate entity...
Even I had a pair of Wu jeans in the early 00s all the way over here in New Zealand . Sad man
I graduated high school in 97. It baffles me real, raw talents like Wu-Tang, Terror Squad, Pastor Troy, Drag-On, Lady of Rage, Vita…etc never was able to flourish in the rap game. Yet others made millions & are wack AF!
Wu-Tang flourished like a mf they had a helluva run or are you talking that they wasn't necessarily rich asl?
This ninja said vita 😂😂😂
He has the best hood slang
Damn, WU WEAR was ruling the earth at one point.
But at least they all good and got a brotherhood that money won’t tear apart.
Chef!!!! A real one.
Rza took all the money lol 🤣💯
Man I remember having Wu-wear jeans in 7th grade. Good times man
R.O.I. = Return On Investment
Them Wu Wear & Rockawear at Burlington for cheap together with Sean Jean even Tru Religion
That’s crazy. 40k with a contract or just cash and a handshake?
Mfs ain’t shit 🙏🏾
a quick hug lol
Most likely a pound ✊🏿 ... the pound was very popular in the 90s
They just threw the bands across the table while smoking woollies.
For the new year. strickly wu wear
They should have at least received $360k each afterwards.. 🥴🥴🥴🥴🥴
My question is when Power came with that shoebox of money in the beginning, how much did he initially invest and was that 40k his payback?
They still could do good numbers w the clothing thing if they invested some time into a good website, merch and advertising. I had the black and red Wu-wear wallows and was on my way to the navy and sky-blue joints before they were discontinued. If you know you know
Can listen to fam talk all day
Nah, ain't no Fuck it we'll move on. When it's this kind of money involved. I needs mine.
He such a sweet down to earth guy. Use to hang w him in the studio
Naughty by Nature was smart. They saw money from Naughty Wear in their prime years
We need the full interview now
Rza Power and Divine made millions. Niggas got played like puppets smh
Each member of the clan is a millionaire
@@grinddard That doesn't negate the fact they RZA did them dirty.
Spoken like a true politician
“It worked itself out the way it worked out. But no, I never got my $40k back.” Wait, what? So basically they just robbed you of $40k and allowed themselves to continue making money off of his investment. Got it. This was just dumb. It isn’t an investment if there is no ROI and there were no documents signed. What these people thought was an invest,net from their perspective turned out to just be a loan, which the other parties decided not to pay back. They could be taken to court, but they wouldn’t receive anything more than the initial $40k.
What he’s basically saying is they handled it in a street way and it’s not for public consumption.
THAT'S FUCKING CRAZY
Sounds crazy but this is the reason I don’t buy merch and stopped purchasing albums from a lot of people I always thought if they wasn’t going eat off this , why support it. 😢
In order to use the logo now you need to go through Roc Nation. Not even the Clan members can use it without paying!
@@smokescreenFromThe6ix N artists still don’t learn nothing from it . Learn to Get your business in order because you are the business . But if you don’t know what you are doing someone will do it for you, and you’ll be crying on deaf ears.
Just roll out the whole interview
It's just a hobby that I picked up in the lobby.
The W album
Damn. That's rough. Hurts to hear. I got what I think is one of the early wu wear T shirts. I wore it with pride, and it just hurts to know that none of my money went to them guys.
RZA had done a lot. Dude would have had his legs broken by now if I was them
Sounds good on text but u wasn't there to experience the brotherhood
@@truthhurts79 if you’ll fuck me and my family out of money do you think I care about a brotherhood. He clearly didn’t or almost all the members wouldn’t be saying stuff like this
@@SunniMerlot there's 2 sides to every story... What about the part when rza says they became lazy off their success... Came to shows late, Didn't show up to studio sessions and then they wanna gripe about how they lost out on money
@@truthhurts79 make that explain them not getting their clothing cut
Creamin. Creamin it. Damn I miss these dudes.
RZA a foul dude to be honest
I remember back in the day seeing that he never visited his cousin dirty in jail.
That’s brutal . We had a Skateshop called phatman here in upstate ny they had so much wuwear flying off the shelves back then.
Just dirty man. No wonder Wu was so disjointed. ODB was smart tryna get out of that web of business.
Yea, we all see how that turned out
I genuinely felt bad for ODB after seeing him pleading with Devine on the phone
He did get out of his contract, but died right after sad
I’m sure it went into “Studio Time” at the mansion and “Hotel stays” during tour
So u mean to tell me a bootlegger in Brooklyn made more off wu wear than them
SHITT IS CRAAZZYYY
I ordered Wu wear in July. Still nothing in the mail. It's December! Damnnnn.
That guy did them dirty, they was making money but should of got what they earned.
As a die hard wu head hearing shit like this makes me pissed smh