Cyrus Langhorne
[With the long-awaited A Better Tomorrow album finally on store shelves this month, Wu-Tang Clan leader RZA reveals to SOHH readers what didn't make the final cut.]
We recorded about 21 songs in the process of making this album and we came up with a 15-song album. Actually, there’s 22 songs we recorded. I forgot about the other one.
A lot of them were incomplete. I think two of them had a strong sample issue and couldn’t get cleared. Those were the main reasons why they didn’t make it. The sample clearance is always an issue.
There’s one that wasn’t complete, I can talk about this one, and it’s called “Image.” It’s a sample of an Aretha Franklin song, of a Donny Hathaway cover.
The idea of the song was for the rapper to describe his image that he thinks his wife or his child looks at him. Describe your image as a father, describe your image as a husband.
Good or bad, write about it. The only one that wrote about it was Method Man. The rest of the guys didn’t cooperate. That song was an important song, conceptually, for the record because a lot of young people listen to hip-hop and they only hear our young vision of it.
Whether I grew up on the New York crime side or the New York Times side and then you hear big money and big cars and other stuff. But how about you let me hear you describe to me what it means to be a father of two or three children or to be a husband and how easy or difficult it is to be that man in America.
Being a youth in America, Black, White, Latin or Asian, is one thing. Being a man in America is another. Being a family man is another. You don’t hear those songs anymore.
Being in Wu-Tang, we come from a bottomless pit of ex-felons and poverty-stricken, single-parent babies and sh*t like that and now we are people who take care of our children, save money and travel around the world. Let’s talk about that.
Let’s give a young man dap. Let them realize, “Things were bad in my 20’s, all right in my 30’s but something great happened in my 40’s.”
Imagine if 2Pac and Biggie had made it into their 40’s.
Sometimes you have things that are incomplete. You have the pyramids over there and they’re incomplete.
Check out RZA’s top five reasons you need A Better Tomorrow right here.
That’s the thing I hate about rap, its assumed you have to rap about your life or lifestyle. Go listen to a Slick Rick, the Roots or A Tribe Called Quest album. You can relate to people without having to live the same lifestyle they are and keep it entertaining. They wanted to make feel good music bc they no longer are in projects fine. But songs with the quality of “Its Yourz” would have been much better. Otherwise we get the same lame formula. Broke: ok rap about being broke, selling dope, killing niccas. 2nd album: rap about money, chains, cars, bittches, for some reason still killing niccas and selling dope. All the next albums are the same after that.
The production on this album was mostly hot garbage. Never thought I would see Wu Tang come out with albums that don’t sound Wu Tang. I don’t want to hear that shit. I want to hear that Wu Tang shit. We know Rza has fallen off production wise, but he could still have gotten producers to bring in that Wu Type sound.
Your right, he did it on Raes Cuban Linx 2 so we know he still has it at times, he just does not use it on Wu albums for some reason. I liked Campfire and Wolves and a few others on the last album but this one had none of that which even sounded Wu. I am a fan and have been for a long time but this album is lackluster and I went ahead and got Ghosts instead because that is what I want to hear. Wu are done as a group, sadly.
the wu made all that relevant and interesting when they were in there prime…no fantasy bs..they did all that without being fake at all,,hiphop used to cover bases but record companies and radio promotes the lowest common denominator…the super-nigga…then they gun us down and say “I had to shoot him..he was a super_nigga” like they say in their music
They make better solo albums rza be on bullshit with the production thats y rae didnt want no parts of this shit the album aint wack it just not wu tang
It’s amazing how heads don’t listen to lyrics anymore…I guess it’s all about the beat. The bars have become a secondary source need I say gibberish to these swaged out Zombies.
the game is so full of liers and wack spitters the consumer has nothing left…not all but to one that just comes into it its very hard to tell the real from the fake..now you can spit trash and catch a body and be thought of as real which makes you sale…but then you have ross who can rap his ass off but tells nothing but lies…what both have in common is hot beats so the average cat is lost…as for wu…i brought it for a friend but have yet to listen based off there last few unofficial offerrings
It’s called music…if we only wanted lyrics we would go to a poetry reading