Max's Book Club #2: Raw: My Journey Into the Wu-Tang by U-God

(Max's Book Club is an infrequent-as-of-now feature on HHID in which I read a book related to the chosen genre of the site (that would be hip hop, obviously), discuss it briefly, and then open up the comments for you to give your thoughts. This is intended to spark a conversation, so while reading the book in question isn't mandatory, it'll help. Do you want to see this feature more often in the future? Do you want it to be closer to an actual book club, with assigned readings and such? Let me know in the comments.)



As a way to help market his fifth solo album Venom, Lamont "U-God" "Golden Arms" "Lucky Hands" "Baby Uey" Hawkins announced that his autobiography would hit store shelves at roughly the same time. He titled it Raw, named after the first word he ever recited on a Wu-Tang Clan record ("Da Mystery of Chessboxin', for the newbies), and its subtitle, My Journey Into the Wu-Tang, read as vaguely Lifetime movie-esque, but my biggest takeaway from the book (which I read long before I ever bothered listening to Venom) was one of sheer interest: U-God is a pretty engaging author, and I wouldn't hate seeing more prose from his direction. 

Now I haven't read the book since that time, so the notes I took are almost a year old at this point, and I may end up fudging some of these details. Feel free to correct me in the comments.

As you may have guessed, Raw: My Journey Into the Wu-Tang follows our host from the very beginning of his life to the point where he chooses a music career over a life of hustling and drug dealing, a facet of his life that he discuses in frank, realistic terms (especially the prison stuff): any movie made from U-God's descriptions would be rather boring, but I think it actually helps his cause, as he seemingly goes out of his way to not glorify the lifestyle even when describing how well he was doing and just how much money he made. (He can't resist making himself sound like a motherfucking super-dealer, but he is a rapper, after all: embellishment is the name of the game.) Once you get past his random pop culture reference drops and his tendency to end passages abruptly (a character early on passes away from AIDS, a topic that is never foreshadowed or ever brought up again, and at another point he ends a section by merely stating "Jet skis don't have brakes", which is kind of hilarious), the primary reason for the book's existence comes into play.

Goofily enough, Hawkins positions himself as the Forrest Gump of this story, having a role in nearly every historical event in Wu-Tang Clan history. To hear the man himself tell it (as one can, if you snatch up the audiobook), it was U-God who convinced Raekwon to keep writing and to not give up; it was U-God who was responsible for getting his old friend Cappadonna onto Rae's Only Built 4 Cuban Linx... (which doesn't explain why the man himself fails to pop up on most Cappa projects, but definitely helps his stellar turn on "Supa Ninjaz" make sense); it was U-God who acted as a sort-of mentor to odd man out Scotty Wotty; it was U-God who was partially responsible for Method Man's breakout role in the group. He even helpfully explains why his rap skills weren't exactly up to par for the first few Wu projects: it boils down to the fact that he wasn't taking it seriously, until he did.

Unlike the subject of the last book I brought up in my book club, U-God is uniquely qualified to weave these tales because he actually is a part of the group that he's talking about. So in addition to reading about the creation of the Clan's group efforts (and how many of the members didn't care for how certain projects ended up sounding, including Iron Flag, which disappointed me as I like that album a great deal), we also get the crazy-as-shit stories derived from events that occurred within their orbit, such as the infamous flood in The RZA's basement, or how our narrator once found himself alongside Masta Killa hiding from cops, or even that one time he almost druneknly punched Leonardo DiCaprio at a party. A lot of this stuff plays well on the page, but wouldn't be relatable in the least bit in a biopic or a television series, and yet I still hope that at least some of these events transpire in some fashion in the many Wu filmed projects coming soon.

My favorite part of Raw: My Journey Into the Wu-Tang is, far and wide, U-God's commentary about the music and the music industry. There is many a potshot thrown at group leader The RZA, taking him to task for causing multiple financial issues for both our narrator and the Clan as a whole; for leading the group into sonic terrain that the rest of the members aren't very interested in; and for starting and losing four different record labels, which is definitely something the nerdier Wu stans among us want to know more about. He also bitches about some of the worst projects from who he refers to as "the Rolling Stones of hip hop", including A Better Tomorrow (Hawkins concedes that RZA got final cut on that album because he's the one who put up the funds for the recording sessions); Method Man's Tical 0: The Prequel, which U-God derides because Meth collaborated with too many unknown artists for his taste (can't imagine how he feels about The Meth Lab); his own sophomore effort, Mr. Xcitement, which he admits was half-assed; and, hilariously, the controversial Once Upon a Time in Shaolin, which is best described using the man's own words:

"...what Cilvaringz did with that project was some sucker shit, pure and simple. He went around to each of us individually and paid us money to lay verses down for an independent compilation album, not an official Wu-Tang LP...but he didn't have the motherfucking right to sell it as a Wu-Tang Clan album, as I also argue in my lawsuit... he didn't have the paper to do that; to sell all our masters and all our rights, and neither did RZA. We wouldn't sign off on no sucker shit like that..."

Definitely happiest to report that U-God shares my same thoughts on that glorified Cilvaringz project, which may not exactly be a Cilva album, but absolutely plays as his version of Mathematics' The Saga Continues (a project Hawkins was not involved with until after its retail release, due to financial issues he was still ironing out with the Clan).

Anyway, U-God has a lot to say about his time with the Wu, and since he's still a part of the group it's easy to assume that there is a happy ending here, but who knows what the future will bring. His writing style is easygoing and matter-of-fact: the man seems to have no time for bullshit and has no qualms about calling out fellow group members who he still has an active working relationship with, which is refreshing. I'd love to know what the rest of you two think of the book, so leave your thoughts in the comments below, and we'll chat. And if this works out, maybe it won't be over a year until our third meeting.
 
-Max

(Purchasing the book on Amazon helps support the blog, thereby providing me with more money to try to keep the site running.)