Wu-Tang at AC3
Photo Credit: Shaughn Cooper
Photo Credit: Shaughn Cooper
The group also discusses the photo Method Man, Ghostface Killah, and James Comey took together in April last year.
In the early 2010s, it had become known that the FBI had targeted the Wu-Tang Clan during the '90s and early '00s, following the unsealing of the FBI's file on late Wu member Ol' Dirty Bastard. The federal law enforcement agency had branded the rap collective as a criminal enterprise and even sought the help of the U.S. Attorney's Office in building a case against the group.
READ: Four Years Later, RZA, Ghostface Killah & U-God Also Deny Sleeping With 'Dovrce Court' Woman
In a recent story with The Daily Beast, Wu members reflected on being targeted by the FBI up until ODB's death on November 13, 2004, when the agency finally ended its hunt against the group.
The FBI's file on the Wu included everything from claims that the group was a gang to allegations that they laundered drug money through their label, among other claims.
"When you have things designed and in place for a certain group of people to not succeed and you start to see them rising, you want to know how they're doing it," Masta Killa said in response to the FBI targeting the Wu. "If music is that tool where you start to see people who are not designed to win start to make it, then you're going to target that system and try to find a way to control it."
"It's not just hip-hop, it's young people they're targeting," RZA added elsewhere in the story. "It's a system, and the system needs to be fed."
RZA also speaks on the Wu's unreleased double album Once Upon a Time in Shaolin in the story too. When asked if the government is still in possession of the album, RZA said, "That's what they say. It's got a life of its own," before adding, "Who knows where it's at? It might end up on the moon…But if it knocks on my door, I'll let it in."
The de facto Wu member also discusses the viral photo of Method Man, Ghostface Killah, and James Comey that came about after the three appeared together during an episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert last April. The irony of the photo is that Comey was serving as the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, as well as the U.S. Deputy Attorney General, throughout the time the FBI was investigating the rap collective. The FBI was working with both the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York and the Justice Department during their investigation.
The Wu will be embarking on a "Gods of Rap Tour" this summer, where they'll be performing throughout the UK alongside Public Enemy and De La Soul.
Source: The Daily Beast
