Back to hip-hop, do you think it’s as creative as it was when the Wu-Tang Clan first came on the scene?
I think the creativity is there. You have artists like Wiz Khalifa, [who] harmonizes with his raps, Young Jeezy has a crazy voice, Rick Ross also has an immaculate voice. Drake has good lyrics and his own style. He’s not a thug, but he makes good music.
The creativity is there, but there is a lack of knowledge of self. A lot of the young brothers in rap don’t have a clue about what the future is going to bring, because they have no knowledge of who they are to see ahead. Before you do anything, you should understand what you are doing. That’s different in our culture. You have a generation that learned hip-hop from watching TV. A lot of them didn’t actually walk the streets like the pioneers. Some brothers want to be rappers because it’s a moneymaking thing. We did it out of love. We woke up wanting to rhyme, but we also had a hunger for knowledge. In New York, before we formed the Wu-Tang, you would see book peddlers all over the city. There would be cyphers. The first cyphers weren’t about rapping or a battle. It was about brothers coming together [and] dropping the day’s mathematics and giving lessons.
I remember talking to Kanye West about it. He’s a focused brother. I got inspired by that. But I let him know the importance of his position and giving people something to aspire to. Because one spoon of chocolate can change a glass of milk.
[cigallery]
