Fans have been eagerly awaiting Wu-Tang Clan’s reunion album A Better Tomorrow ever since the project was announced last year. But the album has been the subject of much controversy within the group, and in an interview with VladTV, while discussing Wu’s ambitious Once Upon A Time In Shaolin project, RZA explained that Wu notable Raekwon has distanced himself from …Tomorrow.
“There’s two things that’s going on,” he said during the interview. “Let me be clear with you so you can put this out: There’s an album called Once Upon A Time In Shaolin that will be a single piece of art in a beautiful encasing. That belongs in a museum or art gallery. That’s where it belongs. And then there’s another album that belongs to the consumers called A Better Tomorrow. And that belongs to the consumers because it’s a celebration of Wu-Tang and their fans. And Raekwon has not been participating with that particular record. I haven’t had a chance to really talk to him about why not. All I see is the press going back and forth. But I would say that maybe creatively we [are] on different paths. I’m creatively different than I was in the ‘90s.”
According to numerous reports, The Wu – Once Upon A Time In Shaolin has received offers of up to $5 million from people and galleries interested in owning the piece.
“It’s gonna be many offers. It’s a lot of offers coming in,” RZA said. “But more than offers coming in, there’s a lot of—There’s more people responding to the artistic nature of it. You know? A lot of my peers in big places are sending me emails like ‘Great idea. Perfect idea. World-changing idea.’ And that’s the goal. I mean, money; I make money. As you can see you’re sitting with me right here on the set of a—promoting a movie. So, it’s not about the money. It was more about music being devalued and us mistaking what it means to us. Music chronicles time. It captures a moment.”
