Wu-Tang Clan fans have been eagerly awaiting the release of the reunified Clan’s comeback album A Better Tomorrow; but for more than a year, there have been reports of hostilities between the members and differing accounts of who is actually on the album and who isn’t. Clan maestro RZA spoke up about the project in a recent interview and shared that everyone is involved and he explained his approach for this particular project.
“It’s a record to me that merges the way music was made in the classic essence, in an analog way, as well as merging what’s going down the digital way,” RZA told Billboard. “All the entire 10 Clan members are on it. All the [living] members, which is a beautiful thing. And the album has a small concept in a sense, musically it travels from a guy who is going through difficulties, tries to find himself, gets involved with some violence, some troubles, but then realizes that it’s best sometimes to walk away from the past and all the bad times and maybe work on making his life better, and making a better tomorrow. The process of making this album was very unique for me. I started first in my home studio in L.A., then I went to my buddy Adrian Younge and I went to his basement in Southern California where he has all this old ’60s equipment that he be using.”
RZA also explained how the way the public consumes music has altered a sense of ownership when it comes to music.
“I had the idea pop up into my head, for a while, about music being kind of disconnected to us, of being so digitized and accessible, but yet not tangible,” RZA says. “I just remember how I enjoyed music, when I bought the record, or bought the CD, or bought the cassette. I bought it, it was in my hands, it was mine. I felt like music wasn’t really ours anymore. You know what happened to me one day? I got a lot of songs I bought from iTunes. And then, I tried to play them on my Serato. But because it was in my purchase section, it wouldn’t show up in my Serato library. … That bummed me out. I paid for it but don’t really have access to it. Something about that don’t make no sense, you know what I mean? But this thing here, a tangible item, like your old Walkman or your old cassette, or your old record, that’s what this is bringing back. As far as this company Boombotix, there’s a few people reaching out to us: ‘Put your Wu logo on this.’ But something about this company resonated. I think the ruggedness. Also, their device is more geared to portability. Put it on your book bag, or strap it on your belt. And so, I felt so cool about that.”
