It’s a miracle they did it the five years. From my vantage point as an outsider, there were a lot of creative differences.
Their last tour that’s current right now is tied into the show. That’s perfect because no matter if you thought you could do something similar, RZA blew you out [of] the water again with maybe you’re in the show as an audience member. All I saw was that the record was getting a lot of reactions out of radio, college radio, and [veteran DJ] Wildman Steve sent us the song. My department was tracking radio nationwide, and that was one of the things that made it easier for us to find the record, the record basically found us.
You think about the artists that were Loud: Akon, Three 6 Mafia, Tha Alkaholiks. These are the weird things that Loud has signed, and nobody knew about Twista. Twista was the first. I was the one who was like, “Yo, we need to put him in the Guinness Book. That was because we had marketing ploys to get. Who else was [interested in the] weird things that Loud did? I mean, of course, Mobb Deep, Pun, the major things.
I could pick a single. I knew what was going on with records because I knew what radio was looking for, and we wanted to appease radio. It wasn’t “put the record out on the street.” That was obvious, you had to do that no matter what. But then we had this outlet at radio that said if you got your record on the radio multiple times a day, you were going to become a star.
And I was like, “You actually rap fast.” And he was like, “Oh, I can go faster.” And he started going faster. And I was like, “Yo.” It was this light bulb moment that said, “You should battle Daddy Freddy.” And he was like, “I’ll battle anybody, I don’t care.” But he was dope, and he could spit, and they were trying to go off of sheer talent. And I was like, “Wait a minute, you are actually pretty dope.” His group was called Genuine, believe it or not. Him and Emmanuel Dean. Emmanuel went on to produce some big records, and he played the keys on “G Thang” because Dre didn’t play keys back in that era, he had people playing with him and he was producing those guys. Emmanuel Dean, God rest his soul. He passed [in 2019].
Harry O is this shadowy figure, but what was he like as an executive? Can you speak to his business mind and where you think he could have taken things if he was home all this time? You wear so many hats, doing many different things. How do you balance it all? How do you stay passionate about it all? My music team consists of myself, King Tech, Ms. Carol, DeMonica, Ty, Kiera. It was a big team of us that created the music for Wu-Tang. Not to mention you had to get all that approved by RZA and Divine. And this is on our side of the fence, let alone Disney’s own coordinating sides. We’re living and we’re learning, but I’m hopeful that people say that this isn’t about putting Wu-Tang music into a Wu-Tang show. This is about showing the members of Wu-Tang’s preferences.
I think following the guys of the writing, and hats off to Alex and RZA for coming up with the best methodology for doing this. But it was sought out and done long before I got involved. I was blessed to be a part of it and then asked to perform. And that’s because the Wake Up Show existed, and I’ve been working closely with the Wake Up Show forever. those are my friends. I’ve always been the guy who raised my hand in a room, and been like, “Hey, I’ll show up for free. This is not about me being paid.” Eventually, someone sees that, and they see your energy and they see that you aren’t there for a check.
How does being exposed to so much music as a music professional change how you listen to music? Does it ever feel like it’s not leisurely?