(AllHipHop News) U-God just dropped some excerpts from his new book from “RAW: My Journey into the Wu-Tang.”
The rapper, born Lamont “U-God” Hawkins, dropped the memoir earlier this month, which details his time as a member of the award-winning group, which has seen its shares of internal strife over their 25-year career.
Fans get a detailed look inside of the Clan’s business in “RAW,” and U-God claimed the group has been hampered by RZA, and his domineering business ways over the past two decades.
“It’s really years of BS catching up to RZA. See, he put his family in charge of s###, and for years, we would go on the road but the money came up short,” U-God claims in an excerpt published on RollingStone.com.
According to U-God, the group has to pay anytime they want to use the famed Wu-Tang logo, which was originally sketched out on a napkin by Mathmatics, but trademarked by RZA.
“To this very day his brother beefs when any of the original members attempt to use it,” U-God claims. “That to me is crazy — I mean, I understand if someone was using it without the group’s permission, but the members of the group itself? Wow, that’s just crazy.
U-God also claims that each group member invested $40,000 of their individual royalties from their seminal, debut album: Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers).
“Wu Wear is coming back in time for our 25th anniversary, and that’s all great, but what people don’t know is that none of us — the original members who each invested a significant amount (around $40,000 apiece) from our 36 Chambers royalties and the Rage [Against the Machine] tour — ever saw a dime back from the first version of the line founded back in ‘97,” U-God writes. “And that’s something that needs to be addressed and rectified.”
