Popa Wu is the only dad some Wu-Tang Clansmen have ever known.
When the New York collective ascended the global rap scene in the early ’90s, Wu kept the crew in check. Call him the Clan’s spiritual adviser.
“I was always like a father figure,” said Wu, who brings his lessons to the Western Front Thursday. “(Wu Tang Clan members) Raekwon, Meth and Ghost didn’t have pops like that, so I would tell them what they could and couldn’t do.”
Wu’s tenure with the Clan dates back to when the crew was called All In Together Now. The original posse, which featured GZA rapping, RZA spinning and Ol’ Dirty Bastard beat-boxing, looked to Wu, then known as Freedom Allah, for more than knowledge.
“It started off with us four hanging in my grandmother’s house, and I was the eldest,” said the 51-year-old Wu. “I’m musically inclined myself, and a lot of them picked things up watching me play keyboards, sax and clarinet.”
Though he considers himself a jazzman, Wu never let generational differences dissuade him from guiding Wu-Tang’s magic carpet ride. He’s rolled with the group on tours to nearly every continent, and not just to take in the sights.
“I like to teach in the streets,” Wu said. “When we used to go on tour, everybody else would go back to the hotel. I would sit outside with all the kids speaking.”
He also had to rapper-sit the Clan.
“I had a rough time,” Wu said, “but mostly they were a riot. Everyone had respect for me. I grew up in gangs myself, so to them I was the craziest guy they knew.”
Wu’s move from a criminal to spiritual path came in the 1960s when he joined the Five-Percent Nation. The Harlem-based Islamic sect taught him to value education and civic involvement, ideals that he teaches to and through Wu-Tang, as well as on his own records.
While Wu doesn’t rap, he spits knowledge at his shows, as he has on well-known Clan tracks, including Ghostface Killah’s “All That I Got Is You.” On his own “Visions of the 10th Chamber” releases, the second of which dropped last week, he introduces fans to some of the young Wu-Tang Clan affiliates from across the country who will be joining him onstage in Cambridge.
“Popa Wu is giving the youth a chance at experience,” he said. “Your tongue is like a double-edged sword: You can either take a life or save a life. I’m making sure that kids everywhere know that.”
So far Wu has mentored the nine-man Clan and many of their countless affiliates. Imagine how much love he’ll get on Father’s Day.
“A lot of groups came out and didn’t have an older mentor,” Wu said. “That was the difference with Wu-Tang. I was there to make sure everything went right.”
Popa Wu, with Timbo King, Raydaar Van, D Lah, Killa Bam, DJ Nino Carta, Hands Down & Cash, at The Western Front, Cambridge, Thursday. Tickets: $10; 617-492-7772.
Wednesday 18 June 2008
Monday 9 June 2008
Arctic Monkeys - Brit Bands Battle Over A Guitar
British groups THE ARCTIC MONKEYS and THE KOOKS are reportedly at war – over a guitar.
According to the Mirror, the two indie outfits have been at each other's throats for the past year, since KOOKS frontman LUKE PRITCHARD caught ALEX TURNER trying to unplug his instrument during a gig.
"We've had a weird relationship with the Arctics since we first met. I had to kick Alex in the face because he was trying to pull the leads out of my guitar pedals while we were on stage," Luke told the publication.
The singer, whose band have just released their new single DO YOU WANNA, added that he has tried to make it up with Turner and has even asked him to have a jamming session.
However, he claims that Alex just turned his back and walked away.
Meanwhile, regarding other pop feuds, the newspaper also reports that ROBBIE WILLIAMS' drummer has left him to join OASIS, whose lead singer NOEL GALLAGHER has been notoriously scathing of Robbie, once referring to him as "the fat dancer from TAKE THAT".
A source added that the move is sure to "infuriate" Robbie.
15/05/2008 11:57:59
See Also
Tuesday 3 June 2008
Flowing Tears
Artist: Flowing Tears
Genre(s):
Metal: Gothic
Metal
Discography:
Razorbliss
Year: 2004
Tracks: 12
Serpentine
Year: 2002
Tracks: 12
Joy Parade
Year: 1998
Tracks: 10
Through the mid-'90s and into the raw millenary, the German darkwave rig Flowing Tears built a solid reputation with their well-polished recordings of metallic churl. Formed in the southeastern German town of Saarbrücken in 1994, the radical was earlier called Flowing Tears & the Withered Flower. It wasn't to a fault long earlier the group attracted the attention of Italian indie label Seven Art Music, and in 1996 the radical released their debut on the label. The ironically titled Swansong featured an other band lineup of Manfred Bersin on lead vocals, Benjamin Buss handling both guitar and keyboard/programming duties, Frederic Lesny on freshwater bass, and Christian Zimmer on drums. The debut did non get the warmest reply and it was distinct that the grouping needed a new vocalist to realize the hard-edged melodrama they were shooting for. Vocalist Stefanie Duchêne was brought into the fold and, along with another addition of Eric Hilt replacement Zimmer on drums, Flowing Tears returned to the studio apartment to create their Seven Arts follow-up with Bersin handling second guitar duties. 1997's Joy Parade and Duchêne were a great deal more than of a shoot then their respective predecessors. The moody, simply well-articulated stylings of the adolescent Duchêne (world Health Organization sounded something like a heavily medicated, contralto Tori Amos) caused many barbarian fans to take notice, and the group was invited on their number one enlistment of the continent in keep of Norway's the 3rd & the Mortal. It was during this tour and subsequent performances in accompaniment of Joy Parade in Germany that the radical became unitary of the biggest energetic name calling in the Euro darkwave underground.
Energized by the their new status and the congenator success of Joy Parade, Flowing Tears dropped the final quaternion quarrel from their soubriquet -- streamlining it only as they were refining their expansive music -- and self-released the four-song EP Swallow in 1999. Considering their ontogeny popularity and the fact that there weren't any batting order changes between releases, Swallow merely reinforced on the successful formula of Joy Parade, relying heavily on Duchêne's affected, more or less removed delivery to propel the music's epic gloom. Metal underground legitimacy came for Flowing Tears when the banding was signed to Century Media presently later on Swallow's sack. New keyboardist Mike Volz joined the lineup just in time to help record Jade, the group's 2000 debut for their new label and third base full-length release. Produced by Waldemar Sorychta (probably best known in the U.S. for his work both as guitarist and producer for Dave Lombardo's Grip Inc.), Jade continued Flowing Tears' sonic and artistic maturation. The band toured considerably passim Europe in support of Jadewith acts like the Gathering, My Dying Bride, and Voivod. When the touring schedule was realised and provision began for another recording, Bersin, Hilt, and Volz each exited the grouping. Buss took over keyboard/programming duties over again, Frédéric Lesny was brought on to play bass, and Stefan Gamballa replaced Hilt on drums. The infusion of new talent and energy helped to make 2002's Snaky the group's most complete crusade. Again produced by Sorychta for Century Media, Snakelike has a heft up and melodic consistency rare even inside the extremely stylized darkwave literary genre. The mathematical group continued to term of enlistment and record well into the millenary.
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