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The Wu-Tang Manual
The Wu-Tang Manual is The RZA’s first written introduction to the philosophy and history of Hip-Hop’s original Dynasty, the Wu-Tang Clan.Written in a style that is at once personal and philosophical, The Wu-Tang Manual unravels the intricate web of personalities (and alter egos), warrior codes, numerological systems, and Eastern spiritual ethics that define the Wu-Tang dynasty. Packed with information that reflects the breadth and depth of the RZA’s — and rest of the Clan’s — intellectual interests and passions, The Wu-Tang Manual is divided into four books of nine chambers each, for a total of 36 chambers. All together, the book provides the breakdown of essential Wu-Tang components, from basic information about each of the nine core members of Wu-Tang Clan to deeper explorations of the key themes of the Wu-Tang universe, a dictionary-like Wu-Slang lexicon, and an entire section of Wu-Tang lyrics with densely annotated explanations of what they mean. For the hardcore Wu-Tang disciple and the recent initiate alike, The Wu-Tang Manual is the definitive guide to the essence of Wu, one of the most innovative hip-hop groups of all time.
The RZA's most recent book, The Tao of Wu, is also available from Riverhead Books.
The RZA's most recent book, The Tao of Wu, is also available from Riverhead Books.
- GenresNonfictionMusic
252 pages, Kindle Edition
Published February 1, 2005
39 people are currently reading
57 people want to read
About the author
The RZA
4 books155 followersRobert Fitzgerald Diggs, better known by his stage name RZA, is an American music producer, multi-instrumentalist, author, rapper, actor, director, composer, and screenwriter. A prominent figure in hip hop, RZA is the de facto leader of the Wu-Tang Clan. He has produced almost all of Wu-Tang Clan's albums as well as many Wu-Tang solo and affiliate projects. He is a cousin of the late band-mate, Ol' Dirty Bastard and The GZA (who also formed the group with RZA). He has also released solo albums under the alter-ego Bobby Digital, along with executive producing credits for side projects. In addition to the Wu-Tang Clan and his solo releases, RZA was also a founding member of the horrorcore Hip Hop group Gravediggaz where he used the name The RZArector. Furthermore, he has acted in several movies, including Coffee and Cigarettes, American Gangster, Gospel Hill, Life Is Hot in Cracktown, Ghost Dog, Funny People, Derailed, Due Date and Repo Men. He also appeared in the Showtime TV series Californication. His directorial debut is for the film he co-wrote and in which he plays the title role, The Man with the Iron Fists, also starring Russell Crowe. On November 1, 2012, he introduced the movie at a preview screening in the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, Queens, the evening before the Universal picture opened nationwide.
The magazine The Source placed him on its list of the 20 greatest producers in the magazine's twenty-year history. He also made the "Elite 8" in the search for The Greatest Hip-Hop Producer of All Time by Vibe. NME placed him on their list of the 50 Greatest Producers Ever.
The magazine The Source placed him on its list of the 20 greatest producers in the magazine's twenty-year history. He also made the "Elite 8" in the search for The Greatest Hip-Hop Producer of All Time by Vibe. NME placed him on their list of the 50 Greatest Producers Ever.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
October 30, 2024
Great book on the Wu-Tang Clan written from the perspective of RZA. Gives you a good history of how the group was formed and the philosophy behind the shaolin. Section on a few songs with meaning behind the lyrics. Easy read and recommend to any Wu-Tang fan.
“So finally, I just thought of the name as letters, not a word. R Z A. It stands for Ruler-Knowledge-Wisdom-and Understanding-Allah.”
“GZA – Cousin of RZA and ODB, founding member of the Wu-Tang Clan.”
“A main thing I remember about Meth from back in the day: This motherfucker smoked some weed. That is why I named him Method Man and Method, or Methical – the slang we had for weed-because I had never seen anybody smoke as much weed as this nigga.”
“You have the thirty-six chambers, there is none members of the Wu-Tang Clan. Each member of Wu0Tang has four chambers of the heart. And what is none times four? Thirty-0six. There are thirty-six fatal points on the body, and that times ten degrees of separation between each point equals 360 degrees. Therefore, the Wu-Tang Clan is a perfect circle, a cipher.”
“The Tao means, basically, the Way. It refers to the flow of life, the way nature expresses itself. Taoism teaches you to unite your actions with the flow of the universe. You want to be spontaneous and free from outside influence like social institutions.”
“So in our case, it breaks down like this: From the Thirty-Six Chamber you get discipline and struggle. From Shaolin and Wu-Tang, you get the virtuosity, the invincible style and technique – plus, the idea that sometimes the bad guys are the ilest. And from Eight Diagrams Pole Fighter, you get the brotherhood and sole.”
“I realized that shaolin was the foundation of Wu-Tang. Shaolin is your mind and Wu-Tang is your body.”
“After we recorded Protect Ya Neck and it started blowing up, I know that we had to form one big crew officially. There were eight of us at this point, everyone except for Masta Killa. Although
everyone agreed to join up, most didn’t want to sign contracts. So I told them about my vision.”
“In 1997, after the release of Wu-Tang Forever, niggas split up from being the single unit we had been. This makes sense. The number 9-7 is a very important, pivotal one in Mathematics.”
“So I decided, fuck this, I am going to become a superhero for real. Bobby Digital is the character I came up with for myself, my alter ego.”
“Chess is a very important element of Wu-Tang. It is an important element of life. It teaches you how to exist in the world. It teaches you to think multiple moves ahead, to strategize. It teaches you how to attack, how to defend.”
“I think week has been involved is at least 85 percent of all our music. I didn’t know it at the time, but cocaine influenced a lot of the best rapping in 36 chambers. Maybe you can hear it? One of the most hectic times in the Wu-Tang history was when motherfuckers was getting stained. You know they rap the line, we getting stained with the hardware. Stained – that is taking angle dust.”
“C.R.E.A.M. – In one verse Deck takes you through the whole cycle of street life: from scrambling on the street, to hustling, to trying to teach the youth a better way and them not hearing you – and showing how there is no answer. Decks impressions her are some of the most vivid and real you will ever hear.”
“Over time, though, I got to know which MC would shine of what kind of track. Method and Dirty, they could ride the best like a cowboy on a wild bull. Whereas U-God, he loved his music to be marching like omm-pah. Ghost, he is real emotional, so a lot of Ghost beasts have a cord change or two in them. They are not a one-bar thing, there are a two- or four-bar phrase-they develop inside the beat, like a little story. And they are more soul-orientated, like in a Stax-Volt kind of vein. Rae, he was a slang master and all he had to have was those drums. If he has a hot pair of drums, he is going to rip it. But it is funny with Rae. Because he also has the best voice to go over R&B. Inspectah Deck – he is my first bullet in the chamber. If I am about to attack, I am sending Inspectah Deck in first. Because you are not going to get past his wit, lyrics, approach, style and aggression. Deck is the unsung hero of the Clan in that any beat you put on, he can attack and rip it up. Method Man and ODB are the most melodic MCs. ODB, you can’t tell where his rapping stops and his signing begins. And Method Man to me is the father of the Nelly-style rapping-singing street thing.”
“I wanted the voices to pull you in as a listener. But I was also producing for MCs, so first and fore I wanted you to feel our aggression and the texture of the lyrics. If you take a piece like Chessboxin, its spare and basic. In a way, its nothing but rapping. All you can do is jump and go crazy to it. Other producers may have thought about club hits, radio, selling records. The only thing I thought about was MCs sounding aggressive. Forget about the dancing or partying. All you can do is either rap that shit, or fight to it.”
“One classic example of straight out the box devastation is Deck’s first verse in Triumph. After I heard that, I didn’t even want to get on that song.”
“I have been asked a lot what the wildest gig we ever did was and that’s too hard for me to say. But one strong contender is a New Year’s show at the Culture Club. That, or the Beacon Theater – the one Ghost describes in a rap. That show was Wu-Tang and Biggie Smalls, the first show we did together. Ghost and Rae had a problem with a Source coming out with Biggie on the cover being called “King of New York.” They thought they were kings of New York. Luckily, they never got a chance to cross paths at night. But I still say it doesn’t get any wilder than the Culture Club. Wild for everybody there – the show, the club, the artists, the fans. Fights breaking out in the middle of the club, guns drawn, two feet away from you see one nigga pointing a gun at another nigga, then getting crashed with a chair. And this is all before we even hit the stage. I remember one kid was disrespecting one of us and I think this was one of my nights. I think I was the one that was amped up that night about this kid showing no kind of respect. Then even after the fight was over, niggas tore the whole place up out of spite. Broke all the windows, busted the whole bar down. Then we went to the stage and rocked the mic. We went through the crowd – split the crowd like Moses splitting the Red Sea. Ripped it. Then this nigga pulls out onstage, and starts shotting onstage – and by “this Nigga”, I mean ODB. ODB pulled out a gun and started firing, hitting the ceiling. Then we jumped into the crowd and broke out. That was a show.”
“The crucial turning point for Wu-Tang was in the making of the album Wu-Tang Forever. It was 1997 – 97 being a very serious number in Mathematics – and the term limit of my five-year plan was up. I was open to converting Wu-Tang from the dictatorship it had been to a democracy. What we get was a double album and, around that time, a lot of chaos. After that, it didn’t go back to being a dictatorship, but I slowly tried to resume more control. It wasn’t a dictatorship exactly, but some different kind of monarchy. When it was time to do The W and Iron Flag. I took a lot more control. It was subtle at first, but I think all the Wu-Tang members were with it. It was more balanced: it wasn’t a total dictatorship, it wasn’t a total democracy.”
“As they teach in Mathematics, all men should seek the twelve jewels of life; Knowledge, wisdom, understanding, freedom, justice, equality, food, clothing, shelter, love, peace, and happiness.”
“So finally, I just thought of the name as letters, not a word. R Z A. It stands for Ruler-Knowledge-Wisdom-and Understanding-Allah.”
“GZA – Cousin of RZA and ODB, founding member of the Wu-Tang Clan.”
“A main thing I remember about Meth from back in the day: This motherfucker smoked some weed. That is why I named him Method Man and Method, or Methical – the slang we had for weed-because I had never seen anybody smoke as much weed as this nigga.”
“You have the thirty-six chambers, there is none members of the Wu-Tang Clan. Each member of Wu0Tang has four chambers of the heart. And what is none times four? Thirty-0six. There are thirty-six fatal points on the body, and that times ten degrees of separation between each point equals 360 degrees. Therefore, the Wu-Tang Clan is a perfect circle, a cipher.”
“The Tao means, basically, the Way. It refers to the flow of life, the way nature expresses itself. Taoism teaches you to unite your actions with the flow of the universe. You want to be spontaneous and free from outside influence like social institutions.”
“So in our case, it breaks down like this: From the Thirty-Six Chamber you get discipline and struggle. From Shaolin and Wu-Tang, you get the virtuosity, the invincible style and technique – plus, the idea that sometimes the bad guys are the ilest. And from Eight Diagrams Pole Fighter, you get the brotherhood and sole.”
“I realized that shaolin was the foundation of Wu-Tang. Shaolin is your mind and Wu-Tang is your body.”
“After we recorded Protect Ya Neck and it started blowing up, I know that we had to form one big crew officially. There were eight of us at this point, everyone except for Masta Killa. Although
everyone agreed to join up, most didn’t want to sign contracts. So I told them about my vision.”
“In 1997, after the release of Wu-Tang Forever, niggas split up from being the single unit we had been. This makes sense. The number 9-7 is a very important, pivotal one in Mathematics.”
“So I decided, fuck this, I am going to become a superhero for real. Bobby Digital is the character I came up with for myself, my alter ego.”
“Chess is a very important element of Wu-Tang. It is an important element of life. It teaches you how to exist in the world. It teaches you to think multiple moves ahead, to strategize. It teaches you how to attack, how to defend.”
“I think week has been involved is at least 85 percent of all our music. I didn’t know it at the time, but cocaine influenced a lot of the best rapping in 36 chambers. Maybe you can hear it? One of the most hectic times in the Wu-Tang history was when motherfuckers was getting stained. You know they rap the line, we getting stained with the hardware. Stained – that is taking angle dust.”
“C.R.E.A.M. – In one verse Deck takes you through the whole cycle of street life: from scrambling on the street, to hustling, to trying to teach the youth a better way and them not hearing you – and showing how there is no answer. Decks impressions her are some of the most vivid and real you will ever hear.”
“Over time, though, I got to know which MC would shine of what kind of track. Method and Dirty, they could ride the best like a cowboy on a wild bull. Whereas U-God, he loved his music to be marching like omm-pah. Ghost, he is real emotional, so a lot of Ghost beasts have a cord change or two in them. They are not a one-bar thing, there are a two- or four-bar phrase-they develop inside the beat, like a little story. And they are more soul-orientated, like in a Stax-Volt kind of vein. Rae, he was a slang master and all he had to have was those drums. If he has a hot pair of drums, he is going to rip it. But it is funny with Rae. Because he also has the best voice to go over R&B. Inspectah Deck – he is my first bullet in the chamber. If I am about to attack, I am sending Inspectah Deck in first. Because you are not going to get past his wit, lyrics, approach, style and aggression. Deck is the unsung hero of the Clan in that any beat you put on, he can attack and rip it up. Method Man and ODB are the most melodic MCs. ODB, you can’t tell where his rapping stops and his signing begins. And Method Man to me is the father of the Nelly-style rapping-singing street thing.”
“I wanted the voices to pull you in as a listener. But I was also producing for MCs, so first and fore I wanted you to feel our aggression and the texture of the lyrics. If you take a piece like Chessboxin, its spare and basic. In a way, its nothing but rapping. All you can do is jump and go crazy to it. Other producers may have thought about club hits, radio, selling records. The only thing I thought about was MCs sounding aggressive. Forget about the dancing or partying. All you can do is either rap that shit, or fight to it.”
“One classic example of straight out the box devastation is Deck’s first verse in Triumph. After I heard that, I didn’t even want to get on that song.”
“I have been asked a lot what the wildest gig we ever did was and that’s too hard for me to say. But one strong contender is a New Year’s show at the Culture Club. That, or the Beacon Theater – the one Ghost describes in a rap. That show was Wu-Tang and Biggie Smalls, the first show we did together. Ghost and Rae had a problem with a Source coming out with Biggie on the cover being called “King of New York.” They thought they were kings of New York. Luckily, they never got a chance to cross paths at night. But I still say it doesn’t get any wilder than the Culture Club. Wild for everybody there – the show, the club, the artists, the fans. Fights breaking out in the middle of the club, guns drawn, two feet away from you see one nigga pointing a gun at another nigga, then getting crashed with a chair. And this is all before we even hit the stage. I remember one kid was disrespecting one of us and I think this was one of my nights. I think I was the one that was amped up that night about this kid showing no kind of respect. Then even after the fight was over, niggas tore the whole place up out of spite. Broke all the windows, busted the whole bar down. Then we went to the stage and rocked the mic. We went through the crowd – split the crowd like Moses splitting the Red Sea. Ripped it. Then this nigga pulls out onstage, and starts shotting onstage – and by “this Nigga”, I mean ODB. ODB pulled out a gun and started firing, hitting the ceiling. Then we jumped into the crowd and broke out. That was a show.”
“The crucial turning point for Wu-Tang was in the making of the album Wu-Tang Forever. It was 1997 – 97 being a very serious number in Mathematics – and the term limit of my five-year plan was up. I was open to converting Wu-Tang from the dictatorship it had been to a democracy. What we get was a double album and, around that time, a lot of chaos. After that, it didn’t go back to being a dictatorship, but I slowly tried to resume more control. It wasn’t a dictatorship exactly, but some different kind of monarchy. When it was time to do The W and Iron Flag. I took a lot more control. It was subtle at first, but I think all the Wu-Tang members were with it. It was more balanced: it wasn’t a total dictatorship, it wasn’t a total democracy.”
“As they teach in Mathematics, all men should seek the twelve jewels of life; Knowledge, wisdom, understanding, freedom, justice, equality, food, clothing, shelter, love, peace, and happiness.”
June 25, 2020
I love the lexicon pages.
October 8, 2022
Just read Tao of Wu
This reads more like a rough draft than a completed work. The heart is there but just read the Tao of Wu instead.
This reads more like a rough draft than a completed work. The heart is there but just read the Tao of Wu instead.
December 28, 2023
WU-TANG!!
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews