Is an author allowed to quote his own lyrics as part of an epigraph in his own book above a passage by, say, “Jesus”? If you are RZA, the chief of the legendary Wu-Tang Clan, you’re allowed to write the script however you deem fit. The production, business, and spiritual mastermind behind the success of rap’s most famous crew, The Tao of Wu, ouphilosophical treatise, Wu-Tang retrospective, hubris, pairing his rhymes from Wu-Tang with those of spiritual greats (including, at one point, “Jesus”) conversational (“motherfuckers” abound), highly readable, eloquent “hip hop as martial art” next generation Nation of Islam, had students before he reached the age of fourteen. twelve years old when he began seriously studying Divine Mathematics, a devotion that would fluctuate and later be revealed in his artistic output — his assumption of the “Bobby Digital” identity was, for him, a lapse in faith that was quickly tempered by the consecutive deaths of his mother and ODB. essentially reveals himself islam and taoism as two sides of the same sees differences in faith as “esoteric” distinctionsstory of RZA’s spiritual awakening, thorough explanation of the names and symbolism that he chose for himself and for his crew, and insight, however biased, into the formation and cohesion of the Wu-Tang Clan: business savvy in the artistic management of his crew, strategically signing Method Man and Ghostface to different labels to ensure their separate growths as individual artistsright before recording “Protect Ya Neck” I had the contracts ready. I said give me five years and I will take us to number one. It was a long conversation, eye-to-eye, man-to-man. I said no one could question my authority. It had to be a dictatorship. I didn’t say I was the toughest nigga in the crew, but with what I had in mind, I had to be the so-called leader because I was the best knower. The best leader is somebody who’s able to serve. […]Even when I was involved with negativity, I think they could see that I never did it with a negative heart. I did it out of desperation. opines about Obama as well as the transition from viynl to MP3s