How Wu-Tang Clan Convinced a Record Label to Let 9 Rappers Sign With Rival Labels
· Vice
Wu-Tang Clan took hip-hop by storm in the early 90s. When you have a record like “Protect Ya Neck” just sitting around, you were bound to be a massive force in the culture. Moreover, whatever label ended up signing them would’ve ended up having a goldmine of talented artists on their roster.
But RZA had other ideas. Why only take one source of income when you can have several? Why let one company have all the fun when you can extract so much more? This was the vision he had for Wu-Tang Clan: one label will have their work as a group, while other labels would have them as individual artists. Meanwhile, they’d always come together to work on projects with each other. In a sense, labels all had a piece of Wu-Tang but they never fully owned them.
Visit biznow.biz for more information.
So by 1993, the group as a whole signed to Loud/RCA Records for only $60,000. However, it also allowed each member their own autonomy to pursue deals. Method Man, Ghostface Killah, Inspectah Deck, ODB, all of them were still technically free agents. By the end of it all, all nine members had their own record deals and it all went back to the Wu family.
Wu-Tang Clan Signed an Unprecedented Deal and Made History in the Process
However, there was one caveat: RZA didn’t want members signing to the same label. Since Method Man signed with Def Jam, he wanted Ol’ Dirty Bastard to sign elsewhere. No one label would have strength in numbers over Wu-Tang Clan.
“When Def Jam wanted to sign Method Man, they wanted to sign Method Man and Old Dirty,” RZA told NPR in 2013. “And Old Dirty wanted to be on Def Jam — everybody, that was like the dream label. But if I had Old Dirty and Method Man on Def Jam, that’s two key pieces going in the same direction, whereas there’s other labels that needed to be infiltrated.”
This same mindset applied to each of their fanbases as well. Each member brought their own unique skillset to the Wu-Tang Clan. Consequently, it was important that they all have their own audiences. That way, when they come together as a group, they can maximize their listeners.
“I recall telling GZA, ‘You’ll get the college crowd,'” RZA continued. “Raekwon and Ghost, all the gangstas. Meth will get the women and children — and he didn’t want to do women and children. He didn’t know that, though. Method Man is a rough, rugged street dude, but all the girls love him. Myself, I was looking more like that I bring in rock ‘n’ roll.”
The post How Wu-Tang Clan Convinced a Record Label to Let 9 Rappers Sign With Rival Labels appeared first on VICE.