But you got to come to the island, too." So in a way it was like, yeah, I wanna go see if y’all really live the way y’all say y’all live, and the same for me. You know I brung them to my neighborhood, you know what I mean, sat up in the Chinese restaurant, cats is swinging they little things….you know, it was just like I say, we was young, like Ghost Say, young, dumb, full of cum ass niggas. Yeah, it was on its way out, but we was still in them. I mean, I at least still did what I had to do, though. But uh, it was serious before we even got with Loud. RZA had shopped that tape "Protect Ya Neck" shit everywhere.

And so it’s only one of many contradictions here that the dude who needs this the least wants it the most. For several months, I chased down and spent time with all 10 members of the Wu-Tang Clan,2 winding my way from Brooklyn to New Jersey to Tennessee to Arizona to — of course — Shaolin in the process. It was, for the most part, maddening. As a fan, I was happy to find that a certain anarchic spirit is still rooted deep within the Wu.

Out West, the Tyler, The Creator-led Odd Future surpassed the 11-member group in scale, but their work and impact haven’t matched that of the Staten Island collective. While some were more commercially successful than others, they all added to the group's influence and arguably proved its distinction for best rap group of all time. With Enter The wu tang clan name generatir-Tang and their subsequent releases, Wu-Tang cornered the rap market in the 1990s. Before wu tang name generator-Tang, there were no other notable rap acts from Staten Island.

It was calculated internal engagement, and that competition made them sharper, hungrier, fiercer. It created and cultivated an unprecedented pool of talent. That they now lurch forward, a once-proud conglomerate gone to seed, might then only be right. The tenets of free-market capitalism birthed them.

That’s why we called it "Only..." Because it wasn’t for the whole world. Itwas only for people that could relate to that lifestyle at that time. Like Ghost’s neighborhood, of course you got the old school cats out there that really, n----s is knockout artists, but they smoke dust and all that shit.

If that’s whatthe world wants, then I’m going to have to give it to them. I don’t never wantto sit down and make any decision alone. I want it to be in a great way wherewe all could give it what it need to give. I feellike anything that I do right now is just only making me a stronger MC.If it ain’t Cuban Linx, it’s still going to be a classic because that’s whatI’m going for.