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3 Attachment(s)
The book has a section on Gary Alford (who drew the artwork for various wu & killa beez releases. his most well known is Diggy Snacks, but also albums by 9th Prince, Dom Pachino, Christ Bearer etc.). Gary also did the cover artwork for this book, as well as the artwork inside. Gary's website that displays his wu art is www.wuposter.com btw.
then there's groups
Attachment 1322
there's solo artists
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you might notice some well known names missing above. that's because they are discussed in the group section (e.g. Fes Taylor, Timbo King etc.)
singers as well
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finally, there's Wu-elements
this section on producers has a page long intro on the usual suspects and then provides extra info on Allah Mathematics, Goldfinghaz & True Master. ( The other elements are discussed elsewhere in the book as group members or solo artists.)
the book is about 280 pages, has black and white pics (most artists have their pic in there, some album covers and group logos too). it's a large sized book
I just browsed the whole book for you guys, gonna do some actual reading now and post some more info on writing style, English (the author is a non native English speaker) and content accuracy for all of you in a bit
I apologize for the attachment/inline pic issues, doesn't work well when posting via smartphone
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for those of you who are studying 120 at the god hour the gawd ISLORD is on p. 75 hahaha
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it says in the intro every artist who has their profile in there got to read it, edit it and approve it
the author is aware of the debate on who is an official killa bee and who isn't, but doesn't go into dividing the artists into 'groups' themselves, preferring to put real killa beez, artists who worked with real killa beez a lot, a alikes etc in the same book under the umbrella term 'wu-tang movement'
for long time visitors on here, you might be interested in the fact that ern dawgy is also profiled in the book
as for the writing style : some occasional flaws ('in comment' instead of 'in common' etc) and the rare typo so far but surely nothing worse than posts made by most non native English speakers who post here regularly (he writes like claaa7 and me). I don't feel like the minor language errors detract much from the content
to our Swedish visitors : the author released 'Wu-Tang Killa Beez : The Swedish Manual' (in Swedish) in 2007, dealing with the same subject matter
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I'm 20 pages in (up to the William Cooper profile now) and I gotta say this was money well spent
I already got info on some mixtapes and eps I didn't know of (for example some Holy Smokes releases) and the profile on some of the artists is quite in depth. Just one example : learned a lot about Rhymerecka (ACT) and Ancient Coins
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Delving even deeper into the book tho I gotta say that some of the profiles of the lesser known artists read like record label promo biographies or self released artist biographies. The most glaring example thus far is about a group called D&G (who are in Triple M's with Freemurda) where the profile is a simple copy and paste job from a website promoting their LP including such lines as 'Take a listen to their entire album 'Drunk Mind Speaks Sober Truth' LP free here, and let them know what you think'. lol
Still, without the book I wouldn't have even known about the group
One thing that surprises me in the book is the revelation of just how many generals and Killa Beez have blood ties to each other. Like I never knew Brooklyn Zu's Dutch Master was RZA, GZA and ODB's cousin. And there A LOT of these blood ties
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Lee Towers.. do you know why all Wu-Syndicate albums prominently feature Joe Mafia and Myalansky on the cover and not Napoleon?
I know he was in jail at some point but he is still on a bunch of songs on the first album and from their wiki it looks like he is a full member of the group.
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It is cuz he went to jail in 1999 indeed. (He was in jail till 2002.) He was sent to prison just a few months before the debut album dropped. He missed out on some of the later recording sessions.
He's definitely a founding member of the group, he was even in the group The Hellraizors with Joe Mafia before Crime Syndicate (later renamed wu Syndicate) even came together. Their manager was RZA's cousin Born btw, which is how the Wu connection came to be
RZA has like a thousand cousins lol
Since he was a founding member it is indeed pretty strange that Napoleon isn't on the album cover of their most well known album.
PM me if you want more info on the group, this book's got 3 pages on 'em. I can send you pics if you're interested
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Have you read the ODB book? Was thinking of copping that.
I'm sure Buddha Monk has some good stories to tell.
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It should arrive any day now, ordered it last week. I read on here that it's a very entertaining read indeed
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Cool I snagged a cheap copy off eBay.
