U-God vs RZA: U-God is in the right, RZA is in the wrong
Reading U-God's biography and its crazy good. Really gives you a new appreciation for U-God. He was always a good rapper and can hold his own with anyone in the group, but none of the group albums or even his own solo albums translate what a successful and legit thug he was in the crack era before Wu Tang popped off. The way he tells it, he was really the biggest cheerleader for a few guys to pursue rapping as their beatboxer and their plug. He was essentially the RZA for them on the drug-dealing end. He saw hip-hop as his way out the drug game before RZA officially accept them as his own crew after RZA and GZA failed as solo rappers.
But my biggest takeaway is that U-God having the biggest rep as a gangster is why he's been the most vocal and smart about not taking RZA and Wu-Management's shitty deals. He always mentions ODB was the first one to point it out to others. But it adds up that the WTC were run by RZA's brother like a gang. "I'm helping you get out of poverty, crime & danger, so I don't have to pay you shit" is basically how Wu Tang was managed... and every member accepted that because thats normal in the streets.
But unlike Power & Divine, U-God did well at drug-dealing because he didn't actually mistreat and rob his workers because they were all his friends and classmates. He tells lots of gritty stories but they always have 5 Percenter lessons about justice and equality. So in the music business, he and Raekwon (who was also a similar level drug-dealer with workers under him) don't accept bullshit from a boss just because they're friends. Others like Deck and Ghost just take it as a lesson learned whereas U-God and Rae still want compensation for all the shady business done to them. And I think they're right. If more members felt the same way, the majority of their albums wouldn't be weak and disjointed. And the W would still be a stronger brand.
Rappers out the hood to this day just accept retarded, unfair deals because thats all they've ever gotten anyway. Thats why these labels prey on ignorant young kids from the hood. But its not right to do business like that. Niggas need to wake up.
U-God is labeled as ungrateful all the time, like RZA saved his life. But U-God was only temporarily broke because he just came home from prison and lost all the money he & clientele he stacked before. But honestly, he probably could've gone back to dealing and not needed Wu Tang, especially since Wu never did anything for him anyway. Its like RZA put him in the group really just to stop U-God from taking the other members back to hustling.
U-God comes off grateful to RZA but he's the main one who puts RZA in line when it comes to shitty production or business. But when he speaks up, fans say "Who are you, U-God?" when RZA is the reason U-God isn't anybody in the group... by design, to keep the power dyamic in RZA's favor. I didn't know OUATIS was auctioned off because U-God's lawyers (and probably other members') threatened to sue Cilvaringz for trying to release it as an official Wu project to retail. RZA is the only reason it did get auctioned off and no one got any of that but RZA and Cilva. Fucked up considering none of them knew it was for a group album.