There is a mutiny in Shaolin. Though the sixth (and likely final) Wu-Tang album, A Better Tomorrow, was released earlier this month, you can't find it on the Twitter feeds of the group's three most visible members. Method Man, Ghostface, and Raekwon have all abstained from the promotional cycle. Rumors of creative clashes and even a pay scale--not to mention Cappadonna saying "nobody really wanted to do" the record--have swirled for months. The discord, it seems, runs deep for Staten Island's favorite sons.

But elsewhere in the borough, there are graver problems. This summer, Eric Garner was choked to death on tape by a police officer; earlier this month, the officer walked away without an indictment.

In an interview with Vanity Fair, RZA talked at length about his relationship with police now and as a youth; how he worries for the imposing shadow his son casts; and how America cares more about dogs than about Black children.

On his son: "He’s the nicest guy. He goes to church every Sunday. He gets up every day to help, that’s what he does. But he has dreads, and he’s six foot four. And he has a deep voice. So I told him, 'Look, you may be a mistaken identity.' I told him, 'Wear button-up shirts. Keep yourself looking clean and refined, so you can have a prestigious look about you. Because if you come in with baggy clothes and the heavy jacket, and stuff like that, you’re going to look like you have some weed to sell.'

On animal rights: "I was watching the news with my wife, and my she’s tearing up. And then a commercial comes on, with the saddest music you could hear, and then they start showing faces of dogs, saying we have to do something to help these dogs. That fucked me up. Help these dogs? I’m a vegetarian. My favorite part in Mockingjay is when [Jennifer Lawrence’s character] looked into the animal’s eye and didn’t shoot the arrow. But they should have put a commercial on with young black kids. That’s what we need—not one over in Africa, one right here, that’s being locked up or beaten up. I was thinking, 'Man, what timing, for a commercial like this.' A dog can get more compassion than a human being."

[Vanity Fair]

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