Latest / DISGRACELAND / Masta Killa (Wu-Tang Clan Chapter 9): A Mafia Hit, an Alleged Assault, and the Student Becomes the Master

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Masta Killa (Wu-Tang Clan Chapter 9): A Mafia Hit, an Alleged Assault, and the Student Becomes the Master · DISGRACELAND

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Disgraceland is a production of Double Elvis. The stories about
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: Wu Tang Clan's mast Killa are insane. He grew up
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: in a city shaped and run by organized crime, a
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: city where the most powerful underworld boss could be gunned
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: down on a busy street in the middle of the day.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: But despite his menacing stage name, Masta Killa was not
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: a killer. He was, however, a master, a master of
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: subtlety and of life. Lived discreetly. He kept his family
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: history and his relationship to soul legend Marvin Gay a
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: secret for decades. When drug dealers and gang members flipped
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: for the Feds and spilled dirt on Wu Tang Clan,
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: mass Ta Killa's name was kept out of their testimony.
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: When a music journalist accused him of assault, he denied it,
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: but no one could deny the great music that Mastakilla
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: made in a group full of big personalities and even
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: bigger egos, he became unexpectedly one of the greatest. Unlike
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: that clip I played for you at the top of
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: the show. That wasn't great music. That was a preset
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: loop from my melotron called Sache Downstairs MK two. I
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: played you that clip because I can't afford the rights
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: to burn by Usher, And why would I play you
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: that specific slice of pool on fire Cheese? Could I
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: afford it? Because that was the number one song in
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: America on June one, two thousand and four, and that
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: was the day that mas Ta Killa released his long
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: awaited solo Dates album, more than a decade after Wu
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: Tang's debut, and just one month before the FBI took
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: their investigation of the group into an entirely new direction.
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: On this episode, new directions, a menacing stage name, organized
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: crime gang members assault and Wu Tang clans Master Killa,
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: I'm Jake Brennan, and this this disgraceland. Paul Castelano, acting
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: boss of the Gambido Family, one of the original five
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: families of the Italian American mafia aka LaCOSA Nostra, lived
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: on Staten Island in a ten thousand square foot mansion
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: that the locals called the White House. Specifically, the White
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: House was located on Benedict Road in a neighborhood known
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: as Tote Hill. Tote Hill was exclusive, Tote Hill was expensive.
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: Tote Hill was elevated, literally at four hundred feet. It
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: was not only the highest point in all five borrows.
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: Tote Hill was the highest point on the entire eastern
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: coast south of the state of Maine. This was the
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: other Staten Island, Though it was only a ten minute
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: drive from the projects in park Hill or Stapleton. Tote
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: Hill may as well have been in another universe, but
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: for kids from those nearby projects, it was a universe
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: that was theoretically attainable. You could see see it with
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: your own eyes, you could walk through it, you could
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: touch it and smell it. You could even imagine yourself
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: sitting in the White House. And why not. Paul Castellano
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: wasn't all that different from you. He was just another hustler,
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: another disciple of the streets, some wise ass punk from
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: benson Hurst who dropped out of the eighth grade and
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: learned the numbers racket, a kid who went to prison
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: at age nineteen for armed robbery, and now look at him,
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: elevated up in toot Hill. As far back as any
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: Staten Island kids struggling with no money and no prospects
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: can remember, they always wanted to be Paul Castellano. And
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: I'm not even talking specifically about organized crime here. I'm
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: talking about the ability to visualize a future for yourself
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: that isn't one that has been assigned to you by
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: the rigid confines of society. I'm talking about subverting expectations,
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: about changing your reality, about becoming somebody new. Paul Castellano
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: was not just the boss. He was a boss, and
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: his story was an inspiration to many growing up in
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: the so called Forgotten Borrow. But not everyone shared a
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: romanticized view of Paul Castellano. Some within the Gambino family
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: didn't think he deserved to be at the head of
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: the table. Annili O'neo Dellacroach, for one, was offended when
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: Castellano was appointed boss following the death of longtime patriarch
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: Carlo Gambino some nine years prior in nineteen seventy six.
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: It split the family right down the middle, and so
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: did the trial that was currently taking place in Federal
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: District Court. Castellano and nine others were accused of conspiring
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: to commit murders in order to cover up a car
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: theft ring. The riff got wider when Delacroach died in
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: eighty five. Castellano didn't even show up to pay his
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: respects at the guy's wake, and then Castellano had the
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: balls to appoint his own bodyguard, Thomas Bolotti, as underboss,
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: and that was enough for those on Dela Coach's side
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: to finally take matters into their own hands, including a
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: young capo named John Gottie. December sixteenth, nineteen eighty five, Midtown, Manhattan,
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: five twenty six pm, foot traffic on East forty sixth
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: was dense. New York City was in the holiday spirit,
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: which is to say it was chaos. Nine to fivers
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: scrambled to catch the train. Their speedy efforts were thwarted
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: by hordes of tourists walking at a frustratingly slow pace,
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: shopping bags dangling from their hands, and Christmas lights reflecting
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: in their eyes. In the midst of this commotion, a
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: black Lincoln limousine pulled up in front of Sparks Steakhouse
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: in Part. Paul Castellano, seventy years old and free on
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: two million dollars bail, stepped out of the passenger side
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: in a sharp blue suit. His bodyguard turned underboss, Thomas Bolotti's,
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: stepped from the driver's side. Out of the bustling crowd,
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: three men emerged. They wore trench coats. They walked with
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: purpose in Castellano's direction. The street noise muffled their footsteps
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: and the cover of darkness cloaked their intent. As they approached,
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: their stride quickly turned into a sprint. Castellano and Ballotti
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: saw them and knew what was coming. They were wise guys,
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: not wise men. They weren't carrying gold, frankencense and myrrh,
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: and they pulled out semi automatic pistols from deep inside
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: their coats, and there was no time for Castellano to
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: get back in the car or take cover. He braced
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: for the worse, and the three men opened fire. Shots
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: rang out. The pedestrians screamed and ducked for cover. Ballotti
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: was hit six times and he fell to the pavement
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: on his back, bleeding from a head wound, dead, and
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: the car keys were just inches from his outstretched and
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: lifeless hand. Castellano meanwhile took a spray of bullets to
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: the head and upper body. He fell backwards into the
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: Lincoln through the open door, and one of the assassins
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: pointed his pistol point blank at Castellano and fired again,
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: killing him. Castellano's head falling onto the limos seat as
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: his legs and feet went limp on the ground. Then
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: the three men ran down east forty six to Second Avenue,
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: passed dozens of strangers, all trying to look and not
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: look at the same time. Where a car was idling
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: waiting for them. They jumped inside it and within seconds
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: they were gone. John Gotti was no one's disciple. He
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: was a wild card, a loose cannon. He took control
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: of the Gambino family the old fashioned way by assassinating
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: the boss, and the whole thing was operatic. Then it
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: had operatic themes like power, loyalty, brotherhood, and betrayal, the
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: same themes that could be found in the Kung Fu
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: movies that were near and deer to the Rizz's heart
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: and served as building blocks for his hip hop collective
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: Wu Tang Clan. And just like Kung Fu cinema, the
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: trials and tribulations of the New York mafia were constant
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: in Wu Tang's world. It was unavoidable, the violence, the corruption.
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: It ran through New York City streets like blood through
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: an artery, and it burrowed deep into their imaginations. Years later,
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: when Wu Tang wanted to get into that mafioso frame
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: of mind like they did on a track called Wu
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: Gambinos from Ray Kwan's Only Built for Cuban Linx album.
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: They did it not literally, but with their imagination. They
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: did it with a new layer of alter egos. Ghils
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: Face Killa became Tony Stark's Ray Kwang was Lex Diamond
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: aka Lou Diamond Inspected, the deck was Roley Fingers, and
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: the rizza was Bobby Steeles. You God became Golden Arms.
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: An Elgin Turner aka Jimiel La Reef, the man the
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: world knew as Masta Killa was called Noodles, Noodles being
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: the name of Robert de Niro's character in Sergio Leoni's
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: gangster epic Once upon a Time in America, which just
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: so happened to be a Wu Tang certified cult classic.
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: But Young Master Killa aka Young Elgin here was no gangster.
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: Unlike John Gotti, Master Killa wasn't an actual killer. Also,
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: unlike John Gotti, Masta Killa was a disciple. He was
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: the last to join the clan. He wasn't even an MC,
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: but he wanted to be one. He wanted to be
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: an assassin on the mic. More than that, he wanted
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: to live in the elevated world, the one he could
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: see here taste an elevated world of body, mind and spirit.
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: Masta Killa sat at the feet of Wu Tang clan,
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: a disciple ready to be molded, and asked them make
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: me invincible. The name master Killer comes from the nineteen
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: seventy eight kung fu film The thirty Sixth Chamber of
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: Shao Lin, also known as The Master Killer or Shaolin
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: Master Killer. In that film, legendary martial arts actor Gordon
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: Lou plays a student who seeks revenge against an oppressive
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: government that squashed an uprising at his school and murdered
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: his friends and family. But before he gets his revenge,
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: he must train. So the student goes to the Shaolin
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: Temple to learn kung fu, and in doing so, works
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: his way through all thirty five of the temple's chambers.
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: Each chamber focuses on a different strength arms, wrists, broadsword, techniques,
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: balance I, and so on. Spoiler alert. The student aces
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: all thirty five chambers and then proclaims that he wants
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: to create a thirty sixth Chamber, a chamber where ordinary
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: people just like him can learn kung fu in order
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: to defend themselves against their evil oppressors, and by giving
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: the people the skills and the power they need to
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: stand up for themselves, the student's vengeance pays dividends. The
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: thirty six Chamber of Chao Lin is one of many
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: Kung fu films to inform Wu Tang clan's identity, style
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: and philosophy. It's also one of the most important. The
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: film's title gave them part of their debut album's title,
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: Enter the Wu Tang thirty six Chambers, as well as
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: the concept of Shao Lin as a half physical, half
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: spiritual world in which Wu Tang exists. The film's plot
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: was also a Wu Tang's plot, at least at the outset.
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: An underdog rises from nothing to something, masters his craft
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: and defies the powers that be. But in order to
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: do that, the underdog has to learn a lot. To
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: become the master killer, the underdog has to start over,
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: which is what Wu Tang's master killer, Elgin Turner did
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: in nineteen ninety two. Elgin, then in his early twenties,
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: already had wisdom. He got that from talking about supreme
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: mathematics and playing chess with his friend Gary Grice aka
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: the Jizza. Elgin and Jizza were as serious about the
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: five percent and even more serious about chess. They played
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: time matches. You had to think hard and think fast,
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: and if your time ran out, the game was over.
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: Life was like chess, every minute of every day. Make
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: your move and punch the clock. Listen twice before you speak.
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: Once bored in Brooklyn in nineteen sixty nine, Elgin spoke
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: only when necessary. He didn't tell the other kids in
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: the neighborhood about the places he went to, the planes
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: he boarded, the miles he clocked. He was raised as
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: an only child by a single mother who worked hard,
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: and that hard work paid off and paid for the
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: trips that two of them were able to take together.
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: No one knew anything about this part of Elgin's life,
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: just like no one knew that he was related to
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: both Nat Turner and Marvin Gay, a fact that it
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: seemed nobody knew about until it was revealed in the
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: twenty nineteen Wu Tang documentary. But I digress, And this
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: was the way he liked it. Incognito, he blended in.
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: He wasn't better than anyone else. He did what others
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: were doing, like drop out of school and He soon
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: realized that that was the wrong move. That was like
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: moving the pond that guards a castle became so. In
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: an effort to get his life back on track as
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: a young adult, Elgin enrolled in a program to get
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: both his high school diploma and his bachelor's degree all
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: in one shot. Night's school was a grind. Sometimes he
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: couldn't muster the energy to go. He quickly racked up
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: two absences and was worn that a third would mean
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: his expulsion. He thought about this on the night that
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: the Jizza invited him to the studio. Jizza and Riza
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: had this new thing called Wu Tang and they were
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: about to cook up a new track. Elgin should come hang,
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: and the temptation was strong, but Elgin thought about his
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: need to get back on track, about the consequence of
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: a third absence, and he thought about chess, the right
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: moves and the wrong moves. He told Jizz he couldn't
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: make it, and he got himself to class. The next day,
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: during the regular chess game, Jizza played Elgin the track
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: they had recorded the night before. Check this out, Jessus said,
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: It's called protect your Neck. Elgin's jaw hit the floor.
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: The energy the Beat, the onslaught of wide ranging rhyming
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: styles from Inspected Deck, Rayquon, Method Man, You Got Obed,
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: ghost Face, the Riza, the Jizza. It was new, fresh, raw.
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: It was something that hadn't existed in hip hop until
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: that moment. Elgin knew it was going to be huge
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: from the moment the track ended. He also knew that
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: he wanted to be a part of it. But he'd
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: never written a rhyme in his life, and nevertheless, he
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: was inspired. He put pen to paper and the words
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: in his head tumbled into his fingers, were absorbed by
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: the ink, and then spilled out onto the page. He
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: read what he had and then he rewrote it again,
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: and again, he refined it again, and then he shared
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: what he had written with Jizza. Jizza was impressed. Elgin
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: had something here, A perfect verse. A verse so perfect
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: that it became Elgin's first contribution to Wu Tang as
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: Master Killa. It became his verse on the track The
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: Mystery of Chess Box and from Wu Tang's debut album
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: Hold On, Just Imagine. The team You're about to go
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: play for is already stacked with all stars. Jackie Robinson,
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: Joe DiMaggio, Reggie Williams, and you come along and you
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: got no rep you got no history in the game.
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: You've never even taken a swing before. All you got
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: is this one verse. Imagine how nerve wracking that would be.
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: That was the situation mass Takilla found himself in his
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: first verse. Was his first chamber in Shaolin Land, and
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: true to his name, he killed it. He learned fast
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: and wanted to learn more. He was ready to be
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: a full time student, but not at night school. Algin Turner,
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: soon to be better known as Mass Ta Kila, decided
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: then and there to become a student of hip hop
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: and a disciple of Wu Tang, and he was never
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: going back to school again. Yo man you Chao Chao
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: Coker was barely able to respond before the fist hit
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: his face right cross to his left eye. Chao wobbled backwards,
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: his eyes stunned like hell, and the guy who hit
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: him followed up the punch with a few choice words.
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: That's just to let you know, Wu Tang clan ain't
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: nothing to fuck with. Become real with our shit. We're
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: not cartoon characters. Then he took the tape recorder out
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: of Chao's hand and walked off. In May nineteen ninety four,
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: music journalist Chao Cocher alleged that he was assaulted out
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: of the blue by Wu Tang clan's mass to Killa.
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: Chao had just written a profile on the group for
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: Rap Pages magazine, and Wu Tang never showed up for
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: the accompanying photo shoot, and the magazine couldn't run the
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: story without art, so Rap Pages was forced to make
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: a decision either kill the article or hire an artist
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: to draw members of Wu Tang, and they chose the latter.
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: The artist's caricatures were whack. Gizza was rendered as a
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: valedictorian nerd and Ray Kwon the Chef was pictured as
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: a literal chef at a barbecue. Grill od B was
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: holding a blow up doll and maybe someone with a
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: better sense of humor about themselves would have let it fly.
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: But Wu Tang, at this point ruling the hip hop world,
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: were dead serious about what they did. They wanted everyone
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: else to take them seriously too, and this shit just
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: made him look corny. Chao thought the cartoons were corny,
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: but Chao didn't draw the cartoons. They weren't even his idea.
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: He was just a freelance writer who provided the copy.
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: Wu Tang didn't know that, or if they did know,
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: they didn't care. Chao was guilty by association. But here's
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: the thing. Masta Killa denies ever punching Chao. Cooker says
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: it wasn't him and given his reserved listen twice and
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: speak once kind of demeanor, it does seem a little
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: lot of character. Chao, on the other hand, said he
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: had receipts. In an editorial he later wrote for The
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: Source magazine, Chao showed a sixty dollars check he received
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: from Wu Tang Production shortly after the incident, which he
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: never cashed. Written on the memo line was quote for
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: repayment of radio and tape unquote. In that same editorial,
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: he revealed the two weeks after the assault, Masda Killa
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: personally called him to apologize. Mass Ta Killa has maintained
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: that this is all bullshit and that he's never had
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: any conversations of the sort with Cheo, and perhaps he's
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: telling the truth. Perhaps he didn't punch a journalist or
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: maybe Mastakilla ever the student, ever, Wu Tang's disciple was
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: putting to good use an important lesson. He learned in
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: one of the many proverbial chambers at which he trained.
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: Remember this was back in ninety four and there were
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: no cell phones, no nest cameras watching from the corner
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: of the room. It was just one man's word against another's.
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: One lowly freelance writer versus an almighty clan. They say,
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: you're born twice in this life, first physically through the
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: womb and then again mentally through Allah's supreme mathematics. Mass
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: Takilla and his Wu Tang brothers, however, were born a
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: third time when they took on their hip hop personas.
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: They were born anew but they weren't born yesterday. Wu
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: Tang was in charge of their own narrative, and that
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: narrative was Wu Tang is not a corny joke. Wu
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: Tang is not two writers. They were the ones who
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: said what they were and what they weren't, but not
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: everyone believed them. We'll be right back after this. We're
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: were were. The FBI agent knew they were close. It
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: wasn't a matter of if. But when the FEDS would
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: finally take down Wu Tang clan, he could see it
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: so clearly in his mind's eye. Rizza Jizz a ghost
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: face method man Master Killa. All nine of those dudes,
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: plus their close associate Cappadonna and Handcuffs Purp walking right
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: into a jet black suburban, cameras flashing and reporters craning
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: their necks to get one sound bite, one quote, but
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: only receiving a standoffish no comment through gritted teeth. Feds
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: one Wu Tang zero. The headline in the Times would
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: be some like Wu Tang clan convicted of running guns,
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: ordering murders. Wu Tang Clan ain't nothing to fuck with, Huh,
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: the agent chuckled, We'll see about that. The FBI had
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: laid bare this confidence in a nineteen ninety nine internal
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: memo which read, in part, it is believed that it'd
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: sometimes carry out enforcement actions for the Wu Tang Clan,
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: which include beatings, shootings, and murder. This belief and this
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: confidence were due largely to a couple of aces the
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: FEDS now had in their back pocket, the first of
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: which was Paul Ford aka Uncles, one time drug dealer
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: now singing like a canary. Uncles told the FBI everything
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: like how in a member of the Bloods named Jerome
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: Estrella aka Booboo first got out of the joint. He
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: fucked up by robbing Rizz's little brother. Estrella knew they
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: were coming after him for what he'd done, and by
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: they Uncles insisted Estrella meant Wu Tang whoever was after
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: Estrella sent a Loaw gang member named Brian Humphries to
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: do the dirty work. On June twentieth, nineteen ninety nine,
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: Humphreys pulled the trigger and filled Estrella with lead. But
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: now Brian Humphries was in police custody and just like
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: his pal Uncles, was desperate to soften the blow that
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: he was about to receive from the strong arm of
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: the law, so he also turned informant for the government
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: and thus represented the fed's second ace. Uncles and Humphreys
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: had the details of a second urder. Corey Brooker aka
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: Shank Bank, killed just days after Estralla word had at
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: Brooker was the only one who had ordered the robbery
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: of Rizz's kid brother in the first place, and that
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: he had also robbed a cousin of Ray Kwan, another
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: Wu Tang member, and that furthermore, in retaliation, Rizza put
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: out a thirty thousand dollars contract on Brooker's head. Someone
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: took the money and then carried out the hit after
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: Estrella and Brooker were killed. Uncles, according to his testimony,
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: relayed the information to a close confidant within the Wu
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: Tang camp. In that close confidant's response, what happened was
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: supposed to happen, hardly an admission of guilt. Besides, it's
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: not unlikely that a gang member turned stool pigeon would
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: say whatever they had to say in order to take
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: some of the weight off of themselves. For all the
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: FBI knew, Uncles and Humphreys had nothing but hot gossip,
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: But for a long time, the FBI really believed what
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: they were being told. The agent couldn't deny that the
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: intel fit the bureau's narrative, or perhaps it fit what
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: the Bureau wanted the narrative to be, a narrative that
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: included sixteen legitimate businesses, laundering dirty money, mafia worship, and
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: Wu Gambino waking fantasies. The Riza capable of attempted murder,
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: ghost Face Killa with an unlicensed weapon and a bulletproof vest,
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: Cappadonna getting cozy with a wannabe gangster, inspected deck, and
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: you Gods slinging dope and whatever happened to be old
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: Dirty Bastard's transgression of the week. Dirty made it a
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: little too clean for the FBI. He had no filter,
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: he didn't hide anything. Dirty was so compelling to law
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: enforcement that eventually he became their primary focus. A guy
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: like mass Takilla, on the other hand, was the complete opposite.
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: He kept his life real close to the vest. His
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: narrative was clean, his name was out of the papers.
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: He wasn't flashy. He listened twice and spoke once, and
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: although he had one of the most murderous names of
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: the entire clan, he never blurred the line between art
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: and life like odb. Over time, the FEDS didn't even
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: look at Mastakilla twice. Many Wu Tang fans didn't either.
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: Masdakila wasn't using the Wu Tang platform to catapult into
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: the entertainment industry. He wasn't scoring Jim Jerremustion movies like Rizza,
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: and he wasn't acting in major motion pictures like method Man.
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: He was, however, quietly making his mark like a trained
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: assassin working under the cover of darkness. His presence loomed
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: increasingly large over the studio album's Wu Tang Forever the
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: w and Iron Flag. He guested on Wu Tang solo joints,
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: but he took his time putting out his own solo record.
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: After all these years, he was still a student, still learning,
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: still making his way through those chambers, acquiring skills one
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: by one, and there was no rush. He wanted to
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: wait until he was ready, and when he finally was ready,
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: every other member of Wu Tang had already released a
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: solo album. Master Killa's debut, No Said Date dropped on
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: June first, two thousand and four. In many ways, it
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: was a return to the old school feel of Wu
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: Tang's first record. It featured most of the Klan and
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: guest spots. It had Rizz's dusty production. It caught many
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: people by surprise, including critics who loved it. And despite
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: underest mating Mastakilla as one of the quote unquote lesser
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: mcs in the clan for years, No Said Date was
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: mastera Killa's thirty sixth chamber. He took everything that he
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: had learned and he put it into one package and
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: then delivered that to the masses, and his vengeance paid dividends.
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: If you slept on Masta Killa on guard motherfucker. His
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: Wu Tang sword was sharp and swift. His style came
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: at you like three guys in trench coats making a
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: bee line towards you outside sparks as you got out
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: of your Lincoln. People noticed, well not everyone. For some
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: Masta Killa and Wu Tang simply weren't worth the effort anymore.
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: Federal Bureau of Investigation Precedence Routine Date seven twelve, two
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: thousand and four, two New York from New York kse
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: id number two eight one F dash n y dash
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: two seven one four seven title Wu Tang Clan Synopsis
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: to close case number two eight one F dash n
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: y dash two seven one four seven details. It is
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: requested that the above caption case be closed as the
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: matter is being investigated by Squad C thirty SA case
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: file number two six seven C dash N y dash
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: two six nine five three seven, and all further references
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: should be directed to the two six seven C case.
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: In the summer of two thousand and four, just one
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: month after Masterkilla released his solo debut album No Said Date,
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: the FBI officially closed its two eight one F case
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: file on Wu Tang clan, and No. Two eight one
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: F is not a reference to the license plate of
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: the VW. Beetle on the cover of Abbey Road that
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: allegedly offered up a clue and a Paul McCartney supposed
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: a death, but I digress in this case. Two eight
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: one F is a classification code used by the federal
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: government to denote a quote unquote major criminal organization. Two
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: eight one F was typically reserved for organized crime families
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: like the aforementioned Gambinos, but since nineteen ninety nine had
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: been applied to Wu Tang, who the FEDS were convinced
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: were using their business as a front for running guns,
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: dealing drugs, and ordering murders. But despite any guns purchased
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: or people killed, or evidence supplied by informants of guns
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: purchased and people killed, there was never enough to nail
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: anyone in Wu Tang, As the bureau's internal memos stated,
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: any further investigation of Wu Tang was now the purview
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: of the New York FBI's squad, which was tasked with
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: violent street gangs. In retrospect, the timing of the closing
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: of Wu Tang's FBI file seems if not suspicious more
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: than a little coincidental, not because it happened around the
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: same time that the group's most discreet member made his
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: solo debut, but because it happened just months before the
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: group's most infamous member made his exit. Old Dirty Bastard
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: was paranoid. The government was nothing but a bunch of thugs.
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: Doctors were too Doctors wanted to stick his baby's thighs
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: with needles and shoot god knows what inside them before
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: they could even walk. Fuck that Dirty wasn't letting any
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: doctors control his baby's brains, no tracking devices injected into
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: his children. He had to stay safe. He had to
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: stay vigilant, just because he hadn't been murdered at Clinton
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: Correctional Facility. And Dana Mora didn't mean the NYPD and
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: the ATF and the FBI didn't want him dead. And
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: it's like he had no way of knowing what was
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: really inside those immunization shots. He had no way of
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: knowing what the FBI's status was in regards to their
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: pursuit of him and Wu Tang. No one knew at
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: this time. In two thousand and four, the FBI's internal
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: memos were still very internal and still very classified, and
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: they wouldn't be seen by the public for another eight
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: years in twenty twelve, when the government released a ninety
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: five page file on ODB and Wu Tang clan in
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: response to Foyer requests. For now, Dirty had to protect
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: number one, which meant stoking up tens of thousands of
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: dollars worth of spy gear courtesy of the Rizzis checkbook
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: glasses with a camera installed in them, a phone scrambler,
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: monitoring equipment that would make James Komy cream his pants.
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: In Dirty's mind, the Feds had fucked them. They were complicit.
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: They put him in Dani Mora, and that god forsaken
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: place they called the Little Side Little Siberia was where
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: he was beaten and burned. It was where his leg
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: was broken, and that leg was still a mess. During
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: a show in Fort Collins, Colorado, Dirty fell from the
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: stage and landed on that same leg. It hurt, It
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: hurt so bad that he thought he'd broken it all
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: over again, but he didn't cancel the show The next
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: night a veil thank you to the wheelchair it was
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: now carting his ass around and thanking to the cocaine
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: that kept him dumb in all the right places. The
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: coke did the trick. The coke kept him in veil
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: in his hotel room instead of getting him on a
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: plane to Jersey for a show the next day at
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: the Metal Lands with the rest of the Wu Tang Clam.
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: The day after that show, however, on November thirteenth, two
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: thousand and four, Dirty was back in NYC. He still
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: felt like shit, and his legs still ate. God, it
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: was awful, excruciating, so much pain. The pain reminded him
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: of Little Siberia, and that reminded him of the FEDS
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: asking him questions and the NYPD shooting at his car
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: and then blaming him for it. He wrapped his leg
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: in an ace bandage, did whatever was necessary to dull
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: the pain, and so he put an entire diying bag
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: of cocaine in his mouth and swallowed it. He went
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: to his studio in Manhattan to work on tracks for
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: his new solo album, the one he was making for
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: Rockefeller Records, and the bag of coke, and his stomach
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: worked harder than he did. His heart pounded, He was
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: hot and sweaty, but the pain in his leg was
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: getting worse. So he took a tramadol, a prescription painkiller.
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: He peeled off his shirt and drank some water, and
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: he lay down and fell asleep. He woke up and
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: ate some cereal. He was still sweating, his heart was
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: still racing, as someone at the studio suggested he go
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: to a doctor. Never, that was how they got you.
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: Dirty wasn't about to let them get him, so he
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: lay back down on the floor and fell asleep again.
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: He never woke up. The tramadol and the cocaine improved
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: a lethal combination, thought his heart. Old Dirty Bastard aka
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: Dirt McGirt aka Big Baby Jesus aka Rusty to his
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: mother was dead just two days before his thirty six birthday.
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: That number thirty six. The significance was not lost on anyone.
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: There were the thirty six chambers, and there was supreme mathematics,
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: which said that three plus six is nine, and nine,
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: of course is the only number which, when multiplied by itself,
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: still ends up the same number. Nine times nine is
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: eighty one, and eight plus one is nine. Nine means
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: to be born. Nine brings something into existence. But Dirty
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: missed the cutoff for nine, so Dirty didn't see what
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: happened next, but he could have predicted it. In fact,
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: he probably did predict it while he was alive, because
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: just when Wu Tang Clan thought that the FBI had
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: left them alone for good, new evidence turned up that
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: put the Red back and the government spotlight. I'm Jake
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: Brennan in this episode of Disgraceland. This to be continued.
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: Disgraceland was created by Yours Truly and is produced in
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: partnership with Double Elvis. Credits for this episode can be
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: found on the show notes page at disgracelampod dot com.
• 35:32
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• 35:35
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• 35:38
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• 35:48
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• 36:09
  Speaker 1: slash at Disgracelampod, Rock and Roller. He's the bed don Man.