Latest / DISGRACELAND / Method Man (Wu-Tang Clan Chapter 3): Dice Games, Dodged Bullets, and Murder in the Street

Transcript

Method Man (Wu-Tang Clan Chapter 3): Dice Games, Dodged Bullets, and Murder in the Street · DISGRACELAND

0:00
Speaker 1: Disgraceland as a production of Double Elvis. The stories about
0:21
Speaker 1: the Wu Tang clans method Man are insane. As a teenager,
0:27
Speaker 1: he won eight hundred dollars on a five dollars bet
0:29
Speaker 1: in a dice game. He used those winnings to set
0:32
Speaker 1: himself up as a crack dealer on Staten Island. He
0:37
Speaker 1: was dragged down the street by a car when a
0:39
Speaker 1: buyer stole his product and sped off. His life was
0:43
Speaker 1: saved by a friend who pulled him out of the
0:45
Speaker 1: wrong place at the right moment, a moment in which
0:47
Speaker 1: he literally dodged a bullet. That friend was the Rizza
0:52
Speaker 1: who offered Method Man a spot in the new hip
0:55
Speaker 1: Hop supergroup. He was assembling a group that made great music,
1:01
Speaker 1: some of the most enduring hip hop music of all time.
1:04
Speaker 1: Unlike that clip I played for you at the top
1:07
Speaker 1: of the show. That wasn't great music. That was a
1:10
Speaker 1: preset loop from my melotron called Kmart Wardrobe MK two.
1:17
Speaker 1: I played you that loop because I can't afford the
1:20
Speaker 1: rights to Bump and Grind by R Kelly. And why
1:23
Speaker 1: would I play you that specific slice of thirty one
1:27
Speaker 1: year prison sentenced cheese? Could I afford it because that
1:32
Speaker 1: was the number one song in America on April twenty ninth,
1:35
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety four, and that was the day that Ernest Seyon,
1:40
Speaker 1: known to Method Man as Case, was choked to death
1:43
Speaker 1: by cops on Staten Island, a senseless tragedy that had
1:47
Speaker 1: a major ripple effect on Wu Tang's community and home base.
1:52
Speaker 1: On this episode, dice games, drug games, stolen products, dodge.
1:57
Speaker 2: Bullets, a death on Staten Island, and Wu Tang Clans
2:02
Speaker 2: Method Man.
2:03
Speaker 1: I'm Jake Brennan, and this is Disgraceland. From up on
2:38
Speaker 1: the roof, he could see everything, the sidewalk, the street,
2:43
Speaker 1: the cars coming and people going. Staten Island hummed with activity.
2:48
Speaker 1: Clifford Smith, the teenage kid that the world would later
2:51
Speaker 1: know as Method Man, I wanted to make sure that
2:55
Speaker 1: all that activity down below wasn't following him, the young
3:01
Speaker 1: mass aka cliff Here. He surveyed the scene.
3:04
Speaker 2: From his rooftop perch.
3:07
Speaker 1: No one was looking for him, no one was after him.
3:10
Speaker 2: Good.
3:12
Speaker 1: He pulled the water cash from the pocket of his
3:14
Speaker 1: dirty jeans. He counted it, and then he counted it again,
3:18
Speaker 1: eight hundred dollars. He could hardly believe it was real,
3:23
Speaker 1: but it was real. It was surreal not only the
3:26
Speaker 1: fact that he, Clifford Smith, had eight hundred dollars in
3:30
Speaker 1: his hand, but that he had won it on a
3:32
Speaker 1: five dollars bet. An aspet no less, he didn't make
3:37
Speaker 1: a habit of as betting, but desperate times and all that.
3:41
Speaker 1: An aspet is definitely desperate, if not stupid and cocky too.
3:46
Speaker 1: That's when you make a bet on a dice game
3:47
Speaker 1: but actually have no money to back it up if
3:50
Speaker 1: that bet you made loses. Cliff didn't see any other choice.
3:54
Speaker 1: He needed the cash and was willing to take a
3:56
Speaker 1: chance in order to get it. For a while, he
3:59
Speaker 1: had a job, a good job, assistant manager at the
4:02
Speaker 1: Statue of Liberty, the kind of job you could brag
4:05
Speaker 1: about back in the projects. But he lost that job,
4:08
Speaker 1: sidelined with a foot injury. This was the late eighties.
4:12
Speaker 1: Cliff was sixteen, paid time off for a teenager.
4:16
Speaker 2: You couldn't do the work and you didn't have a job.
4:18
Speaker 2: It was as simple as that. He was out of options.
4:22
Speaker 1: The cassette tapes he was making under the name Cha
4:24
Speaker 1: Quan the poet Sha Kwan being his five percenter name,
4:27
Speaker 1: were for bragging rights only, not for big bucks. On
4:31
Speaker 1: tracks like Panny Raider in My House, My House, Cliff
4:34
Speaker 1: as Chakwan kicked rhymes over rudimentary cassio keyboard beats. He
4:39
Speaker 1: was something of a sensation in the park Hill projects,
4:43
Speaker 1: and the notoriety came easy. The money did not look around.
4:48
Speaker 1: No one had money in park Hill. Cliff didn't know
4:50
Speaker 1: anything different, but he knew there was something better out there.
4:54
Speaker 1: It was definitely something better than the way things used
4:57
Speaker 1: to be years ago. Cramped inside a Manhattan shelter for
5:03
Speaker 1: battered women with his mom and two sisters who knew
5:06
Speaker 1: where Cliff's father was. He didn't want to be around,
5:09
Speaker 1: and Cliff didn't want someone around or didn't want to
5:11
Speaker 1: be around, and the family could do without. There were
5:15
Speaker 1: a lot of things Cliff could do without, like the
5:17
Speaker 1: Staten Island beat cops who roamed the halls of his
5:20
Speaker 1: apartment building, using the presence of their service revolvers or
5:23
Speaker 1: the color of their skin as an excuse.
5:25
Speaker 2: To do whatever they wanted.
5:27
Speaker 1: Harassment, humiliation, illegal searches on teenagers, illegal searches on kids
5:33
Speaker 1: like Cliff saw bullshit. Cliff wasn't a suspect. He gave
5:38
Speaker 1: the cops zero reason to talk to him, let alone
5:40
Speaker 1: stop him. But the cops didn't need a reason. Empty
5:43
Speaker 1: your pockets, hands up against the wall, spread them, walking
5:48
Speaker 1: out the front door of your apartment. Every day was
5:50
Speaker 1: a gamble. Everything he did was a gamble. Every choice
5:53
Speaker 1: you made, and either you gambled on your own life
5:56
Speaker 1: or someone else would. So Cliff made the bet, put
6:01
Speaker 1: down five bucks he didn't actually have on the Neighborhood
6:03
Speaker 1: Crabs game. If the dice rolled anything but a seven
6:06
Speaker 1: or eleven, he was fucked. He thought about what he
6:10
Speaker 1: would do if that happened, About how fast he could
6:12
Speaker 1: get out of there and disappear into a cluster of pedestrians,
6:15
Speaker 1: swim up stream, lay low, but on a busted leg. Seriously,
6:21
Speaker 1: this idea was looking dumber by the second. There was
6:25
Speaker 1: no going back now he didn't make a bet and
6:28
Speaker 1: then unmake the bet. The rest of the players anted
6:31
Speaker 1: up major skin in the game. Cliff, meanwhile, was worried
6:35
Speaker 1: about his actual skin. He rattled the dice around in
6:38
Speaker 1: his clenched fist, and with a flick of his wrist
6:41
Speaker 1: he tossed them and they rolled under the pavement and
6:43
Speaker 1: settled one die red three in the other four seven jackpot.
6:54
Speaker 1: Cliff was up on that rooftop, now taking it all
6:57
Speaker 1: in the amount of money in his hands, the relative
7:00
Speaker 1: safety of his surroundings, and his luck. He felt like
7:03
Speaker 1: he just pulled off a heist or a magic trick.
7:07
Speaker 1: And now that he had actually turned an aspect into
7:09
Speaker 1: a major win, it was time to double down. Turned
7:12
Speaker 1: that eight hundred bucks into more money, Double it, triple it.
7:17
Speaker 1: This wasn't savings account money, and it wasn't tied you
7:20
Speaker 1: over till the next job kind of money either. Eight
7:23
Speaker 1: hundred dollars was the perfect amount of money to get
7:25
Speaker 1: you set up as a player in park Hill's single
7:28
Speaker 1: most booming industry. Clifford Smith invested that money and crack.
7:36
Speaker 1: The car came to a stop on a staten Island
7:39
Speaker 1: street and the driver leaned over towards the open passenger
7:42
Speaker 1: side and looked out the open window and waited. Cliff
7:45
Speaker 1: was already running from the sidewalk to the car in
7:48
Speaker 1: the street.
7:49
Speaker 2: Fast.
7:50
Speaker 1: You were either fast or you're out of a sale.
7:53
Speaker 1: And there were just too many other dudes slinging rock
7:55
Speaker 1: in park Hill. The competition was stiff, but it wasn't
7:58
Speaker 1: about who was the best This wasn't a hair salon.
8:01
Speaker 1: A buyer didn't have their person. It was all about
8:04
Speaker 1: who was the fastest. It was all about car running.
8:08
Speaker 1: You get to the car first, you get the sale,
8:11
Speaker 1: and you get the money. Cliff was winded when he
8:15
Speaker 1: reached the idling sedan. He leaned inside the open passenger
8:18
Speaker 1: side window extended his hand. Inside his palm were about
8:22
Speaker 1: ten small vials, just the fraction of the drugs his
8:26
Speaker 1: dice game winnings had afforded him. How many you want?
8:30
Speaker 1: And the driver didn't hesitate all of them? He responded,
8:33
Speaker 1: and then he swatted at Cliff's hand with his own.
8:35
Speaker 1: The vials spilled under the passenger seat. The driver grabbed
8:38
Speaker 1: the gearshift and hit the gas, and the tires squealed.
8:41
Speaker 1: Cliff clung out of the passenger door. As the car
8:43
Speaker 1: began to move. He dug his fingers into the upholstery
8:46
Speaker 1: and tried to hold on. The car picked up speed.
8:48
Speaker 1: Cliff's sneakers dragged along the pavement. He tried to run
8:51
Speaker 1: alongside the car, but it.
8:53
Speaker 2: Was going too fast. He felt his knees begin to
8:55
Speaker 2: buckle shit and lost his grip, and he was thrown
8:57
Speaker 2: to the ground. As the car disappeared into the disc.
9:00
Speaker 2: It's quite literally left.
9:02
Speaker 1: In the dust, no vials and no money. What was
9:06
Speaker 1: he thinking leaning all the way into the car, his
9:10
Speaker 1: hand wide open, with all that product free for the taking.
9:14
Speaker 1: Rookie mistake is what That was a kind of mistake.
9:17
Speaker 2: That happens for a reason. That's how you learn.
9:20
Speaker 1: That's how you understand, because next time it wouldn't be
9:23
Speaker 1: some vials of drugs slapped out a close hand. Next
9:26
Speaker 1: time it would be his own life that was on
9:29
Speaker 1: the line. Lamont Hawkins, soon to be better known by
9:53
Speaker 1: his five percenter name Universal God aka You God, and
9:58
Speaker 1: also soon to be better known as a member of
10:00
Speaker 1: the formidable Wu Tank Clan with the likes of Corey
10:03
Speaker 1: Woods aka Ray Kwan the Chef and Clifford Smith aka
10:07
Speaker 1: Method Man, was a good friend. Lamont partied with Corey
10:11
Speaker 1: at the Union Square Nightclub and worked with Cliff at
10:14
Speaker 1: the Statue of Liberty. But Lady Liberty was in the past.
10:18
Speaker 1: Now Cliff and You God were selling crack together on
10:21
Speaker 1: Staten Island. Whether it was working an odd job or
10:25
Speaker 1: working a crack deal, having friends who had your back
10:28
Speaker 1: was key. Friends were necessary, As You God later set
10:32
Speaker 1: himself in his autobiography, Knowing the right people could potentially
10:36
Speaker 1: save your life. Cliff had his life saved by the
10:40
Speaker 1: right people twice. The first time it was the New
10:44
Speaker 1: York Police on the prowl. The Tactical Narcotics Team or TNT,
10:49
Speaker 1: the street level task force created by the NYPD to
10:52
Speaker 1: take down low level drug dealers, was in park Hill
10:56
Speaker 1: in that day. No one saw the undercover cop who
10:59
Speaker 1: made the deal, but everyone saw what happened next. Police cruisers, sirens,
11:05
Speaker 1: blue shirts, suns out, guns out, Dealers scattered, plain clothes
11:10
Speaker 1: and uniform. Cops gave chase, and they tuned up whoever
11:13
Speaker 1: they could catch. Some guys stopped and put their hands up,
11:16
Speaker 1: dropped to the ground, did as they were told. Others
11:19
Speaker 1: ran as if their lives depended on it. You God
11:22
Speaker 1: spotted T and T before Cliff, did you. God looked
11:25
Speaker 1: over a Cliff crossed the way Cliff was holding you.
11:28
Speaker 1: God didn't have to say a word, just gave Cliff
11:30
Speaker 1: a look, a look that didn't say a thousand words,
11:33
Speaker 1: Just two go now, the kind of unspoken chemistry that
11:38
Speaker 1: would one day paid dividends in a recording studio. Cliff
11:42
Speaker 1: was running fast, as he ran from that dice game
11:45
Speaker 1: to the rooftop fast as he ran to the cars
11:47
Speaker 1: in the street to make a sail. In a flash,
11:49
Speaker 1: he was off the sidewalk and inside his building, blood pumping,
11:53
Speaker 1: part pounding. His feet hit the staircase. He was moving
11:56
Speaker 1: faster now he assumed.
11:58
Speaker 2: The worst that the cops for a step behind him.
12:01
Speaker 1: He made it to his apartment, got rid of his vials,
12:03
Speaker 1: then back down the stairs without being spotted, and while
12:06
Speaker 1: the cops came in through the front and back doors,
12:09
Speaker 1: Cliff slipped out of a side door. His body surged
12:11
Speaker 1: with pure adrenaline. The second time Cliff's life was saved
12:16
Speaker 1: was in July nineteen ninety two. Cliff was twenty one,
12:21
Speaker 1: but once again it helped to know the quote unquote
12:23
Speaker 1: right people. Bobby Diggs aka the Rizza, was chilling on
12:27
Speaker 1: a park Hill Avenue stoop alongside Raycon and Jason Hunter
12:31
Speaker 1: aka Inspected Deck. Only a few months earlier. Rizza returned
12:36
Speaker 1: to New York after being found not guilty of attempted
12:39
Speaker 1: murder in Ohio. He was back with a new purpose
12:42
Speaker 1: in life. He was telling Ray and Deck about this
12:45
Speaker 1: new purpose, this clan, and how they both fit into it.
12:49
Speaker 1: He was telling them how others fit into it too,
12:51
Speaker 1: other guys from around the way, like that cat across
12:54
Speaker 1: the street right now, Clifford Smith. The guy was walking
12:57
Speaker 1: on the opposite sidewalk as they spoke, Riza and the
13:01
Speaker 1: guy's all new Cliff as Sheikwuan the poet freestyling on
13:04
Speaker 1: the corner handing out his latest tape. He could rhyme,
13:08
Speaker 1: and he was also a good looking dude, which meant
13:11
Speaker 1: that he scored points with the ladies. Having Cliff in
13:14
Speaker 1: your group would seriously up the ratio of women to
13:16
Speaker 1: men in the crowd at your shows. At the moment,
13:20
Speaker 1: Cliff was headed to one sixty park Hill Ave.
13:23
Speaker 2: That's where the weed was.
13:24
Speaker 1: Everyone knew the best weed was at one sixty the
13:27
Speaker 1: one six oh, and Cliff Well, he liked.
13:30
Speaker 2: Weed more than most.
13:32
Speaker 1: In fact, he smoked so much weed that Rizza didn't
13:34
Speaker 1: call him by his birth name, and he didn't call
13:36
Speaker 1: him by his five percenter name. Rizza called Cliff method
13:40
Speaker 1: or methical, both Staten Island slang from marijuana meth for short.
13:47
Speaker 1: In Rizza's mind, it was more than just a nickname.
13:50
Speaker 1: It was a new identity that separated the past from
13:52
Speaker 1: the future, an identity that was crucial to the musical
13:55
Speaker 1: world building Rizza was currently mapping out in his head.
13:59
Speaker 1: Riza hollered him come over here, and Meth paused. He
14:03
Speaker 1: looked in Rizzi's direction, and Rizza threw a hand on.
14:07
Speaker 1: Meth stood in front of the building at one six
14:08
Speaker 1: to zero park Kilive looked at the door and then
14:11
Speaker 1: turned back to Rizam and the guys, trying to make
14:13
Speaker 1: up his mind. Weed first or Rizza first? Nah Rizza first?
14:20
Speaker 1: The weed would still be there later on, Risam might not.
14:24
Speaker 2: Meth walked over to Rizzi's side of the street.
14:26
Speaker 1: What's good? Riza had the details. Wu Tang was about
14:29
Speaker 1: to go from concept to reality. Wu Tang was where
14:32
Speaker 1: Meth belonged, not here out on the street getting robbed
14:35
Speaker 1: by fiends and dragged by their cars or chased by
14:38
Speaker 1: the NYPDS, T and T squad. Rizza had a life
14:41
Speaker 1: changing experience, and now he was about to change the
14:44
Speaker 1: lives of everyone else. It was like the Supreme numbers said,
14:48
Speaker 1: one you do the knowledge, two you do the wisdom,
14:52
Speaker 1: and three you truly understand one in two. Wu Tang
14:56
Speaker 1: wasn't just another hip hop group. It was a way out,
14:59
Speaker 1: that was and they could all understand. And just then
15:03
Speaker 1: a car came to a screeching halt on the other
15:05
Speaker 1: side of the street, directly in front of number one
15:08
Speaker 1: six to SOHO. A small cluster of people were standing
15:10
Speaker 1: on the sidewalk outside, people going inside to buy weed,
15:13
Speaker 1: or people who'd already bought weed and were on their
15:15
Speaker 1: way out, standing in the exact spot where meth had
15:18
Speaker 1: just been moments before. And there were shouting, loud music
15:23
Speaker 1: booming from the car's stereo, and then gunshots after rapid fire,
15:29
Speaker 1: flashes of light from inside the car, smoke, the car's
15:32
Speaker 1: wheels began to spin, rubber burning on asphalt, the muffler rumbled,
15:36
Speaker 1: and the engine raced. The car shot off down the avenue,
15:40
Speaker 1: and quickly the sounds of chaos were replaced with the
15:42
Speaker 1: sounds of screams, people writhing on the ground, shrieking in pain.
15:46
Speaker 1: Four injured, another, a kid just sixteen years old dead.
15:50
Speaker 1: A kid wasn't even involved in hustling on the streets,
15:53
Speaker 1: A kid who had walked up the street to get
15:54
Speaker 1: his mom a pack of menhals and was on his
15:56
Speaker 1: way back home.
15:57
Speaker 2: Beth could have been that kid. Meth almost was that kid.
16:01
Speaker 1: If Rizza hadn't been there across the street, if Rizza
16:05
Speaker 1: hadn't called Meth over talk to him about this greater purpose,
16:09
Speaker 1: chances are Meth would be bleeding out on that park
16:11
Speaker 1: Hill Avenue sidewalk right now. And this realization hit Meth hard.
16:18
Speaker 1: One decision made all the difference, just one, all the difference,
16:23
Speaker 1: the difference between here or there, dead or alive, odd
16:29
Speaker 1: or even this door that path. Rizza, the man who
16:34
Speaker 1: would just save Meth's life by hollering at him from
16:36
Speaker 1: across the street, looked at Meth and told him that
16:39
Speaker 1: he had the route.
16:41
Speaker 2: He knew the way.
16:42
Speaker 1: Get on the bus Rizza was driving. Just don't ask
16:46
Speaker 1: where they were going. Five years, I saw Riza needed.
16:50
Speaker 1: Give him five years and they'd have a number one record,
16:53
Speaker 1: Plus they'd be.
16:54
Speaker 2: Far away from all of this.
16:57
Speaker 1: Rizza obviously had the knowledge and the wisdom, and Meth well,
17:02
Speaker 1: he had never understood anything so clearly in all his life.
17:12
Speaker 2: We'll be right back after this. We're, We're, We're.
17:20
Speaker 1: November ninth, nineteen ninety three, was a big day for
17:23
Speaker 1: fans of New York hip hop. Two records hit store
17:26
Speaker 1: shows that day, a tribe called Quest released their much
17:29
Speaker 1: anticipated third studio album, Midnight Marauders, and newcomers Wu Tang
17:34
Speaker 1: Clan released their debut Entered the Wu Tang thirty six
17:37
Speaker 1: chambers Try was at the height of their powers and
17:41
Speaker 1: their popularity. Midnight Marauders took off like a shot, all
17:44
Speaker 1: the way at number eight on the Billboard two hundred
17:47
Speaker 1: certified gold in just two months. Wu Tang, on the
17:50
Speaker 1: other hand, wasn't so fast out of the gate. Where
17:53
Speaker 1: Midnight Marauders was hooky and lean and to the Wu
17:56
Speaker 1: Tang was dense, It was grimy, murky, cross stitch of
18:01
Speaker 1: kung fu samples, coded language, altered egos, and pop culture references.
18:06
Speaker 1: It wasn't gangster rap, and it wasn't conscious rap, and
18:09
Speaker 1: it wasn't party rap. It was its own thing. It
18:13
Speaker 1: made listeners work, and though many of those listeners put
18:16
Speaker 1: down their hard earned cash for a copy, thirty thousand
18:19
Speaker 1: units sold in the first week alone, the album peaked
18:22
Speaker 1: only number forty one on the Billboard two hundred, not
18:25
Speaker 1: even close to the number one spot Rizza had promised
18:28
Speaker 1: to the rest of the clan. But in his defense,
18:31
Speaker 1: it was a five year plan and five years had
18:34
Speaker 1: yet to pass since he'd made that promise. Anyway, word
18:38
Speaker 1: began to build. The clan put in the work. They
18:40
Speaker 1: performed raucous live shows, They hit the road, and they
18:45
Speaker 1: brought the Ruckus to major markets far beyond New York.
18:48
Speaker 1: They were both dead serious and absolute gestures, a transgressive
18:52
Speaker 1: collective of creative thinkers who wormed their way into the
18:55
Speaker 1: hip hop world and exploded it from within. By January
18:59
Speaker 1: of nineteen ninety five, a little over a year later,
19:02
Speaker 1: when both The Tribe and Wu Tang albums were certified
19:05
Speaker 1: platinum enter the Wu Tang had actually surpassed Midnight Marauders
19:09
Speaker 1: in total sales. That's when the Rizza's master plan really
19:13
Speaker 1: kicked in. The plan wasn't just to make that big explosion,
19:17
Speaker 1: but to capitalize off the shrapnew that came from the
19:20
Speaker 1: big Bang.
19:21
Speaker 2: The solo albums. The free Agent side deals.
19:25
Speaker 1: The part of that initial record contract with Loud, granting
19:27
Speaker 1: each member of the group the freedom to make his
19:29
Speaker 1: own records with other record labels, and the more labels
19:33
Speaker 1: Wu Tang could infiltrate, the better, because if nine different
19:36
Speaker 1: labels are promoting nine artists who happened to be in
19:39
Speaker 1: Wu Tang clan. Ultimately, those nine labels are all promoting
19:43
Speaker 1: Wu Tang clan. Saturate the market with Wu. Increase your
19:47
Speaker 1: chances of making it to number one, make that money.
19:51
Speaker 1: Riza and Wu Tang Productions did just that.
19:54
Speaker 2: Riza Inc.
19:55
Speaker 1: Deals with most of the guys in the group a
19:57
Speaker 1: fifty to fifty split on their solo earning so that
19:59
Speaker 1: they could use the Wu Tang name and all the
20:02
Speaker 1: way Back in early nineteen ninety three months before Into
20:06
Speaker 1: the Wu Tang was even released, back when Protected Neck
20:09
Speaker 1: was the only official release they had on the market,
20:11
Speaker 1: three members of Wu Tang signed solo deals. Jiz was
20:15
Speaker 1: picked up by Geffen Records, Old Dirty Bastard went with
20:18
Speaker 1: Electra Records, a Method Man signed with def Jam. Meth's
20:22
Speaker 1: deal was the one that really stood out. At just
20:25
Speaker 1: twenty three years old, the youngest member of the group,
20:28
Speaker 1: Meth signed for one hundred and eighty thousand dollars. One
20:31
Speaker 1: hundred and eighty thousand dollars was three times what Loud
20:35
Speaker 1: Records paid for the entire Wu Tang clan. In nineteen
20:39
Speaker 1: ninety four, Meth released Tikau, the first solo album by
20:43
Speaker 1: a Wu Tang member. Mes record deals. The success of
20:46
Speaker 1: his album and the success of Wu Tang's album was
20:49
Speaker 1: a testament not just to Rizza's plan, but to the
20:51
Speaker 1: hard work they all were putting into the process. Their
20:55
Speaker 1: reality was changing, but the more reality changed, the more
20:59
Speaker 1: it stayed the same. Just as Meth was celebrating his
21:02
Speaker 1: own triumphs, tragedy struck back home on Staten Island.
21:10
Speaker 2: We're living, ever one to wait and not to draw.
21:12
Speaker 1: Any conclusions here, and to remain calm. This is being
21:15
Speaker 1: fully investigated by the police department, by the District Attorney's office.
21:19
Speaker 1: We've been through situations like this in our city before,
21:22
Speaker 1: or what appears one way it first turns.
21:23
Speaker 2: Out to be another way a little bit later.
21:25
Speaker 1: So it would be a shame if anybody jumped the
21:27
Speaker 1: conclusions here before at least there was an opportunity to
21:30
Speaker 1: have a full and complete investigation. April twenty nine, nineteen
21:34
Speaker 1: ninety four, No one on Staten Island wanted to hear
21:38
Speaker 1: what Rudy Giuliani had to say that night, But Giuliani
21:41
Speaker 1: was talking all the same live on the radio, doubting
21:44
Speaker 1: the truth, doubting what had happened just hours earlier on
21:47
Speaker 1: park Hill Avenue, as if the neighborhood suffered a mass hallucination.
21:52
Speaker 1: But they did see it. They watched cops kill one
21:57
Speaker 1: of the neighborhood's own NYPD o the life right out
22:01
Speaker 1: of them in the open. It was early evening, daylight
22:05
Speaker 1: escaping like the final breaths of the dead man on
22:07
Speaker 1: the pavement. And now here was Giuliani on air talking
22:13
Speaker 1: down to them, patronizing them the same old shit. Ever
22:17
Speaker 1: since Guliani had been sworn in as New York's mayor
22:20
Speaker 1: back in January, things had gotten worse for park Hill.
22:23
Speaker 1: The cops got real cozy and one hundred and twentieth
22:26
Speaker 1: Precinct in their special Narcotics Emergency Unit, harassing kids for loitering,
22:31
Speaker 1: humiliating kids by pulling down their pants to check for drugs.
22:35
Speaker 1: And the only thing the increased NYPD drug sweeps did
22:39
Speaker 1: was make a tenuous relationship between the community and law
22:41
Speaker 1: enforcement even worse. And now case was dead Ernest Saion
22:47
Speaker 1: aka case twenty two years old, walking up park Hill
22:52
Speaker 1: Avenue when the cherry bombs started going off. Someone was
22:56
Speaker 1: tossing them, no doubt, trying to fuck with the police case.
23:00
Speaker 1: But there he was, just walking in plain sight. The
23:04
Speaker 1: cops took a look at him, the CoP's new case.
23:06
Speaker 1: He had his fair share of brushes with a lot.
23:09
Speaker 1: The cops were probably thinking about that as they watched
23:12
Speaker 1: him walk. Eyewitness accounts vary as to what happened next.
23:16
Speaker 1: Some say that Case did nothing to provoke the attack.
23:20
Speaker 1: Then he didn't resist. That a cough walked up right
23:23
Speaker 1: behind him hit Case in the back of the head
23:25
Speaker 1: with the butt of his pistol. The Case staggered, grabbed
23:28
Speaker 1: hold of a nearby sycamore tree until the cop hit
23:30
Speaker 1: him again and knocked him unconscious, And that the cop
23:33
Speaker 1: dragged him by his hoodie until his pants came off.
23:36
Speaker 1: But what did happen was a Case wound up face
23:39
Speaker 1: down on the ground, pants around his ankles, hands cuffed
23:42
Speaker 1: behind his back, three quarter inch gash bleeding.
23:45
Speaker 2: From the back of his head.
23:47
Speaker 1: One cop with his knee on Case's back, another with
23:50
Speaker 1: his elbow behind Case's neck.
23:52
Speaker 2: Case struggled to breathe, He choked and gasped for air.
23:56
Speaker 1: Then the knee on his back and the elbow on
23:58
Speaker 1: his neck felt like a thousand pounds, very down and
24:01
Speaker 1: squeezing the life right out of his body. An hour later,
24:05
Speaker 1: Ernest case Sayon was taken to a nearby hospital, where
24:08
Speaker 1: he was pronounced dead. Official cause of death quote asphyxia
24:12
Speaker 1: by compression of the chest and neck while rear handcuffed
24:15
Speaker 1: and prone on the ground unquote. Some news reports labeled
24:20
Speaker 1: Case a drug suspect. Police at the scene claim that
24:23
Speaker 1: contrary to those eyewitness reports, Case ran when they tried
24:27
Speaker 1: to question a group of men, and then he lifted
24:29
Speaker 1: one officer in the air and threw another against defence,
24:32
Speaker 1: and then he was quote a very dangerous man in
24:35
Speaker 1: a very dangerous situation unquote. Three of those officers caught
24:39
Speaker 1: death duty pending an investigation, and the community rallied, and
24:44
Speaker 1: they weren't going to be quiet. They weren't going to
24:46
Speaker 1: let Rudy Giuliani tell them how to feel. Hundreds of
24:49
Speaker 1: park Hill residents march to Borrow Hall, candles in hand,
24:53
Speaker 1: and where they looked the NYPD in.
24:55
Speaker 2: The eye, called them as they saw them, murderers.
25:00
Speaker 1: On the very same day as Ernest case Seon's murder,
25:04
Speaker 1: all the way on the other side of the country
25:06
Speaker 1: in San Francisco, method Man Ray Kuon and ghost Face
25:10
Speaker 1: Killa found themselves in the same prone physician on the ground,
25:15
Speaker 1: faced down, handcuffed, police.
25:17
Speaker 2: Boots on their backs.
25:20
Speaker 1: Unlike Case, they were lucky released after forty five minutes
25:25
Speaker 1: their detainment chalked up to mistaken identity. But to Meth
25:29
Speaker 1: and the guys, just because they were members of the
25:31
Speaker 1: Wu Tang clan didn't make them different from guys like Case,
25:34
Speaker 1: Case could have been any of them, because when it
25:36
Speaker 1: came down to it, where they're back on Staten Island
25:39
Speaker 1: or out on the West Coast, then they were all
25:41
Speaker 1: the same. Not artists, not musicians, not hip hop stars,
25:46
Speaker 1: not trailblazers, breaking the mold and making history. All of
25:50
Speaker 1: that came second, first, and foremost. They were all one thing, targets.
26:26
Speaker 1: March nineteen ninety seven, Los Angeles, California. The dude wearing
26:31
Speaker 1: the blue bandana was paying tribute like the capos who
26:35
Speaker 1: walk into Michael Corleone's office at the end of The
26:37
Speaker 1: First Godfather, only they weren't in an office. They were
26:41
Speaker 1: inside a packed house of blues. Yo Man, you Wu
26:45
Speaker 1: Tan motherfuckers are the realist. Method Man had no allegiance
26:49
Speaker 1: to the Crips, or to any West Coast gang for
26:52
Speaker 1: that matter, but he accepted the compliment I mean the
26:56
Speaker 1: dude at a point, Wu Tang clan ain't nothing to
26:58
Speaker 1: fuck with, and those other New York dudes ran like bitches,
27:02
Speaker 1: the cript continued, Not you guys. Also true, Meth wasn't
27:07
Speaker 1: about to call nas and mob deep little bitches, but
27:10
Speaker 1: they did be feet back to New York.
27:12
Speaker 2: After the shit went down.
27:13
Speaker 1: After Biggie Small's took five bullets to the chest and
27:16
Speaker 1: abdomen at the corner of Wiltshire and South Fairfax, guys scattered.
27:20
Speaker 1: After that, the East Coast crews who have been hanging
27:22
Speaker 1: out west for the Soul Train Awards suddenly caught that
27:25
Speaker 1: New York state of mind, but not Maths and not
27:28
Speaker 1: Wu Tang. As far as Wu Tang saw it, there
27:32
Speaker 1: was no East Coast West Coast beef, just like Rizzi
27:35
Speaker 1: did and see beef between park Hill and Stapleton projects
27:38
Speaker 1: back on Staten Island, it was all love. They knew
27:42
Speaker 1: that Biggie's motive to be on the cover of Vibe
27:44
Speaker 1: magazine the year prior wasn't to promote some bullshit beef.
27:47
Speaker 2: Biggie just wanted to be.
27:49
Speaker 1: On the cover of Vive, period, and he made it
27:52
Speaker 1: on the front of the biggest hip hop publication in
27:55
Speaker 1: the world. His man Puffy standing behind him. But there
27:58
Speaker 1: was a catch. The words East versus West were printed
28:02
Speaker 1: in a bold font to the left of his mug.
28:05
Speaker 1: It was all propaganda, media, hype, narrative to sell magazines.
28:11
Speaker 1: Too many people took the East West thing seriously, believed
28:14
Speaker 1: it was actually a thing. This was the actual thing.
28:18
Speaker 1: Either you were cool or you weren't cool. It didn't
28:21
Speaker 1: matter what part of the country you lived in. So
28:24
Speaker 1: in early nineteen ninety seven, when it came time for
28:26
Speaker 1: The Klan to reconvene and record their second album, the
28:30
Speaker 1: follow up to the now platinum selling enter The Wu
28:32
Speaker 1: Tang thirty six Chambers, they didn't think twice about making
28:36
Speaker 1: the record in Los Angeles, and there were too many
28:38
Speaker 1: distractions at home in New York. There is a book
28:41
Speaker 1: time at a studio in North Hollywood, LA was going
28:44
Speaker 1: to be about focus work and the occasional party like
28:49
Speaker 1: Vibe magazine Soul Train after party.
28:51
Speaker 2: The evening of March.
28:52
Speaker 1: Eighth, everyone was there, Wesley Snipes, who in Houston Shack
28:58
Speaker 1: Biggie's new album was about to drop. In his new
29:00
Speaker 1: single Hypnotized Got Bodies Moving. It was a night to
29:03
Speaker 1: remember hours later. It was a night to remember for
29:06
Speaker 1: all the wrong reasons, because hours later Biggie Smalls was dead.
29:12
Speaker 1: It was a tragedy, not just the murder of the
29:15
Speaker 1: notorious Big the media circus that helped to inspire the
29:20
Speaker 1: media wasn't happy until they tasted blood, and now there
29:23
Speaker 1: was blood was all over their hands. Vibe Magazines should
29:27
Speaker 1: have taken a bullet, not Biggie Smalls. Inside the House
29:33
Speaker 1: of Blues, Meth watched the cryp pull a pistol from
29:35
Speaker 1: his pocket. He took Meth's hand and pressed the heater
29:38
Speaker 1: in his palm. Go ahead, take it, he said, you're
29:42
Speaker 1: gonna need it now, man, Meth said, trying to hand
29:45
Speaker 1: the gun back.
29:46
Speaker 2: I'm good.
29:48
Speaker 1: The crip was insistent, and Meth looked around. The House
29:51
Speaker 1: of Blues was packed. He quickly lost count of how
29:54
Speaker 1: many pairs of eyes were on And maybe they weren't
29:57
Speaker 1: all looking at him, but it felt like it. The
29:59
Speaker 1: dudes rocking blue colors and the girls hoping to get
30:01
Speaker 1: up close and personal to a hip hop star. Silverspoon
30:05
Speaker 1: La Brats want to be MC's. And then there were
30:08
Speaker 1: the others, the ones who looked like they didn't quite belong.
30:11
Speaker 1: They were there, and then they were gone. A morphous faces,
30:15
Speaker 1: lack of affect, oblivious to the party raging all around them,
30:19
Speaker 1: focus solely on you, and they kept their distance, but
30:22
Speaker 1: they kept their eyes on you too, eyes that were
30:25
Speaker 1: hidden behind ray bands. As soon as you made one
30:28
Speaker 1: of those guys, they disappeared like they'd never been there
30:33
Speaker 1: in the first place, like your brain made them up.
30:36
Speaker 1: It was hard not to think about what had just
30:38
Speaker 1: happened to Biggie and wonder if these people were here
30:40
Speaker 1: watching you with more intent and more scrutiny. Because of
30:44
Speaker 1: what had happened, It was also easy to assume that
30:47
Speaker 1: it would only get worse. The Crypt pushed the gun
30:51
Speaker 1: back into Meth's hand.
30:53
Speaker 2: Take it.
30:53
Speaker 1: He wasn't asking. Meth shook his head. He needed the
30:57
Speaker 1: Crypt to understand. He appreciated the off for the gesture,
31:01
Speaker 1: but he didn't want a gun, not now, not ever,
31:06
Speaker 1: and not Everyone in Wu Tang felt the same way.
31:09
Speaker 1: Like method Man, Ghosts, Face Killa knew that they were targets,
31:13
Speaker 1: that their lives were always in danger and always would
31:16
Speaker 1: be in danger, no matter how rich or how famous
31:19
Speaker 1: they became, or how far their past lives in the
31:21
Speaker 1: streets were behind them. Protect your neck wasn't just a
31:25
Speaker 1: buzzworthy line, it was a mantra. If ghosts carried a piece,
31:29
Speaker 1: That's what it was. For protection. There were guys who
31:33
Speaker 1: wanted what you had it would do anything to take it.
31:36
Speaker 1: Dudes who loved Wu Tang but who would still jump
31:39
Speaker 1: any member of the group and rob their ask given
31:41
Speaker 1: the chance. And then there were the guys with grudges,
31:44
Speaker 1: grudges held over from wayback. The past is never dead,
31:48
Speaker 1: It's only sleeping. And later that same year, in nineteen
31:52
Speaker 1: ninety seven, the past woke up and hit back Stupenville, Ohio,
31:58
Speaker 1: the town where Rizza took the stand for tempted murder,
32:01
Speaker 1: where ghost took a bullet, and now the town where
32:04
Speaker 1: another man's body was bleeding out on the sidewalk, shot
32:07
Speaker 1: dead with a gun, a gun that, according to the
32:10
Speaker 1: Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, was provided by a
32:14
Speaker 1: group of gun runners that went by the name Wu
32:17
Speaker 1: Tang Clan. I'm Jake Brennan in this episode of Disgraceland
32:24
Speaker 1: is to be continued. Disgraceland was created by Yours Truly
32:40
Speaker 1: and is produced in partnership with Double Elvis credits for
32:43
Speaker 1: this episode can be found on the show notes page
32:46
Speaker 1: at disgracelampod dot com.
32:48
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32:49
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Speaker 1: Rock a Roller, he Theddland