Latest / DISGRACELAND / Cappadonna (Wu-Tang Clan Chapter 6): Someone Else’s Crack Rocks, Turning State’s Evidence, and a Rat in the Inner Circle

Transcript

Cappadonna (Wu-Tang Clan Chapter 6): Someone Else’s Crack Rocks, Turning State’s Evidence, and a Rat in the Inner Circle · DISGRACELAND

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Disgraceland as a production of Double Elvis. The stories about
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: Wu Tang Clans Cappadonna are insane. He was arrested for
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: possession of someone else's crack. He did time at Rikers
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: Island at the very same time Wu Tang Clan was
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: being formed without him. He joined Wu Tang once they
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: were already famous, but he unknowingly brought a rat into
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: their inner circle. He hired a manager with a criminal
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: past who was actually a federal informant testifying in two cases,
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: one involving the mob. And despite making a questionable hire,
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: Cappadonna made great music, some of the greatest hip hop
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: music on some of the biggest hip hop albums from
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: the Wu Tang universe. Unlike that clip I played for
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: you at the top of the show. That wasn't great music.
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: That was a preset loop for my melotron called Wolf
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: Kisses MK one. I played you that clip because I
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: can't afford the rights to Maria Maria by Santana featuring
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: the product GMB And why would I play you that
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: specific slice of nylon stringed cheese? Could I afford it?
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: Because that was the number one song in America on
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: May twenty third, two thousand and that was the day
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: The Village Voice ran a bombshell expose that revealed Cappadonna's
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: manager to be a shady al Capone wannabee who had
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: turned state's evidence and gotten cozy with the Feds. On
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: this episode, someone Else's crack doing time, criminal pass a
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: rap in the Inner Circle in a wound tang clans Cappadonna.
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: I'm Jake Brennan in This Is Disgraceland. The cipher was strong.
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: Not a cipher as in the Final Supreme Number, the
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: Supreme Numbers being the guiding philosophy of the five percent
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: Nation aka the Nation of Gods and Earths, but a
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: cipher as in a group of rappers standing in a
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: circle making music. A crowd gathered around, and people bob
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: their heads, and they'd cheered on their favorites, the known
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: names and the newcomers alike. Their presence raised the steaks.
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: Higher stakes meant the stronger cipher. The cipher wasn't the
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: only strong thing. The music was strong too. Old school
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: fifteen years old, give or take. The honey Drippers impeached
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: the president a James Brown groove. If James Brown was
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: like the third Hardest working Man in Showbiz crackled from
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: the forty five on the turntable, and the DJ looped
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: the instrumental section of the song with a second turntable
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: and a duplicate forty five, the kick drum, the high hat,
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: the snare popping like.
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: A slap in the face.
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: It was funky, lean, the perfect foundation for a rapper
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: to lay down a few bars, and the mcs passed
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: the mic around and did their best to top the
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: guy before them. It was simultaneously nerve wracking and thrilling.
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: And maybe you go into a rap battle feeling a
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: little self conscious. Maybe you size up the other guys
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: waiting their turn and get that familiar pain of inadequacy.
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: By the time the groove gets going and the cipher
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: starts to do its thing, though, you're feeding off of
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: that energy, you're confident, and then you're invincible. You're strong,
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: just like the music and just like the cipher.
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: But if he had to fall at him, that was
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: the end.
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: As soon as he took the mic, you were done.
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: Only took him half a verse to render you irrelevant.
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: There was a reason they no longer called Darryl Hill
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: by his birth name They called him original with a
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: capital O, because when you're the neighborhood's og, you get
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: treated with respect. They called him the slang reverend, the
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: Staten Islands slick rick. They called him Cappuccino, and finally
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: they called him capa Donna because in the world of
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: ciphers and rhymes and improvtu rap battles, Cap wasn't just
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: the down. He was the captain of the Dons. Words
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: were pure rhythm in his head. Rhyming one word to
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: the next came as easily to Cap as breathing came
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: to anyone else. No one could touch him, not Rizza,
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: not Rizza's cousins either, not old dirty bastard, not Jizza
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: aka the Genius, a bona fide hip hop godhead who
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: hailed from bed Sty. Not that the other mcs didn't try.
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: In fact, many of them were taught how to wrap
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: in the first place by capa Donna. Breath control, word choice,
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: the mechanics of a line. Cap knew how to do
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: all of it first, and he knew how to do all.
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: Of it best.
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: If you wanted a fraction of his ability, you sat
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: at his feet on any given speak corner or back
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: staircase on Staten Island, and you did your best to
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: attempt to be CAP's equal. Don't try too hard, though
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: there was no being equal to Cappa Donna. He was
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: always one step ahead in his mind and on the mic.
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: Everyone in park Hill knew this, yet not everyone in
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: Staten Island saw this. In fact, some saw Cap as
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: something else, a menace, a part of the problem, and
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: for no other reasons than the music he liked, the
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: clothes he war, and the color of his skin.
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: Never was that more clear.
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: Than one day in the early nineteen nineties, when Cap,
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: around twenty years old, was chilling on the street corner.
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: There was no cipher today, just words forming rhythms inside
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: his head. Preparation for the next cipher was a constant.
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: But as Cap prepared, suddenly there was someone else, a
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: guy right there in CAP's peripheral vision, running, panting, sweating.
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: Cap turned his head to look the world, pumped on
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: the brakes, and the air got thick. The guy hauling
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: out in CAP's direction moved in slow motion. He was
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: gradually getting closer.
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: Behind him.
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: Cap saw two NYPD officers in close pursuit, and their
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: movements were just as drawn out and pronounced, arms pumping slowly,
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: legs pounding the pavement with giant, earth shattering steps. The
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: guy was close to Cap now, his labored breathing like
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: a slow down windstorm, and just as he passed by,
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: he dropped something and the whirl quickly hit the gas.
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: The slow most splintered into pieces. CAP's head snapped to
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: follow the guys. He tore past, and nearly knocking him
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: over in the process. Cap looked down at the ground
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: and saw a paper bag crumpled there at his feet.
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: He turned his head back to where the guy had
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: come from, and now those two cops were right there,
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: so close he could smell the chocolate glazed on their breath.
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: And the cops paid no mind to the other guy.
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: He was long gone. Didn't matter. They had what they wanted.
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: They told Cap to put his hands where they could
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: see them. They grabbed Cap like he was Staten Island's
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: most wanted. They made sure it wasn't gentle, and one
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: of the cops picked up the bag from the ground.
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: He reached inside and pulled out vials of crack rocks.
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: Cap felt the cuffs go on as he was red
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: his rights. This was a cipher now a circle of
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: steel locked tight and strong around his wrists. But he
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: didn't belong in police custody, not right now, he didn't.
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: That wasn't his bag of dope. But this also wasn't
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: a rap battle, so Cap had less of a chance
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: of winning. Instead, Cap lost big time. The NYPD didn't
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: care if the other guy got away. They were done running,
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: and they took whoever they could get. And who was
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: this guy? Not a rapper dealing out unbeatable rhymes? He
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: was a street hood dealing out crack a pestilence. They'd
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: testify under oath that that was true. Some seven ish
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: years later, in nineteen ninety seven, this arrest was once
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: again of importance, not just to the NYPD, but to
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: the FBI and the ATF as well, because in nineteen
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: ninety seven, a man named Robert Johnson, an alleged known
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: associate of Cappadonna, was gunned down by two mass men
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: on Staten Island.
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: It looked like a hit, and at.
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: Least one of the guns used in the murder could
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: be traced back to a bat of gunspot in Steubenville,
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: Ohio by other known associates of CAP's hip hop group.
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: Wu Tang Clan.
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: But back in the early nineties, when Cap was arrested
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: for the bag of crack dropped at his feet, Wu
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: Tang Clan weren't yet a thing. They were just about
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: to be. The Riza began to assemble as soon to
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: be legendary collective right around the time the Cap was apprehended. Cap,
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: of course, was a no brainer for the collective's original lineup.
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: He had style, he had rhymes, he had an unfuckiable flow,
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: and he was one of Staten Island's best. If pushed,
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: several of the other members of Wu Tang would probably
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: admit that they were not equals when it came to
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: Cappadonna's skills. But equality had nothing to do with it,
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: because this Wu Tang Clan took shape and then took
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: off like a shot. They did so without the original
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: with a capital low, without the slang reverend the Staten
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: Island slick rick. Because Cappa Donna was doing time at
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: Riker's Island for someone else's drugs nineteen ninety two, New
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: York City, Goldilocks was clean out of ecstasy. He needed
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: a re up, so he called this guy, Lord Michael
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: wasn't just Goldilocks's e connection. Lord Michael introduced all of
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: Staten Island to the drug a few years prior. Around
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: the same time, he also introduced Manhattan clubs to techno
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: music from the UK in New York City in nineteen
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: ninety two. If you wanted the best new acid house
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: tracks from across the Pond were the best e that
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: money could buy, you call it Lord Michael. Goldilocks said
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: he needed twenty thousand hits of this stuff. Lord Michael
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: said that would set them back one hundred and eighty
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: thousand dollars. No problem, Goldilocks had a cash His assistant
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: would be right over to make the trade. Everyone called
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: Goldilocks's assistant mister Purple on account of the fact that
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: he wore purple clothes and dyed his hair purple. Or
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: maybe it was because Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs had just
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: hit theaters. Either way, dude was impossible to miss when
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: he showed up at Lord Michael's swank Gramercy Park apartment
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: later that day. Lord Michael was waiting for him. So
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: we're to undercover cops who had planted themselves outside of
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: the apartment door and before mister Purple could even step inside,
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: the cops emerged from their hiding place, guns drawn, one
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: hundred percent serious. Purple was one hundred percent fought. They
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: pushed him inside the apartment and the door swung shut
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: behind them. The cops told Purple and Lord Michael to
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: hit the floor. They both did. Purple was shaking with fear.
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: One of the cops stared at the bulge in Purple's pants,
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: nearly two hundred grand in your pocket? Or are you
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: just happy to see me? Purple wasn't laughing. The cops
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: cuffed them, and then they cut Lord Michael, lying next
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: to Purple on the swank apartment's swanky floor. The cops
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: took the one hundred and eighty grand from Purple's pocket
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: and left. When mister Purple returned to his boss, Goldilocks,
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: empty handed and recounted to the story about getting ripped
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: off by two cops, Goldilocks didn't think it made sense.
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: In fact, the story stunk. He couldn't help, but wonder
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: was he being played? Was Lord Michael actually behind the ripoff?
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: But Goldilocks's suspicions were short lived. Lord Michael's number two
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: came around and told Goldilocks to chill. The only thing
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: to be concerned about was crooked cops. New York was
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: crawling with badge wearing degenerates, and Lord Michael had nothing
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: to do with the shakedown. This guy, lord Michael's number two.
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: He was very convincing, so convincing that Goldilocks bought it
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: and then continued to buy drugs from Lord Michael. In reality, though,
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: Goldilocks had every right to be concerned, because the whole
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: story was bullshit, the story, the police, the feigned innocence,
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: all of it. The cops who busted Purple at Lord
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: Michael's apartment, they weren't real cops. There were a couple
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: of Lord Michael's thugs pretending to be cops. Lord Michael
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: robbed his own client, and then he paid his number
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: two guy five grand to go bullshit that client into
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: believing he had been robbed. It hadn't always been like
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: this at first. Lord Michael aka Michael Caruso was interested
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: in drugs and music. Caruso was a major catalyst for
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: rave music in America. When he brought a creative techno
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: twelve inches back to Staten Island from the UK. He
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: was there for the dawn of disco two thousand at
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: the infamous Limelight Club, where party animals like Michael Alec
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: held court and long before Alec murdered and dismembered his friend,
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: which you can hear all about in Season one of Disgraceland.
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: But I digressed.
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: The app hemisphere at Limelight was all inclusive, positive and
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: homicide free, no matter if you were a punk.
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: Or a yuppie, straight or gay, cool or lame.
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: Caruso's future shock parties where MDMA and PCP get gobbled
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: up like tic TACs and pixie sticks with the stuff
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: of legend. Michael Caruso was at the forefront of American
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: club culture as it was quickly changing. But Caruso's sudden
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: clout and fame in the New York club scene changed
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: him too.
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: Soon.
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: It was less about music and drugs and more about
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: power grabs, home invasions, robberies, and scams, like the time
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: he orchestrated the armed theft of twelve thousand dollars in
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: a box a ketamine from the apartment of a party promoter.
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: They bound with duct tape during the promoter's birthday party.
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: No less as DJ Frankie Bones put it, Caruso wanted
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: to be quote the al Capone of raves unquote, and
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: if Caruso was al Capone, then New York Mayor Rudy
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: Giuliani was elliot ness. Just like the city was cracking
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: down on drugs sold on the streets, they began to
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: crack down on nightclubs, Limelight in particular, which Giuliani equated
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: to a drug supermarket. In nineteen ninety six, Giuliani brought
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: the hammer down after a family blamed Limelight's owner Peter
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: Geishen for the drug overdose death of their son. Geishen
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: and New York club culture were put on trial, which
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: meant suddenly Michael Caruso needed a new place to crash.
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: At the same time, Cappadonna, a few years out of
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: prison and since welcomed back into the Wu Tang clan
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: family as their unofficial tenth member, needed a personal manager.
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: Caruso's reputation preceded him. Wu Tang were likely well aware
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: of his role in those batshit robberies and violent power moves.
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: Caruso's do or die lifestyle was endearing to some of
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: them because it reminded them of the times when they
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: had to make their bones in that world, plus, managing
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: a member of Wu Tang wasn't exactly a job for
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: just anyone. You had to have some serious life experience
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: and a set of brass balls to survive in this
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: particular world. So Cap brought Caruso on board. Caruso tried
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: to blend in, but like mister Purple before him, he
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: was incapable of blending. An Italian guy with gold teeth
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: and corn rows is.
• 16:19
  Speaker 2: Gonna stick out.
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: It may have been a foolish look, but it was
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: only foolish until Lord Michael menacingly peeked out from behind
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: the elaborate get up to put the screws to that
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: night's victim. In nineteen ninety nine at a show at
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: the Palladium in Worcestern, Massachusetts. The victim was a fledgling
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: concert promotion company. It caused AP Daddy Productions an arm
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: and a leg to put on a show featuring Cap
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: and inspected deck. In fact, the Harvard undergrads behind ap
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: Daddy were already hemorrhaging cash before the show even started.
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: Why because Wu Tang took what they wanted and stuck
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: AP Daddy with the bill room service at the hotel,
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: Pants and shirts straight off the rack during a meet
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: and greet at a hip hop clothing store. Caruso didn't
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: need to flash a piece or tie anyone up with
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: duct tape for this particular scam to work out. These
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: Ivy League herbs were green as hell. All it took
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: was a few members of Wu Tang's entourage selling tickets
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: and VIP passes on the download of people waiting in
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: line outside the venue. Cap Deck and Caruso left wister
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: with cash lining their pockets, while Ap Daddy were left
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: begging their daddies for a bailout. That same year, at
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: a show with Cap and Ghost Face Killer in Washington, DC,
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: things took a more violent turn. The concert promoter, an
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: adult this time, offered Cap and Ghost a Ford explorer
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: to get them back and forth from the venue to
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: the hotel. Caruso was pissed. He wanted something bigger. Where's
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: the van, he asked the promoter. I don't get a
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: fucking van, I want a thousand dollars right now. The
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: promoter looked at Caruso like he was from outer space.
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: What a van? This was it? Man? A Ford explorer?
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: Take it or leave it.
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: Caruso made sure everyone could see the handgun he's stuffed
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: in the waistband of his jeans. It's about to get
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: real in here, he said, I'm about to come up
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: with some heat. Caruso never followed through with this threat,
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: and he never got what he wanted either, but he
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: made a lasting impression. The concert was incredible, except for
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: having to deal with Caruso, which was a nightmare. And
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: that's what the promoter later said, anyway, adding that in
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: this business you run into a lot of assholes, but
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: Caruso was the biggest dickhead I've ever had to deal with.
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: The concert promoter's candid opinion was not news to Capadonna,
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: Ghost Face or anyone in Wu Tang. They all knew
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: that Caruso was a dickhead, but he was their dickhead, you.
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: Know what I mean.
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: Here's the thing, though, Okay, here's multiple things. One Michael
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: Caruso aka Lord Michael, wasn't supposed to be messing with
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: dudes in DC. Two he wasn't supposed to be outside
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: the state of New York. Three he wasn't supposed to
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: be associating with known criminals, which technically cap and ghost
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: most certainly were. And four he definitely wasn't to be
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: carrying a gun. Why Because Michael Caruso was a cooperating
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: witness for the federal government. Some in law enforcement thought
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: he had something to do with the death of his housekeeper,
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: which supposedly was a suicide, and in order to save
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: his own ass, he turned state's evidence during the trial
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: of Peter Geishen and Limelight. He was an informant, a rat,
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: maybe even worse if what they said about his housekeeper
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: was true.
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: But just like Goldilocks.
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: Before them, Cap and Ghost and Wu Tang only knew
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: part of the Michael Caruso's story, and it was only
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: a matter of time before they knew the whole thing.
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: We'll be right back after this. We're we're, we're.
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: Don't believe anything you read about me in the papers.
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: It's all bullshit. Michael Caruso was running that smoke screen again.
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: He told capa Donna and the guys in Wu Tang
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: clan whatever he had to in order to convince him
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: that he was the guy they were beginning to think
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: that he was, just like he convinced Goldilocks that he
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: didn't rob him even though he actually had. But unlike
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: that business with Goldilocks. Caruso no longer had a number
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: two to deliver the message for him. He did his
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: own dirty work. Now, haven't you read stuff about yourself
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: that isn't true? Cap knew better than to believe everything
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: he read in the papers, the times, the posts that
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: whatever the fuck if you believe the papers and you
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: believe the Wu Tang were gun runners or gangbangers, that
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms had reason to
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: launch a probe into those dubious claims, or that the
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: FBI had reason to investigate the group not as a
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: musical collective, but as a criminal organization. Cap knew what
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: it was like to be seen as something you weren't.
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: Case in point, the time he was arrested for someone
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: else's drugs when they were thrown at his feet. It
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: was his word against the NYPDS. He had no other choice.
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: But he didn't bitch and moan about taking the heat.
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: He did his time at Rikers for a crime he
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: didn't commit. And let's say, for argument's sake, there were
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: other crimes he committed in his lifetime that was beside
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: the point. The point was that he was innocent of
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: this particular crime, and this crime was the only one
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: that got him sent away. It didn't give him much
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: faith in the justice system. It reinforced something that he
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: already knew that he was not equal in the eyes
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: of the law. But as a five percenter, he had
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: to strive to be equal in the way he did
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: his life. Deal equally with all people. That's what Supreme
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: number six was all about.
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: Equality.
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: Six was also the number of the devil, because the
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: devil has the power to be equal to man, but
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: Wu Tang had strength in numbers to keep the devil
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: at bay. That when Kap emerged from his prison stay
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: a free man, he was welcomed into the Wu Tang
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: family with open arms. His first appearance as part of
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: the Klan was the nineteen ninety five single ice Cream,
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: a track from Ray Kwan only built for a Cuban
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: Links album. The next year, he traded verses on Ghostface's
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: solo debut Iron Man, and even made the cover two
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: and then the year after that, Cap made his official
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: Wu Tang debut on the Wu Tang Forever album, most
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: notably on the hit single Triumph. At first, Cap was
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: a featured performer rather than an official full time member,
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: but that was just on paper. In spirit, he was
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: a member. These other nine guys were the only guys
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: he could trust, the guys he came up with, the
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: guys he mopped the floor with at rap battles back
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: in the day, lovingly mopped the floor with, of course,
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: because that was a big part of the rapport then
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: and now, giving each other shit.
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: Your verse was tight, no doubt, But.
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: I'm going to fucking destroy you on this next go round.
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: One.
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: Upsmanship raised the stakes. It made a strong bond even stronger, strong,
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: like a cipher strong in the way only ten equally
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: worthy MC's can be. Michael Caruso, though, CAP was beginning
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: to wonder if that dude was he to the rest
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: of them from the jump, Caruso trafficked not just in
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: party drugs, but in deception. He used a friend who
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: taped thousands of pills to her body under her large
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: flowing sun dresses to move ecstasy from London to New
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: York without drawing suspicion. The paunch that he served at
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: Future Shock Knights the club Knight was spiked with MDMA.
• 23:20
  Speaker 2: And what about the death of.
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: Caruso's housekeeper in his apartment. The guy had his brains
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: blown out, but Caruso swore it was a suicide. But
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: when the cops first showed up to the crime scene,
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: Caruso was holding the thirty two in his hand, and
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: the housekeeper had something like one hundred pills worth of
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: Valume in his bloodstream. If you're that fucked up on valume,
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: how could you hold a gun to your own head,
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: let alone squeeze the trigger. Then there was the Facts,
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: thirty pages sent to Wu Tang's offices from a Village
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: Voice reporter. The Facts was full of legal documents. Village
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: Voice articles ironclad proved that the group had a rat
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: in their midst. Still, it's unclear if anyone in the
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: Wu Tang camp even put eyes on this fact. When
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: Ghost Face Killo was approached by someone from the Voice
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: to comment on Caruso and the allegations surrounding him, Ghosts
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: got defensive.
• 24:15
  Speaker 2: How could you say that about Mike? Ghost replag he's
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: a good guy.
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: Michael Caruso meanwhile doubled down on defending himself. He swore
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: to Wu Tang that he never told the Feds anything
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: about them.
• 24:26
  Speaker 2: In fact, he said he never.
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: Informed on anyone period whether ghosts or cap or any
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: of them knew it. At the time, they weren't being
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: told the whole truth, and when the truth did come out,
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: it shook Wu Tang Clan to their core. On May
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: twenty third, two thousand, The Village Voice published an article
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: that went deep into Michael Caruso's crimes and transgressions. The
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: article made it very clear that Caruso had managed to
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: con just about everyone he associated with, including Wu Tang Clan.
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: It outed Caruso as a rat in the Peter Geisen case.
• 25:27
  Speaker 2: It labeled him a federal informant. But there was more.
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: The article shed light on Caruso's latest role as a
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: cooperating witness and a case against a former business partner
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: who had ties to the New York Mafia's Five Families.
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: Caruso was set to testify against this wise guy in
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: just a few months time. Just three days after the
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: Voice article hit stance, a headline and Rolling Stone magazine
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: read Wu Tang Clan Fire's manager. After Village Voice expose,
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: a spokesperson for Wu Tang issued a statement that the
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: group was distancing themselves from Cruso. The timing could not
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: have been worse. This was the moment that the ATF
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: and the FBI were beginning to watch every little move
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: the Wu Tang made in preparation for a Rico prosecution
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: case that labeled the hip hop group a major criminal organization.
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: Associating with a guy who associated with guys connected to
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: the mafia not.
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: A good look.
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: What's more, learning that someone in your camp was a snitch,
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: and not just a snitch, but a snitch working to
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: aid the federal government was enough to turn even the
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: most minor paranoia into full blown delusion. And so, just
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: as Wu Tang were distancing themselves from Michael Caruso, Wu
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: Tang distanced themselves from Cappadonna, or at least some in
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: Wu Tang did.
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: Raykwon, for one.
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: Called in the New York hip Hop station Hot ninety
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: seven to say that Cap was never an original member.
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: Just look at the back of the Wu Tang Forever
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: CD those tracks say featuring capa Donna. But the splintering
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: of Wu Tang didn't stop there. It was the year
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: two thousand, the millennium Big Change.
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: Was on the horizon.
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: Hip hop was continuing to evolve. Jay Z outcasts, Diddy,
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: Lil Wayne, and Eminem dominated the airwaves. It was also
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: the year of Wu Tang's third studio album, The w
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: another number one hip hop and R and B album,
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: another platinum cellar, and their clothing line Wuwar was just
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: as successful from a business perspective. Looking from the outside in,
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: Wu Tang had never been stronger, but from the inside
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: looking out, things weren't so stable. Doubt had been introduced
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: into the group's own private shout in. But with that
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: doubt came the question of equality. Were they all being.
• 27:45
  Speaker 2: Treated equally and fairly?
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: It was one guy making more than the rest. Egos
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: started to call the shots. One by one, guys began
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: to ask Rizza to release them from their contracts. These
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: were the contracts that Riza set up with each member
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: eight years earlier in ninety two, when the group first
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: signed with Loud Records, contracts that split their earnings fifty
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: to fifty with Rizza and Wu Tang Clan Productions. All
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: the guys in Wu Tang had one of these contracts,
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: all except Jizza, who didn't do written contracts with his brothers.
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: Jizza did handshakes. But this wasn't nineteen ninety two anymore,
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: and Wu Tang wasn't just a group of neighborhood guys
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: looking to lift themselves off the streets and into a
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: better life. It was the year two thousand. They had
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: the better life, and the better life felt different. It
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: didn't feel personal anymore. It felt like business. Just what
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: Wu Tang's business was at this particular moment in time
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: depended on who you asked. Federal Bureau of Investigation Memo
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: date four or five, two thousand precedents, routine kid number
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: two eight one f dash ny dash two seven one
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: seven four seven title Wu Tang Clan synopsis requests the
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: assistance of the fast unit to be involved in the
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: above captioned case details. The Wu Tang Clan is a
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: well known musical group from the Staten Island, New York
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: area that specializes in rap type music. The Wu Tang
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: Clan was started in the early nineteen nineties and was
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: founded by It is primarily made up of the above
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: case captioned individuals who are more widely known by their
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: street names in the music industry. Now, the guns purchased
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: by the Wu Tang Clan have been traced to the Steubenville,
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: Ohio area. Once individuals have proven themselves as good and
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: loyal members of associates. They are offered contracts to record
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: rap music under one of the Wu Tang clan's record labels.
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: Numerous recording companies were incorporated in bank accounts established.
• 29:44
  Speaker 2: Some of the legitimate businesses operated.
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: By the Wu Tang Clan include record companies, record labels, albums,
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: real estate, a car leasing company, a clothing line, and
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: a production company. This case is being worked in conjunction
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: with Squad C thirty Violent Crime Slash Gang Squad, the
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: US Attorney's Office Eastern District of New York, the one
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: and twenty Precinct Detectives Unit NYPD Staten Island in the
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: Richmond County District Attorney's Office, Staten Island. It has anticipated
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: that the RCDAO Forfeiture Unit.
• 30:15
  Speaker 2: Will also be involved in this case.
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: It is requested that the nyfbi's Fast Unit become involved
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: with this matter also. It has been assigned to the
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: task of identifying the flow of money through the assets
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: and entities controlled by the Wu Tang Clan and will
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: work in conjunction with the Fast Unit.
• 30:33
  Speaker 2: The Fast Unit, or.
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: Financial Analysis Strategic Targeting, was a top secret unit developed
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: as part of the FBI's anti money laundering investigations, and
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: intelligence strategy. The team was made up of customs agents,
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: FBI agents, the DEA, the Brooklyn DA's office, the Manhattan
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: DA's office, and New York State Police in order to
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: identify targets, gather intelligence, and then pass that information along
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: the cooperating agencies. The FBI was undeterred in its pursuit
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: of equality, specifically in that important value in American society
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: where everyone has equal justice under the law. The law
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: was there to be obeyed. No one was above it,
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: not the Gambino family, but not Wu Tang Clan. Agents
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: at the FBI's New York Field office dug through old
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: arrest records courtesy of their NYPD colleagues to find some
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: more dirt on the hip hop group. They planned to
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: turn this ant hill into a mountain, drug deals, robbery, shooting,
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: stints at rikers, whatever they could get to build their case,
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: and through blood, sweat and tears, earned the justice that
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: they craved.
• 31:40
  Speaker 2: And they were close.
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: They just needed a little more time and a few
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: more pieces of hard evidence. They'd get there, and when
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: they did, Wu Tang Clan, as the world knew them,
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: would come crashing to the ground. All the way back
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: to the streets from where they came. Jake Brennan in
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: this episode of Disgraceland is to be continued. Disgraceland was
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: created by Yours Truly and is produced in partnership with
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: Double Elvis. Credits for this episode can be found on
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: the show notes page at disgracelampod dot com. If you're
• 32:28
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• 32:32
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• 32:34
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• 32:36
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• 33:08
  Speaker 2: Rock a Roller, He's a bad don man.