Latest / DISGRACELAND / Inspectah Deck (Wu-Tang Clan Chapter 5): Running Scams, Doing Time, and NYC’s Ongoing War Against the Drug Trade

Transcript

Inspectah Deck (Wu-Tang Clan Chapter 5): Running Scams, Doing Time, and NYC’s Ongoing War Against the Drug Trade · DISGRACELAND

0:00
Speaker 1: Disgraceland as a production of Double Elvis. The stories about
0:21
Speaker 1: Wu Tang Clans Inspected Deck are insane. Growing up poor
0:26
Speaker 1: in the Staten Island projects, he stole and ran scams
0:30
Speaker 1: to get the things he didn't have. When he was fifteen,
0:33
Speaker 1: he was arrested for selling crack to an undercover cop.
0:37
Speaker 1: In jail, he learned how to hold his own against older,
0:41
Speaker 1: more dangerous convicts. But despite what he learned, he was
0:45
Speaker 1: busted for drugs again and wound up doing nearly two
0:50
Speaker 1: more years behind bars. It was in prison the second
0:54
Speaker 1: time that he began to work on his rhyming skills.
0:57
Speaker 1: He made his tongue as sharp as a sold and
1:01
Speaker 1: with that razor sharp tongue, Inspected Deck made great music,
1:07
Speaker 1: some of the greatest music in hip hop history as
1:10
Speaker 1: a member of Wu Tang Clan. Unlike that clip I
1:13
Speaker 1: played for you at the top of the show, that
1:16
Speaker 1: wasn't great music. That was a preset loop from my
1:20
Speaker 1: melotron called Resuscitation Dummy MK two. I played you that
1:26
Speaker 1: clip because I can't afford the rights to Escapade by
1:30
Speaker 1: Janet Jackson. And why would I play you that specific
1:34
Speaker 1: slice of savior Troubles cheese. Could I afford it? Because
1:40
Speaker 1: that was the number one song in America on March sixth,
1:44
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety and that was the day that two detectives
1:47
Speaker 1: were injured and one state cop was killed during a
1:51
Speaker 1: drug bust gone bad on the Lower East Side, the
1:55
Speaker 1: latest boondoggle in New York City's ongoing war against the
1:58
Speaker 1: drug trade, a war that Inspected Deck was both caught
2:03
Speaker 1: up in and desperately wanted to escape. On this episode,
2:08
Speaker 1: running rhyming, undercover cops, dangerous convicts, drug busts gone bad,
2:14
Speaker 1: and Wu Tang clans, Inspected Deck. I'm Jake Brennan, and
2:20
Speaker 1: this is disgrace Land, nineteen eighty five, Brooklyn House of Detention.
2:56
Speaker 1: The kid kept to the corner of his cramp cell.
2:59
Speaker 1: He was quiet, reserved. He minded his own business, and
3:03
Speaker 1: he listened. The older inmates talked a lot. Their voices
3:08
Speaker 1: carried down the hallway and bounced off the walls. They
3:12
Speaker 1: talked about the things they'd done with their hands, the
3:15
Speaker 1: triggers and tits they'd squeezed, the blood they'd spilled, and
3:19
Speaker 1: the lives they'd ruined. Some talked about what they were
3:22
Speaker 1: going to do when they get out of the joint,
3:24
Speaker 1: and there were people to see and scores to settle
3:28
Speaker 1: out in the common areas, the Commissary, the chapel, the
3:31
Speaker 1: rooftop recreation center. Jason Hunter, the fifteen year old kid
3:36
Speaker 1: the world would later know as inspected Deck, put faces
3:39
Speaker 1: to those voices. The young Deck aka Jason here watched
3:45
Speaker 1: just as well as he listened, and he was being
3:48
Speaker 1: watched back dudes twice his size, if not quite twice
3:52
Speaker 1: his age, looking him up and down, calculating the over
3:56
Speaker 1: under on how fast he could run, how quickly in loudly.
4:00
Speaker 1: He'd scream like a little bit if they caught him.
4:03
Speaker 1: Jason knew what they were staring at. Clean Yankees cap
4:06
Speaker 1: on his head, new balanced sneakers on his feet. These
4:10
Speaker 1: dudes had the power. All they had to do was
4:13
Speaker 1: give one look, make one move, say one word, and
4:16
Speaker 1: immediately they had the upper hand. Jason's nice clothes made
4:21
Speaker 1: him an easy target. He needed a strategy, A simple strategy,
4:25
Speaker 1: as in, don't start any shit and don't give anyone
4:29
Speaker 1: a reason hang back, shut up, and keep watch. Watching
4:36
Speaker 1: came naturally, so to going incognito. In the late seventies
4:40
Speaker 1: and early eighties on Staten Island, Jason Hunter hovered near
4:44
Speaker 1: the shadows, silent but observant, his mind cataloging his environment.
4:50
Speaker 1: Cigarette butts caught in the storm, drains, rusted dumpsters overflowing
4:54
Speaker 1: with garbage, bee boys with crazy legs, and block party
4:58
Speaker 1: battle scars. He was particularly interested in those dudes, the
5:03
Speaker 1: guys banging on tables and battling each other with their rhymes.
5:07
Speaker 1: Guys you thought they would be the next rock him,
5:09
Speaker 1: the next Bismarquis, the next cool g rap He watched
5:13
Speaker 1: those guys, and he learned. He watched his single mother
5:18
Speaker 1: provide for him and his two siblings. His father was
5:21
Speaker 1: gone dead, not awall other men in his family and
5:25
Speaker 1: other men in the neighborhood. However, they did make themselves
5:28
Speaker 1: scarce when it came to matters of the home. The
5:31
Speaker 1: women were the ones doing everything, and they got up
5:34
Speaker 1: early and went to bed late, and they punched the clock,
5:37
Speaker 1: and they paid for the clothes on your back and
5:39
Speaker 1: the food on your table, and they often went without
5:42
Speaker 1: so that their kids could have something anything. Providing food
5:47
Speaker 1: and shelter was power. Being a source of love was power,
5:52
Speaker 1: and surviving was power. Jason soon found that he had
5:57
Speaker 1: power even better than the power to be a fly
6:00
Speaker 1: on the wall. He actually seemed older and wiser than
6:04
Speaker 1: his age might suggest. Ten eleven, twelve years old on paper,
6:09
Speaker 1: but twice that old in terms of basic life experience.
6:13
Speaker 1: Maybe you find yourself in the Staten Island projects in
6:17
Speaker 1: park Hell, without a father figure or a strong male
6:20
Speaker 1: role model. It's only natural to seek out what you
6:23
Speaker 1: don't have, and maybe you find it in a kitchen
6:26
Speaker 1: inside one of the tenements down the street, a bunch
6:29
Speaker 1: of older dudes mid twenties, maybe old enough to be
6:32
Speaker 1: your dad. Okay, maybe, But the point is they're all
6:35
Speaker 1: huddled around tables and stovetops, and they drink and they smoke,
6:38
Speaker 1: and they tell dirty jokes. And you laugh, not because
6:41
Speaker 1: you get the jokes, because you absolutely do not, but
6:44
Speaker 1: because you want to be just one of the guys.
6:46
Speaker 1: You want to be older. So you steal a sip
6:48
Speaker 1: from a forty, You catch a contact high from the
6:51
Speaker 1: weed that's being passed around, and you watch, you watch
6:55
Speaker 1: these dudes work. Their work is to prepare a distribute
6:59
Speaker 1: park Hill number one. Export crack cocaine, one part white powder,
7:04
Speaker 1: one part baking soda in one part water. Heat it
7:09
Speaker 1: on a stovetop, and transfer it to the counter and
7:11
Speaker 1: then chop it up and pop it inside a vial
7:13
Speaker 1: or a baggie, and then it's out on the street.
7:16
Speaker 1: Now that is power, possessing the very thing another person craves,
7:21
Speaker 1: holding the key to their personal euphoria, and the only
7:25
Speaker 1: way they can get it from you is to pay
7:27
Speaker 1: for it, which means you also have the thing that
7:30
Speaker 1: everyone in park Hill seems to be looking for, whether
7:32
Speaker 1: they're an addict or not. Money. Like many kids on
7:37
Speaker 1: Staten Island at this time, Jason Hunter grew up fast, drugs, gun, sex,
7:43
Speaker 1: illegal activity of every kind. He witnessed it all, and
7:46
Speaker 1: very quickly he became it. It wasn't long before he
7:51
Speaker 1: was dealing crack on the streets, and for no other reason,
7:54
Speaker 1: because that was what you did. And although he was
7:58
Speaker 1: seeing and doing things far beyond his years, Jason was
8:01
Speaker 1: still just a kid, only fifteen, and he was still green.
8:06
Speaker 1: He couldn't make a nark as easily as some of
8:08
Speaker 1: the older guys. In his defense, it was getting harder
8:11
Speaker 1: to tell these days. The lines between good and bad
8:14
Speaker 1: were blurred. In July of that year. In nineteen eighty five,
8:19
Speaker 1: a former NYPD cop was found dead inside the trunk
8:22
Speaker 1: of his oldsmobile in the parking lot of the Staten
8:25
Speaker 1: Island Hospital. Vincent Albana fifty three, shot point blank in
8:30
Speaker 1: the face, chest and back, Gangland style as a former
8:35
Speaker 1: detective who quit when he was demoted after being named
8:37
Speaker 1: suspect Numero uno in the case of seventy three million
8:41
Speaker 1: dollars worth of heroin and cocaine that disappeared from police custody.
8:46
Speaker 1: Even the cops wanted a taste. Cops were just attics
8:49
Speaker 1: by another name, high functioning junkies. Jason had no idea
8:55
Speaker 1: the guy he was selling to now was under cover.
8:58
Speaker 1: In all of his days watching however everything worked, he'd
9:01
Speaker 1: yet to witness this normal looking dude. Inconspicuous, a little
9:05
Speaker 1: rough around the edges, not too rough, quiet but not
9:08
Speaker 1: too quiet, eager but not paranoid. It's not like he
9:11
Speaker 1: was scanning the streets anxiously for his wingman or anything.
9:15
Speaker 1: But as soon as the vial was in the guy's
9:17
Speaker 1: hand and Jason had the money, a switch flipped, the
9:20
Speaker 1: badge came out from under his shirt, and two other
9:23
Speaker 1: cops appeared out of nowhere, guns drawn, freeze on the ground,
9:26
Speaker 1: hands behind your back and Jason hit the pavement, neighborhood
9:30
Speaker 1: dudes hanging around, scattered like rats, running from the rumble
9:33
Speaker 1: of an oncoming garbage truck. That bust was how he
9:36
Speaker 1: wound up here inside the Brooklyn House at detention, just
9:39
Speaker 1: fifteen years old, once again just watching and once again
9:44
Speaker 1: about to learn something new, and the homicidal convicts staring
9:48
Speaker 1: at him from across the room wanted a shit that
9:51
Speaker 1: hat in those shoes, but Jason wanted something from them,
9:56
Speaker 1: not their repeat offender lives. He wanted something better than that,
10:00
Speaker 1: something that would set him up to survive on the
10:02
Speaker 1: inside and the outside. He wanted their power. The black
10:30
Speaker 1: Pontiac Firebird Formula three point fifty hummed as it pulled
10:33
Speaker 1: to the side of the FDR tinted windows, rear spoiler,
10:38
Speaker 1: all muscle. The NYPD called it a flash car because
10:42
Speaker 1: it looked like the kind of thing someone buying a
10:44
Speaker 1: lot of dope would tool around in. The undercover detective
10:47
Speaker 1: sitting behind the wheel prepared to act like just that
10:49
Speaker 1: kind of guy, which meant acting like he wasn't nervous.
10:53
Speaker 1: The thing is, though he was extremely nervous. He was
10:57
Speaker 1: nervous because he was about to go buy some drugs
10:59
Speaker 1: from Lower East Side dealer, but not just some drugs,
11:03
Speaker 1: two kilos of cocaine, four and a half pounds forty
11:07
Speaker 1: two thousand dollars worth. And this is nineteen ninety money
11:11
Speaker 1: that we're talking about, by the way. And this wasn't
11:13
Speaker 1: just another buy and bus operation. This was bigger than
11:17
Speaker 1: the NYPD. This was a joint task force, city, state,
11:21
Speaker 1: and federal all working together to make a dent in
11:24
Speaker 1: the New York drug trade. The detective took a deep
11:29
Speaker 1: breath and stepped out of the Pontiac wads of traceable
11:32
Speaker 1: bills stuffed in his pockets. And it was early March
11:36
Speaker 1: and the air was chilly, the East River was just
11:40
Speaker 1: beginning to thaw, and the neighborhood kids were just starting
11:42
Speaker 1: to return to the playgrounds after a long winter. And
11:45
Speaker 1: the detective didn't have to wait for his man. The
11:47
Speaker 1: dealer was on time, according to Plant. He led the
11:51
Speaker 1: detective into the courtyard of the projects nearby, and they
11:54
Speaker 1: made their way to a side door of one of
11:56
Speaker 1: the buildings, and the dealer said the door led to
11:59
Speaker 1: the basement, that's where they make the trade. The detective
12:02
Speaker 1: felt as adrenaline kick in before he even walked inside.
12:06
Speaker 1: He kept his breathing under control so as not to
12:08
Speaker 1: blow his cover, and the dealer opened the door. The
12:11
Speaker 1: detective wasn't even two steps inside before he heard a guncock.
12:15
Speaker 1: A second man stepped out from the corner shadows inside
12:17
Speaker 1: of the building and pressed his piece to the detective's face.
12:21
Speaker 1: The money. Now, then, there was no cocaine and there
12:26
Speaker 1: was no deal. There was just this a setup, a ripoff.
12:31
Speaker 1: The detective wasn't sure if the dealers made him for
12:33
Speaker 1: a cop or not. And they know real quick if
12:36
Speaker 1: they searched him and found the wire stuff down his shirt,
12:38
Speaker 1: he knew they wouldn't even get that far because thanks
12:41
Speaker 1: to that wire, his backup was closing in on the
12:44
Speaker 1: courtyard outside other officers in unmarked carrs, State Police, FEDS. Still,
12:49
Speaker 1: at this moment, it was just him inside a building
12:52
Speaker 1: with two guys who wouldn't hesitate to shoot him dead.
12:55
Speaker 1: He didn't think twice. He leaped towards the guy with
12:57
Speaker 1: the gun. Shots fired outside, the courtyard erupted in chaos.
13:02
Speaker 1: More shots. Officers both playing clothes and uniform flooded in
13:06
Speaker 1: from every angle, some carrying automatic weapons and wearing helmets
13:10
Speaker 1: and they took cover and returned fire, and the bullets flew.
13:13
Speaker 1: German shepherd canines tugged at their leashes and frost at
13:16
Speaker 1: the mouth. Residents as high as fourteen floors up near
13:19
Speaker 1: the drill, they slammed their windows shut the dealer in
13:22
Speaker 1: his arm. Colleigue tore ass from inside the building where
13:24
Speaker 1: they were attempting to rob the detective, and the cop
13:27
Speaker 1: gave chase. Within seconds, another round of shots and the
13:29
Speaker 1: cop fell to the ground, screaming and grabbing his bleeding leg.
13:33
Speaker 1: When the shootout came to an end minutes later, two
13:36
Speaker 1: detectives were wounded, one stake cop who took a bullet
13:39
Speaker 1: to his eye was pronounced dead at Bellevue, and two suspects,
13:43
Speaker 1: both in their twenties, both having started the day as dealers,
13:46
Speaker 1: had ended it as cop killers, were in custody. Beyond injury,
13:52
Speaker 1: death and arrests, widespread fear had been sown in the projects.
13:56
Speaker 1: In the community at large, doubts and suspicions festered, The
14:00
Speaker 1: gap between the poverty stricken public and those sworn to
14:02
Speaker 1: protect them widened, and meanwhile, the goal of these undercover
14:07
Speaker 1: sting operations. The reason that street level task forces like
14:11
Speaker 1: the Tactical Narcotics Team were assembled in the first place,
14:14
Speaker 1: you know, the eradication of drugs from the streets of
14:17
Speaker 1: New York City. One could argue it was a complete failure.
14:21
Speaker 1: He put a record number of low level dealers in handcuffs,
14:24
Speaker 1: but failed to make so much as a dent in
14:25
Speaker 1: drug trafficking on the street. It used taxpayer dollars to
14:29
Speaker 1: overcrowd prisons and overwhelm the court system, but it didn't
14:32
Speaker 1: lead to taking down the higher ups. It was history
14:35
Speaker 1: repeating in history did not and does not change. Jason
14:40
Speaker 1: Hunter's own history was repeating at the same time. It
14:44
Speaker 1: had been a few years since he was first busted
14:46
Speaker 1: for selling crack to an undercover cop, and now he'd
14:49
Speaker 1: somehow managed to do it again. This time, however, he
14:53
Speaker 1: was over eighteen years old. Then that meant two years
14:56
Speaker 1: in prison. Decades later, in thirteen, when being interviewed about
15:01
Speaker 1: his classic verse in Wu Tang Clan's groundbreaking track Cream,
15:06
Speaker 1: Jason aka Deck spoke about the importance of staying alert
15:10
Speaker 1: at all times. There's a thin line between feeling safe
15:13
Speaker 1: and feeling in danger. He said, anything can happen at
15:16
Speaker 1: any time. You need to stay awake to the ways
15:19
Speaker 1: of the world, because shit is deep in the minute
15:22
Speaker 1: you get caught sleeping, you don't wake up. He was
15:26
Speaker 1: speaking from experience back when he was arrested for the
15:30
Speaker 1: first time at age fifteen and found himself incarcerated with older,
15:33
Speaker 1: more dangerous men. Jason was careful not to get caught sleeping.
15:38
Speaker 1: He kept his distance in those who meant to do
15:40
Speaker 1: him harm, and he kept his nose clean. And after
15:43
Speaker 1: a brief spell behind bars, he walked out the front
15:46
Speaker 1: doors of the Brooklyn House of Detention with that Yankees
15:48
Speaker 1: hat still on his head and the new Balance kicks
15:51
Speaker 1: still on his feet. The experience was, in his own words,
15:55
Speaker 1: the official birth of his alter ego. Even though inspected
15:59
Speaker 1: Deck was not yet a legitimate MC and Wu Tang
16:02
Speaker 1: was years down the road. At this time, Deck was
16:06
Speaker 1: a concept, a product of his environment, the guy on
16:09
Speaker 1: the sidelines of the room, assessing scheming, waiting to make
16:13
Speaker 1: his move when the coast was clear and the time
16:16
Speaker 1: was right, and while everyone else was acting impulsive and
16:19
Speaker 1: making fools of themselves, Deck was a partful. Deck was smart,
16:24
Speaker 1: and though he wasn't a card carrying member of the
16:26
Speaker 1: five percent nation, he was the manifestation of that movement's
16:30
Speaker 1: first three supreme numbers. He did the knowledge and the wisdom,
16:34
Speaker 1: and he had the understanding. What Jason Hunter's first experience
16:39
Speaker 1: in jail did not do was curb his hustle, and
16:43
Speaker 1: not just hustling crack. As a teenager, Jason ran a
16:47
Speaker 1: scam at his place of employment. The Manhattan Delivery Service
16:51
Speaker 1: gave him bus tokens to make his deliveries, but unbeknownst
16:54
Speaker 1: to his employer, Jason rode a bike. He didn't need
16:57
Speaker 1: the tokens, so he sold the tokens to commuters at
17:00
Speaker 1: bus stops and pocketed the cash. And when the delivery
17:04
Speaker 1: service found out about this particular side hustle, Jason was
17:07
Speaker 1: immediately fired. Being unemployed though didn't face him, it gave
17:12
Speaker 1: him more time to flex the rhymes he was writing,
17:14
Speaker 1: test them out on dudes from the next neighborhood over
17:16
Speaker 1: weren't so easily impressed, and if he needed to, he
17:19
Speaker 1: could always sling more dope. Plus, he was used to
17:22
Speaker 1: having very little, so he was used to just taking
17:24
Speaker 1: the things he wanted. It wasn't odd for Jason to
17:27
Speaker 1: show up at high school driving a Cutlass Supreme or
17:30
Speaker 1: Chevy Corsica that wasn't his, And that is when he
17:33
Speaker 1: did show up at school, he cut class at every opportunity,
17:37
Speaker 1: and when he was there, he was your basic class clown,
17:40
Speaker 1: screwing off, not paying attention and making other kids laugh.
17:43
Speaker 1: But when it came time to take a test, he
17:45
Speaker 1: aced it every single time. Then that was perhaps his
17:49
Speaker 1: greatest hustle. That was Deck. How he made it look
17:53
Speaker 1: like he wasn't paying attention even though he was making
17:56
Speaker 1: the calculations all along. And when the time came to act,
18:00
Speaker 1: when he had to make his move, he made it definitively,
18:04
Speaker 1: because if you're not making your move, someone else is
18:07
Speaker 1: making it for you. Any five percenter will tell you
18:11
Speaker 1: that the only power the devil has is the power
18:13
Speaker 1: that man hasn't already claimed for himself. Shit is deep.
18:18
Speaker 1: Stay awake. If the devil catches you sleeping, you lose
18:21
Speaker 1: whatever power you thought you had, and then you don't
18:25
Speaker 1: wake up. We'll be right back after this. We're We're,
18:33
Speaker 1: We're the Rizza didn't know how much clearer he could be.
18:40
Speaker 1: Raykwon Meth Ghost Deck. What are they all doing? Dealing hustling,
18:46
Speaker 1: getting shot at pinched, going to jail. They're all bugging
18:51
Speaker 1: running around in circles, and there was no power in
18:54
Speaker 1: that kind of movement, only wasted energy. To have true power,
18:58
Speaker 1: to have the upper hand of truth, because power is
19:01
Speaker 1: truth and truth is power. As the five percent Nation
19:04
Speaker 1: aka the Nation of Gods and Earth's taught them, you
19:08
Speaker 1: have to elevate. Rizza had a ground floor opportunity that
19:12
Speaker 1: would take them straight to the penthouse, an opportunity to
19:15
Speaker 1: lead them straight out of darkness and into the light.
19:18
Speaker 1: All each of them had to do was pony at
19:19
Speaker 1: one hundred bucks, and that would pay for their studio time.
19:22
Speaker 1: Whatever was left over will go towards the first pressing,
19:26
Speaker 1: put up the capital, put in the work, and then
19:28
Speaker 1: think Rizza later. This is the most ethic wake up
19:32
Speaker 1: call in hip hop history. Jason Hunter, of course, had
19:36
Speaker 1: just woken up, like woken up for real, while incarcerated
19:41
Speaker 1: for a second time. And what was there to say?
19:44
Speaker 1: He was human and like the man said, to fuck
19:47
Speaker 1: up is to human, but to learn from that fuck
19:49
Speaker 1: up is divine or something like that. The thing is,
19:53
Speaker 1: you sit in a jail cell for almost two years,
19:55
Speaker 1: and you either get clarity or things become even cloudier. Jason.
20:00
Speaker 1: The clarity was blinding, and there were two options. Either
20:04
Speaker 1: continued down this well worn path, dealing, getting caught, getting
20:07
Speaker 1: locked up, and eventually winding up dead, or break the
20:11
Speaker 1: cycle and put all that energy into something positive. He
20:14
Speaker 1: wasn't going to become a kingpin dealing crack. He would
20:17
Speaker 1: just become a clown. And Jason Hunter did not want
20:20
Speaker 1: to become a clown. He wanted to become inspected Deck.
20:25
Speaker 1: That was the catalyst. Prison round two was where Deck
20:29
Speaker 1: went from observer to rapper. Prison round two was where
20:32
Speaker 1: Deck sharpened his tongue. His tongue was his sword. His
20:36
Speaker 1: sword was his power. His power was his voice, and
20:39
Speaker 1: his voice silenced everyone who wanted to silence him, everyone
20:43
Speaker 1: who wanted to strip him of his power. In his cell,
20:46
Speaker 1: he put in the reps with his verses the way
20:48
Speaker 1: other guys put in reps with sets of weights. He
20:51
Speaker 1: found his own cadence, He found his own flow, and
20:54
Speaker 1: when the flow didn't feel quite right, he moved the
20:56
Speaker 1: words around and tried again. And those words gave him purpose,
21:00
Speaker 1: Those words gave him an identity. Before long, Deck was
21:05
Speaker 1: lyrically sharp, verbally agile, but when he left prison, he
21:09
Speaker 1: was a humble warrior, like Hung Si Kuan in the
21:13
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy seven film Executioners from Shaolin. He was moving
21:17
Speaker 1: the weak spots in his body with his own mind,
21:20
Speaker 1: or like Gordon Leeuw in the nineteen seventy eight classic
21:23
Speaker 1: The thirty six Chamber of Shall in the one where
21:25
Speaker 1: a monk has that great line Without wisdom, there is
21:28
Speaker 1: no gain. Deck was as invincible as Low Maying aka
21:33
Speaker 1: Toad and five Deadly venoms, lying prone on a bed
21:36
Speaker 1: of nails with his iron skin to keep him safe.
21:40
Speaker 1: With one tight verse, he could deliver a single stroke
21:43
Speaker 1: kill like that of the Lone Samurai in the nineteen
21:45
Speaker 1: eighty revenge film Showgun Assassin. These were the qualities that
21:50
Speaker 1: the Rizza sought out when he brought together eight other
21:52
Speaker 1: disparate personalities from park Hill, Stapleton, and Brooklyn, guys who
21:57
Speaker 1: were invincible, guys who could deliver a fatal blow verbal.
22:00
Speaker 1: No one else in the rap game was ready for
22:02
Speaker 1: what they had and no one was expecting it, but
22:05
Speaker 1: everyone got the message protect your neck. March nineteen ninety seven,
22:33
Speaker 1: Los Angeles, the suburban idled on the side of Sunset Boulevard, inspected.
22:39
Speaker 1: Deck sat shotgun. He passed a blunt to you God
22:43
Speaker 1: in the driver's seat deck's Wu Tang brothers took a
22:46
Speaker 1: hit and stared at the window. Billboard Live the club
22:49
Speaker 1: right outside their car drew them like moths to a flame.
22:53
Speaker 1: Fuck you God, said, I still can't believe that he's gone.
22:57
Speaker 1: The club was the last place they both seemed to
23:00
Speaker 1: smalls alive, and now, just days after Biggie was killed,
23:04
Speaker 1: they found themselves here again. They both kept low, slumped
23:08
Speaker 1: down in their seats, ball caps pulled down tight over
23:10
Speaker 1: their brows, their minds constantly pouring over the details of
23:14
Speaker 1: the shooting instead of focusing on making Wu Tang sophomore album,
23:18
Speaker 1: the reason why they were in La in the first place.
23:21
Speaker 1: And they didn't stay at that spot very long. It
23:24
Speaker 1: was intense sitting here and thinking about a slain New
23:27
Speaker 1: York wrapper, their contemporary who was morbid and amid your
23:32
Speaker 1: brain spiral off to other tangents, like if that shooting
23:36
Speaker 1: was in fact bigger than big, if it had further
23:39
Speaker 1: implications for other East Coast dudes out west, like say
23:42
Speaker 1: Wu Tang then stationed here like sitting ducks at a
23:46
Speaker 1: high traffic spot was a byumb move, even if they
23:49
Speaker 1: were keeping a low profile. You God pulled the suburban
23:52
Speaker 1: out into traffic, then they blended in. Still, they couldn't
23:56
Speaker 1: shake the feeling that they had targets on their backs.
24:00
Speaker 1: Biggie is dead, Tubac was dead. Deck, and you God
24:04
Speaker 1: knew there were dudes out there who were looking out
24:06
Speaker 1: for Routang. They'd heard all about the crypt who approached
24:10
Speaker 1: Method Man in the House of Blues and tried to
24:12
Speaker 1: hand him a cannon for his protection. And they also
24:15
Speaker 1: knew there were dudes looking for them. Period that seemed
24:19
Speaker 1: to be never ending, whether it was the San Francisco
24:21
Speaker 1: PD that forced Ray, Ghost and Math on the ground
24:24
Speaker 1: and put them in cuffs, or guys from Staten Island
24:27
Speaker 1: and Brooklyn back when the hustle was street level Deck
24:30
Speaker 1: and you God didn't play that game anymore, dealing running
24:34
Speaker 1: undercover officers that buy and bust bullshit. They were legit
24:38
Speaker 1: now worldwide. They were dumb looking over their backs, or
24:43
Speaker 1: so they thought. You God noticed the BMW first. It
24:48
Speaker 1: followed closely behind them, headlights reflecting brightly in the suburbans
24:53
Speaker 1: rearview mirror. You God put Deck on alert. Yell man,
24:57
Speaker 1: what the fuck is this? Deck turned around to look.
25:00
Speaker 1: The beamer helped tight. It shadowed there every move. It
25:04
Speaker 1: definitely was not some random car out for a joy ride.
25:07
Speaker 1: Whoever was in that BMW wanted to make themselves known.
25:11
Speaker 1: Whoever was in that BMW only had to step on
25:13
Speaker 1: the gas and pull up alongside them, windows down, guns blazing.
25:17
Speaker 1: Neither Deck nor you God were packing the hand to
25:20
Speaker 1: make a move fast. Without warning, You God spun the
25:24
Speaker 1: wheel and made a hard right turn. The suburban's wheels
25:27
Speaker 1: squealed on the pavement. The BMW made an identical move
25:30
Speaker 1: just as quickly. Shit, they had no other choice. Now
25:33
Speaker 1: it's on you, God said to Deck. Word. Deck replied,
25:36
Speaker 1: pull up in front of this hotel. You God pulled
25:39
Speaker 1: up to the side of the road and jumped out
25:41
Speaker 1: of the car. This being the late nineties. He had
25:44
Speaker 1: a beeper strapped to his belt, and if you hit
25:46
Speaker 1: the clip on the beeper just right, you could make
25:47
Speaker 1: it sound like you were cocking a gun. It was
25:50
Speaker 1: an old trick, but he'd seen it work plenty of times,
25:52
Speaker 1: especially in the dark. You God made his approach and
25:56
Speaker 1: snapped the clip on his beaper. As the windows rolled down,
25:59
Speaker 1: he waited for the BMW to back down and peel
26:01
Speaker 1: out with the card and move that you got braced
26:05
Speaker 1: for the worst. He got closer and then he looked
26:07
Speaker 1: inside and wait, Latifa. He could hardly believe it. There
26:14
Speaker 1: were no dudes with a grudge in the beamer, no weapons,
26:17
Speaker 1: locked and loaded, just four women, including Queen Latifa, Rap
26:21
Speaker 1: Goddess Fellow East Coast o g friend of Wu Tang,
26:24
Speaker 1: and the last person Deck and you got expected to
26:26
Speaker 1: see out here. Latifa explained she'd been following them to
26:29
Speaker 1: make sure they were okay, seeing as they were all
26:32
Speaker 1: the way over here and some would say enemy territory
26:35
Speaker 1: at the very moment that the hip hop community was
26:37
Speaker 1: in turmoil. Latifa was a stabilizing presence. She put things
26:41
Speaker 1: at ease, and things did seem to get easier from
26:44
Speaker 1: that point forward. The strange vibe around Biggie's death cooled down.
26:49
Speaker 1: Wu Tang finished their second record, and even when there
26:53
Speaker 1: was a flood at Rizzis Staten Island Studio which destroyed
26:55
Speaker 1: the tapes for Deck's first solo album, Deck Took It
26:58
Speaker 1: in Stride was a setback he recovered from he dealt
27:02
Speaker 1: with worse. It meant that his debut solo album, Uncontrolled
27:06
Speaker 1: Substance wouldn't see the light a day until nineteen ninety nine,
27:10
Speaker 1: and by that time Deck and Wu Tang had new problems,
27:14
Speaker 1: much bigger problems on a much larger scale. The agent
27:20
Speaker 1: returned from his lunch break with heartburn so bad he
27:23
Speaker 1: felt like a volcano was about to erupt under his sternum.
27:27
Speaker 1: He loosened his tie. Was it the garlic on that sandwich?
27:30
Speaker 1: Or maybe the tomatoes? Fucking tomatoes. He didn't want to
27:33
Speaker 1: think about food right now, though. He just wanted to
27:35
Speaker 1: get back to work. The stack of paperwork on his
27:38
Speaker 1: desk called to him. This was his life, paperwork, sandwiches, heartburn,
27:44
Speaker 1: and overtime. He picked up the document from the top
27:47
Speaker 1: of the pile and began to read. Universal Case file
27:50
Speaker 1: number one six y six e dash n y dash
27:54
Speaker 1: two seven one six y nine four Dash one A
27:56
Speaker 1: one Field Office Acquiring Evidence, York, Date received eleven three,
28:02
Speaker 1: ninety nine Description Original notes regarding interview of Russell Jones
28:07
Speaker 1: aka Old Dirty Bastard. Whoever took down these notes had
28:11
Speaker 1: really nice handwriting, probably Janet, maybe Barbara. These were notes
28:16
Speaker 1: from an interview between Wu Tang's Old Dirty bastard and
28:18
Speaker 1: a handful of FBI agents and NYPD detectives conducted at
28:22
Speaker 1: a rehab facility in California. ODB told him how he
28:26
Speaker 1: woke up in bed to find Unknown Mail one standing
28:29
Speaker 1: over him, wearing a black ski mask and pointing a
28:31
Speaker 1: gun in his face, a three fifty seven or forty five.
28:35
Speaker 1: ODB wasn't sure. He didn't waste time figuring it out either.
28:39
Speaker 1: He quickly jumped out of bed. He grabbed at the piece,
28:42
Speaker 1: but Unknown Mail number one wasn't about to let it
28:44
Speaker 1: go that easily, and they wrestled. The gun went off
28:47
Speaker 1: two shots, The first hit ODB in the arm and
28:50
Speaker 1: the second in his back. Unknown Mail number one was
28:53
Speaker 1: about the bail, but then Unknown Mail number two appeared,
28:56
Speaker 1: also in a ski mask. You get the shit, Number
28:59
Speaker 1: two asked number one one. ODB figured they were talking
29:02
Speaker 1: about his jewelry. He told him to take it. Unknown
29:05
Speaker 1: Mail number one snatched Odb's chain and rings right off
29:07
Speaker 1: of his body ten grand worth, and then both of them,
29:10
Speaker 1: one and two were out the door gone. Only then
29:15
Speaker 1: did the pain really set in his arm and his
29:18
Speaker 1: back hurt like hell. But despite that pain, ODB drove
29:22
Speaker 1: himself to Saint John's bleeding out all over the interior
29:25
Speaker 1: of his range drover. The FBI agent paused to look
29:28
Speaker 1: at the rest of the documents in the stack of
29:30
Speaker 1: papers on his desk, and this file was getting larger.
29:34
Speaker 1: The case against Wu Tang Klan as a criminal organization,
29:37
Speaker 1: the one mounted by the NYPD, the ATF, and the FEDS.
29:40
Speaker 1: It was all here in this stack, but the picture
29:43
Speaker 1: wasn't fully clear yet. What seemed to be clear, though,
29:46
Speaker 1: was that this narrative about Wu Tang as a bunch
29:48
Speaker 1: of guys who had left criminal lifestyles behind them to
29:51
Speaker 1: walk the straight and narrow seemed to grow thinner by
29:54
Speaker 1: the day. There was the death of Wise god Allah
29:57
Speaker 1: and Steubenville, the death of Robert Johnson on Staten Island,
30:02
Speaker 1: odb's home invasion, ghostface kill, his unlicensed gun, and hollow
30:06
Speaker 1: point bullets. But there were still pieces of the puzzle missing,
30:10
Speaker 1: and there were unanswered questions and untold secrets. And then
30:15
Speaker 1: there was this a little known fact, a fact that
30:19
Speaker 1: had eluded every member of Wu Tang as well as
30:21
Speaker 1: the majority of agents at the FBI, The fact that
30:25
Speaker 1: at this very moment, in nineteen ninety nine, one of
30:28
Speaker 1: the members of Wu Tang Clans. Trusted Inner Circle was
30:32
Speaker 1: a Federal informant. I'm Jake Brennan in this episode of
30:37
Speaker 1: Disgraceland is to be continued. Disgraceland was created by Yours
30:55
Speaker 1: Truly and is produced in partnership with Double Elvis. Credits
30:58
Speaker 1: for this episode can be out of the show notes
31:01
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31:04
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Speaker 1: Rock a Roller. He then