By Odeisel

U-God may not be one of the more notorious Wu-Tang members, having missed the bulk of their debut with incarceration, but he has been there since the beginning. His often unheralded contributions to some of the greatest albums in the Wu catalog stand as proof that he is a force to be reckoned with. With a new album, Keynote Speaker, dropping on July 23rd, his career still has legs. We sat with U-God to talk the past the present and his future under the Wu flag. Universal Law. Enjoy

Planet Ill: In the first round of the Wu-Tang wave, you were locked up and you missed the first album but on the second wave, you played a fairly big part in Supreme Clientele, Iron Man and the Purple Tape. Tell us about the highs and lows of that.

U-God: You become a man. I learned from the situation really, to tell you the truth. I’m kind of glad I got to play the background. I learned so much and I became a master of my craft. The lows, you feel rejected; like any other human being you feel certain ways, but you know if you’re a strong individual, learn from your experiences and you just keep pushing forward.

I been on hit records, man. I been on a lot of hit records. My face may not be out there as much as other individuals but my voice is on big songs. Big, big songs. That’s why today, I’m still selling records. My fan base is growing and I don’t hold no regrets. I’m good , man; I’m good where I’m at in life. I’m happy to still be here and be able to talk to you. A lot of groups, a lot of people came and left, and I’m still here man. I can’t regret nothing.

But when I was younger, I did a lot of things that I’mma talk to the people about in my book. Why I was only on two songs in the Wu-Tang Clan and them two songs STILL saved my life. And I’m happy for that.

Planet Ill: When everybody comes out and we’re all starving, what happens to the group dynamic when Method Man becomes a pop icon…

U-God: Right now, that don’t mean nothing to me cause right now, we talking about now. We talking about back then, that’s what it was. It helped the group perpetuate us into more of a legendary status. Cause at the end of the day, he’s still Wu-Tang. Any way you put it; Rae, Ghost, even me. If my record becomes successful and things like that, I still got a “W” across my back. All we doing is blowing the universe up at the end of the day. So ya’ll might look at it as how do we do this and how do we do that. It’s not like that for me, bruh. I don’t look at the universe in certain things.

Method Man is my family. So he aint going nowhere. All that &)$*&), that don’t mean a gotdamn thing. I see his monkey ass on the couch playing Playstation and stuff with my kids so all that? That doesn’t mean nothing to me. What means something to me is keeping my legacy alive, keeping the “W” waving on the flag and perpetuating and moving forward.

Planet Ill: That “W” has taken you all around the world. Tell us about some of the countries you’ve been to and watching the [Wu] phenomenon explode.

U-God: Well I got a chance to really see that Europe is a little more loving to rap. They love rap music way more than the States do. The States feel like they got access to dudes all the time, so they are spoiled. They don’t really like to jump, they don’t like the crowd participation. Out here in Europe they camp out in mud and rain and hail and storms. It be raining; downpouring.  And they be out there having a good old time in the rain.

So it’s just a different vibration with what’s going on over there as compared to over here. I’ve been on tours since ’93. Being on buses and being in expensive hotels and room service and jets and private planes and first class is a beautiful thing. It’s a blessing that comes along with all the work I put in. I hope you don’t forget, I put in a lot of work, also. This is another stepping stone and it’s lovely to be here, man.

Planet Ill: You’ve put a lot of your personal life in your rhymes and shared that with your fans. What is the most painful thing you ever rhymed about?

U-God: My little man got shot. My little man got shot when he was three years old. I ain’t know nothing about therapy. Black people, you know, we don’t go to therapy. We self-medicate; we smoke weed, we get drunk and stuff like that. So I didn’t think nothing of it. So as time moved on, I started realizing certain things about the human mind.

The mind can only take but so much before your body will shut down without you. That was one of the experiences but a lot of the experiences in my life I had carried with me for a long time and I realized that I needed to talk to somebody about certain things that I went through and things like that. So, you know I set out for a counselor, I talked of certain things and you know it helped me in certain ways to be able to talk and get it out and understand that everything is going to be alright, man.

Planet Ill: What does God mean to you?

U-God: I don’t want to talk about that bruh, you gotta skip that question. We ain’t gon bring religion into this, okay? I got love for you and everything, but we gone skip that one.

Planet Ill: Okay let’s talk about your new project, then. Your single you just dropped, Heads Up, featuring the RZA. How did that come together?

U-God: The first person on the song is my man called Jackpot Scotty Wotty. You don’t know the legend of Jackpot Scotty Wotty. Jackpot is like the godfather of rap in my projects. He’s the one that got me, Cappa, Raekwon and Genius rhyming. He was the one in my projects, when I was like 10 or 11 that was the illest rhymer we ever heard. Literally. Rhyming. And we could like touch him and play arcade games with him and all that and eh was right there in our hood.

So he kinda like sparked Wu-Tang; the main members of Wu. So he’s like the godfather of our little clan. So what I did was, I was out one day, and I ran into him. And he’s working, you know, he’s doing his thing; he’s a family man. And I asked him, “Yo dog, you still be spitting?” He said, “Hell yeah!” So he was in the studio with me and sure enough, as I say it, he still got it.

So I got him, and when I got him, I had to get Genius, the two godfathers of the Wu. One the senior citizen and one the other grand godfather. And then you got RZA, then you got Dirty. That was like the chain right there. I said to myself, “you now what? I’mma dig up the old bones and see if he’s still pure. And sure enough, the man was insanity. He’s one of the illest rhymers that you’re ever gone hear. Like naturally freestyling, if you get him freestyling right there in front of your face, and get him some Coors Light beer? Just be prepared to watch a nigga just go off. Literally. Off the top of the head; whatever you want to do. When he talks, he rhymes.

So, I had to pay homage to my roots. I put him on Stomp The Roaches, which was on Dopium. Then I put him on this record. Two times and I’m working on his album now and he’s just amazing. When genius heard that he was on the track, he just came, cause that’s like a sandwich. Oreo sandwich with a light-skinned n***a in the middle! Two chocolate n***as on the side you know what I’m saying?! It’s a history there that needed to be told so it’s a beautiful thing. It’s the craziest single; it’s a street single. I’m bringing back street raps, by the way. I’m bringing back hood rap. Cause Hip-Hop is going this way and I just feel Wu-Tang, we was like the godfathers of hood rap. I just feel we need a little bit more of that in the universe.

Planet Ill: Keynote Speaker is the name of the album. July 23 is the touchdown date. What’s the science behind the name and what does it convey?

U-God: basically what I’m saying is that I’ve been in the background; dudes have had more light than me, whatever you want to call it. I’m coming to the forefront; I’m coming to the podium to speak. That’s basically what it represents. Me being there and just coming to the podium and saying my piece and giving the fans what they want.

This record is the dopest record; this is a dope record. This is fire. We got everything on there. We got special packages on there; we got an extra seven cuts of Wu-Tang uncut releases on the back end. We got t-shirts, all types of things for the fans to eat it up. That’s representing Keynote Speaker. When you see President Obama coming to the podium to talk, that’s the keynote speaker. Everything is on him. He’s talking about politics; he’s doing his one-two stepper.  That’s what Keynote Speaker represents. I’m Hip-Hop baby, it is what it is.

Planet Ill: If you had a magic record, and anyone who heard it would immediately get what you were talking about, what would you be talking about on that record?

U-God: Wow. That’s a hard question to ask dog! One subject right now that no body’s talking about? There’s so many things going on in the world today. I’m going to exclude music an di just want people to know that 800,000 kids is getting kidnapped a year in the United States and ain’t nobody saying nothing. I just want to put that out there in the world and let people know like yo why ain’t nobody talking ‘bout 800,000 kids every year are getting kidnapped and nobody is saying nothing. Every year 800,000. That’s a lot of kids that will never see their moms and families ever again. I just wanted to bring that to the universe and please, somebody say something. I can only say so much. It’s shocking that no one even brought this up. Let that be known, that’s about it.

Planet Ill: Anything else that you want to say to man, woman and child out there?

U-God: All I can say is, if you don’t do it yourself, nobody else would.

U-God: Universal Law (Planet Ill Interview) by Illsideradiopodcast on Mixcloud