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3. “Knowledge God”
Raekwon: “Knowledge God” was a serious story that I wrote. It’s like I’m sitting down and writing a letter, but it folded out into the crime scene of what we was gonna do. I was talking about going to go hit up a real nigga, a store owner like Mike Lavonia—them niggas that be having money in the hood and they be trying to stay out of the way of the tough guys. But at the same time, he still hold his ground because he got business out here in these streets. [He’s thinking], I’m not gonna be intimidated by y’all young boys, but at the same time I know some of y’all young boys might be scheming. That’s where that character came from.
In them early ’80s, cocaine was a rich-nigga high. So if you was doing that back in the day and you had knowledge of self, you was a sharp nigga to us, ’cause that was the sign of the times then. But nobody never said nothing about it…. [The sniffing at the start of the song] just happened. That was a part of the take. When I did it, it wasn’t like we knew that was gonna be a part of the track…. I just did it on some [makes sniffing sound]. You know, a nigga don’t gotta yell to hear the mic. A nigga could do another sound to hear the mic. So that happened to come out. I felt when I was sitting down writing that drug paraphernalia rhyme, that I could’ve been a nigga on it like that at that time. We could have really been getting skied up, going to get this nigga after that. So, it matched perfectly. But that wasn’t like we was sniffin’ [coke in the studio] or no shit.
4. “Criminology”
Feat. Ghostface
RZA: That was me trying to produce like a DJ, produce a breakbeat. Ghost actually asked me to make one of those beats. You listen to old DJ tapes. That’s how I made that song and he wanted his shit to sound like a break-beat. He had a rhyme; he knew was going to change the game—that was the verse that got him recognized. [Cypress Hill’s] DJ Muggs called me up and was like, “Yo, he killed that shit. He ripped that shit.” From that point on, he’s the co-star. He wins Best Supporting Actor. Rae got nominated, maybe won or didn’t—but Ghost definitely wins.
Ghostface: I wrote that verse in San Francisco. We used to carry the beat machine around a lot. We was out there a good two weeks, so RZA was making beats all day. I heard that beat and I loved that track. The year was ’95. Hip-hop was still hip-hop, and we was going in. I don’t know if I was drunk when I wrote that, but I know when I went in the booth, I had a battery in my back, fucking with the Ballantine Ale. I recorded a lot of my shit on Ballantine.
5. “Incarcerated Scarfaces”
Raekwon: The way RZA had it poppin’ back then, we would come into his spot. It was like dudes would come in on their own time and create stuff. I remember I just came in, and the beat was just pumpin’. I wrote the hook—that was the first thing I did. I think one of my mans just got hit with some heavy time around that time. I had a lot of niggas up there, too. So, it was like, Yo, this one gotta be for them niggas right here. This right here will be just for them niggas in jail. It won’t be for nobody else. I just wrote it out real quick. I did three verses on that, so Ghost didn’t have to come in and really do anything to it.
RZA: I wasn’t making that beat for Rae. I was finished with Rae. I like having 13 tracks. I don’t like having 18. I was making it for GZA probably. He was next. But then Rae heard that beat, grabbed his pen and paper, and started writing. Two hours later, it was written.
6. “Rainy Dayz”
Feat. Ghostface and Blue Raspberry
Raekwon: When we wrote “Rainy Dayz” I think we was already out of the country. We was in Barbados by the water. Some joints we [had the beats to] we went out of town with. And that one specifically, we wrote by the water. Had that good villa right off the ocean and shit. Three, four in the morning. Wind is blowing, curtains is blowing, and we just really got a chance to put it down. I think I wrote mine out there.
We just basically gave you some action on how niggas in the hood think. Like how a nigga lady think—they don’t act like they there to try to bring you back from doing what you gotta do, but they try to get you caught up. We was like, This is gonna be perfect for the struggling girl who can’t understand her man and he a thorough nigga. We wanted to put the girl in the skit [at the start of the song] from the movie when she said, “I sing for him and he isn’t here.” He ain’t here, bitch, ’cause he makin’ money! He trying to put some food on the table!
RZA: This is one of my favorites, if not my favorite track. It stayed on the grill for a long time. That’s what we called it back then. I didn’t take a song off until I was satisfied. I generally like to do ’em, mix ’em, put ’em away. This was too emotional and too real for me, too close to my personal situation. This was the life we was living, just talking and rapping and hoping. Record royalties take too long to come. We had a platinum album, but we waiting on the check to come fast, like babies wanting they food.
Blue Raspberry: I was on the microphone singing that old song by Barbra Streisand and Donna Summer [“No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)”], that [sings] “It’s raining, it’s pouring, my love life is boring me to tears.” I was just singing that, and so then RZA started playing a track. So that’s where [sings] “It’s raining, he’s changing” came from. That’s the kind of mind state it put me in. I got a little stumped in the middle, so it’s like, “No sunlight, more gunfights.” When I said “No sunlight,” RZA brought in the “More gunfights,” which brought me into a whole other realm of the song, where I could go ahead and complete it.
7. “Guillotine [Swords]”
Feat. Ghostface, Inspectah Deck and GZA
Raekwon: To me, that was a “Symphony” track. Meth had a piece of that beat on his album that was used as a skit. ’Cause that’s how RZA is. Sometimes he’d mix other shit in and give you a piece of something but not really act like it’s gonna be assigned to that. He’ll see if somebody like it and use it for fillers or whatever. I had told RZA awhile ago after he did that, “Yo, I want that beat.”
We was the first to be talking that Cristal shit. I know that for a fact. I never even heard of Cristal before that. Back then we would go do dinners and shit with [Loud Records president] Steve Rifkind and them up at the label. And our mission would be like, when we sit at the table, we want the best fuckin’ wine they got in the building. We might have asked for something else. We might have asked for some Mo or something and they didn’t have it. So we was like, “What the fuck is the next best thing, Steve?” And Steve’s like, “Give ’em the next best thing.” They came out with Cristal. Me and Ghost liked the bottle, and the name on the bottle was Louis Roederer. I was like, I’m Lou Diamond. Louie Roederer. Me and Ghost is loving how fruity the bottle looked. It cost more than the muthafuckin’ other, so we was like, Cristal, nigga! That’s our new shit!
RZA: For that beat right there, a very open beat, not too heavy on production. This is me trying to imitate the sound Isaac Hayes did on “Do Your Thing.” That da-na-na-na-na, I found a way to imitate that shit. When you plug the Yamaha VL7 [keyboard] up to a MPC [sampler], because of the note cutoff of the MPC, it cause the notes to stutter, ’cause it don’t link up perfect. I heard it and I could reproduce it, but only with those two machines. I had the prototype from Yamaha ’cause I didn’t want nobody else to get it.
GZA: I don’t know why I only got on one track. Maybe ’cause it was just a Rae and Ghost album—it was featuring Ghost, and I think he was probably pleased with me just getting on one. Just to fill in a slot.
8. “Can It Be All So Simple (Remix)”
Feat. Ghostface
Raekwon: The remix came from when we used to do shows when Enter the Wu-Tang dropped. Me and Ghost used to come out to that part of the beat in the middle of the show. RZA did a little bit of magic to it and touched it and twirled it, and Ghost basically was talking about how he got shot back in the days when he was out of town. He started going into his story rhyme shit. Back then a lot of niggas we knew was in and out of different states and cities, and you know shit could happen. So when he wrote that, I guess he was going back to the time when he got popped: “Emergency trauma Black teen headed for surgery.” It was like he was just describing a moment.
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