Just V-D-B

Tonight I was witness to the WU documentary. One of the first docu’s about Wu to come out. Many of us are still waiting for GZA’s piece called Wu-Tang Revealed. I’ll give you a short review on the thing.

The movie is directed by the same guy who did Da Mystery of Chessboxin’ video. Gerald K Barkley. He has some extensive footage on the Clan dating back to 93 when they were still recording. And it is fun to see this. Form that point he takes us to 1997 and from there to the improsenment of ODB and his release and death. Storywise it doesnt feel quite good though. The narrative is too jumpy. It goes hard form 1993 to 1997 Hawai to ODB being jailed and his release in 2004. That’s a bit of a shame. But, for the true fans he holds it up with soem interesting insight into the clan. Vintage footage from back in the day, beautifull footage of Hawaii and a closer of footage from Dirty with his family. Popa Wu, Divine, Steve Rifkind, Bobbito and some other Staten Island natives support the movie with interviews. Of whom Popa Wu and Divine give some direct critics. Biggest stars of the doc speak only in retro. They are not directly interviewed. This is a bit of a loss, though current drama would let that look not quite right.

Technical wise, being a film lover, the documentary doesnt always cut it. The art direction is a bit supbar with images being used from AHH even. And some factual errors like stating The Pillage as a first generation solo release, and that those were followed by Forever. The sound isn’t always the best either. The Hawai performances could have done without the dubbing of the live songs by album versions. But this is just general speak y’all are not here for.

If you don’t want to here about any of the stuff stated in the film you have to stop reading now.

www.wumovie.com
www.geebeeproductions.com

The film takes us from 93, the beginning to 97 and the subsequent break. This is labaled as The Wu-Tang Rat. Divine begins to explain here about the informer that is Cappa’s and Ghost his manager. Divine wanted to kick him for the sake of Wu-Tang the collective. But some did not agree. This caused a break within Wu-Tang. Though I thought this was dating to 2000, it looks here to be ‘97. In the meantime the documentary shows no mention of the falling apart of Wu on their tour with RATM. Which was quite a downfall.[edit: I forget that they also talk about the constant friction there was between some members. Always little beefs. But that that was only behind stage.]

After Divine has explained that we get taking away to Dirty. Popa Wu talks about how Dirty got send to Clinton Correctional Facility on a Durgs abuse charge. This does not hold up on two points. First Clinton if full of killers and others, all serving 10 and more. Second, Dirty is a celeb. Whitney, Rick James, they all got a rehab, except Dirty. They were trying to kill him. Trying to commint suicide. Here the film does not mention Dirty being send on suicide watch during his trials. ANd showing up with bandaged wrists, if i recall correctly. In order to get out of Clinton Russell went as far as setting himself on fire to be labeled crazy. And thus saving him.

After this we are token to the Dirtys press conference. Divine here shows his anger and frustration about the situation. He tells about being called by Popa Wu asking him if he is coming to the press conference. To which he replies what conference? He was not informed. The following was mentioned by RZA in his JUICE magazine interview, that Dirty was to be gotten back in shape and detoxed. With this Divine back the word of RZA up on his plan for Dirty. Divine goes on to tell that not even Cherry Jones called him on it. And in his eyes it was a foul move by Dame. Dame could have called too. With this he broke the industry rules and was doomed to fail according to Divine.

I cant remeber who it was, but some of the people that got interviewed also explained his worries about Russell being pushed in the spotlight immediatly after release. It just wasn’t the right thing. He needed some privacy. At the end Popa Wu comes to tell of the night that it happened and he was supposed to come with ODB to somewhere, but he did not get a ticket from Jared, Dirtys new manager who put him on Roc-A-Fella. Jared send Dirt away with two people he did not know. Which went bad.

The film ends with his dead and his words. “If it takes for me to die for y’all to come back together.”

Certainly a must see for every fan. So keep a look out for those festival dates near you, becaus ethey might be showing it. I also hope this get’s released soon on DVD.

I just had to get this out right now, and i don’t have much time to rewrite it now. the movie really impacted me because of strength of the WU. so some of this might be a bit bad in reading like this sentence
peace