The Tao of Wu [Hardcover]

The RZA (Author)

Book Description

Release date: October 15, 2009

A unique book of wisdom and experience that reaches from the most violent slums of New York City to the highest planes of spiritual thought by the RZA, founder of the Wu-Tang Clan and hip-hop's most exalted wise man.

The RZA, the Abbot of the Wu-Tang Clan and hip-hop culture's most dynamic genius, imparts the lessons he's learned on the journey that's taken him from the Staten Island projects to international superstar, all along the way a devout student of knowledge in every form he's found it-on the streets, in religion, in martial arts, in chess, in popular culture. Part chronicle of an extraordinary life and part spiritual and philosophical discourse, The Tao of Wu is a nonfiction Siddhartha for the hip-hop generation-an engaging, seeking book that will enlighten, entertain, and inspire.

The legions of Wu-Tang fans are accustomed to this heady mix-their obsession with the band's puzzlelike lyrics and elaborate mythology has propelled the group through fifteen years of dazzling, multiplatform success. In his 2005 bestseller The Wu-Tang Manual, the RZA provided the barest glimpse of how that mythology worked. In The Tao of Wu, he takes us deep inside the complex sense of wisdom and spirituality that has been at the core of his commercial and creative success.

The book is built around major moments in the RZA's life when he was faced with a dramatic turning point, either bad (a potential prison sentence) or good (a record deal that could pull his family out of poverty), and the lessons he took from each experience. His points of view are always surprising and provocative, and reveal a profound, genuine, and abiding wisdom-consistently tempered with humor and peppered with unique, colloquial phraseology. It is a spiritual memoir as the world has never seen before, and will never see again.
 

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This hodgepodge of memoir, spiritual advice and poetry is a sincere attempt by the RZA, Wu Tang Clan founder and producer, to impart his accumulated life wisdom through the lens of hip-hop and idiosyncratic personal religion. To this end, the book opens with a series of paragraphs defining wisdom (Wisdom is woman, Woman is the word) and continues with the full Webster's Dictionary definition of wisdom. Repetition and generalization are problems, but serious fans of the Wu-Tang Clan, who surely are all of the potential readers for this book, will find some interesting stories of the RZA's early days through some diligent skimming. He writes about saving Method Man's life at the scene of a drug deal gone bad on Staten Island, the emotional connections shared in the projects over viewings of kung-fu movies and the marathon home production sessions during which he created the backing tracks for years' worth of albums for his cohorts. The spiritual message of the book can be hard to parse: the RZA embraces 5 Percent Nation Muslim teachings as well as Zen Buddhism—the latter is the basis for a mind-numbing section of Hip-Hop Koans that includes Don't hate the player; hate the game. Chess tips and a case for vegetarianism also factor into this singular work. (Oct.)
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Review

"RZA is a towering artist and deep thinker who has much to teach us. I salute his courageous vision and compassionate witness-as manifest in this book and his life!"
-Cornel West

"I congratulate the world for this beautiful gift, wisdom from the life and travels of RZA, wisdom I truly believe draws from the deepest pools of human thought and spirit...When a wise monk passes away, the monastery builds a pagoda in his memory. Some pagodas get one floor, some get two or three. But if the man was known as the wisest and most enlightened of all monks, his pagoda gets seven. I believe the seven pillars of wisdom in this book are like the seven floors of an exalted monk's pagoda. They represent the wisdom, knowledge, and enlightenment of a soul that has never stopped training, never stopped learning."
-Sifu Shi Yan Ming, thirty-fourth generation Shaolin Temple warrior monk --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Riverhead Hardcover; 1St Edition edition (October 15, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1594488851
• ISBN-13: 978-1594488856
• Product Dimensions: 5 x 0.9 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (49 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #465,276 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

The RZA is most famous as the founder and leader of the Wu-Tang Clan, the platinum-selling hip-hop group that is widely considered one of the most important of all time, and has also spanned multi-platinum solo careers for many of its members, including RZA. Originally from Staten Island, he is currently based in Los Angeles, where he has continued his music career while successfully branching out into lecturing, television, and film.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 35 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Jewels from the Socrates of Hip Hop October 16, 2009

By Ivan Rott

Format:Hardcover

Originally posted on my blog, Hip Hop Is Read (Oct. 13, 2009):

On "Uzi (Pinky Ring)" from the Iron Flag album, The RZA said something about a "Wu Library". Was this what he had in mind?

Behind the allure of their esoteric lyricism and imagery, there's vast depth behind the Wu-Tang Clan's interest in kung fu films, chess and comic books, as well as their ties to the Five-Percent Nation, Eastern philosophy and the boroughs of New York from which they hail. There's nothing kitschy about these now hipster-standard cultural elements that were once an avant-garde, new angle to the hip hop world and, especially, mainstream America. If textbook rules applied, the Wu-Tang Clan would have either dissolved into the depths of underground obscurity or retooled their image to satisfy commercial norms. Through The RZA's vision, however, the Clan held steadfast to their distinctiveness and stormed through the industry with a divide and conquer strategy.

RZA's new book, The Tao of Wu, discusses the various steps and influences that paved his road to success (in music and in life), the roadblocks that tested his discipline, and the jewels of knowledge he's gathered along the way. Loaded with the terminology and precepts of The Universal Language, The Tao of Wu is definitely intended for Wu-Tang fans and folks familiar with the concepts of the Five-Percenters; but anybody with an interest in music and the game of life, eccentric as RZA's story may seem, can glean much from The Tao of Wu.

As the book's jacket suggests, The Tao of Wu bares resemblance to Hermann Hesse's cult classic Siddhartha. RZA's tales, much like those of the young Siddhartha, are framed as a coming of age story with key parables and glimpses of enlightenment. RZA's narrative, of course, is nonfictional; thus The Tao of Wu is part Wu-Tang fact book and, mostly, part memoir. RZA retraces the roots that led him to music and philosophy all the way back to his early years. It was his days as a child in North Carolina after all - with his Mother Goose rhyme-reciting uncle Hollis - that cultivated the inspiration behind the Gravediggaz and 6 Feet Deep.

Even the most well-versed of Wu-Tang fans will appreciate The Tao of Wu's trove of never-before-told tales. RZA digs deep into Supreme Mathematics and the sutras of Buddhist scripture, establishing his pillars of wisdom; he equates the historic destruction of the Shaolin monastery with the 1996 flood that wrecked his 36 Chambers studio in Staten Island (a.k.a. Shaolin), an incident that caused Ghostface's Iron Man album to sound different from Only Built 4 Cuban Linx and Liquid Swords (a fact that never occurred to me until I read this book); he recounts both the weapons charge case he faced and Method Man's near-death experience, both of which could have easily wiped out the Wu-Tang Clan from existence; he picks out various hip hop phrases like "get in where you fit in" and "it's all good" and traces their Buddhist origins (seriously). RZA even cites Malcolm Gladwell's `10,000 Hour Rule', the point at which mastery in any field is presumably attained, and identifies the moment when he reached this peak in his quest to perfect his production skills.

The Wu-Tang Manual, The RZA's previous book and first in this series of Wu-literature, was a valuable collection of facts - a primer on the foundation of the Clan. The Tao of Wu, however, goes deeper into the brain of The RZA and as such is a more absorbing reading experience. If you liked The Wu-Tang Manual, you'll really enjoy The RZA's follow-up. (Even Cornel West gives it a thumbs-up!) The Tao of Wu is written in a conversational style that's both easy to digest but difficult to put down. It's a light read, but the more spiritual-based aspects of the book may take you some time to reflect. The section on Ol' Dirty Bastard's passing was particularly stirring. In reading The Tao of Wu, I gained a better appreciation for RZA's work - specifically the depth of his lyricism. And if you ever had a doubt as to why The RZA, aside from being the Wu-Tang Clan's chief producer, is heralded as the group's leader, The Tao of Wu will make that unmistakably clear. I highly recommend The Tao of Wu to Wu-Tang fans and the uninitiated alike. Bong, bong!

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Proteck ya neck October 19, 2009

By E lo

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

RZA...
What can you say about the zig zag ziggala. One of the all time great minds in hop-hop. One thing that really sets him apart he never hesitates to state his business and mind. Even when what he has done was not "in style" he makes people rethink what in style is. He is always on another plane. It will be a while before any MC in hip-hop could put down some text like this. MC's and producers on his level are so so rare. Think how empty hip-hop is today. You could break down 97% of rappers flows in a paragraph. You can fill volumes with the science of the Wu. This book sheds light on concepts, ideas, and the background of the Wu that any fan will appreciate. People that think rap has no redeeming value this book would be an eye opener. I thought I was a die hard Wu fan but I was learning new things on almost every page. A must have for anyone from true to the wu or new to the wu. This will change more then how you think about hip hop. R.I.P. ODB

11 of 14 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars RZA is a cool guy, not an author January 15, 2011

By Biscuit Face

Format:Paperback

I was really, really excited to get this book after seeing all the positive reviews. But unfortunately, there's very, very little of value contained inside.

The book spends a whole lot more time telling you how awesome RZA is (which we already know to be true, no?), and very little time attempting to actually impart any wisdom on the reader. The book gives vague references to lessons, or to Knowledge, Understanding, Wisdom and their relation to Food, Shelter and Clothing but it never ties them together in any coherent way. The book is basically a vehicle for the RZA to tell how he came from difficult beginnings to be a megastar. Which is a good motivator, and a positive example to be sure... but the book takes itself so seriously and comes off with such an amount of pseudo-intellectual ego that it's kind of embarrassing.