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Published Date: 06th. January. 2012

Conducted By: Dark 7 Invader & The Reccollectah

Notes:
Special thanks to Popa Wu, Transcripts from audio interview.  

Interview

I like to say thanks first and foremost for taking the time to answer these questions, highly appreciated, and will also point out that nothing will be altered, edited or changed when this is published online.

Wu-International:  Peace Popa Wu, how are you, Lets start off with your recent projects, I stumbled across 2 versions of your recent DVDs both with different artwork, first one was just called “The 5% Story”, and the second one was “The 5% Story (NGE Edition) directed by Khalik Allah, are they both the same or different projects and can you please tell us more about this DVD(s)?
Popa Wu: They are different, on one I do lot of cursing, some of that stuff, you know, not edited but straight up, the other one is rawlike, you know?

Wu-International: So the first one was the raw version ?
Popa Wu: No, the first one was the good one, the second one was the raw version.

Wu-International: Ok, I thought it was the other way around. Can you tell us some more about what these DVD’s are about, the content ?
Popa Wu: The DVD is based on what I went through, growing up, being a 5 Percenter. That’s why I called it “The 5% Story”, dealing with some of the things I had to go through with being a man, growing into being a 5 Percenter, getting into the music world, you know ?

Wu-International: So it’s more about your story, we thought it concentrated largely on the 5% beliefs.
Popa Wu: No, about me being like the 5% Nation spokesperson, cause I’m the Nation’s spokesperson, I speak sometimes for the Nation.

Wu-International: Where and how can fans buy this DVD?
Popa Wu: It’s online now. They have to go to Khalik’s page and request it . I’m getting ready to open my website up because I’m getting ready to do some other things. I got some big things coming up, we’re getting ready to shoot a movie: the ODB movie. We’re going to shoot that, I’m gonna put that album out we got, I got a little deal with Universal Group. So, I’m getting ready to do some real things, man and I’m gonna put that together on one site, you know?

Wu-International: So fans can easily get it all at once at one place .
Popa Wu: Yes.

Wu-International: Can you tell us some more about this upcoming ODB movie?
Popa Wu: It’s based on what happened, what he went through … what all of us went through as the Clan. It will show you our family, where we came from cause we Shinnecock Indians, and we try to keep it on that concept. Our great grandfather’s name was Chief Cuffie, and he was a Shinnecock Chief right in Manhattan, Bowling Green at the big Bowling Street, they owned the whole Manhattan, the Shinnecock . But back then in time things happened and they put them in reservations in Long island so we try to bring our roots back, that we are Shinnecock Indians and we went into the music world. Cause you don’t see no Indian hip hop, they just think everybody came as Afro American, but Dirty and all of us are actually Indians, we wanted to show the world that and how big our family was and how he enjoyed his life until he died.

Wu-International: Will this film have some exclusive footage from the archives or will it be all new material, interviews?
Popa Wu: Everything we’ll be doing from this point on is like some of the old stuff that we have, you know: music that we had and a lot of this new stuff cause we started to go in the movie stuff cause we have got this nice little deal with Liongate. So we are trying to turn, be family with them, you know?

Wu-International: Speaking of ODB movies, I remember “The story of the Wu ” DVD a few years ago. You were addressing the man who was responsible for ODB’s passing, I felt that scene was the most emotional and chilling scene of the entire film, it really blew me away and a lot of other Wu fans felt the same. Was this person ever held responsible for what happened in some way ?
Popa Wu: I’m not gonna really blame it on nobody cause it was my brother’s fault too. He should have known what he was doing. But they knew he had a problem, and as he just came home … they shouldn’t have sent him nowhere, that dude Jarred: he was moving my brother too fast, he should have given him the time to breath, to let him get his mind back right, stuff like that, work out, get his health back and all that cause you know he was pumped up from the medicines. But you gonna send him all the way to Colorado with some strangers … well not strangers cause these were his old friends that he was dealing with, had problems with back in the day. I mean if you send him with a bunch of these guys, cause Dirty could tell them anything he wanted to tell them, so they should have sent him with somebody that’s responsible, that’s what I wanted to say.

Wu-International: So basically it was a recipe for disaster the way it was handled?
Popa Wu: Yes, cause he just came home from a mental institution.

Wu-International: I remember reading about that period in Jaime Lowe’s “Digging for Dirt” book and I was constantly thinking: “How many wrong decisions can one take?”. It was incredible, all the things they shouldn’t have done, they did.
Popa Wu:  No, he didn’t make no wrong decisions

Wu-International: And is that book finished at the moment ?
Popa Wu: Not quite and I don’t want to just put it out like that. I’d rather wait till I get the money so I can do it on my own, cause I had a publishing company who wanted to do it. But I’d rather do it on my own, I’ll wait till I did this ODB movie, and it generate its money and then all these things, I can do it the right way: my way, so nobody won’t water it down and it can be done right.

Wu-International: Total control.
Popa Wu: Yeah.

Wu-International: That’s often the best way to get the best result indeed. What will this book deal with, does it concentrate on the 5% Nation or rather your own life ?
Popa Wu: That’s my whole life story: about my growing up, when I was little, the places I lived, the things that happened in my life: I almost didn’t make it, you know ? A lot of things. I was in the gangs in Brooklyn, I was going through this gangbanging stuff in Brooklyn , it goes into my life story, that’s personal: “The journey through the womb” … that’s my life story.

Wu-International: Looking forward to that already, should be a very interesting read. Can we talk a bit about the 5% Nation. This is a concept that is not as known especially to Wu fans outside of America; can you please tell us more about NGE, its history, and principles and so on please?
Popa Wu: We are the 5% Nation, cause there’s 5 % out of the 100 % of the Nation of Islam that just don’t believe in certain teachings, that’s all. We don’t believe in the teachings of people who try to take advantage of another person, you know ? We believe in Freedom, Justice and Equality to all the human families on this planet Earth. We teach that you don’t eat the flesh from the swine, you don’t eat the poison animal which is the pork , you don’t eat that. You don’t lie, cheat or steal, we are about self awareness. In the Nation of Islam, it’s like the Muslims you know they put an X on them. We the 5 Percenters cause we feel that we’re the Poor Righteous Teachers, cause we don’t teach no lies, we just teach truth and righteousness to all human families on this planet Earth. And we teach that Man is God. Every Man is God by nature, whether he want to be or not, I don’t care if you’re black, brown, yellow , white, half original or red. These are the six human families on Earth. And these will make the world go round, from the six human families everything else came: all the different races of people. But these are all God’s children, God said: “These are all my children. I got one White, one Black, one Brown, one Yellow, one Half Original and one Red.” See? That’s six. These are the children of the Most High. I don’t know where that came from, where people separated that and started looking at the pigmentation of other people and tried to judge another person to where you can get that stereotype and call this man a white man or call this man the devil or call this man a black man … know what I’m saying? what man really needs is intelligence. And I got respect for the next man as long as he’s got that type of intelligence and he got that respect for me. We learned how to respect man, that’s what the 5 % Nation is about: I got respect for the next man and I want that next man to have respect for me.

Wu-International: Another concept we often hear about in the Wu lyrics is “Knowledge of Self” ? How did you in your life gain knowledge of self?
Popa Wu: Well, cause the first thing in a life that a person does is you knowledge. When you come out of your mother’s womb you come out sometimes with your eyes closed and the first thing you do is open your eyes : so that’s doing the knowledge. To acknowledge means to observe so you’re observing everything around you in the womb coming from dirt. When you’re born into the world you have got to learn to do the knowledge. Knowledge means to look, listen and observe and so when you listen and observe all you need is to respect the things you are doing the knowledge of, know what I’m saying ? That’s the first thing. And when you break that word “Knowledge” up in three syllables, you get know-leg-edge and every man must know his legs before he can go off the edge. So you have to have knowledge of yourself to build a foundation. So you can just perfectly clean up your square and you stand up right. Cause if a man doesn’t have a foundation under him, a good, strong foundation he’s gonna fall anyway. That’s what knowledge means, the foundation of everything that exists in your life. That’s the first thing a man has: knowledge.

Wu-International: And what would you say, is your foundation you stand on?
Popa Wu: My foundation that I stand on is life, everlasting life. Because I have built my own reality here within this universe, I built my own planets here. I got my own moon and stars here, know what I’m saying ? Because I look at it as man being symbolic to the sun, I do the same thing that the sun in the sky does. If you look up in the sky, you see the sun, moon and stars and that’s that same thing down here on this planet Earth cause the sky is just a great big mirror to what’s here on earth. You’re just a reflection of it, it’s just the opposite of it so whatever is up in space is down here on Earth. Everything it took to create the universe, it took to create the physical man’s body. Everything exists and your body come attached to you: physique, eye and all that exists in the universe. So a man builds his own universe, we say a woman is symbolic to the moon. She’s going through cycles just like the moon. Every 28 days she has her menstruation and 7 days after that she gives birth.

Wu-International: Ok. How does one normally become a member of NGE?
Popa Wu: Well … you don’t just become that. People don’t just apply, people come in this on their own. You gotta free yourself. When you listen to the teachings, you don’t just become this. If you come to be one with you, because you can understand that’s your way of life. Islam is a way of life, it’s a lifestyle that we do and they become to be the gods. Cause we look in the Bible, in certain Psalms it says he was gods of the Most High, is when a man takes his place in life and he feel that he’s that god and he come to get the 120 lessons and that’s the science of life.

Wu-International: How did it benefit you and those around you?
Popa Wu: Well: I’m not kicking in nobody’s doors and sticking them up and robbing them, that’s for sure. I’m not in jail, I graduated from John J. College for Criminal Law, that’s for sure. I was in United States marine Corp, that’s for sure. So it benefited me where I might not have been all that, I might have been sticking somebody up or been in jail for killing somebody.

Wu-International: So basically it helped you make positive choices in life ?
Popa Wu: There’s certain rules and regulations in the Nation of Islam and it says: “Thou shall not rob, cheat or steal!” Cause the penalty is death ! So when you get into the Nation of Islam, there’s certain stipulations that’s above your head. If you do something wrong, you can loose your life. Cause we say we’re righteous men, and we do righteous things for righteous causes. So when a man is not doing righteous things, what we call is good, well then he’s destroying. And if he is out there destroying life, we are going to take his life.

Wu-International: Thanks for explaining all this, this is all very interesting. you also go by the name Freedom Allah, how does one go about attaining a name within the Nation, do they choose one or is it given to them by someone else? Popa Wu: A man names his self. And he names his self as he sees his self, and the reason I call myself Freedom, cause freedom is self explanatory. And I’m self explanatory to the world, and if you look at it in Islam freedom means Uhuru: That means the Chosen One, the ordained child. So I’m the Chosen One, the ordained child, I am Uhuru . And that means freedom, cause I have that much freedom. I freed my dome, my mind from ignorant lies that make a person dumb. I freed myself from all that, I resurrected my self from the dead. At one time I was lost and I had to be found. I had to help myself to reality. That’s why I say my name is Freedom cos I am just that Free.

Wu-International: So that’s also why your motto is “Freedom or death” ?
Popa Wu: Yeah, you give me freedom. Freedom or death.

Wu-International: Yes, freedom is one of the most important things in life
Popa Wu: What’s life if I can’t have my freedom?

Wu-International: Exactly. Something else that interests us: what were you doing before becoming a part of Wu, or rather how did you meet with RZA etc to become part of Wu?
Popa Wu: Me, RZA, GZA, 60 Second Assassin from the Sunz of Man: we are all one family. Dirty is my lil brother, RZA and GZA is my cousin, 60 Sec is my brother. I have known them from when they was born, I was the oldest.

Wu-International: So you have watched them grow up.
Popa Wu: Yeah, I watched them born. In Staten Island, I remember Raekwon and Meth and all of them when they was little kids.

Wu-International: Did you know rather soon RZA would be such a musical genius?
Popa Wu: I knew he was gonna be something like that cause when he was little ,we used to get these little tape recorders. And he knew how to take two tape recorders and record stuff, he was always messing with things like that. So I knew but I never knew it was going to turn out to be thàt big. That’s what gotten me cause I never knew that we was going to turn out that successful, that state like that. Wu Tang was like what the Beatles was but to hip hop.

Wu-International:  Yes, true.
Popa Wu: Yeah

Wu-International: Indeed the Beatles produced a lot of classic albums in a period of some six, seven years just like Wu Tang gave us a series of absolute classics in a period of some five years. Speaking of albums, maybe we can take a look at some of your musical projects now ? Your last project as we know it was “Visions of the 10th Chamber Part 2” that you consigned Dlah to produce, how did you meet Dlah and how did the project come about?
Popa Wu: He had hit me up on Myspace a long time ago and he told me he was a young producer and nobody ever did anything for him. You know, every time they come to the town and do shows, they tell him they were gonna help him, they gonna do this … you know ? So I kinda felt sorry for him and I said ”Well, you gotta learn to do your own stuff.” Giving him advice, being very advisive to him, trying to give him good advice on how he can make it. So I was gonna do my album, so I said “Let me tell you something: since you said nobody did nothing. I got my label Popa Wu records and I’m a do ‘Visions of the tenth Chamber part II’ so if you want to produce some tracks on it, I’m gonna let you do it and then he also had love for the Wu cause then you can’t say nobody did nothing. So he did just one record and that’s it, it was over. But then he went crazy with it, he keeps telling everyone “he’s Wu Tang, part of Wu Tang, he’s Wu affiliated”. And that gets on my nerves ! He should call himself Hellkeydoe, why would you keep running around telling everyone all over Facebook and all that that ‘you’re Wu-Tang, you’re Wu-Tang affiliated ‘, you know , you aint! STOP DOING THAT, I HATE THAT! You did one little project for me, you gave me a few beats, so you did something … that don’t make you Wu Affiliated, that don’t make you Wu-Tang man, stop!

Wu-International: So his claims are not correct?
Popa Wu: He ain’t Wu tang, he’s Hellkeydoe ! He did a few tracks for my album, my business the 10th chamber

Wu-International:  And that was it ? Popa Wu: That was it, that was the end of it, and then never did nothing, I let him do the tracks but it never did nothing so I shut the whole thing down. Wu-International:  Future Chamber as we know it eventually fell out publicly with DLAH and Rraddrr Van going at each other over the internet, where you aware of this fall out and what’s your take on all of this? Popa Wu: I don’t know what they was doing. I did this deal with them and I was backed up cause I saw it wasn’t going to work. They went on doing their own thing but kept claiming Wu Tang. I was hearing a lot of stories about these guys so I said I didn’t have anything to do with that. I don’t have nothing to do with DLAH ! You know when you go to a label and you don’t sell no units, they drop you ! He gave me a few tracks, so we tried to put it out and it didn’t work ! So that’s the end of it.

Wu-International: So currently you don’t really have any kind of business relationship with him?
Popa Wu: I ain’t seen him in years! I haven’t spoken to DLAH or seen DLAH in about three years.

Wu-International:  OK. Back to the music: Apart from executively producing the album and co-signing it, what else was your role with the project, were you responsible for picking the beats, artists etc for a particular song and more?
Popa Wu: Yeah, it’s my project, and I get who I want to get on it, I get them the tracks and they go in my studio and we get busy and I put it out.

Wu-International: And do you suggest concepts to them or do they have freedom in that?
Popa Wu: I suggest them, I do everything. I make sure the song that you write if it ain’t done right, it’s not going, . If it’s right then it’s go .

Wu-International:  Will it be safe to assume that you are working on another project, perhaps a part 3 to the 10th Chamber and if so can you please tell us more about it?
Popa Wu: I’m doing that now.

Wu-International: You already started on it ?
Popa Wu: Yeah.

Wu-International: Great! We interviewed Iron Shiek aka Honor not long ago and he hinted to us that he was helping out with your solo project, is this the same project or an entirely new one?
Popa Wu: No, that’ s for my personal album.

Wu-International: So he isn’t helping you with part three?
Popa Wu: No, with my own album.

Wu-International:  And will he be the only one producing on that album?
Popa Wu: No, I have got somebody else involved.

Wu-International: And can you already reveal who that will be?
Popa Wu: I got RZA on my album.

Wu-International: RZA? Great! And is that meant to come out in 2012 ?
Popa Wu:  That’s 2012 , when they go back to school so September sometime.

Wu-International: Will you be more on the album this time?
Popa Wu: The fans know Popa Wu, I do all the talking on the albums, I’m the one that’s calling all the knowledge on the album.

Wu-International: Is it possible to give some names of MC’s or groups who will be involved with part 3?
Popa Wu: Yeah, I got Lord Jamar, Sadat X, RZA will probably on it too. GZA probably too, Cappadonna, … you know.

Wu-International:  So on volume 3 you will be working more with Generals?
Popa Wu: Yeah

Wu-International: Should be a great project. Your sons Free and Shacronz are also doing music, will they be on this album too?
Popa Wu: Yes.

Wu-International: Great. Thanks for your time and addressing these questions, do you have anything else to share with the fans that’s not already been covered?
Popa Wu: I think we basically covered everything.

Ok, thanks again for participating in this interview and sharing your wisdom and lessons with us

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