Chamber Music: About the Wu Tang Book Launch

There are no microphones tonight, so authors Dave Haslam and Will Ashon agree to speak up.

“If there are any DJs whose ears are completely fucked, then I'm sorry,” Dave says. “Themes may be of an adult nature. If you're sensitive... why are you here?”

It's Monday, 12^th November. Both men are at Waterstones Deansgate to discuss Will's new book, Chamber Music: About the Wu Tang (in 36 Pieces), a biography of 90 hip hop crew The Wu Tang Clan. Will describes his journey into hip hop via jazz, seeing Miles Davies in Wembley (whose hands were 'too fucked' to play), and being surrounded by much older people. He noticed hip hop's emergence as the young equivalent, and how 36 Chambers, The Wu Tang Clan's first hip hop album- released in 1993- had the same energy as jazz.

Later in life Will founded the Big Dada label, and signed Roots Manuva (the label later signed Wiley). After 15 years at the label, he wrote a novel, then entered non-fiction. He describes meeting and interviewing Wu Tang rapper RZA 3 times, then losing the tapes.

“The encounters were brilliant,” he claims. “He listens to what you say, then riffs off it.”

The word of rap and the world of non-fiction authoring has its similarities, Will says. “You take quotes from different places, and put them together. It's a hip-hop methodology.” The Wu Tang's albums are all laced with samples from old kung fu movies, which the group loved, and this genre of movies became one of their rap themes.

To put together a book like this, there are countless people who knew each person, but with 9 original members, it wasn't practical to find full networks for each rapper. He did notice one serious positive to hip hop groups: that's when artists produce their best work. “Q-Tip was best in A Tribe Called Quest. Andre 3000 was best in Outkast. The competition is fierce, so their verses must be at their best.”

(I'm assuming he hasn't listened to D12's albums who's main cohort is Eminem. That's probably for the best.)

“25 years in,” says Will, “Wu Tang are still producing brilliant tracks. The Rolling Stones after 25 years were releasing shit.”

The Q and A comes after this. Will describes the difficulties of race: a middle class white guy from Leicester, writing about East-Coast hip hop from a 9-strong collective straight out of a drug-ridden Brooklyn ghetto. He tells of the guy who released Ol' Dirty Bastard's FBI file, the race to get the book delivered in time for the 25^th anniversary of 36 Chambers, and about rap battles teaching youngsters to keep their cool in confrontational situations.

It's a fascinating evening. He signs the book with the bastardised lyric from the track CREAM:

Matt rules everything around me!