The RZA gave a candid interview to CNN about ODB's drug problems and how the Wu-Tang Clan almost never got started.
Method Man, the group's most recognizable voice, was nearly killed before the band formed, Wu-Tang's chief producer, RZA, writes in his forthcoming memoir.
Meth was walking to buy marijuana at 160 Park Hill Avenue in Staten Island -- the house in Wu-Tang's "Protect Ya Neck" video -- when RZA saw him across the street, he writes in the book.
"Come over here, yo!" RZA beckoned, according to "The Tao of Wu" (Riverhead). "He stopped and came running over. A few seconds later -- pow-pow-pow-pow-pow! -- a guy started shooting up the front of 160. A buddy of ours, Poppy, an innocent, school-going, nice guy -- he was shot and killed right there."
The most shocking part of the piece is reading about how the RZA witnessed ODB force his son into watching him do drugs.
CNN: ODB was a product of his environment as well. To what degree were you and other Wu-Tang members responsible for his death?
RZA: The guys would say it's more me than them because they say that's my cousin and I was right there. If you let a man that you love or anybody -- man, woman or child that you love -- sit there and destroy themselves in front of you, you're neglecting them ...
Everybody let him do what he wanted to do. ... There were times when I took his drugs and threw them down the toilet. When I do that, he would get so pissed off I don't see him for weeks after that. ...
So it got to a point, I was like, "[expletive] it, let him do his drugs" just to have him around me, just to keep him there. ... But it's still neglect, yo.
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