WU TANG CLAN DISCUSS VIOLENCE AND HIP HOP LYRICS

As Congressional Hearings wind down, Inspectah Deck of Wu Tang Clan talks about the climate of violence and disrespect in the Hip Hop community.

As rappers Master P and David Banner testified in Washington D.C. at the Congressional hearings discussing violence in hip hop and the lyrical content and imagery of African-American women, Inspectah Deck of Wu Tang Clan sat down to discuss the violent culture in Hip Hop. The Congressional hearing, named “From Imus to Industry: The Business of Stereotypes and Degradation,” was put together by Representative Bobby Rush (D-Ill.), chairman of the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection. Rush, who coincidentally was also a member of The Black Panthers, meant to call on the music industry to change the negative climate and explicit lyrical content infiltrating music and business leaders including The Chairman and CEO of Universal Music Group, Chief Executive Officer of Radio One, Chairman and CEO of Warner Music Group and the President & CEO of Viacom, which owns cable networks as MTV, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon and BET were all on hand.

We caught up with Inspectah Deck of Wu Tang Clan, who are about to release their new album ‘8 Diagrams’ to get his thoughts on the violence in Hip Hop lyrics.

“The violence always existed because violence comes from the environment. For the most part I think rap now adays is being taken too serious as far as the capitalist aspect of it. I think the talent level is being compensated for fast money aspect. There’s no substance involved so the violence is over material.”

Inspectah Deck also talked about guns in society being a much bigger problem now then back when Hip Hop was starting out.

“Back in the days of ‘Beat Street’ and ‘Breakin’ and all of that you know it was more or less that you’d get jumped because of a battle or something. That’s the Hip Hop that we grew up on. But nowadays you’re making millions of dollars you can afford the guns. Guns are on every corner and that’s what it boils down to now man. You’re making so much money that you have to protect yourself. That’s how it is these days.”

Wu Tang Clan’s new album ‘8 Diagrams’ was originally scheduled for a November 13th release, but the release date has been pushed back to December 4th. With the album done and ready for release, Wu Tang Clan will hit the road with shows beginning October 20th in Miami, Florida and extending until November 23rd in Hawaii.