So, you wanna be a record producer? In this interview in Rap Pages (March 1995), the RZA breaks down his creative process, some of the equipment he's used over the years, insight into why the Wu-Tang always kept their production in-house (then), and plenty of stories about Wu releases. Some nuggets from the interview: 'I made the Wu-Tang and Method Man albums with that (ASR) and a SP 1200. After a while, you start getting money, you just buy shit. I got the Studio 440 because that was the machine from back in the days that helped me train. I found it at a used equipment store. I'm going to make an album with that, probably Inspectah Deck's because he has the dirtiest rec-room style of rhyming." I like the vibe the RZA was on at the time, he adds "Through each member of the Clan, we are going to bring back the essence of Hip-Hop." Regardless of what goes on behind the scenes of the Wu-Tang - even to this day - for the most part, they've proven their loyalty to the unit. Some more than others, but no family is perfect. Moving on, he shares "One thing I learned is that the demo always sounds better than the album for some weird reason. The demos are raw. Like "Tical," if you heard the demo, you would love it more because everything sounded louder. Take it to the studio, they want to compress shit, hold certain things back. The engineers, they know the science of fidelity, but Hip-Hop is not even based on that science. We ain't orchestra music where you have to know every range. It's basically loud shit, and the vocals, snares, and kicks have to be clear." One last piece of info on the first Wu album, RZA says "We only spent $36,000 to record and mix the Wu-Tang album, that's including food bills and everything... It's just knowing how to make the best out of what you have." Peep the full interview for some more gems.
