The Tao of Wu reviewed

 I consider the Wu-Tang Clan the same way I consider KISS.  Both of them are fascinating ideas that I love reading about and yet, I could care less about their music.  Of course, Wu-Tang and KISS are polar opposites musically and I do have some KISS songs that I like.  In Wu's case, I'm just not interested in their stuff at all.  It doesn't make it good or bad, I just have some other things to do before listening to Wu.  But I was interested in Wu-Tang's mastermind, RZA, five-year plan to take Wu-Tang to the top.  And how it worked!

One thing that you must know before embarking upon The Tao of Wu is that this is not an autobiography.  There are some of RZA's life stories but most of the time is various parables, song lyrics, religious quotes and how to apply The Lessons in life to achieve wisdom.  As for what The Lessons are, it's a lot.  There's the Supreme Alphabet and the Supreme Mathematics which are then used to activate the 12 Jewels.  It makes much more sense with context and research.

Even though RZA may be a bit weird with his approach to numerology and other mystical things...it doesn't really matter since RZA has an exhilarating writing style that makes reading this book and probably The Wu-Tang Manual just fly by.  He has a way to connect anything to any moment in his life to with the knowledge and wisdom derived from The Lessons.  He even talks about Dragon Ball Z...that Dragon Ball Z and how he equates a Saiyan to a black man.  That's just scratching the surface of RZA's knowledge.

There's also how RZA structures his book.  At every life story he tells, there's a short summary on what he talked about and how to apply it to your own life.  There's also some micro-stories and other nuggets of wisdom on which RZA talks about music, production, the digital age and how to use wit to stave off conflict.  It gives the book an identity of its own.

While I hesitate to call this one of the greatest music biographies ever since Motley Crue's The Dirt still exists and it's not really a biography, it's still a great book.  It's still wildly entertaining and it's still fascinating to marvel, for a lack of a better term, at RZA's knowledge and conviction in his beliefs.  Also, on his five-year plan to bring Wu-Tang to number one....it's still amazing that it worked so well.

9/10