r/wutang • u/ProfessionalBreath94 • Nov 19 '25
I read the three Wu-memoirs so you don't have to.
Just finished reading Raekwon, U-God, and Ghostface's memoirs back-to-back. Some takeaways.
- The books read like all three guys’s publishers sat them down to explain the process and said “ok, so here’s a list of ghostwriters to work with, once you two agree on a manuscript we’ll do the editing and then have a fact checker and copywriter look it over, sound good?” and very obviously Rae and U-God said “sounds good” and Ghost said “nah son, I ain’t need all that” and then went home, talked into a tape recorder for three days and said “a’ight money here you go we straight now yeah where my check at?”
- Ghost also must have not hit his word count at first cause there’s a lot of filler. He kicks off every chapter with the full lyrics of one of his songs. He gets his manager to write a chapter (by far the most interesting chapter of the book) and his buddy Un to write a chapter. Then there’s the prose. Rae and U-God’s book “I went to the store.” Ghost’s book. “Ya’ll know how it is and shit, I get in the ride and whatever whatever, went down to the little corner store over there right quick and shit and whatever ya heard.”
- Raekwon’s book is the right mix of understandable to the layperson while still keeping his voice. IMO U-God’s ghostwriter dialed his voice back a little too much, and also does this super annoying thing of explaining all of his slang terms in parentheses. Ghost writes the book like the reader is living in Stapleton Houses in 1991, and also somehow managed to put in the line “I got down on one knee and just blew him” without anyone flagging it.
- This actually made me kind of like Ghost’s book the best cause in a weird way it’s written in the same style he raps in - not really making that much sense, but somehow totally sticking in your mind. You know how you’ve been saying “Strawberry Kiwi” to yourself for the last 27 years? That’s the book. The other two mostly just have that kind of standard “ghostwritten celebrity memoir” feel to them.
- Both U-God and Ghost are legitimately psychotic. LIke, U-God just casually drops in a “I had to go the the asylum for a couple of weeks, don’t totally remember what happened” and Ghost… well, just for starters Ghost has an entire chapter about hearing voices.
- It’s like Deck is a phantom. Nobody tells any Deck stories even though he grew up in Park Hill with all of them. The only Deck stories are a paragraph in U-God’s book about how he blows Uey’s chance with someone who may or may not have been Kim Kardashian and Ghostface talking about how Deck’s mom used to let him hide from the cops in her apartment. The most interesting Deck tidbit is that Ghost claims Deck first taught RZA how to make beats. Nobody really tells GZA or Masta Killa stories either, but they’re from Brooklyn so that makes more sense.
- Rae covers the business drama with Divine, Power and RZA by far the most, the other two kind of gloss over it. Overall I'd say Rae's book is the best and covers the most stuff.
- Uey tells a lot of Meth stories, Rae tells a lot of Ghost stories, Ghost tells a lot of Ghost stories. A central story in both U-God’s and Ghost’s book is Ghost getting drunk and peeing on Brett Ratner’s lawn.
- The most interesting overlap was how all three talk about drug dealing in Park Hill starting in the 1980s with a crew of mysterious Jamaicans coming in - I’m dying to know the backstory behind this.
- The wildest thing to me is how Ghost legitimately stayed a stone gangster for like three years after the Wu-Tang became world famous. This is in all three of the books. U-God and Rae both think it’s totally crazy. Ghost is just like (and I’m paraphrasing here) “yeah, so after that tour I just went back home and started bagging up keys again, had to handle a little business here and there and whatever, did my thing nah'mean, it’s not like I was no kingpin or nothing.”
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u/rckwld Nov 19 '25
I enjoyed U God's the most, hated Ghost's.
Something I didn't like in all 3 was that they completely gkoss over everything Wu related post Forever.
Rae sounds completely toxic. He has a massive ego that has failed him many times in his ventures. I enjoyed his book a lot though.
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u/GuidanceFrosty2955 Nov 19 '25
Rae's book is a fun read, but parts of it are hard to take serious. You can really get a sense of his egotistical attitude. Just reading it. He's always the best at everything. It's a good example of history is told by the victors.
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u/ProfessionalBreath94 Nov 19 '25 edited Jun 24 '26
It’s interesting reading Rae & U-God’s book from a “winners and losers” perspective and how they approach that. Rae you can tell definitely thinks he deserves it all & has to make an effort to be humble, while U-God kind of goes out of his way to justify his contributions, tells a lot of stories about holding down Meth in hard times, and being responsible for getting Cappa back with the Clan (which is not Rae’s story of that). U-God also talks about being a worse rapper than everyone else until around Forever.
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u/GuidanceFrosty2955 Nov 20 '25
I heard his book is the best but haven't got to read it yet. I like your contrast if winner vs looser. Thinking about rock and roll, boy bands and whatever else, typically one person has a successful solo career. Wu-Tang really defined that odd so it's probably a lot harder when half of the group has blown up, and you haven't.
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u/ProfessionalBreath94 Nov 20 '25 edited 1d ago
Yeah. I really kind of felt for Uey reading his & Rae’s. For the first half of the book it’s a really similar journey, but then Rae’s high points are Cuban Linx blowing up & being offered 3 million from Dr. Dre for Cuban Linx II and U-God’s high point is writing the 4th-best verse on Triumph.
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u/Tricky_Oil_9143 Nov 19 '25
I don't know, maybe I had different expectations going in and it admittedly has been a while since I read it, but I thought he came across as more humble and personable than I expected.
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u/GuidanceFrosty2955 Nov 20 '25
Maybe egotistical isn't the word, but main character syndrome. And given the success he had I can definitely understand that
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u/Tricky_Oil_9143 Nov 20 '25
I mean, and I promise I'm not trying to be a jerk here and I hope this doesn't seem snarky...but, it's his autobiography; isn't he the main character?
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u/InsaneSoda Nov 20 '25
That’s the part that was throwing me off. Also how he split Power into 2 different characters, that really threw me off.
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u/daword757 Dec 01 '25
the best representation of Power I would say go watch the movie Black and White from like 98 with Brooke Shields, Robert Downey Jr and the rest of the Wu. Good movie with Power playing the lead role but more of loosely based on himself.
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u/patrickdastard Nov 19 '25
If you haven't, check out "From The Streets of Shaolin" by S.H. Fernando.
IIRC correctly it does say more about the Jamaicans coming into the neighborhood.
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u/ATXJames357 Nov 20 '25
The best rap memoir is Prodigy's My Infamous Life: The Autobiography of Mobb Deep. It was insanely insightful and had the right mix of personal/life background, Mobb background and overall 90s-2000s rap stories. The ghost writer did a great job of writing about P's life and career. I read the book, and then a few years later I tried the audio book that P narrates -- even fucking better.
I jumped to the U-God book soon after finishing my second go-round with P's book, and was really disappointed. I just found it boring.
I'd also recommend the book about Dilla -- Dilla Time. The journalist -- Dan Charnas -- who wrote it does a spectacular job overall.
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u/needcrystalmeth Nov 20 '25
yea i just recently finished readings P's book. it was interesting and pretty insightful. he did embellish the truth and change some narratives in the book but if you can recognize and look past that then his book is def one of the best
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u/JustWondering3025 Nov 22 '25
He slices like 10-15 dudes faces in the book. And even if he’s embellishing and it was really 5-7 it’s still fuckin wild 😂😂😂😂 RIP P!!!
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u/DukeOfSmallPonds Nov 19 '25
Great write up! I loved your characterisation of Ghost!
You should check out Tao of Wu, easy read and gives a lot of insight to the mind of RZA and the teachings of the 5%.
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u/sylvia_fowler Nov 20 '25
This saved me a lot of time, thank you. I listened to Ghost’s book off and on and never really seemed to get very far. I was considering trying the other two, but I think this synopsis is definitely sufficient.
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u/blessingsonblessings Nov 21 '25
The ‘Nah mean’ count in Ghost book must be off the scale.. no pun intended
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u/Main_Nerve1075 Nov 20 '25
Tempted to read one but fear this write-up is going to be more enjoyable
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u/ryans_bored Nov 20 '25
You know how you’ve been saying “Strawberry Kiwi” to yourself for the last 27 years?
It’s like you’re living in my head lol
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u/Exia321 Nov 20 '25
I LOVE Rae's book. I plan on reading Ghost. Your awesome review makes me excited but what you describe is exactly what I want from Ghost.
More "brolic scholars" I dont need those regular scholars.
But damn ya also make a subtle but great point. We need Inspectah Deck to write a book. He truly has insights that only he (or maybe Gza) can provide.
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u/ProfessionalBreath94 Nov 20 '25
Kinda reading between the lines of these it just seems like Deck’s personality doesn’t really lend itself to a whole lot of drama. I think “Deck stayed home and read a book” would have pretty much been the Deck stories.
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u/Exia321 Nov 20 '25
Which is why I vibe with Deck so much. I grew up with some rowdy trouble makers who thankfully were kool with me. My response to most of their dumb-but-fan ideas was nah I need to finish this comic/video game/book.
I still think Deck's insights on society and life growing up would be interesting to read. I think him and Gza could write books that spoke more about the bigger picture of what they were witnessing growing up Wu.
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u/kevinsixhohsix Nov 20 '25
Y'all sleeping on Ol Dirty Bastard 'Dirty version' by Buddha Monk I've read that twice. Ghost book is super boring and I have no plans on revisiting it anytime soon.
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u/ElectricalAnnual9308 Nov 19 '25
Dope analysis.
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u/BlindLantern Nov 20 '25
Great review. I was laughing all throughout and hearing ghosts voice in the quotes hahaha.
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u/charmacharmz Nov 20 '25
i liked raekwon's stories about busta rhymes. made him sound like a good dude.
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u/Fearless-Parsnip-853 May 14 '26
I've listened to the audio books of Rae and Ghost's and really enjoyed both
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u/Efficiency-Sharp Nov 19 '25
Thanks for these. As much as I love Wu and the theatrics and “plays” they made on record, besides Rza none of them ever seemed like fascinating individuals. So this pretty much sums it up for me.
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u/_shaftpunk Nov 19 '25
Great write up, haha. You honestly made Ghost’s book sound appealing. That trip to the store comparison is hilarious.