Episode #146 | 9.28.23
Cappadonna (Wu-Tang Clan Chapter 6): Someone Else’s Crack Rocks, Turning State’s Evidence, and a Rat in the Inner Circle
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In this episode
Cappadonna may have taught a lot of the guys in Wu-Tang Clan how to rhyme – but he wasn’t around when the group first formed and released their incredible debut album. Because Cappadonna was in Rikers Island, doing time for someone else’s crack rocks. When Cap was released, the Clan welcomed him as the honorary tenth member of the group. But he brought someone else into the fold, too. A shady character who, unbeknownst to Cap and the rest of the guys, wasn’t what he seemed … a federal informant testifying in two major cases, one involving the mob.
Sources
From the Streets of Shaolin: The Wu-Tang Saga, by S.H. Fernando Jr.
The Wu-Tang Manual, by the RZA
From Staircase to Stage: The Story of Raekwon and the Wu-Tang Clan, by Raekwon with Anthony Bozza
Raw: My Journey into the Wu-Tang, by Lamont “U-God” Hawkins
Wu-Tang: Of Mics and Men (2019, mini series)
A Close Look at the FBI's File on Wu-Tang Clan (Vice)
I got Ol' Dirty Bastard's FBI files (Gun.io)
Cappadonna Details Multiple Arrests (VladTV)
Wu-Tang Clan Is Sumthing ta Fuck Wit (Village Voice)
Wu-Tang Clan ordered gangsta hit: feds (NY Post)
'He didn't deserve what happened to him,' daughter says of dad's unsolved 1997 murder (silive.com)
Thug Life (Village Voice)
Wu-Tang Clan Fires Manager After Village Voice Expose Mob-linked manager
canned after Wu-Tang Clan reads story in Voice (Rolling Stone)
Disgraceland is a podcast about musicians getting away with murder and behaving very badly. It melds music history, true crime and transgressive fiction. Disgraceland is not journalism. Disgraceland is entertainment. Entertainment inspired by true events. However, certain scenes, characters and names are sometimes fictionalized for dramatic purposes.
Credits
Hosted by Jake Brennan.
Written by Zeth Lundy.
Copy edited by James Sullivan.
Scored and mixed by Colin Lester Fleming.
Additional music and score elements by Ryan Spraker.
Disgraceland theme song, “Crenshaw Space Boogie” written and produced by Jake Brennan. Performed by Jake Brennan, Bryce Kanzer, Jay Cannava, and Evan Kenney. Mixed and engineered by Adam Taylor.
*illustrations by Avi Spivak @avispivak