‘It’s … dealing in my mind and everything that I been through, and dealing with the crew,’ Rae tells MTV News of new solo LP. By Paul Cantor Raekwon Photo: Roger Kisby/ Getty Images Raekwon the Chef knows a thing or two about Shaolin and Wu-Tang. The title of the MC’s fifth solo album, Shaolin vs. Wu-Tang, represents the New York City borough he hails from, Staten Island — whose street name in rap circles is Shaolin — and, of course, the MC has been a key member of the iconic Wu-Tang Clan since its founding in the early ’90s. Ultimately, though, Rae’s album, which dropped on Tuesday (March 8), is inspired (like many things Wu-Tang) by the classic 1981 Gordon Liu film of the same name, about a rivalry between two schools of ancient martial arts. “[The film is about] basically two schools fighting with one another,” Raekwon told MTV News recently about the movie’s plot. “But they all come from the same school, and it was an outsider who actually tried to get the Shaolin style and the Wu-Tang style and have them go at one another. On this album, it’s the same thing: It’s two schools and, you know, I’m part of that school. I’m Shaolin but at the same time, I’m Wu-Tang. So really, it’s ego versus discipline, dealing in my mind and everything that I been through, and dealing with the crew.” It’s no coincidence that the concept behind Raekwon’s album focuses on two forces in opposition. Rae began working on Shaolin vs. Wu-Tang back in late 2007, after expressing disappointment with the creative direction Wu-Tang’s nominal leader, the RZA, had taken with the group’s ’07 LP, 8 Diagrams. (Fellow Wu member Ghostface Killah went so far as to call the album
