Wu-Tang ClanFounding Wu-Tang Clan member Method Man has responded to the discourse surrounding the band’s recent Australian tour, claiming it’s promoters who are to blame for promising the full line-up of the group.
Late March saw the legendary Staten Island hip hop outfit take to the stage in Brisbane for the first date of their final Australian tour.
Dubbed Wu-Tang Forever: The Final Chamber Tour, the three-show trek saw the group perform in Brisbane, Melbourne, and Sydney, with promoters TEG Dainty and Untitled Group promising a tour which featured “all members.”
However, prior to the Brisbane date on March 25th, Wu-Tang Clan shared an Instagram Story that indicated that Method Man would not be making the trek to Australia, but didn’t announce that other members of the group couldn't make it to the shows.
Ultimately, Method Man, Raekwon, Cappadonna, and Young Dirty Bastard (the son of late founding member Old Dirty Bastard) didn’t appear on stage, with only RZA, GZA, Ghostface Killah, Masta Killa, Inspectah Deck, and U-God performing.
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Addressing fans’ dismay at less than “all living members” appearing on stage, Ticketek offered punters attending the Melbourne and Sydney shows refunds.
“We want to make fans aware that due to unforeseen circumstances, a couple of members will be unable to join the remaining tour dates in Melbourne and Sydney,” the ticketing giants confirmed in a statement.
As the discourse has continued, and with the story garnering international attention in the process, Method Man took to Instagram Live to address the situation, as per Rolling Stone, claiming that “your beef is not with me,” and instead urging fans to look toward promoters and management.
“Before we even went on the overseas tour, I wasn’t going,” Method Man explained. “I said I wasn’t going. I said I was booked; I have other things I have to do.
“Not just that, but RZA keeps popping up with these tours and shit,” he added. “Every fucking week is another tour: The Final Tour, The Final Final Tour, The Final Chamber Tour.”
As he continued, Method Man noted that his work as an actor has also seen his schedule fill up, resulting necessitating his absence from a number of tours.
He explained:
Here’s the problem with all these tours and things that RZA comes up with: nobody takes into consideration my schedule. So again, I was not even going to go overseas and do that tour, but the fact that they will put a spin on it, I was seeing flyers saying ‘all living members’ going to be there and shit.
I’m looking at this shit like, ‘They know that I haven’t agreed to go on the tour yet, so why are they putting…’ And this is promoters, overzealous promoters and shit. So I told guys before we left, I said, ‘There’s a chance I will do the overseas dates, but there is no chance that I am going to Dubai or Australia because I’m booked. I have other obligations that I have [committed to]. And they knew this before we even left for the tour.”
The fact that this is the second time or third time that this has happened… You guys have to somehow know that at the end of the day, while you’re blaming the artists who should show up, by the way, especially if they say they are, you guys have to look at the promoters sometimes.
While thanking fans for their support and their desire to see him on stage with the Wu-Tang Clan, Method Man reminded fans that it’s a group effort, and not simply a case of one member making the evening complete. However, he conceded that fans should have been alerted to the fact he wouldn’t be making these dates.
“We're blessed enough to still have a career at this point, and a lot of that is because of our fans, and I think they deserve a lot better, a lot better than what they've got,” he concluded. “But again, your beef is not with me.
“I would talk to promoters, [and] I would talk to management, because at the end of the day, they have no problem with letting the artists take the bulk of the blame, while they take the bulk of the money.”
Though promoters Untitled Group have not issued an official statement on the matter, a spokesperson confirmed that all living members of the Wu-Tang Clan had indeed been confirmed to appear in Australia, with representatives for the band helping arrange visas and travel ahead of the shows.
