In 2013, Spin did an oral history of Wu-Tang Clan’s seminal album, Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) with words from Yoram Vazan, co-owner of the Firehouse Studio); Ethan Ryman, one of the album engineers; Chris Gehringer, mastering engineer at Hit Factory, and others:
Liz Fierro, art coordinator: Oh my goodness, what a cast of characters they were! First of all, we were so nervous about meeting them. They’ve got this mafioso rap persona, that’s for sure, but they were the nicest bunch of guys that I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with in the industry. We had a huge bus and we had to go to Staten Island to collect them all and find them all and we don’t know who’s who ’cause they’re all in hoodies and this and that. So like two of them were in McDonald’s getting breakfast and one’s over here by the pier. It was hysterical trying to get them all together. But we got them on the bus and then at the end of the day after the photo shoot, we dropped them all off in all these different locations like we were best friends. And Ol’ Dirty Bastard, he was like, “If you ever need anything, Liz, you know who to call.”
Vazan: The rest of them would say hi and give you a hug, but RZA would talk to me and tell me stories about how he’s moving on to become this aggressive rapper out of protest at the industry and at life.
Chris Gehringer, mastering engineer, the Hit Factory: RZA has a lot of things going on in his brain, you could tell that. You could watch and see him take charge.