“I met RZA during the time I made3 Feet High And Rising,” Paul tells Entertainment Weekly.
“That’s when he was Prince Rakeem.
We made demos together and I thought he was an amazing lyricist, but I lost contact with him.
Credit: David Corio/Redferns
“We met on Long Island at his studio.
And the gravedigger’s job is to dig them up and bring them back to life.
“So we took on personas that take you through that process,” he continues.
Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
“Of course there’s [Frukwan] the Gatekeeper.
There’s [Poetic] the Grym Reaper.
There’s [Paul] the Undertaker.
David Corio/Redferns
“Poetic was a musician, and his father was a musician.
“It was like battling,” Frukwan says.
“RZA had his own flow.
He did things differently, but it was effective.
Me, I’m not a singer, so it was a challenge for me.
RZA admits he was inspired by Paul’s grand vision to explore projects not just musically, but conceptually.
“RZA was kinda on the fence of signing because Wu-Tang was starting to blow up.
“They didn’t think he was important enough.
But I’m like, if he doesn’t sign, I don’t sign.
Some members didn’t appreciate it because they saw hip-hop as only the street side of it.
Unfortunately, the release of the album didn’t quell Paul’s initial doubts about the music industry.
But back then to me, my career was ending.”
He lived and breathed hip-hop.
He lived it, he expressed it.
So I’ve got to give Grym props that’s my brother to the end.”
Today, Paul sounds more relieved to have finished6 Feet Deepat all than to relish its impact.
“I just hope that they can hear all the work,” he muses, laughing.
“That record was a labor of love.
“The Gravediggaz are part of the pioneer legacy of hip-hop.
It’s probably one of hip-hop’s first supergroups,” he says.
If hip-hop has 50 beams holding it up, the Gravediggaz was one of those beams.
It bought a nice chunk of creativity, innovation, and mind expansion to the hip-hop community.”
