From the Streets of Shaolin by S. H. Fernando Jr

Author:S. H. Fernando Jr. [Fernando, S. H]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hachette Books
Published: 2021-07-06T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 11

RAEKWON / ONLY BUILT 4 CUBAN LINX

Even though the gods were smiling down upon him, Steve Rifkind was pissed off. As if having a hot label wasn’t enough, by the summer of 1994, features in Billboard and the front page of the LA Times were touting the work of his street promotions company, SRC, a name now inextricably tied to the term street team, which his lawyers were in the process of trademarking. Expanding operations, he hired Schott “Free” Jacobs, a former rapper himself who, in turn, lured Matty C from The Source to become Loud’s first New York employees. A Staten Island native, Jacobs already had ties to the Clan. In a masterful stroke, revealing his chess-born strategy of thinking many moves ahead, RZA had asked him to connect with Rifkind so they could have an inside man at the label to look out for their interests. When the two met, Jacobs discovered he had attended the University of Maryland with Rifkind’s brother, Jon, and since connections matter, a job offer was in the pocket. The new A&R department’s first signing was the Queensbridge duo Mobb Deep, who had previously recorded the album Juvenile Hell (4th & Broadway / Island, 1993) when they were only teenagers. Loud was beginning to look like the label for second chances. But the fact that Rifkind couldn’t hold on to Method Man or ODB irked him to no end.

According to Jacobs, “The [Wu-Tang] deal was structured so that Loud got to keep two artists. At me and Matty C’s request, we kept Deck and Rae. I figure if we had Rae, we had Ghost.” Actually, Loud had first dibs on all the members of the Clan—provided they could secure the advance money from RCA to beat out any competing offers. Already upset about losing two of the breakout stars of the Clan, Rifkind was hedging his bets on Raekwon, who had clocked the most rhyme time on 36 Chambers. Unfortunately for him, this path led through the notoriously frugal Carol Fenelon, RCA’s chief attorney, who was considered a pit bull at the negotiation table. Thinking she might be swayed by RZA, Rifkind’s partner, Rich Isaacson, set up a meeting involving Fenelon; Rifkind; Rifkind’s lawyer and cousin, Jamie Roberts; and RZA, Divine, and their lawyer, Tim Mandelbaum. Unfortunately, the talks, which convened in the RCA conference room on the thirty-sixth floor, did not proceed well, as Fenelon refused to budge from her best offer, even though the company came in only $20,000 under what RZA wanted. “Get yourself another nigger. I’m out of here,” he reportedly said before rolling out with his team.1 With the Wu-Tang album already surpassing gold and Method Man’s first single for Def Jam, “All I Need,” saturating the airwaves, he was confident in the strength of his position and was not about to be nickel-and-dimed by some corporate stooges.

No sooner had RZA left the room than the blood rushed to Rifkind’s face. Even though, technically, his interests were

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