Gabe Fonseca Profile picture
Oct 6, 2021 15 tweets 11 min read Read on X
Season 2, Episode 7 of Wu-Tang: An American Saga was written by yours truly and directed by @nijla1

The title of the episode is AIRWAVES...
#WuTangOnHulu Image
The beat you hear Rza composing throughout the opening scene is the bones of what becomes "Da Mystery of Chessboxin'" -- one of my favorite tracks off their debut album. ImageImageImage
Divine tells Ghostface to use the Gavin Report to call all the local radio stations and push their new single. The Gavin Report was a radio-industry magazine that tracked Top 40 songs and trends across all genres of music. ImageImageImage
The movie that Rae and Ghost watch in this episode is the english-dubbed version of John Woo's 1989 classic THE KILLER -- a movie that would heavily influence samples and tone on Raekwon's debut, "Only Built 4 Cuban Linx" ImageImageImage
Spot any recognizable people at the URB convention? Four bald-heads? A dreaded duo? A fake nose? ImageImageImage
DJ G has always showed Rza and Wu love and was actually one of the first to play Wu-Tang's "Protect Ya Neck" on WPRB in New Jersey. ImageImage
"He looks determined without being ruthless. Something heroic in his manner. There's a courage about him, doesn't look like a killer. Comes across so calm. Acts like he has a dream. Full of passion."
These lines from THE KILLER are heard on the intro of "Incarcerated Scarfaces" ImageImage
Everyone knows that Ghost has an obsession with the fly, custom Clarks Wallabees -- one of the many trends he started. "You go get the cream joints, right? Boom!" ImageImageImage
Darius reads names off the back of the cassette single (see the names on back of original cassette below). Ghost tells him he took the name Ghostface Killah from the 1979 kung fu flick "The Mystery of Chessboxing" ImageImageImageImage
Steve Rifkind, founder of LOUD Records, tries to sell some records to a one-stop distributor. You can see him standing alongside this unnamed trio -- one of the first acts he signed to his label: Tha Alkaholiks. ImageImageImage
Violet Brown is known throughout the music industry as the Director of Urban Music for Wherehouse Music & F.Y.E. She helped break many new acts while she was a buyer and marketer for these chains. ImageImageImage
The shootout sequence pays homage to the church shootout at the end of THE KILLER with many similar shots and moments. If you haven't watched THE KILLER, you should go do that. Right now. ImageImageImageImage
The radio station that Ghost and Rae run up in is 89.9 WKCR-FM, a basement station at Columbia University and home to Stretch and Bobbito. Stretch and Bob were one of the first to play "Protect Ya Neck" ImageImageImageImage
Rae and Rza hear their single being played by renown DJ Kid Capri on his WBLS (107.5 FM) radio show and they know they made it. This is the sort of major radio play they need. (Shoutout to Kid Capri who did the voiceover in this scene) ImageImage
Lastly, during the end credits you'll hear a bunch of fictional call-in requests, followed by the real one that we all know featured on the intro to "Protect Ya Neck"

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More from @MrGabeFonseca

Mar 8, 2023
Tonight’s episode of @WuTangOnHulu is called “Criminology” wrote by me & directed by Matthew Ross (@lolafilm). It’s an “allegorical movie” episode inspired by Rae’s classic solo album, “Only Built 4 Cuban Linx” aka The Purple Tape featuring Lex Diamond and Tony Starks. Image
Rae & Ghost went to Barbados, but they weren’t feeling the vibe, noting the black workers at the resort were treated poorly. So they bounced to Miami where they wrote a majority of the tracks before returning to NYC to record the classic gangster/mafioso inspired album. ImageImageImage
If it feels confusing or clunky when you’re dropped into Lex’s world, missing a little backstory & details, that could be because the first 10 pages (helping to set the stage) were cut from the episode. ImageImageImageImage
Read 13 tweets
Oct 13, 2021
Season 2, Episode 8 of Wu-Tang: An American Saga was written by Earl Davis and directed by @DocRaimist

The title of the episode is SATURDAY NITE...
#WuTangOnHulu Image
The night club Wu performs at was called The Fever. It was a famous club in the Bronx. Featured in Krush Groove and other media, lots of acts performed there. Here's an interview with Sal, the owner: thafoundation.com/salint.htm
Here's Wu's 1993 performance: Image
The record execs seen in this episode are Dante Ross (Elektra), Wendy Goldstein (Geffen), and Tracey Waples (Def Jam). They all worked for labels that would eventually sign Wu solo acts. ImageImageImageImage
Read 5 tweets
Oct 17, 2019
#WuTangOnHulu Reference Guide for Episode 9 - I Declare War.

I knew that DAT from last episode would make another appearance. But when do we get to hear what they recorded on it?! 😂
The movie that Dennis watches throughout the episode is the classic 1983 film Shaolin and Wu-Tang (imdb.com/title/tt008306…) directed by and starring Gordon Liu. #WuTangOnHulu
“That's what you get when you misuse what I invent...”

Gary at the photo shoot for his album, “Words from the Genius”, on Cold Chillin’ Records — thankfully it wasn’t a huge hit.

“The Wu is too slammin' for these Cold Killin' labels” #WuTangOnHulu
Read 6 tweets
Oct 10, 2019
#WuTangOnHulu Guide for Episode 8 - Labels.

This ep was written to shoot each Act as a "oner" -- one single continuous take. Shout out to Tara (director), Niels (DP), Jon (Steadicam) & whole cast/crew for pulling it off w/ limited resources & abbreviated shooting schedule. 🙏
Bobby meets a player from the Houston Rockets (#FreeHK) who's originally from LeFrak City, Queens and was in the Dunk Contest (on another team) the previous year.
Who that is? 👀😂
#WuTangOnHulu
C'mon, how hard is it to spell Rakeem?
Shout out to the props department for letting me keep a shirt tho. 🙌 #WuTangOnHulu
Read 19 tweets

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