Taonga: For Che-Fu, recording with hip-hop superstars Wu-Tang Clan was pure gold

Musician Che-Fu features on this Wu Tang album. Photo / Dean Purcell

In 2001, Auckland hip-hop artist Che-Fu got a call from one of the biggest names in the business.

I have a lot of keepsakes that are more personal, but this is significant to me because of the unbelievability of being on a record with Wu-Tang Clan. I'm still a bit humbled by it all.

Careful (Click, Click) — Brown Panthers Mix was released in 2001 on 12-inch, and there are probably only about 20 copies in New Zealand. It's a little token that symbolises the work I was doing in this art form of hip-hop music at a time when it was still trying to break here. I felt vindicated getting the nod from the big homies.

I was 18 or 19 when Wu-Tang's first album came out. I really dug it, these young guys from Staten Island doing music their way. A bit of anger, a bit of angst, a bit of raging against the machine. Supergroove's record label, BMG, were the distributors here, so we got a copy in advance.

Fast-forward a few years and I'm a solo artist. Legendary A&R man Kirk Harding was working in the US for Loud Records and had this idea to get Wu-Tang with other international features. He approached me about doing a track and that really flipped my wig. I was totally blown away.

They sent me Wu-Tang's verse, the chorus and a space of about 16 bars left for me. Kardinal Offishall, Blak Twang, Le Rat Luciano and Curse feature on other versions of the track. We all recorded our parts separately, then flew the a cappellas to the Tang Clan and they pieced it together.

The lyrics pertain to a battle scenario metaphor and it's pretty aggressive, so I got a little aggressive myself. Coming from a rock band, you can get quite aggressive musically and play with the emotions of the sounds, but lyrically this was very different for me. I re-wrote my verse four or five times until I thought it could be worthy.

That's how a lot of people do music now, but this was all pre-internet craziness, when international bands were still kind of mysterious — like unicorns for us over here. So the idea that I'd be able to feature on a track by doing it remotely was pretty awesome.

I never met them but when Wu-Tang played Ragamuffin [in 2016] I had backstage passes and took two of my sons along. When the van drove in and the guys got out, my boys were so blown away they saluted! It was mad-cute. And when my wife and I got married, the three oldest boys rapped a version of GZA's Breaker, Breaker at our wedding.

So Wu-Tang's very big in our household.

— As told to Joanna Wane

Che-Fu and his band The Kratez celebrate 20 years since the release of his triple-platinum second album Navigator with a live concert at the Auckland Town Hall on March 13 as part of the Auckland Arts Festival (aaf.co.nz). A national tour is planned for the end of the year.

Che-Fu's lyrics for Careful (Click, Click) - Brown Panthers Mix, 2001

US-NZ connection collaboration,
Communicate via mic wire verbal gunfire,
Wu-Tang Clan if you can hear us,
We've pinned down the enemy it's getting serious yo,
I'm out of ammo,
still all good, cos I'm an animal,
A can of ass-whip dressed in camo,
One with the jungle - The Brown Panther,
From Auckland to Wakanda,
Pacific warrior from down under,
Do you copy? F*** it - We're movin' in.