Veteran Wu-Tang Clan member and legendary hip-hop producer Method Man says he never signed up for an Australian tour in March, and accused promoters of presenting the show as including all living members despite knowing he didn’t.
However, a spokesperson for the tour’s co-promoter, Untitled Group, told this magazine that all living members of the Wu-Tang Clan were confirmed to participate in the Australian leg of the tour, with visas and travel arranged for all members in consultation with the band’s representatives.
At the end of March, fans were left disappointed after Wu-Tang Clan’s Australian tour promised to be the last chance to see “all members” missing the hip-hop group’s four members.
This forced Ticketek to issue refunds via email to ticket holders. “We would like to inform fans that due to unforeseen circumstances, several members will not be able to join the remaining tour dates in Melbourne and Sydney,” the email said, according to Rolling Stone.
Method Man, also known as Clifford Smith, was one of four members missing from the show, along with Raekwon, Cappadonna and Young Dirty Bastard. He posted live on Instagram afterward was shared on YouTube on Monday to address the controversy, telling fans “their beef is not with me”.
“Before we even went on the overseas tour, I wasn’t going. I said I wasn’t going. I said I was booked,” Smith said. “Here’s the problem with all these tours and things that RZA comes up with: nobody pays attention to my schedule. So again, I didn’t even go overseas and do the tour, but the fact that they’re going to put it back, I was seeing flyers saying that all the living members will be there.
“I’m looking at this — if they know that I haven’t agreed to go on tour yet. So why are they putting – and these are promoters, hard promoters and s—, so I told people before we left, I said, there’s a chance I’ll do overseas dates, but it’s unlikely that I’ll go to Dubai or Australia before I leave for this tour… and they knew…
Smith said that in addition to artists having an obligation to show up for their scheduled tours, he told fans to also check the show’s announcers’ equipment.
“The fact that this is the second or third time it’s happened … you have to know in a way that at the end of the day, when you’re blaming the artists who have to show up, by the way, especially if they’re saying that, you guys have to look at the promoters,” he said.
“The promoters are aware of this information, but they don’t want to give this information … they will wait for ticket sales, and then they will make an announcement closer to the date, which I don’t think is right … about the plans of things and how things work in this business, they always give people a choice, in my opinion.”
Smith said that when the Wu-Tang Clan tours were being planned, he wanted to explore romance as opposed to music.
“I decided that I wanted to spread my wings, so to speak, try to fall into other forms of entertainment, to fulfill myself. And I found it in acting. In fact, I really like this —,” he said.
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