Showtime announced Friday that it has acquired the television rights to Wu-Tang Clan: Of Mics and Men, a four-part docuseries about the legendary hip-hop group. The first two episodes of Of Mics and Men, directed by Mass Appeal Sacha Jenkins, will premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 28th, with the docuseries scheduled to air on Showtime this spring.
Wu-Tang Clan: Of Mics and Men features interviews with the group’s nine surviving members as well as never-before-seen archival footage and concert video.
“The series follows the founding members – RZA, GZA, Ol’ Dirty Bastard, Inspectah Deck, Raekwon, U-God, Ghostface, Method Man, Masta Killa and Cappadonna – many of whom were childhood friends in the hardscrabble world of ’70s and ’80s Staten Island and Brooklyn,” Showtime said of the docuseries.
“Their ingenuity and entrepreneurial spirit brought them together to overcome the poverty, violence and oppression of their neighborhoods. But it was music and their shared lyrical genius that allowed them to form the most recognized musical movement in the world, all while walking the treacherous tightrope that links business with brotherhood.”
Showtime’s Vinnie Malholtra added in a statement, “The Wu-Tang Clan is a seminal group that deserves a seminal documentary. Sacha Jenkins delivers just that, not only reminding us of their powerful history through vintage footage, but also placing their impact in modern-day perspective that will be meaningful both to their diehard fans and music fans in general.”
In October 2018, Hulu announced the 10-episode Wu-Tang: An American Saga, a RZA-centric series about the group’s rise in the Nineties. RZA said at the time, “This opportunity to continue the Wu-Saga in a 10-episode series will exponentially increase our inspirational style of entertainment. In the immortal words of ODB ‘Wu-Tang is for the Children.’”