Wu-Tang Clan gets back to its roots in new TV series

Wu-Tang Clan gets back to its roots in new TV series

FILE PHOTO: Rapper RZA poses at a tribute event "Extraordinary: Stan Lee" at the Saban Theatre in Beverly Hills, California, U.S., August 22, 2017. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni/File Photo

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The story of famed 1990s group Wu-Tang Clan is coming to television in a series that rapper RZA hopes will resonate beyond America's hip-hop community.

"Wu-Tang: An American Saga" is a dramatization of the early days of the band that rose from the crime-ridden streets of New York City to become an unlikely success story.

"This is an American story," Wu-Tang founding member RZA said on Friday at a Television Critics Association event. "But young people around the world I know will relate to it because everyone is trying to grow out of the mud."

RZA is the co-creator, writer and an executive producer on the series launching on Hulu in September. Described as a blend of fact and fiction, RZA said the series would "open up more about the Wu" than has been seen in previous documentaries.

The nine member Wu-Tang Clan formed in Staten Island in New York in 1992 at the height of the crack cocaine epidemic and quickly rose to be one of the most influential bands in early hip-hop. Its debut album "Enter the Wu-Tang" is widely regarded as one of the best rap albums of all time.

Brian Grazer, the Oscar-winning producer of "A Beautiful Mind," said he had been fascinated by the Wu-Tang Clan since its early days.

"What we're trying to do is expose people to the unique qualities of this band," Grazer, also a producer on the Hulu TV series, said on Friday.

"They were all sort of disparate felons and they found a way to get together and be successful, and they never sold themselves out."

(Reporting by Jill Serjeant; Editing by Richard Chang)