“I actually brought the Wu-Tang Clan to the map at all,” said Eva Ries in the documentary
After Nirvana, Sonic Youth and Guns N ‘Roses, a completely different adventure was waiting for Eva Ries in the early 1990s: she became a marketing and tour manager of the WU-Tang Clan-one of the most influential rap crews of her time. Between the glossy offices of Gefs Records and the streets of Staten Island, she suddenly found herself in a world that was as dangerous as it was fascinating. On September 16, the documentary “Evil-E-Eva Ries and the Wu-Tang Clan” starts in the ARD Mediathek, which will roll up this extraordinary chapter for the first time. Ries was one of the few women who could not only assert themselves in the testosterone-charged hip-hop business of the 90s, but also set their own rules.
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How they toured Europe with RZA, Method Man and the other clan members
Already in 2022 she had written down her story in the book “Wu-Tang is Forever: My Time with the Clan”-a chronicle full of wild nights, tough negotiations and often life-threatening situations. She toured Europe with RZA, Method Man and Co., threaded deals and constantly balanced between loyalty and tough business decisions. Now there are some of them to be seen in moving material.
That sounds like a fairy tale from the hip-hop cosmos
“I actually brought the Wu-Tang Clan to the map at all,” she says confidently today. What sounds like a hip-hop fairy tale is a reality: a woman from Ladenburg near Mannheim became the key figure that made the clan internationally.
The Wu-Tang Clan was never just a rap band, but a collective of nine extreme characters-from Rza’s dark sample collages to the unpredictable OL ‘Dirty Bastard († 2004). Her debut “Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)” from 1993 was a manifesto full of road stories, kung fu references and raw energy-an album that changed the hip-hop world forever. The ARD documentary “Evil-E-Eva Ries and the Wu-Tang Clan” is now performing how all of this comes together.
Between different worlds
Documentary director Jermain Rappington wanted to capture this Clash: “Eva is not a classic protagonist. She moves between worlds that don’t actually go together-the German province and the projects of Staten Island, the shine of La and the hardness of the music business. That is why it is so exciting. Loyalty, will to survive and the price you pay when you keep going. ”
So again to write down: The documentary “Evil-E-Eva Ries and the Wu-Tang Clan” will be available from September 16 for streaming at ARD in the media library.