11 Facts About U-God

U-God has been with the group since its inception, and is known for his deep voice and rhythmic flow that can alternate between gruff and smooth.

U-God was originally a beatboxer for Cappadonna, and was friends with future members Method Man, Inspectah Deck and childhood friend of Raekwon.

Sometime before the members united, U-God was mentored in rap by Cappadonna.

U-God soon became friends with RZA and Ghostface Killah, and he began rhyming under the alias Golden Arms, based on the Kung-Fu movie Kid with the Golden Arm.

U-God was convicted on the grounds of firearm and drug possession charges on April 17,1992, and was paroled in January 1993.

U-God's incarceration prevented him from attending the group's debut album Enter the Wu-Tang recording sessions for the most part, his input on the seminal LP consisting of only a short bridge on the group's debut single "Protect Ya Neck" as well as the fan-favorite opening verse of "Da Mystery of Chessboxin'".

U-God was the eighth member of the group to record a solo album, releasing Golden Arms Redemption in 1999 on Priority Records, which displayed a wide variety of sounds from gritty blaxploitation funk to urgent string sections, and featured guest appearances from several Wu-Tang members and affiliates.

In 2009, U-God released the album Dopium and had the lead single "Wu-Tang" featuring Method Man.

In 2013 U-God announced a new album The Keynote Speaker with production by RZA who served as the albums executive producer.

On December 13,2016, U-God released through Babygrande Records' SoundCloud account a song "Venom" and announced that his new album, called Venom, would be released soon.

Around the time of Wu Tang Forever, his two-year-old son Dontae was struck by a stray bullet while on his way to a birthday party, suffering permanent damage to his kidneys and hands, an ordeal U-God documented on the Wu-Tang Clan track "A Better Tomorrow".