Seth Rogen and RZA may come from different worlds, but get the Knocked Up star in the same room as the Wu-Tang Clan mastermind and realize that they A alike, Be alike, and see alike.

Walk lightly and carry a big clique. That’s the mantra mash that Wu-Tang Clan impresario RZA and comedy polyglot (writing, acting, directing, and we heard he makes a mean spinach dip) Seth Rogen live by. Though their come-ups are separated by 13 years, the rap Godbody and the comedic Loki did it their way: They each found the common ground between hip-hop and Hollywood and took their respective games by storm.

What does it take? The sharpest skills, coupled with a multifaceted attack that only a squad of peers can make possible. Your man RZArector assembled the gulliest dart spitters to colonize hip-hop with killa bees—and even 15 years later, we’re drooling like Superhead in anticipation of the Wu’s en masse return, 8 Diagrams. Then there’s Rogen, the young Turk. Came onscreen at the tender age of 17, bringing his sardonic chronic to the critical TV darlings Freaks and Geeks, Undeclared, and Da Ali G Show (as a writer), before becoming the film version of…well, of you, in The 40-Year-Old Virgin. Now he holds down a romantic lead in Knocked Up without sacrificing his comic cojones: same crew, same holy-shit quotables.

All of which is why these two anchor our 2nd Annual How to Blow Up special. Peep as they drop actual facts on being creators, leaders, entrepreneurs, and men. You see, that’s what we bummy sophisticates at Complex do: cut through the superficial differences and unearth the common spirit that makes us Complex men. Bong bong, buds. The saga continues.

You’re both surrounded by talented friends. Is that luck or did you pick and choose the talented dudes when you were growing up?

Seth Rogen: I really want to hear RZA’s answer to this. RZA: We was the elite of the whole borough. Everybody in my crew was a cool muthafucka. Like U-God—back then they called him Ears. This muthafucka was the first nigga to come out with the two [gold] cables on his neck. The rumor was, on his job he found a fuckin’ money bag! [Laughs.] It wasn’t a bunch of lame muthafuckas looking for the next one to feed off of. Seth Rogen: I always wondered, was it just a coincidence that your friends happened to be the best rappers in the area—[Laughs.] RZA: It wasn’t a coincidence. The GZA taught me. I taught ODB. Our tapes that we made, everybody in the neighborhood had to have. So we talk to Meth, he says, “I learned listening to the tapes.”

RZA, for the first few years you really masterminded all the Wu albums, producing everything. Why did you stop?

RZA: It was like, yo, the five years was up. I could’ve enforced it with my lawyers. I could’ve been a dick about it but it wasn’t what my word was. To this day, my business partners, my lawyers, everybody condemns me or criticizes me on how the fuck a $100 million company precipitates. It’s because my word is everything. I won’t ever regret it. I signed everybody’s contract back for free. Method Man was worth $5 million at that time. I just signed him away for free. And I named him Method Man.

Really?

RZA: Yeah. But it’s yours, you free—go. And he went and made his own mistakes in life as well. Sometimes someone should have been smarter, like, “It’s workin’, I’m gonna stick with this muthafucka.” Like this guy’s [pointing at Seth] probably the funniest guy in the world, and your man probably think he as funny as you is, but he’s not! There’s something else about you that makes it work. But he sees you every day and takes it for granted. I think everybody thought that it was so easy, what I was doing... Seth Rogen: You made it look easy. RZA: In some cases it was successful and for some brothers, their career went downhill.

I gotta ask about the Wu-Tang torture skits. Those are hilarious and disturbing.

RZA: [Laughs.] That’s some battle shit we used to do all day in the ’hood. Method Man named it Torture. Torture, nigga, torture! [Laughs.] Seth Rogen: That’s no different than “You know how I know you’re gay?” It’s the exact same concept.

“Because you wanna lay my nuts on a dresser, just my nuts on a fuckin’ dresser—”

R&Seth Rogen: [Laughs.]

“—And bang them shits with a spiked bat!”

RZA: [Laughing.] You know how I know you’re gay? If I scratch my nuts and dig in the peanut bowl, you gonna wanna eat the peanuts! R&Seth Rogen: [Laughs.]

“And Meth, you know how I know you’re not gay? ’Cause you wanna sew my asshole shut—”

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