U-God of the Wu-Tang Clan was a recent guest on People's Party with Talib Kweli where he discussed his early upbringing and aspirations before indulging in a life of crime.

"I tell this story all the time, although I didn't put it in my book," he says. "In the beginning when we were kids we were doing good. We were playing basketball, going to school, and we knew what we wanted to do whether it was vocational school or whatever. Not no illegal shit."

U-God says that a sudden influx of drugs became available that derailed the aspirations of many of his young and impoverished friends. "Then this fucking death cloud came outta nowhere and poisoned the community. Next thing you know I could walk outside in my projects and make 20 racks in an hour. How do you not get caught up in that temptation as a poor kid? That temptation was too great and it got the best of a lot of my brothers."

U-God revealed that he actually wanted to get involved with the mortuary business. "Crime wasn't in our dreams," he said. "I wanted to be an embalmer. I tell people that all the time. I was on my way. I was good with science, and the next thing you know I'm runnin' around with guns and getting into scraps in buildings."

Later in the interview, he talked about growing up in Brownsville,Brooklyn, home of Mike Tyson. "If you grow up around fear you either become the victim of it, or the one who creates the fear. Mike stopped being the victim and became the one to inflict the fear. That's what happens to kids who become killers. There's so much victimization that they just snap and become blood thirsty maniacs. I've witnessed it."

Check out the interview above.