| RZA | |
|---|---|
RZA in New York City to discuss The Tao of Wu, October 15, 2009 |
|
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Robert Fitzgerald Diggs |
| Also known as | Prince Rakeem, The Scientist (As member of Force of the Imperial Masters, later known as All in Together Now Crew) The Abbot (As member of Tommy Boy Records) , Rzarector (As a member of Gravediggaz) , Bobby Digital, Bobby Steels, Prince Dynamite, Prince Delight, Ruler Zig-Zag-Zig Allah |
| Born | July 5, 1969 Brownsville, Brooklyn, New York |
| Origin | Staten Island, New York, United States |
| Genres | Hip hop |
| Occupations | Rapper, CEO, record producer, actor, screenwriter, author, director |
| Instruments | Rapping, guitar, piano, keyboards, zither, sampler |
| Years active | 1989–present |
| Labels | Tommy Boy/Warner Bros. Records Wu-Tang Records/Razor Sharp/Epic/36 Chambers Records/Wu Music Group/Wu-Tang International/SME Records Virgin/EMI Records Koch Records |
| Associated acts | Wu-Tang Clan, Gravediggaz, Easy Mo Bee, Kanye West, Eslam Jawaad, Kool G Rap |
| Notable instruments | |
| E-mu SP-1200 Roland MC-909 Roland MV-8000 Roland MV-8800 Ensoniq-16 plus |
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Robert Fitzgerald Diggs, better known by his stage name RZA ( /ˈrɪzə/; born July 5, 1969), is an American Grammy-winning music producer, multi-instrumentalist, author, emcee, and occasional actor, director, and screenwriter. A prominent figure in Hip Hop, RZA is the de facto leader of the Wu-Tang Clan.[1] He has produced almost all of Wu-Tang Clan's albums as well as many Wu-Tang solo and affiliate projects. He is widely considered one of the most influential and landmark hip-hop producers of all time. He subsequently gained attention for his work scoring and then later acting in films. His revolutionary techniques of sampling, speeding up tracks to fit the beat laced, and his cinematic skits sprinkled throughout albums have greatly inspired other producers in the industry. He produced for a slew of wutang solo albums as well as group albums that dominated not only commercially, but also thematically and artistically. His production from the mid 90's to the late 90's brought about one of the greatest 'bouts' or 'runs' of inspiration the industry has seen, creating various classics.
He has also released solo albums under the alter-ego Bobby Digital, along with executive producing credits for countless side projects. In addition to the Wu-Tang Clan and his solo releases, RZA was also a founding member of the horrorcore Hip Hop group Gravediggaz where he used the name The Rzarector. Furthermore, he has acted in several movies, including Coffee and Cigarettes, American Gangster, Gospel Hill, Life Is Hot in Cracktown, Ghost Dog, Funny People, Derailed, Due Date and Repo Men. He continues to build his acting and production work hand in hand.
In 2008, RZA was ranked #4 on About.com's list of the Top 50 Hip-Hop Producers,[2] while The Source placed him on its list of the 20 greatest producers in the magazine's twenty-year history.[3] He also made the "Elite 8" in the search for The Greatest Hip-Hop Producer of All Time by Vibe.[4]
Born in Brownsville, Brooklyn, New York, RZA spent time in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania as a child, where his father had a convenience store in the Hill District.[5] From the ages of three to seven, RZA lived in North Carolina with his uncle, who always encouraged him to read and study.[6]
He is named after Robert Kennedy and John Fitzgerald Kennedy.[7] His mother greatly admired the Kennedys, the RZA has called his given name a "honorable" name, given the legacy of both brothers Robert and Jack.
RZA began his Hip Hop music career in the late 1980s and early 1990s, as a member of the trio Force of the Imperial Master (which subsequently became known as the All in Together Now Crew after they had a successful underground single of that name). The group consisted of future Wu-Tang members and his cousins GZA (then known as the Genius) and Ol' Dirty Bastard (then known as Ason Unique, the Specialist, and the Professor).
Once this local band dissolved, both he and the GZA attempted to kick start solo careers. With the help of GZA's friend (then owner of Jamaica Records) they both secured single deals with album options at successful labels, GZA going to Cold Chillin and RZA to Tommy Boy. GZA ultimately released the Words from the Genius album, but RZA's stint at Tommy Boy ended with only the EP Ooh I Love You Rakeem to show for it when he went to jail soon after its release. GZA's album flopped, and the two cousins became determined to conquer the hip hop industry on their own terms. Throughout most of his youth he enjoyed watching various kung-fu movies and purchasing countless albums which he would later sample in most of his music.
Early on, Ol' Dirty Bastard and I used to watch kung fu movies, leave the theater, do some kung fu fighting, get on the train, keep fighting, and then run into MCs and musically battle them like it was a kung fu fight. That was my weekend habit. When we could afford VCRs, we got all the kung fu movies we could get our hands on and watched three or four a day. We were smoking blunts, drinking beer, watching movies, making demo tapes. To this day, at least four times a week, a kung fu flick is in my DVD player. And I'm still DJing, making beats, making songs, and fucking with kung fu movies. I'm still the same kid when it comes to those things.[8]
From this determination came the Wu-Tang Clan (named after Shaolin and Wu Tang, a kung fu movie), formed with GZA and Ol' Dirty Bastard as well as with six other rappers (Inspectah Deck, Raekwon, Method Man, Masta Killa, U-God and Ghostface Killah). With the Clan, Prince Rakeem started going by the name RZA (Ruler Zig-Zag-Zig Allah).
After the single "Protect Ya Neck," which was driven by a raucous RZA-produced beat, made the group into underground sensations, the group released their debut LP Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers). The album, which only cost $36K to produce, eventually went platinum, and was heralded by hip-hop fans as a classic. Enter the Wu-Tang revolutionized hip hop and helped bring the East Coast back into the spotlight after Dr. Dre's G-funk had come to dominate the rap scene, the resurgence in large part thanks to RZA's lean, gritty and very distinctive production style.
As each of the group's members embarked on solo careers, RZA continued to produce nearly everything Wu-Tang released during the period 1994–1996, producing in both the hip-hop producer sense (composing and arranging the instrumental tracks) and in the wider music producer sense (overseeing and directing the creative process as well as devising song concepts and structure in addition to being responsible for a recording's final sound). RZA's rule over the Clan at this time is described in 2004's Wu-Tang Manual book as "a dictatorship". Yet he still released a hit single of his own, in the form of Wu-Wear: The Garment Renaissance. The song was featured on the High School High soundtrack, and was released to coincide with the Wu-Tang clothing brand. It peaked at #60 on the Billboard Hot 100, and #6 on the Hot Rap Singles chart.[9]
His sound was to develop from the raw, minimalist sounds of Method Man's Tical and Ol' Dirty Bastard's Return to the 36 Chambers to more cinematic and expansive soundscapes driven by string sections or thick layers of synthesizer on Ghostface Killah's Ironman, GZA's Liquid Swords, and Raekwon's Only Built 4 Cuban Linx....
During this time, RZA also took part in the creation of a hip hop subgenre called horrorcore with the Gravediggaz, an off-and-on hip-hop supergroup including Frukwan of Stetsasonic, Too Poetic of The Brothers Grym, and Prince Paul who released the album 6 Feet Deep in 1994. As part of the Gravediggaz, he went by the name The RZArecta. In reference to RZA's start with the group he mentions:
When it came time for the Gravediggaz, Prince Paul was thinking about putting a group together. He wanted to get some good MCs. Poetic was another dope MC who was underrated out in Long Island. He had one single out on Tommy Boy that didn't take off, but he was a dope MC. As the Grym Reaper, you know how many dope lyrics he dropped. Frukwan, one of the top lyricists out of Stetsasonic. He and Paul were friends already. He told him about me. He said, "I know this one guy who is super-dope." At the same time, I was also trying to do Wu-Tang. I was trying to start my own company and stuff, so when Paul called me up and invited me to his crib in Long Island and told me his idea for forming this group, I thought it would be an honor to be in a group with him. But I told him, "I'm also producing a group, and I'm also part of a family that I'm building." He said, "Yo, that's crazy." We would talk a lot of times. [Ol' Dirty Bastard] came to his house a lot of times with me. [Method Man], too. We all would just go there and try to find ways to get out of the streets. Me, I was trying to get out of the ghetto. Paul had a lot of respect for me, so he helped me break out of it. I think he liked that I was so dark, but I didn't know I was dark.[10]
The success of Wu-Tang Forever, which hit number one on the charts after selling 600,000 in its first week, also marked the end of RZA's "five year plan"; at the group's inception, he promised the group if he had total dictatorial control of the Wu-Tang empire, it would conquer the hip hop world within five years.
After Forever's success, RZA ceased to oversee all aspects of Wu-Tang product as he had previously, delegating much of his existing role to associates such as Oli "Power" Grant and his brother Mitchell "Divine" Diggs, and giving each Clan member more individual control. This move was designed to enable the Wu-Tang empire to expand further and further into the fabric of the hip hop industry, and in accordance with this an extremely large amount of Wu-Tang music was to be released over the next two years.
This had already to some extent begun on Wu-Tang Forever, which for the first time featured RZA delegating a small number of beatmaking duties to other producers in the Wu-Tang camp, such as his proteges True Master and 4th Disciple who are known as the Wu-Elements, and Clan member Inspectah Deck.[11]
During the 1998–2000 period RZA ceased to produce every Wu-Tang solo album as he had done previously, but continued to contribute usually one or two songs on average to each record as well as receiving an Executive Producer credit.
I had to put out Bobby Digital instead of The Cure because if I didn't do that I would've suffered two things. First, I would have revealed where I was musically too soon. Wu-Tang is the perfect medium to expose anything new because I got the most people coming together to buy it. For me to expose it for my own self, I don't think that would've been a wise thing for me to do. I might've caught more people than Bobby Digital caught, but I still wouldn't catch the magnitude of what the Wu-Tang could catch. Maybe this year or next year the game may be different. The Cure is so intimate in writing that you gotta live that Cure shit. I was living like Bobby Digital in '98, '99 na'mean? So if I put "The Cure" out, then I wouldn't even be able to get on stage and perform it for ya'll cause I'd be lying."
RZA as Bobby Digital in Stereo was an experimental concept album featuring him rapping as his hedonistic, fun-loving alter-ego Bobby Digital and showcasing a unique keyboard-driven sound RZA called "digital orchestra", receiving mixed reviews at best.
The Cure album currently remains unreleased and incomplete, due to further work and development being continued into the new millennium. It is now said to be RZA's final solo album. Within the same year, a mixtape known as Formula For The Cure was compiled and released by Dreddy Kruger, without RZA's approval and consent. The mixtape was meant to be as a prequel of some sorts to the final solo album.
After helming another Wu-Tang group album titled The W (his production on which received much praise) and providing narration to a Clan greatest hits album titled The RZA Hits, RZA released another Bobby Digital album, 2001's Digital Bullet. Digital Bullet was an attempt to develop Bobby Digital further, and the album followed a loose story arc which saw the character becoming more "enlightened" and more disillusioned with hedonism as the album went on.
In 1999 the RZA moved into composing film scores. His first work, Jim Jarmusch's Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999), earned praise; he also had brief cameo in the film itself, as a fellow samurai wearing camouflage. The experience was positive and, as he noted during an interview on National Public Radio's Fresh Air, the work with traditional musicians gave him the desire to learn how to read and write music.[12]
The critical success of the Ghost Dog soundtrack led to further work. RZA created and produced the original music for Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill series, as well as Blade: Trinity, and Soul Plane. RZA was nominated for four different awards for the work he did on the Kill Bill vol. 1 and 2 soundtracks, winning one.
This is one of my biggest adventures, and one of my [best] feelings. We watched Kill Bill in Manhattan. At the premiere, that happened, but you know, that's Hollywood. But in Manhattan, a theater, just a bunch of kids coming from wherever New York, inside a movie theater and the movie's coming on. They don't even know that I'm the man with the music, and when it said, "Original Music by The RZA", we hear the audience clapping. And they didn't clap for nothing else, because the movie's just coming on. I was like, 'Wow, what the fuck is that about?' That's different. It actually might be something special. You never care who did that... Once you see who stars in the shit, you don't read "edited", you don't read all that. You be eating your popcorn and it go right by you. But, for somebody to see that and then clap, that's a different thing right there. That felt pretty pleasing.
In the beginning of 2003 he also produced a few tracks for The Mindscape of Alan Moore.
His third solo album is titled, Birth of a Prince, which was released in 2003 under the name RZA, and spawned the single "We Pop". The album itself featured a mix of lighthearted Bobby Digital tracks and more lyrically highbrow RZA tracks. In 2003 he also released an album of collaborations with international rap and R&B musicians (including the UK's Skinnyman, France's Saïan Supa Crew, Germany's Xavier Naidoo and Italy's Frankie Hi-NRG MC) entitled The World According to RZA.
In 2005 RZA released the long-gestating book The Wu-Tang Manual, an in-depth discussion of the Wu-Tang terms, Wu-Tang members, merchandise, movies and inspirations. RZA continued to act in and score movies such as Derailed, Blood of a Champion and Miami Vice. He also contributed two bonus tracks for the reissued soundtrack to the Luc Besson film Unleashed, starring Jet Li. In 2006, as a producer, he contributed to five tracks on Method Man's latest album 4:21... The Day After and also executive produced the project.
In late January 2007 he announced that he was working on a fourth album titled, Digi Snacks, which continues the further adventures of Bobby Digital. The album was released on June 24, 2008. The albums first single, "You Can't Stop Me Now", featuring Inspectah Deck, was released in March 2008 in preparation for a planned release in Summer 2008.
He has also stated that the long-delayed The Cure album will now be his final solo album, for he will end his career as MC and move on with his movie directing career.[13] The album will feature deeper lyrics and guests ranging from Zack de la Rocha to Isaac Hayes.
Before signing with SRC Records in early 2007, RZA was flooded with offers from Bad Boy Records, Aftermath Records, Interscope and Def Jam among others for the Wu-Tang Clan super-group.[14]
In 2007, he did the score of the Japanese anime Afro Samurai starring Samuel L. Jackson. He recently and quietly released an instrumental album entitled, The RZA-Instrumental Experience, and worked with Raekwon on his highly anticipated Only Built 4 Cuban Linx II. Talks are on between System of a Down bassist Shavo Odadjian and RZA regarding a collaboration between the two artists called Achozen.[15] RZA has stated in an interview that he is involved in the project.[16] A self-titled album, Achozen, was set to be finished in mid-January 2009 but as of late 2010 had not yet been released. The first single that came about was "Dueces".
RZA announced on September 10, 2008 that a partnership with global digital music group The Orchard will market Wu's extensive catalogue worldwide in digital and physical formats. The deal includes new material and 13 previous Clan releases that have been unavailable digitally from the Wu-Tang Clan, Wu-Syndicate, Shyheim, U-God, Black Knights, and West Coast Killa Beez and others. Wu-Tang's viral marketing began as a study of promoting an artist online globally. RZA explained that the deal was a natural progression needed to make sure that fans will have continued access to Wu's catalogue in the ever-changing music industry. Also being launched is the online video channel Wu Music Tube, a forum focused on allowing the artists to speak directly with their fans. In the ensuing months, Wu’s music and video catalogue will also be featured by various brands and ad agencies in marketing and promotion programs around the world. Wu Music Group’s catalogue will be available worldwide for downloads on September 23. RZA told AllHipHop.com:
The time is right to bring some older material to the masses digitally. Our fans have been dedicated and patient, and they’re hungry to hear the music that has set us apart from so many others. Hip-hop is alive in Wu Music, and with The Orchard, we’ve got a solid partner that understands our audience and is committed to doing all they can to help us reach the fans. I’m definitely looking forward to working with them to see what else we all come up with. There’s much more to come.[17]
He has also confirmed that he will be solely-producing Liquid Swords II with GZA, which was tentatively due in Fall 2010,[18] but the status of the album has not been updated since the release date passed. RZA also worked with Kanye West on the latter's fifth album, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy[19], as well as Watch The Throne by Kanye and Jay-Z.
In a recent interview discussing the producer's new line of headphones, RZA revealed that he recently decided to clean out his beat machines of instrumentals he made for the Wu-Tang Clan that were never used; as a result, he has so far given away ten beats each to Nas, Busta Rhymes and Talib Kweli, as well as 20 beats for Kanye West, including the two that were used on the artist's most recent two albums.[20]
RZA has also formed a musical alliance with System of a Down's Shavo Odadjian, Kinetic 9 and the Reverend William Burke from Chicago for the band Achozen. Music from Achozen also appears on the major motion picture, Babylon A.D., on which Achozen song "Deuces" is heard blaring at the introduction of the film. The four principal members feel that their unique sound is not only spiritual in nature, but a new genre of "heavy hip hop", not "rap-metal". Achozen's first live show was at the Key Club in LA on December 1, 2006. On Friday, November 13, 2009 the second Achozen track "Salute/Sacrifice" was released exclusively as a free download on Odadjian's online art district and networking site, Ursession from the upcoming Achozen debut album.[21] The Achozen album was anticipated to be released in mid-2010 [22] but no firm release date had been scheduled by the end of 2010.
Since the early 1990s, several 'various Wu recording labels' were established. The earlier labels are believed to be dissolved. The connection that RZA had to these labels were unknown.
Other record labels were later founded in the early 2000s, and are still active in the present. Very little is known about these labels, other that the fact that RZA produces music on them. It is unknown if RZA is CEO, or has high position within these labels, considering that he was never known to have a CEO position of any recording label.
He has stated that he uses "the sampler more like a painter's palette than a Xerox. Then again, I might use it as a Xerox if I find rare beats that nobody had in their crates yet". According to himself, RZA tries to have no more than 20 to 25% of the latter type of sampling on any given record, something starkly different from many other major hip hop groups. He played much of the piano himself, with Bill Evans and Thelonious Monk as major influences.
RZA has stated Ennio Morricone, Mark E. Smith, Syl Johnson, Marley Marl, Augustus Pablo and Danny Elfman as musicians he is fond of and has taken influence from. During the Enter the Wu-Tang period, RZA's production consisted mainly of stripped-down, frenetic piano loops and finger-snaps with heavy bass and drums, though he experimented with more melodic sounds on the album's "Method Man" and "C.R.E.A.M." He also began incorporating skits consisting of clips of old kung fu movies.
The next two solo albums from the Wu, Method Man's Tical and Ol' Dirty Bastard's Return to the 36 Chambers: The Dirty Version, featured versions of the same style of production from the RZA; the former delved somewhat into old soul records and became somewhat bouncy rather than quite as gritty, while the latter was at times even more simplistic than the group's debut.
On Raekwon's Only Built 4 Cuban Linx and GZA's Liquid Swords, RZA would immerse his beats in dark, sinister soul sampling, pioneering the technique of speeding up or slowing down samples to fit the beat. He also fully realized the potential of the skit, using samples from John Woo's film The Killer to string the Cuban Linx album together into a loose storyline.
In 1997, Icelandic avant-pop star Björk commissioned RZA a remix for her song "Bachelorette". In addition, RZA was later featured on a TV biography about Björk called Inside Björk.
RZA's production technique, specifically the manner of chopping up and/or speeding or slowing soul samples to fit his beats, has been picked up by currently popular producers — most notably Kanye West and Just Blaze, the two main producers behind Roc-A-Fella Records. West's own take on RZA's style[23] briefly flooded the rap market with what was dubbed "chipmunk soul," the speeding of a vocal sample to where it sounded as though the singer had inhaled helium. Several producers at the time copied the style, creating other offshoots. West has admitted that his style was distinctly influenced by the RZA's production,[24]
Said by Kanye West:
Wu-Tang? Me and my friends talk about this all the time... We think Wu-Tang had one of the biggest impacts as far as a movement. From slang to style of dress, skits, the samples. Similar to the [production] style I use, RZA has been doing that.[25]
In response, RZA himself has spoken quite positively of the comparisons:
All good. I got super respect for Kanye. He came up to me about a year or two ago. He gave me mad praising and blessings... For people to say Wu-Tang inspire Kanye, Kanye is one of the biggest artists in the world. That goes back to what we say: 'Wu-Tang is forever.' Kanye is going to inspire people to be like him." After hearing Kanye's work on The Blueprint, RZA claimed that a torch-passing had occurred between him and West, saying, "The shoes gotta be filled. If you ain't gonna do it, somebody else is gonna do it. That's how I feel about rap today."[26]
Subsequent Wu group albums saw RZA become even more experimental, usually with soul samples as well as the layers added his beats. Around 1997 he began tutoring 4th Disciple, True Master and Mathematics in production. The early-mid 2000's have seen him move more toward smoother and more tightly-assembled productions, where the melody, drums, bass and other elements play more off each other than they previously had in his beats.
His Bobby Digital albums introduced tweaked-out new age elements to his sound; these have incorporated themselves more fully into his beats on newer albums such as Method Man's 4:21... The Day After.
The way I produce now is I produce more like a musician", RZA said. "In the old days, I produced more like a DJ. I didn't understand music theory at all. Now that I do understand music theory, I make my music more playable, meaning not only could you listen to it, you could get someone else to play it. Before, you couldn't even write down Wu-Tang music. I think almost 80 percent of this record can be duplicated by a band, which is important for music, because that means 10 years from now, somebody can make a whole song out of it and cover it like how I'm covering The Beatles song.[27]
The Beatles song being covered is "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" for the album 8 Diagrams. It was titled "The Heart Gently Weeps" and features Erykah Badu, John Frusciante, Dhani Harrison, Ghostface Killah, Method Man and Raekwon.
In a recent 2010 radio interview with UK hip hop station Conspiracy Worldwide Radio, RZA spoke in great detail about the homemade, candid ethos of much of his classic work, including the organic creation process behind ODB's debut album.[28]
According to The Wu-Tang Manual, at the group's inception, RZA started what he called the "5 Year Plan" in which he asked the other 8 members of the Clan for 5 years of life, hard work and good lyrics. He promised the members that if he had total control of the Wu-Tang empire, he would "take them to the top", and conquer the hip-hop world within a dynastic cycle. Afterwards, he would then relinquish his total control. He described this five year period "as a dictatorship". RZA's five year "dictatorship" was completed after the successful release of Wu-Tang Forever.
As each of the group's members embarked on solo careers, RZA continued to produce nearly everything Wu-Tang released during the period 1994–1996. He was in control of producing composing, arranging, overseeing, directing, and possibly naming songs. He oversaw the creative process as well as devising song concepts and structure, in addition to being responsible for a recording’s final sound. All of this was the majority of his "dictatorship". He began doing this on a reduced extent around the time that he relinquished his dictatorship, thus taking complete control of fewer solo projects between group releases.
On 1997, I personally tore Wu-Tang Clan up. I won't forget this day, we were on the Rage Against The Machine tour bus. Everybody was becoming lazy, niggas even started not showin' up. I said, "Yo! I did my shit! From this point on, do what the fuck you want. The Wu Mansion? Y'all turned that shit to a club house! From now on, The Wu Mansion is MY house. You wanna come and rock? I'll be there," and niggas respected it. To me, it's like Mike Tyson: he got to the top of the world and shit, and he stopped trainin'. Fuck that, you must never stop trainin'. Well you can stop if you want, if you're happy, but if you wanna go further. All I did was promise to get'em to there, from this point, it's up to each of them. For that, Method Man's a good example: he took it to the movies and he went to the moon. So brothers had no success after that, nahmean? Cappadonna, see, he's drivin' a cab. Well, he's aight, we take him on tour, he makes a couple hundred grands, so... He's my man, he's hustlin'...[29]
He has stated in several interviews that the challenges of maintaining the group are not egos, but rather timing and scheduling due to the fact that the members have families and side projects.
Actually, we don't deal with a leader. We deal with leadership within each other. So everybody has leadership qualities at any given moment. Anybody is prepared to take the position to do what they gotta do to make whatever gotta happen pop off. They consider me the best knower, know what I mean? So, it's like the deciding vote.
He has shown little or no concern about illegal downloading, for he feels that it has little impact on the music industry:
Naw. When I make music, I make it to be heard, personally. And, if somebody download it, if they heard it, then my job was delivered. Of course I love to make the money. I get million dollar album budgets, so of course there's money involved with it. But, personally, as a musician, as an artist, the first thing is to be seen and heard. If you're not seen and heard, who cares? I was talking to Jim Jarmusch and he was like, somebody see his film, the guy's happy. He don't care. He wants somebody to see his art and appreciate it and that's how I feel about my music also. I never got pissed off at the Internet kids with the downloading. In fact, I told them, 'Help yourself. Have a good time.[30]
In several interviews, in response to the phrase "hip hop is dead", he said, "How can hip hop be dead if Wu-Tang is forever?" In regards of the southern dominance, rather than criticize the music, he instead spoke on the look and image of the southern artists themselves. He went on to say:
How has the South dominated hip hop for the last four, five years without lyrics, without hip hop culture really in their blood? Those brothers came out representing more of a stereotype of how black people are, and I think the media would rather see us as ignorant, crazy motherfuckers than seeing us as intelligent young men trying to rise and take care of ourselves.[31]
In the 1990s, the Wu-Tang Clan was one of the first hip hop acts to have a clothing line. However, throughout the following years to the 2000s, nearly every hip hop act has followed suit and created their own clothing line. In response, RZA spoke on his views on the oversaturation of the hip hop clothing market:
Yeah. That's what happens. It's good and it's bad. It's helped a lot of hip hop artists. It's fed them more than the record business, in some cases. It's bad, too, because you have companies like Mecca, Akademiks, Karl Kani, FUBU. FUBU's almost gone already, it feels like. You got a lot of these other companies disappearing because of hip-hop. It's a really strange thing. But I think it's good for hip-hop, because one thing that's better — don't take this politically, or no shit like that — we all grew up with Polo and Ralph Lauren and Tommy Hilfiger and all that. I can respect Andy Hilfiger, because he did reach out to the hip hop community, but Tommy, the most he ever did for hip hop was send some free clothes to Grand Puba. But now blacks have a choice, and we design our own styles. And they're copying us, so it's ironic.[32]
RZA is known for having multiple aliases, for different lyrical styles and personalities: Prince Rakeem, The Abbot, Bobby Digital, Bobby Steels, the Scientist, Prince Delight, Prince Dynamite, Ruler Zig-Zag-Zig Allah.[33] During his time with the Gravediggaz, he went by the name the Rzarector, which is for waking up the mentally dead.[34]
In addition to working behind the scenes on movie scores, RZA has been active on-screen as well. He has made cameo appearances as himself in numerous major motion pictures throughout the course of his career such as Be Cool, Scary Movie 3, Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood. RZA has also made various cameo appearances in the films Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai and Rhyme & Reason.
His acting career began to rise in the mid 2000s alongside fellow Wu-Tang member and cousin GZA in one segment of Jim Jarmusch's Coffee and Cigarettes opposite Bill Murray. He and GZA have also made appearances on Chappelle's Show and Upright Citizens Brigade.
He followed up with a big role in the hit 2005 film Derailed. The same year, he served as the Artist in Residence for the Los Angeles Film Festival.
Rza was also given the duties of producing the soundtrack to the Afro Samurai series and movie.
Originally, he was offered the role of "Brown" in The Departed (2006), but turned it down because of scheduling conflicts.[35]
His biggest acting role to date, is in American Gangster by Ridley Scott, as "Moses Jones" whose real-life name is "Edward V. Jones."
He performed cameo roles in Funny People, Gospel Hill, and Life Is Hot in Cracktown. He was also said to be attached to friend Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill project in one way or another, featuring as a solo artist on the soundtrack to Kill Bill 1 and selecting some other songs for the soundtrack too. In 2010, RZA appeared in the science fiction action film Repo Men.[36]
In 2010, he appeared in the comedy film Due Date alongside Robert Downey Jr. and Jamie Foxx, and directed by Todd Phillips.
RZA also appeared in the 2010 movie "The Next Three Days," starring Russell Crowe.
RZA appeared as a wrongly convicted felon in the pilot episode of NBC's Outlaw.
RZA is set to appear in G.I. Joe: Retaliation as the character Blind Master.[37]
RZA appeared in 2011's A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas and is set to appear as rapper Samurai Apocalypse on Showtimes' Californication. He was recently cast in Quentin Tarantino's spaghetti-western film Django Unchained, starring Jamie Foxx and Leonardo DiCaprio, slated for release Christmas 2012.
RZA directed and starred in an unreleased Bobby Digital movie, saying of it:
I still got it. I made it. Actually, I did like two 45-minute episodes. The Bobby Digital character, he's a superhero at one point, right. But then he's also just this guy in the streets at another point. I did one episode based on, like, '89 (Bobby Did It). I did one episode that was supposed to be like 10 years later. I've still got a lot of faith in the character. I'm hoping to maybe get a comic-book deal or something. I have these people talking to me, stuff like that.
He was once asked about directing:
Yeah, yeah. I could do that easily. I've done it already, just haven't released them. I'm just waiting for the proper time to say, 'Okay, here they are.' But I've got about three films in the can that I did on my own. One is a total martial arts film where I have white hair and gold teeth. Like white hair all the way down, but gold fangs in my mouth. So I'm like a hermit, a Wu-Tang hermit, with the warrior clothes on and ****. And I have this special weapon, it's a Wu-Tang weapon and everybody wants it so all the people are coming to get it.
I made my albums like movies, you know what I mean? I wanted people to be able to listen to a movie in their car while they was driving. "I want to start off making movies where people will know they're at a movie. Like my man Tarantino, he did that movie Pulp Fiction — classic movie, man. Every time it comes on TV or cable, I have to stop and watch it. And it's based on nothing, really. There's only a few people out there that are able to do that, where it comes from nothing but the vision and imagination of the artist.[38]
Directors Quentin Tarantino and Eli Roth are involved in the production of The Man with the Iron Fists, according to several movie Web sites.[39][39][40][41] In regards to the movie, Eli said:
He is also co-producing a movie remake of The Last Dragon, with Samuel L. Jackson assuming the role of Sho'nuff. John Davis of Davis Entertainment and Gordy's son Kerry Gordy, along with RZA are set to produce. Penning the screenplay as well as producing is Dallas Jackson, who heads up the urban family label DJ Classicz with Davis. Rihanna is rumored to appear in the movie as Laura Charles.[42][43]
He was once affiliated with the Nation of Gods and Earths but has stated that he is no longer a member of any particular group. However, he usually wears the Five Percenter Universal Flag as a necklace, and still follows Five Percenter aspects, which include the Supreme Mathematics and the Supreme Alphabet. He also has taken on various aspects of Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, Islam, and Christianity as stated in his book The Wu-Tang Manual as well as Hinduism which he talks about thoroughly in The Tao of Wu in order to expand his spiritual growth. He has gone on to state that Qur'an, The Bible, and Lotus Sutra are three of his favorite books stating that each of the three contain enlightenment. One of his favorite hobbies consists of watching martial arts films, and he is considered to be an "encyclopedia of martial arts films", due to his vast knowledge of the genre.[41] His second well-known hobby is chess, for he is a director of development, and champion of the Hip-Hop Chess Federation.[44][45][46] He was once married, and believed to have children:
I got children of my own, you know what I mean? Domestic problems at home. If you start coming home at night from helping all your fans and people and then you've got problems at the house, that will kill any man's spirit. Say you're Bobby Digital, you're RZA, and your girl fornicates on you—you feel like shit. 'Who the fuck? How the fuck?' And say it's some nigga who sells weed—'I'm a millionaire and you're fucking with a regular motherfucker?' That takes a lot from your spirit. That slowed me down, and then the passing of my mother—the two big blows of the year 2000. It really kept me back a few years—I had to go and find myself again. I never told anybody that. You got an exclusive on that one! And I think that's enough right there.[47]
Along with a number of members in the Wu-Tang Clan, RZA is vegetarian.[48]
In 2000 the Village Voice ran a story about the FBI infiltrating the Wu-Tang Clan through a criminal-turned-informant named Michael Caruso, who got a job as the personal manager for Ghostface Killah and Cappadonna. Several other members of the group did not like Caruso, however his ties with Ghostface Killah and Cappadonna got him into the inner circles of the Wu.[49] Due to Caruso's criminal past he was prohibited by law to associate with felons (which many members of the Clan are) or leave the state of New York, however these restrictions were lifted in return for providing information on the group. The federal government turned their head and allowed Caruso to tour around the country with Wu-Tang as long as he was kicking back info on their involvement in gunrunning and the Gambino crime family.[50]
Caruso was subsequently fired from all duties regarding The Wu-Tang Clan's business when these allegations came to light. RZA forced Cappadonna to fire him as his manager, however Caruso still works with Ghostface and is on his new poker team.[51] The report rules out the majority of Wu-Tang affiliated performers and focuses on those running the business aspect of the Wu empire, Oli "Power" Grant and Mitchell "Divine" Diggs (RZA's brother) and RZA himself.
Fox News reported that in mid-2007 RZA attended one of Hillary Clinton's parties and donated money to her 2008 campaign. Fox News criticized the fact that Clinton took money from RZA, claiming it was contradictory due to RZA's felony record, FBI investigation, ties to the Gambino family and his music lyrics.[52] RZA referred to the investigation in one of his lyrics, "Plus, feds had one ad saying I gun traff' / I sold 20 million records bitch, some laugh."
In a recent interview with MTV he stated, in response to the beliefs that the group would dissolve:
Over the years some of us have grown in doubt, or maybe some of us have grown creatively in different directions. But I will say that when we do come together, a lot of things just seem to evaporate. When we get on the stage together, we can have a problem 10 minutes before we get onstage. But once we're onstage, we feel like everything evaporates.
Recently he was accused by several members that he mishandled money. While in the UK, when questioned by radio DJ Tim Westwood, concerning the group situation, RZA said, "It's really all good, it's just different directions... Everything is back peace already". RZA also rebutted claims that he owes group members any money. He yelled:
I ain't never, never take no money from nobody, and I don't owe nobody no money! Don't ever say that! I pay all my bills. I pay all my bills. I work hard and pay all my bills. Back to the music.
In a June 2008 interview with L.A. Record, RZA elaborated on the $20,000 bullet-proof suit, car and briefcase he mentions in the Wu-Tang Manual.
1998 in Battery Park, Manhattan, and Dirty—the feds were out to kill him. I had so much love for him and shit that I wanted to help protect him, and I had a feeling overcome me that I was a superhero—somebody to help the world! So I had my brother order a Level 4 fucking vehicle—what the president rides in. You can shoot it with an AK and it keeps moving. After he hit a deer, it didn't even dent the car! The deer flew way in the air and not even a dent on the paint! It was a Suburban. I still got it. It weighs nine tons. It’s parked at my brother's house in New Jersey. And the suit I built but one of my employees sold it to a drug dealer. Some drug dealer in Brooklyn got it. That's funny! A $20,000 suit—Level 4 bulletproof and knife-proof. You couldn't stab or shoot me. Head to toe. It had a few other toys I don’t like to talk about. I don't wanna describe it too much. That nigga who got, he got it! I had a briefcase to go with it as well... to block bullets! We were just buggin' out![53]
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