RZA

This article is about the hip-hop artist. For the Zionist organization, see Religious Zionists of America.

RZA

Robert Diggs (born July 5, 1969 ), better known as RZA (Template:PronEng), is an American music producer, rapper, and occasional actor. He is the de facto leader of the hip hop group Wu-Tang Clan. He has produced almost all of Wu-Tang Clan's albums as well as many Wu-Tang solo and affiliate projects. He subsequently gained attention for his work scoring and acting in films.

He has also released solo albums under the alter-ego Bobby Digital, who concerns himself only with the lawless aspect of the male power fantasy: women, drugs, alcohol and shooting guns. In addition to the Wu-Tang Clan and his solo releases, RZA was also a founding member of the rap group, Gravediggaz, where he used the name, The Rzarector.

After recently releasing the latest "Bobby Digital" album, Digi Snacks, RZA is currently working on the highly-anticipated sequel to Raekwon's mafioso rap classic Only Built 4 Cuban Linx.... He has also confirmed he has co-produced a track on the highly-anticipated Dr. Dre album Detox.

Biography

1969-1991: Early life & career

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. After an impoverished childhood in a family of 11 children, RZA began his hip hop 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, respectively, as Ason Unique, the Specialist, and the Professor).

Once this acclaimed local band dissolved, both he and GZA attempted to kick start solo careers. With the help of GZA's friend Melquan (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.

As said in a Film Comment interview.. (May/June 2008)

1992-1993: Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)

From this determination came the Wu-Tang Clan (named after Shaolin and Wu Tang, a kung fu movie), formed with The GZA/Genius and Ol' Dirty Bastard as well as with 6 others (Inspectah Deck/Rebel INS, Raekwon the Chef, Method Man, Masta Killa, U-God/Golden Arms 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, in large part thanks to RZA's lean, gritty and very distinctive production style.

1994–1996: Wu-Tang Solo Projects: Round One

As each of the group's members embarked on solo careers, The 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). Indeed, The RZA's rule over the Clan at this time is described in 2004's Wu-Tang Manual book as "a dictatorship."

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.... All of the group's albums during the period from 1994 to 1996 are highly regarded by critics and hip-hop enthusiasts.

During this time, The RZA also took part in the creation of a hip-hop subgenre called horror-core 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 critically acclaimed album 6 Feet Deep in 1994. As part of the Gravediggaz, he went by the name The RZArecta.

1997: Wu-Tang Forever

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.

1998-1999: Wu-Tang Solo Projects: Round Two

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 beats on average to each record as well as receiving an Executive Producer credit.

He also reformed with the Gravediggaz for the album The Pick, the Sickle and the Shovel, a calmer and more mature album than their horrorcore-oriented debut.

During this time, he also began work on two solo albums, entitled The Cure, and RZA as Bobby Digital in Stereo. Although he released his first solo effort titled RZA as Bobby Digital in Stereo in 1998, he ironically stated in a interview with The Source Magazine that he originally wanted to release "The Cure" first. Believing that the timing was not right he decided to release RZA as Bobby Digital in Stereo as his solo debut album instead. In the march 2000 inverview he stated:

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 a well-received 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 mostly positive reviews.

" 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.

2000: The W

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.

2001-2004: Post The W solo projects

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.

The critical success of the Ghost Dog soundtrack led to further work. The RZA created and produced the original music for Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill series, as well as Blade: Trinity, and Soul Plane. The 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, (see 2003 in music) 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, which was successful in many countries, despite not being sold in the U.S..

2005-Present: Solo Projects: Round Three

RZA at the 2007 Eurockéennes.

In 2005 RZA released the long-gestating book Wu-Tang Manual, an in-depth discussion of the Wu-Tang's virtues, vices and philosophies. RZA continued to act in and score movies such as Derailed, Blood of a Champion and Miami Vice. He also contributed a bonus track for the reissued soundtrack to the Jet Li film Unleashed. In 2006 he contributed five beats to Method Man's latest album 4:21...The Day After and also executive produced the project.

In late January of 2007 he announced that he was working on a fourth album tentatively titled, Digi Snacks, which continues the further adventures of Bobby Digital. The Album is scheduled to be released at June 24th 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. 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.

In 2007, he did the score of the American adaptation of the Japanese anime Afro Samurai starring Samuel L. Jackson.

He recently released an instrumental album entitled, The RZA-Instrumental Experience

Currently he is working with Raekwon on his highly anticipated Only Built 4 Cuban Linx II . He has also recorded with the Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist John Frusciante and is set to contribute to Cannibal Ox's upcoming album, along with Pete Rock and El-P.

Talks are on between System of a Down bassist Shavo Odadjian and RZA regarding a collaboration between the two artists called ACHOZEN. GZA is also involved in the project and has stated so in an interview.

The Background of Evolution Bobby Digital

Bobby Digital is the name that RZA uses for his solo albums, as well as an alter ego, based on his past and personal influences. The story of a young man living in the projects who finds pleasure in women, drugs, and alcohol. He smokes honey dipped blunts and soon becomes somewhat of a super-hero. Although a live-action movie and soundtrack was planned, nothing has materialized.

The movie was believed to be cancelled. However, various brief scenes that appear to be from the movie can viewed in the "Cobra Clutch" video by Ghostface Killah. In the video, Bobby Digital appears to be defending himself against thugs.

Another bizarre situation that raises questions, is the fact there is an brief animation trailer on youtube.com entitled, The Cure starring RZA

Various Wu-Recording Labels

Since the early 1990s, several "wu recording labels" briefly existed. The only acts that were seen on these labels were Shyheim, Sunz of Man, Killarmy, Ghostface Killah and Cappadonna. The connection that Rza had to these labels were unknown.

Other record labels were also founded, 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.

• Wu-Tang Records

• Razor Sharp Records

• 36 Chambers Records

• Wu Music Group

• Wu-Tang International

Various Aliases and Rap Names

His stage name is an acronym for Ruler Zig-Zag-Zig Allah. According to the Supreme Alphabet, Zig-Zag-Zig means "from knowledge to wisdom to understanding". He gave himself this name during the time that he was a member in the Nation of Gods and Earths.

He was not the first hip-hop artist to use multiple aliases. He did become known as having a great number of them. These include: The Abbott, Chester Benningston (not to be confused with Chester Bennington), The Razor, Bobby Digital, BZA-Bobby, Bobby Steels. Prince Delight. Prince Rakeem. Prince Dynamite, Rzarector (from resurrector - waking up the mentally dead),The Scientist, Bob Digi, Robert Diggs, Bobby Boulders, Bob Digitech, The Kid Wit Braids.

Mentality and Leadership

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, then he would 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, The 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 was over 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 relinquised his dictatorship, thus taking complete control of fewer solo projects between group releases.

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.

Although he assumes leadership within the group, upon mere mention in interviews, he reacts in a modest and humble manner, and often compares the formation of the group to Voltron.

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.

Work together? We lived together man, you know what I mean? We slobbered on each other's shoulders before. We fell asleep on niggaz heads. We've been through it for real. It's been a real life.

Unlike the average hip hop musician, he has shown little or no concern about illegal downloading, for he simply wants to be seen and heard. He was once asked if he was worried about illegal downloading of his music:

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.

Acting and Directing career

Acting Roles

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 cameo various appearances in the films Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai and Rhyme & Reason.

His acting career began to rise in the mid 2000's alongside fellow Wu-Tang member GZA in one segment of Jim Jarmusch's Coffee and Cigarettes opposite Bill Murray. He and the 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 LA Film Festival.

RZA was offered the role of "Brown" in The Departed (2006), but turned it down because of scheduling conflicts.

Rza's most recent role, and possibly his biggest to date, is in American Gangster as "Moses Jones". American Gangster is a 2007 crime drama film directed by Ridley Scott starring Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe.

He has also been confirmed for roles in Gospel Hill, Repossession Mambo, and Life Is Hot in Cracktown. He is also said to be attached to Quentin Tarantino's next Kill Bill project in one way or another.

Directing

Very little is known about his directing history, although he once attempted to direct and star in an unfinished Bobby Digital movie. 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 shit. 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.

Another interesting situation is the recent postings on youtube of a kung-fu movie, which can be viewed under the title RZA's movie

Personal life

Although RZA speaks little his personal life in interviews, it is believed that he was once married and has a son. His pastimes and hobbies include reading, collecting kung-fu movies, listening to music, watching adult movies, and playing chess. He is currently the champion of the Hip-Hop Chess Federation. He is also a vegetarian.

He is a practitioner of kung fu, and is a student of sifu Shi-Yan Ming, who considers him as a "very disciplined student."

He was once affiliated with the the Nation of Gods and Earths but has stated he 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, and Christianity as stated in his book The Wu-Tang Manual in order to expand his spiritual growth.

He has one tattoo, which is the Wu-Tang logo on his left shoulder.

Controversies

In late 1993, RZA was charged with attempted murder for shooting a man, and faced 8 years in prison. He was found not guilty, claiming self-defense. As a result, he has an indifference to guns. He once said in the January 1999 interview with The Source Magazine.

Gunplay ain't the way. The situation ain't that damn serious that you got to kill someone.

The Wu-Tang Clan and their associates are being investigated by the FBI for weapon trafficking in Staten Island and their relationship with the Gambino crime family. RZA admitted to being friends with several members of the Gambinos in The Wu-Tang Manual, both before and after his rise to fame. In his book The Wu-Tang Manual, he has a 6 page length section on Organized Crime and gives tribute to many of New York's mob bosses of the 20th Century which he claims is what makes his business so successful.

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 and Cappadonna got him into the inner circles of the Wu. 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.

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. 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 The RZA himself.

The issue was recently resurfaced by FOX News in mid-2007 after 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 The RZA, claiming it was contradictory due to RZA's felony record, FBI investigation, ties to the Gambino family and his music lyrics. RZA referenced the investigation in one of his lyrics, "Feds had one ad saying I gun traff'/I sold 20 million records bitch! You make me laugh."

In a recent interview with MTV he stated, in response of 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 U.K., 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." the 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 never 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!

Production Style and Influence

According to himself, RZA tries to have no more than 20-25% sampling on any given record, something starkly different from many other major hip hop groups. 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." He played much of the piano himself, with Bill Evans and Thelonious Monk as major influences; for instance, he created the piano part to "Da Mystery of Chessboxin'" after watching the Thelonious Monk documentary, Straight, No Chaser.[28]

RZA has stated Ennio Morricone, 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.

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 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, and RZA has acknowledged his influence in an issue of Scratch magazine, saying he wished he had produced "Jesus Walks" and "Breathe", two 2004 hits produced by Kanye West and Just Blaze, respectively. 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.

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.

The Beatles song being covered is "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" for the 8 Diagrams album.

Discography

Main article: RZA discography

External links

• Template:Myspace
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• RZA at IMDb
• RZA guest edits Boldtype
• RZA interviews Shaolin Monk, Sifu Shi Yan-Ming
• Film Comment interview with RZA