RZA, around and about Wu-Tang Clan

RZA is dressed in a Wu-Gear (the whole range can be seen/purchased at their official site), including a hat shading his gaze, and looks like an offbeat businessman in this hotel bar, a traffic noise away from Marble Arch. The (unofficial) leader of Wu-Tang Clan actually is the head honcho of Staten Island originating/ New Jersey based Hip-hop pioneers and his copious portfolio was recently enlarged for a TransAtlantic collaboration, ‘The World According To RZA’, a project with a number of Euro-rappers blasting rhymes alongside a couple of fellow Wu-members. (See Review for further info.)

The rest of raphood may have sold its soul to mega-poptastic profit and happy to be nu-clowns in town with their bling-bling parades, but RZA walks his own path that appears never to stop. So, when I mention the album, Mr Robert Diggs, as his passport names him, gives me a look as if it referred to something long forgotten, some episode in his criminal past.

“I’ve finished with that a while back,” RZA starts an avalanche of words, “and am already into a wholly different world, onto a couple of other things, finishing off my new ‘Bobby Digital’ album and started, done six songs for ODB’s new album. That’s what I’ve been doing over the past two months; I have a lot of energy for music and I got a lot of things thumping out in my head and need to get them out. My next album should be out in September.”

“Oh, yeah, I’ve also got to do a DVD of ‘The World…”; I did film recordings and now want to film a concert to include it on a DVD to show the unity of artists and Hip-hop presence all over the planet.”

No said date

BOBBY DIGITAL RETIRES “My album is next part in ‘Bobby Digital’ series but it is so good I’m not sure whether I wanna call it ‘Bobby Digital’. I was planning it to be a ‘Digital’ album because of the lyrical content but it, actually, is ‘The Birth Of RZA’, it is about Bobby becoming RZA. ‘Bobby Digital’ saga is all about my childhood, my early interest into Hip-hip, the good-but-bad s**t I went through, and you wouldn’t believe some of it. It is now about my man-phase and becoming of a focused, studious mind. On the new album you can feel that and it is one of the best albums I’ve put together, ever.”

“It’s not typical, I took care of that. Both Chambers have moved up a little bit and it even more sideways. It’s a move and I’m enjoying it.”

OL' DIRTY BASTARD “He’s just out of jail and his new code-name is Dirt McGirt… He is, you know, if you’ve met him, I’ve got nothing else to tell you. I love him, he’s my cousin and said he’d come to the studio one day and he turned up with a big, badass pimp hat on, blasting but he can be trusted. Be yourself but be careful. There is some hot s**t coming from ODB, he’s got some nice surprises and producers like The Neptunes, Ludacris and few others.”

50 CENT? “Maybe, I dunno… It’s ODB’s album but he’s real, he went through some heavy s**t, and I have to respect it… Everybody is turning pop because of the money but I didn’t do it and I had a Number One in Germany. I played ‘The World According To…’ ODB and he liked it and want to cover ‘French Kiss’ on his new album. I like the album very much and play it in a studio, use it to compare my rhyming against the European rappers.”

A touch of class

'KILL BILL' OST “I’ve worked on it and still am back and forth. This guy is a mastermind, Quentin Tarantino; I thought I was bad but he is so smart, man… I tell you something, you’ve seen ‘Matrix’? I don’t wanna say much, it’s not my movie, but this is incredible, it is not a cartoon, it is something, genre-defining… I don’t wanna blow the movie!”

METALLICA “Yeah, he had a Metallica song in but he came to me and told me he wanted something like that, huge and moving, but to work with my scene. It was a very good piece by Metallica and I had to capture it and it took several tries to make what he wanted. It took three days and it is such a good piece I’m thinking of using it for my song. You know, Tarantino has such a huge knowledge, he could be a Hip-hop producer, if he only knew how to work the equipment.”

WU-TANG CLAN DISC “There is one coming, we gonna cut it because everyone is asking for one. When OBD was doing a press conference after his release, someone asked about the new Wu-Tang Clan album!? Wait a minute, the man’s got to say something himself after such a long time in jail! So, yes, there is going to be, next year, and I feel people need it. There is a demand for it and it should be in stores April or May next year…”

“I think it is gonna take sixty days to record it, sixty days of focus; you don’t know this crew, they are incredible. The energy and the knowledge, the life that’s there, it so extensive they can drop rhymes all day long. Working with Wu-Tang Clan is the greatest music experience in my life.”