|
1/12/2009
 The second Afro-Samurai soundtrack, Afro Samurai: Resurrection, is dropping in late January. How did you go about putting this one together?
First of all, I took the music for the score and converted it into hip-hop form. I called up some good MCs. Afro Resurrection is based on a female villain so the first person I called was Rah Digga, one of the best female MCs. She’s got a cool voice and always kept it aggressive. She wasn’t afraid to be an MC. She reminds me of MC Lyte of our generation – hardcore but still a lady. And that’s how the character was in the film and that’s why I got Rah Digga. I love Kool G. Rap and of course Ghostface Killah. I got some up-and-coming talent like the Black Knights. I made the soundtrack to accompany the film but when you look at the film itself and you see the characters and the film, it accompanies it.
You also worked with Sly Stone on the project. What was that like?
That was incredible. We spend about four or five days together in my studio, working. His talent is still there and his genius when it comes to this music stuff. He had a lot of funny stories, which is all good. But I’m a big Sly stone fan, yo. I think he’s one of the most important artists of the ‘70s and of life period. And to get him to come in and do a song, that was amazing. And my buddy George Clinton hooked that up for me.
Afro Samurai Part 1 and Part 2 is really a story about family. A kid sees his father get killed by his father’s old friend so he gets his new family and he has to kill the teacher of that family. He has to fight his old brother and then in Part 2, Sio, who is Kuma’s little sister, grows up and she wants to kill Afro because of her brother. The song he did, “Family Affair,” had a line that stuck out where he said, “Blood is thicker than mud.” I called him and told him I wanted to do a song called “Blood is Thicker than Mud” and use his “Family Affair” for it. He gave me his blessing and we did it.
As far as the storyline goes, are you happy with how the plotline and characters are developing?
Yeah, it’s crazy! They worked crazy on Part 2. You know, Afro killed a lot of people and he can’t live with that. Then here comes this girl, Sio. Sio resurrects the body of his dead father just to torture Afro’s soul. He doesn’t want to fight his father but the reason he’s Afro Samurai is because of what they did to his father. Once they dig up his father’s grave, he has to fight again for the same reason he had to fight in Part 1, because of his father.
Looking at your acting career, you’re in Judd Apatow’s upcoming film Funny People. How did you land that role?
I had to read for it and try out like a lot of the other actors. Judd thought I was funny. They thought I had something that the character could use so they chose me for the part. One thing about film is that it’s not easy because you have to go in and read and they have to pick you. I’m used to people giving me jobs. “Hey, RZA, do this. I got this money for you. Do this.” But when it comes to acting it’s not like that. I have to go in there and I have to try and I have to hope that out of 100 guys that try for it, they choose me.
You’ve established yourself as a talented actor, from your role in Ghost Dog to Derailed to American Gangster. Why do you think you’ve had so much success so far in acting?
I wouldn’t say I had so much success because I have a long way to go but my approach is what’s doing it – I want to do a good job, yo. I don’t want the job because I’m the RZA. I want the job because I’m the guy that’s good for the job and good for the film. I want you to watch it 10 years from now when RZA may not even be known as a rapper. You look at Will Smith and he’s not known for being the Fresh Prince. Another great example is Mark Walberg. A lot of people don’t know that Marky Mark was a rapper with the Funky Bunch because he’s mastered that craft and he brought that to the screen and he’s played many different characters. I want to do that. I want my legacy to be the RZA because that’s my steel and that’s my fabric but I don’t want to get a job because I’m the RZA. No. That don’t mean shit. Let me be the man for the job so when you watch the movie 10 years later you say it was a good movie and you don’t pay attention to the name of the actor. When Russell Crowe plays all these characters, you believe him and then he’s Russell Crowe after the movie. I want to be like him and Denzel.
Wu-Tang has been touring together recently. What does Wu-Tang have to do as a group to really have a big ’09?
I think we’re doing good right now being on the road right now. We’ve been on the road for 40 days. That’s a lot of time and for me it’s an extra a lot of time because I have a lot of things I’m involved with. But the Wu-Tang flag went up in the air and it was an opportunity for us to reconnect with each other because we had gotten out of touch and we made some good fourth quarter money for the families and stuff like that. And I’m here supporting it. All we gotta do is keep being ourselves and don’t let outside influences lead us too far astray. We don’t have to do music together and whatever we don’t do together we don’t do together, but whatever we do together, let’s do it with the love and integrity of the Wu-Tang Clan, the things that we do do together.
Did you expect the criticism you got, especially from Wu-Tang members, for the last album 8 Diagrams?
It caught me off-guard. I didn’t expect that. I didn’t really get criticism from the industry. I got criticism from my crew and to me that triggered the other criticism. But I got 80% positive results for the album. I looked at the reviews. I was proud of that actually. But from the crew I got 80% dissatisfaction. But I think what Wu-Tang stands for is more than just a bunch of rhymes and beats and I think that album, it’s the fabric of our hip-hop approach that means something, yo.
It shows that if you want to get green weed, we got green weed. If you want brown weed, go get brown weed. If yo want crack, go get crack. I make a certain brand. If you want that brand, it’s available. If you don’t want that brand, there are many other brands. Some brands aren’t available no more. You can’t get Old Gold cigarettes no more. They don’t make them no more. Some people smoke Newports. Some people smoke Marlboros. Some people smoke Camels. But they all are available. You just gotta support your brand. I think we didn’t support our brand as a crew for one reason or another. It wasn’t all music at the end of the day to me. I think it was something else in my life or something else I was involved with in my life that brothers weren’t on the same page with me at that time.
I’ll use the words of my brother Masta Killa. He said, “You gave us a Sunday morning album and a lot of brothers were looking for a Friday morning album.” Exactly! That’s exactly what I thought we were supposed to do. I thought you went out Friday and Saturday and you get twisted and shake your ass and get pussy and you’re out with your boys but on Sunday you have to wake up and detox and get ready to work for the week. Here go 8 Diagrams for you. It’s that Sunday afternoon album for you where you can pick up a little wisdom, some jewels, some aggression, all that but in a different way. To me 8 Diagrams is healthy for the hip-hop listener.
Will the next Wu-Tang album be a Sunday morning album as well?
Nah, the next Wu-Tang album…If there is another Wu-Tang album, I probably will only approach it as an MC this time. That’s something that affects me a lot – being an MC and a producer. I’ve been doing it for so long. I tell the brothers that if we do it again, I don’t have to be the producer. You can choose anybody you want. I’ll just rhyme on the shit and they can take their direction of it. Everybody has grown to a certain level of character. Before we had a lot of soldiers and now it’s all generals. You can’t overlook that. Raekwon may be ready. Maybe I’ve conformed to certain things and I’m stuck in it. If there were to be another Wu-Tang album, I wouldn’t offer to do it as a producer. If they want to come into my world and trust my vision, that’s another thing. But I wouldn’t come in with the dictatorship role or it’s gotta be me.
You used the word “if” when I asked you about the next Wu-Tang album. Are you saying there may not be another Wu-Tang album?
I don’t know. It felt like there wasn’t going to be no more before 8 Diagrams and one before Iron Flag. Everybody is influenced by individual success and that was the plan from the beginning – for everyone to break off. Wu-Tang is like the center and the other eight rays shot out in every direction. They shot out on the whole world and they cross paths. When they return back to the nucleus they become one and we can be one.
Wu-Tang is always going to be Voltron but you look at Voltron, the giant robot, all the different lions would be there first. The only time they needed Voltron is when the threat became too serious and then they had to form Voltron. Right now brothers are having a good time being those different lions, running around and doing what they need to do. Brothers are having success. Some brothers are into film. Some brothers are into books. Some brothers are into clothing. Some brothers are making music with different labels. They’re doing what they want to do without nobody telling them what they need to do and sometimes that’s the best thing they can do for creativity.
How much has acting, where you’re not in total control of the finished product, played in you saying that you could rhyme on a Wu-Tang album without having to produce it? Is there a link there?
Definitely there’s a link to it. Now that I’m able to play a passive role, I’m better able to be puppetteer'ed and I’m better able to take direction. It started from Quentin Tarantino being one of the first people telling me what to do in years. With Ghost Dog nobody told me what to do. With Kill Bill, Mr. Tarantino was the boss. I had a lot of money and I didn’t need to be there. My life was good but I put myself in that position and I learned a lot from that man and I wound up becoming his student. It’s like how you go to a kung-fu spot and ask the master to become his student. I asked to become his student because I was impressed by his talent and I wanted to learn from the best so I became his student.
And by doing that and by being in these films with Judd Apatow and all that, I’m learning. With that film, they want me to crack jokes and I’m not a funny guy. Judd Apatow is one of the funniest guys in Hollywood but I have to commit myself and I have to let myself be that vehicle that they need to use so that they can get what they need for their film because you have hundreds of people working on this film and you got millions of dollars invested. Therefore I have to be servitude for taking that job and by being that way, yeah, I learned that I don’t have to be the director.
I can just be a piece of the board. I could be the bishop or king or the pawn. The pawn is actually one of the greatest pieces of the board because its’ the only piece that has the power to make it to the end of the board and be anything that he wants and if you ain’t never been a solider you can’t be a general. If you’ve never been a peasant then you won’t really understand what it’s like to be a king. That’s why I could really say that the acting has allowed me to accept that position more without ego.
What artists are you working closely with in the group today?
Well, Raekwon has got Cuban Linx Part 2 coming out right now. I’m working with him on that shit and I’m giving him my opinion. He’s asking for my opinion and he’s getting it without no grudge. But working with as far as tightly, I’m working with Boy Jones, who is the son of ODB, his first-born son. He’s about 18 years-old now. He's of age. I’m just trying to help him focus and give him some energy and give him a chance to pick up where his father left off and maybe have a successful hip-hop career.
Even though the business is sour and iTunes is about to drop the price of a single down to 69 cents, I still got faith that he can go out there and pick up where his father left off. He is a unique individual. His name is Boy Jones.
How’s Raekwon’s Only Built 4 Cuban Linx 2 coming?
You would have to talk to Raekwon about it. I wouldn’t want to spoil his surprise and how he feels about it and how he wants to present his music to the world. I can say it’s raw, yo.
Will you be working with Inspectah Deck in the near future?
I didn’t work with him on The Resident Patient. I don’t know if he made that a solo album or a mixtape but I did get a chance to work with Inspectah Deck on Afro Samurai and I put him together with Kool G. Rap and I got myself and Ghostface on a song with Kool G. Rap. Me and Ghostface haven’t rapped together in years. We didn’t rap together on 8 Diagrams. We did a song with Kool G. Rap and I was happy to do that song. With Ghostface I felt like we lost something in our brotherhood and we got that vibe back.
You produced “Long Kiss Goodnite” for Biggie on Life After Death. What was your goal when Biggie asked you to work with him?
That was just me bringing my style to the table. I respect Biggie for asking me to come and rock on his album after all of the bullshit he had with some of my brothers. I was always cool with Biggie and he was always cool with me. He would always buy me a bottle of champagne and we always had respect for each other. I just wanted to make a RZA track and have Biggie spit on a RZA track.
At the time a lot of people were imitating RZA tracks and other records on that record sounded like I could have produced that as well. Carlos Broady, who is my student, he made four or five songs on that album and he says that I’m the one that inspired him. The people who did that record were RZA disciples but at the same time the RZA himself makes an appearance on that record. That album is classic. Biggie Smalls was an immaculate MC, yo, and he blew that album away, yo, for real.
What was it like working with Biggie in the studio?
I’m saying, in their studio, P Diddy is the controller of their studio. I came in with my peoples and it was all good. It wasn’t like people were acting funny and shit. That record, I think Cappadonna is one of the niggas screaming in the background because Cappadonna was in the background screaming and shit while we laid it down.
Do you plan on seeing Notorious?
Heck yeah. I was invited to the premier but I couldn’t go. Shit, I’ll be right there in line, baby. I’m gonna be in line for that movie, yo.
How does Bobby Digital feel about the widespread use of Autotune today?
It’s digital, fuck it. Go for it. Back then Autotune was kind of corny but now that shit kinda works. Artists are having fun, man.
 How much longer can the trend last for before fans are tired of it?
Who knows with the fans. Music is like that, you know. In California, there are sushi restaurants every block. In New York it wasn’t like that but now they’re popping up in New York. In California there are Mexican restaurants everywhere and that’s where you had to go for good Mexican food and now there’s good Mexican restaurants in New York. People’s tastes change and they spread out. The Autotune has been around before we touched it. Roger Troutman and Zapp and all those guys, they used it. T-Pain is considered a pioneer of it for this era and other artists like the creativity that it lends itself to. I think it’s a great device. I’ve made dozens of songs with Autotune. I just never released it. I was making all kinds of songs with Autotune. I just never released it. I didn’t think because of my brand of hip-hop and how people look at me in hip-hop that it fit my criteria. Every song I make I don’t give to everybody. I just make it and keep it for my fucking self.
As a producer who’s accomplished so much already in hip-hop, what inspires you to keep going?
Well, I’m an artist and as an artist, I find different ways to express my artistic talent, whether I express myself through lyrics, film, writing scripts, acting or whether it’s sitting there and drawing shit on a piece of paper. I just like expressing myself and seeing what happens when I express myself. Raekwon was bugging out when I walked around with my guitar. I can pick it up and express my musical talent immediately without plugging in no plugs. I can just play and express myself. That’s something that we have to realize. Artists need expression and if you express yourself you will always strive. I’m a true artist and I strive to always express myself.
How have you seen your production techniques evolving in the last couple of years?
I went from being a DJ to a sampling producer to a composer to a full keyboard player to a drummer to a guitar player. I could also blow a good flute for you. My talent just increased through study and through practice. That’s why you might see me do something like Afro Samurai where they give me total creative control in every drop of music for an animated TV series. It ain’t really because of my name value. First it could have started off because of my name value but it’s really because I know what I’m doing and I can do the job. I can bring that vibe. Some of the music I’ve done sounds crazy but it fits the film and that’s what a composer is supposed to be able to do. They’re supposed to be able to take a scene and tell the story along with the story that’s already there in an audio way.
You dropped your solo album Digi Snax last summer, which was your first solo album in over five years. Do you have plans for another solo album in the near future?
I already made fucking five songs in the last six weeks. Before I went on tour I made three songs and I made two songs when we had some days off. It’s a habit. Maybe this year. Maybe I won’t, maybe I will. I’ll record it but will I release it? I don’t know.
Let me just say this to you. Let me add this. I don’t talk much about this project. I did an album with my buddy Shavo (System of a Down), Reverand Burke and Kinetic. The group is called Achozen. I think the album that we got, yo, is one of the most innovative hip-hop albums in the last 10 years. I don’t’ even think you can call it hip-hop. I think we stumbled upon a new vibe.
When I came with the Gravediggaz, it was hip-hop but it was a new vibe in hip-hop. It was new. It was a whole new chamber in hip-hop. Wu-Tang was a whole new chamber in hip-hop.
I think we have a whole new chamber with Achozen. I did it with Shavo because I’m always speaking on the ills and I’ve done that for years with the Wu-Tang Clan. I had to take a step back and just be an artist and let somebody else handle that. Shavo marched in and he handled it. I don’t know if we’re going to put that out this year. It’s strong enough where you could wait three years to do it because there’s nothing like it and nobody’s going to be able to do it because they don’t have the same talent and experience that we have. It’s not something that we sampled. It’s just from our creativity. The best thing about it is that we may change the game from it.
Why have you kept fairly quiet about the Achozen album so far?
Because when he’s ready to push the button, he’ll talk and then I’ll talk. My job in this particular band, as we call it, is I’m the lead singer. (laughs) That’s what I am and it’s the easiest job for me because I come in and I do my lyrics and I add my creativity but I don’t have to sit there and worry about the label and how the video is going to look. I don’t have to worry about shit like that. I left it in Shavo’s hands. When he’s ready he’ll push the button on it. He said this year it might come out.
It’s one of those joints that can withstand the test of time. It’s like the Gravediggaz music. To me, even though hip-hop had a lot of albums coming out then, there are certain albums that are just good albums that have nothing to do with what’s going on today. It just has a good vibe. This album is timeless. It’s like Marvin Gaye’s What’s Goin’ On album. No matter when you put it on, if you like soul music, you’re going to love that album. It’s like Pink Floyd’s The Wall. If you like rock you’re going to love that album.
Do you find that as you get older you want to experiment with other genres of music?
Yeah. To me, hip-hop is an ocean of music though. Hip-hop is the place where all music meets at from rock, classical, jazz, new wave, club, jungle, soul, reggae…All that shit is infused into hip-hop so I don’t know if it’s a new genre but to me hip-hop is the medium that makes all music makes sense. That’s why as a producer you’ll hear me doing something classical and then sampling from a spaghetti western and then you’ll hear a soul sample. Then you got the funk with George Clinton coming. It’s all that shit, man.
For “The Gravel Pit,” we basically sampled an old French TV show theme and the shit wound up being a Top 40 hit.
With Kanye West’s 808’s and Heartbreak, a lot of fans felt like he was abandoning hip-hop because he was singing on the album. Was that a fair judgment to make?
Everybody grows, man, and you want to be able to express yourself. It’s like sex. Sex in the same position is always good but if you don’t change your position it could get boring. You gotta change your position. I think that’s what he’s doing. I met Kanye a lot of times. He’s cool. Sometimes he speaks and sometimes he don’t speak. But I can sympathize with him. As an artist I can say this – he went through a tragedy and it makes you want to sing. When I lost my moms I wanted to sing. I wanted to cry and sing the blues but nobody would know me for no fucking blues. I’d be singing blues in my guitar and people would never know that.
Maybe one day I’ll be brave enough to share it with the world but he was brave enough to share it with the world. He has enough confidence and cockiness in him that he was like, ‘Fuck it, if I fart they’ll like it.’ So he did it. But to me, I think that what he’s doing is where his heart is and if you’re a fan of his, you’ll like it. Most people who are fans of Kanye have followed him from his life, from his car accident through his college life to his Rocafella producer days to being the celebrity that he is now. These people have followed him so why not follow him now as he goes through his next chamber of expressing himself through this chamber as he’s singing and experimenting with a different style of production just to show where his heart is at.
What I find fascinating is that even though you’re considered a legend in hip-hop, you’re still not ready to release anything you do. Do you think people realize that you have that side to you?
I don’t know if people realize or think about me. I don’t think about that no more. I just know that everything ain’t for everybody. So some things are just for yourself. A lot of fans always ask me when I’m going to put out “The Cure.” I wrote the record and I never put it out. Two reasons. One, I’m not going to put something out without making sure that every time you see me, I’m living like that. If you see me onstage and I’m drinking drinks and trying to get pussy after the show and I’m writing the grimiest lyrics, to me, that contradicts the poetry of what I’m saying so I haven’t given it to the people yet. That’s just how I am. But some things ain’t for the people anyway. It’s just for yourself, man. It’s just to enjoy it for yourself. I play the piano and you’ve never seen me play the piano before. You’ve never seen me just sit there and play there for aw hole hour with some classical sounding music. I don’t play the piano the hip-hop way but I can make a hip-hop beat. It ain’t nothing. When I sit down to play the piano I sit there and I play it and the only people who know that are my kids.
Do you plan on eventually showing the world the many different sides of the RZA?
If life presents it and the opportunity arises in a way that’s satisfying to myself and my integrity and is respectful to my Clan and my family. As a dreamer, it’s a dream of mines to one day play in Carnegie Hall. We would go there on school trips as a kid and we’d be there with the great orchestras. One day they invited me there to talk about my movie scores and they played my music off of a CD and they played it inside of the building but they played it as a scope for the discussion.
But after it was over the Carnegie Institute invited us all to come back and have drinks. Politicians from the city were there. It was very established and elite people. I said that one day I wanted to play there. One day I wanted to play in Carnegie Hall. How could I do that? They smiled at me and kind of laughed it off a little bit. About a month later a package comes to myself from somebody in the Carnegie Institute. It said, “Dear Bobby, We know that one day you want to play in Carnegie Hall one day. The way to get here is practice, practice, practice.” There was a t-shirt in there too and I said to myself, ‘Okay, maybe it will take me 10 years, but I’ll get there someday.’
How close are you to playing there today?
Well, shit, it’s been three years since they sent that to me. I could get there when I’m 45 or when I’m 50. Who knows? A lot of guys who are there, they have some young prodigies there but a lot of these composers, they got a head full of gray hair, baby. I don’t care if I pop up there when I’m 50 years-old. I don’t care. Just one day, I would like to get that opportunity. That’s just my personal dream. Maybe it will never happen. All dreams don’t come true but that is one of my dreams.
If the Wu-Tang Clan never releases another album are you happy with the legacy you’ve left as a group?
Yeah. Yeah. When ODB passed, I thought we were never going to do nothing again. When we did Rock the bells that year, I thought that was going to be our last show. They taped the Rock the Bells show and it was a DVD. I said that if we never did another show at least we got it on tape. It actually is the last show we have with Wu-Tang Clan in original form with ODB there. It is on tape and it’s captured history. If you never come to another Wu-Tang show, I think our legacy is strong. I’m proud of what everybody did. I’m proud of the families we’ve saved, the food we put on the table for so many other families, from our own to people around the country, and on a business level and a creative level and on a film level, you hear new artists at the time like Kanye West saying he’s inspired by the RZA and Ghostface. That means the Wu-Tang Clan lives on. Wu-Tang Clan is forever.
What do you see in Boy Jones that made you want to work with him?
He’s a unique individual. He lives in Atlanta so he has a strange style mixed with East and South. He’s unique, man. He’s weird. His father was a unique individual. He’s unique and in some ways similar to his father and in some ways it’s totally new and different. I think if the kids hear them they’ll like him and if you like him you’ll love him. He’s a unique individual. His music is in line with today’s music. I gave him a couple of classic Wu-sounding beats so he could show his MC skills. His MC skills are like his father’s skills. You don’t know what he’s coming with. He’s unpredictable. With Ol’ Dirty, he would say all kinds of crazy shit that other rappers weren’t saying. He says different shit and it’s not the same ol’ money, car, pussy shit and it ain’t the same ol’ trying to be the best MC. He’s trying to be the best person he could be to express himself. He’s very good and he’s very unique. Boy Jones is the name.
Are you still working with Freemurda?
I just left him yesterday. He’s doing his own thing now. I still got his back. He’s just with some new people. He’s got a new manager. Freemurda is a dope MC. I can’t wait ‘til somebody gives him a fair chance. I tried to give him a few chances. I don’t know what happened and why he wasn’t successful. A lot of the Wu prodigies weren’t as successful as they should have been. I think that’s because the industry is just a different place right now. Everything should happen ourselves and the industry is so busy and shit that they’re not really helping artists and shit. But the album that he had, he should have at least made some noise. Like Maino, they know each other and he’s had some success and he should be right there with that class, like Maino and Papoose. He should be in that next class of New York MCs. His talent is equal, if not better, than a lot of them.
How important is it for you to work with up-and-coming artists like Boy Jones and Freemurda?
That’s what The Abbot is. I’m The Abbot. I said that on the Wu-Tang Forever album. I said, “I stay secluded in the chamber training new recruits.” That's what I do. A hundred MCs I’m responsible for. And that’s what I do. Sometimes other members of the Clan would get upset at that. But yo, that’s how y’all started also. Y’all recorded at my house until your shit got better and better. There’s more people I gotta help, whether I make money or don’t make money, that’s what I do. And of course I’m at an age where I gotta pass that baton. You watch a kung-fu flick, there comes a time when the abbot has to go into meditation and somebody else becomes the abbot. I discovered this new career. I’m in love with film. I want to be a movie director. Maybe I need to focus my time on that. But that’s what I do. I train new recruits.
You’re currently directing your first film The Man with the Iron Fist. What kind of films would you like to direct in the future?
All kinds of shit. I would like to start like how I started with 36 Chambers. 36 Chambers was basically an audio, ghetto, Blaxploitation kung-fu movie. That was a martial arts Blaxploitation album. The same way I made those albums that was unique that could make you put it in your car and drive around for an hour and you would be in my world, I want my films to be like that. When you walk into that theater, you walk into a whole ‘nother world and when you walk back you walk into this world.
Did you ever think your film career could go this far?
No. I didn’t think that because I was more inclined to be a director. I’m more behind the scenes. If a girl says I look good I don’t like it. I’m one of those kinds of guys. I don’t know why but that’s just how I am. But Raekwon would record at my house after I did Derailed. He told me I had a new career as an actor and he said that for a few years. I respect him tremendously and I couldn’t say no. I got a new career and I’ve never turned back from that point.
What should we expect from you in the next few months?
What I’m trying to focus on is The Man with the Iron Fist. That’s going to be my directorial debut. The Man with the Iron Fist.
|
07/28 - 
All
the News 
Home
HHG
on Myspace
