Pyroradio.com’s very own Sk Vibemakers caught up with Hip Hop Royalty in the Rza too talk on a number of subjects including 8 diagrams album, friction within the group, 5 percenters, his acting career and more!
LISTEN TO THE INTERVIEW HERE: RZA INTERVIEW
Sk Vibemakers: We got in the building the Multi Platinum, Grammy Award Winning, TV and Film starring, trend setting, hip hop royalty in the building what’s going on RZA?
Rza: You got the Rza doing it like this Bung Bung !
S: To ask you the bait question what brings you to the UK?
R: I`m here to promote the 8 Diagrams albums, the new Wu Tang album produced by the Rza I’m here to tell you to get your pounds together and put some weight on it.
S: So Wu Tang came out in the early 90`s and was a breath of fresh air, it was raw hip hop in it`s purest form and you lot were very outspoken and dealt with a lot of issues, what do you think of the current hip hop scene?
R: I think it`s doing good for a lot of people, a lot of brothers are eating and making money and feeding there family but I think as a hip hop artist and a musician I think it`s unbalanced, it`s all one sided it`s all about getting your drink on, shaking your booty and having a good time and where not really approaching social issues or approaching different mentalities or not even a different type of mentality, different types of entertainment, sometimes you wanna see a comedy, sometimes you wanna see a thriller, sometimes you wanna see a kung fu flick, sometimes you wanna see a drama you don’t just see one thing you need a balance, I think the main thing missing in hip hop is balance and that’s why we made The 8 Diagrams, to bring back balance.
S: One of my favourite albums of all time is `Wu Tang Forever` and at the beginning of the second disc your talking about the R`n`B guys in hip hop and there not true mc`s you guys are the true mc`s back in 97, I think hip hops in that same kind of state do you think people are ready for Wu Tang again now
R: Yeah definitely but one thing different from 97 is that me as a producer has gained more musical knowledge, back then I had a lack of musical knowledge so I was hard on music back then, cos my base was with hip hop and I was on that real aggressive stuff and this is what it is but hip hop is my foundation and I still feel like that, but with hip hop I can pick up a guitar and make it hip hop, I can pick up a violin and make it hip hop, cos my post is hip hop. I was in the studio one day and the beat was playing and my vain was jumping to the beat (laughs) on the real, my man was like it`s in your blood god, it`s in your blood, that`s crazy it is in my blood. Hip Hop is not just a sound it`s a way of being too and we’re missing that because some of the people that are doing that right now, they come from this particular area, or this particular walk, or this particular look, they don`t have a chance to live hip hop and I can say this because you brothers out there who are younger than me, when I first got into mcing I was probably eight years old or nine years old when I wrote my first lyric, when I was 8 years old, there probably wasn`t more than 200 mc`s in the world and now there’s probably a million mc`s in the world, and now it`s probably those core people who was living it, riding them trains to Brooklyn to the Bronx, from Stanton Island to Queens all these things were the foundations, that`s the energy we bringing back to y`all
S: So why now with this album because many of us thought that there would never be another Wu Tang album?
R: First of all it was on me really I felt like it should be done, I felt like I needed to come back and do something about the situation, I`m doing well with things, with films, scores and life is looking better for me I ain’t gonna front but I walked away from Hip Hop but I walked away without closing the book and with Wu Tang it was the same, even if guys put there solo albums out every year, life Ghostface puts an album out, Method Man but you still don`t get that collaborative spirit and I knew I had to come back and do it one more time for the people because we ain’t making a lot of money from this, there`s money there don`t get me twisted but it`s not like the sort of money with what I`m doing already but this a sacrifice, a worthwhile sacrifice because I`m doing it for my crew and for the fans that want another dose of this
S: A couple weeks back we spoke to Steve Rifkind and obviously your first 4 albums were released through Loud Records and Loud was shut in 2001, but now your back with him again opening up Loud records for just one record, what`s it like being back with Steve Rifkind?
R: I think Steve Rifkind is the only Record Executive that would be able to put out a Wu Tang Album, because most executives are just putting the what I call cookie cutter type of hip hop, just throwing it out there and not even caring about the purity of the sound or the purity of the people, I`m not saying the 8 Diagrams album is the same as the 36 Chambers, but the purity of us makes like it regardless so even with `My Heart Gently Weeps` which is well produced you got John Frusciante from the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Dhani Harrsion the son of George Harrsion playing acoustic guitar, you got Erykah Badu singing the hook this sounds like a BIG song but once Ghostface and Raekwon start rapping the pop of it leaves, it`s not only the spirit of the music, it`s the spirit of the mc`s there voices. But with Steve Rifkind I think that he is the only executive that can deliver with his job, the reason I say that is that most executives want to tell you what to do, he`s the type of executive that trusts his artists, he came to me like yo I want to do it how we done it in 93, in 1993 you asked me what you wanted and I said yes and that`s how we gonna do it tell me what you want from this campaign
S: My Heart Gently Weeps is that the first single
R: Yeah that`s the first official single, you know Wu Tang always got an underground single then we got an official single, the underground single was at first `Watch Your Mouth` but we had a little sample problem with that and if you got that song already you got lucky (laughs) you know Sk Vibemakers got it though, but the rough single now is `Take It Back` for any that wants to hear us air it out with no remorse and `My Guitar Gently Weeps` is a Song that you can hear us air it out but in a song format, the videos are being filmed in a weeks time I`m co directing it with Malik Sayeed.
S: Are there any external features on the 8 Diagram album?
R: Not really any mc`s, Streetlife is the only other mc on there that`s not signed on as a legal member and for the fans that ever wondered if Cappadonna is an official member, he is now officially and legally signed on as a member of Wu Tang we sorted that out this year, George Clinton’s on there, most people think he`s from the west coast but he`s from the East Coast his house is actually only a few miles from my house and George Clinton and ODB were really tight, they spent a lot of personal time together and cos ODB`s spirit is not here physically on this record you remember on Iron Flag when I had Flava Flav who`s just as wild, but to me George Clinton gave me some of that ODB flavour that you wouldn’t be able to get.
S: Are there any ODB vocals on the album?
R: I think there’s one or two vocals on there’s, there’s one which is a performance ODB did back in 1992, before any of the albums, it was a demo we had in my crib, the 16th chamber and that`s the bonus track.
S: I`m hearing about all the internal conflicts with Wu Tang, after all the delays the album is meant to come 4th of December and Ghostface was gonna bring out his album the same day, and then were hearing that he was upset that there both coming out on the same day and he tried to get it pushed back, what`s the story with that?
R: That’s a true story, what happened was that the Wu Tang album was scheduled to be released in September, but we went on tour so it took longer to finish the record, then we thought October but there was more touring (laughs), the time I put aside for the record wasn`t enough time for everyone to do what they gotta do, so the record kept getting pushed, then the record was meant to get pushed and was meant to be released November, but there were sample issues, making a record is different from the old days, nowadays they got the producer to sign 50 pieces of paper, which I don`t even understand yo, but you gotta go through with this but then we finally got to December the 4th nobody was aware, well I wasn’t aware, Steve Rifkind wasn`t aware I think half of the Wu Tang Clan were aware that Ghostface was doing a new album, he just put out an album .
S: We would of thought there was such a cohesion in the crew
R: Na, na it`s like everybody`s solo life, is there solo life, we all keep our solo life to our selves, sometimes intentionally and sometimes unintentionally, if you asked Ghostface why most of Wu Tang never knew he wasn’t bringing out an album he wouldn`t give you a good reason cos he`d be like I thought they knew, because that`s how Ghost is, if you call him a hundred times you aint gonna get to talk to him, he even says how Ol Dirty Bastard became Ol Dirty Bastard because of his name he feels like he became Ghost, his moms can`t find him sometimes you know what I mean (laughs). But to cut a long story short the dates did collide and at one point Steve Rifkind as executive was like yo I`m moving it , Ghost has to move his date because he felt that the solo members is never as important as the group.
S: So there`s no arguments over money or anything?
R: Na let me finish I aint gonna air it out cos I`m doing a special interview with Funkmaster Flex to air it out but I`ll give you something you can work with, so when Steve Rifkind got involved it got the point were the people in the building were making it a tug of war whether to move Ghostfaces record because the Wu Tang is a bigger campaign, so Ghost really got twist off about that, I mean really twist off to the point he went out and verbally expressed himself, so once he done that I didn`t think it was a big deal we`ll come December it aint a big deal we don`t want it to be a problem, cos it`s not a problem for us, the wise thing to do is that Ghost should have held his record till next year because he put out an album last year and it didn`t really have the same kind of success it usually does so therefore you need to take a chill pill and get your stocks back up, get this Guitar Gently Weeps video which is a big big thing for you and come back like yo it`s Ghost
S: Is there any conflicts with direction of sound though?
R: Right now it`s hard to put the finger on the conflict, right now I think it`s delusion going on, have you guys got the album?
S: Na we just got it, we aint had a chance to listen to it though.
R: Go and listen to it and let me know how you feel cos like I was telling Raekwon, it really aint about how we feeling about the album we put out albums every year, like Raekwon put an album out August 28th right called `Ice Water`, it was put out on Babygrande, he put that record out with full control of the sound, full control of what he wanted to do and he put it out, have you heard it, have you heard about it, did it make a dent to this hip hop world no, there`s many records that come out from the crew, but now it`s time for us to do this, it`s time to let the Rza be the Rza too, don`t let me not be who I am, because I let you be who you are, it`s time for everyone to play there part, but I think right now everyone’s used to playing there own part, even myself I`m used to waking up everyday and not having to do interviews and come to the UK but for the cause I`m here and if you look at it from a stand point why is only Rza here, I should be the last person here cos i already put my work in, but this is how much dedication I’ve got to Wu Tang Clan and the cause, so as far as all them rumours your hearing were gonna clear that up with a live interview cos i know what`s being said i`ve seen the youtube shit and all that(laughs). I can curse?
S: Yeah you can curse man (laughs)
R: (laughs) I didn`t know that shit motherfucker, shit motherfucker, shit(laughs)
S: I wanna talk about your alter ego Bobby Digital I heard that you got an album called Digi Snacks?
R: Yeah it`s done I was gonna put that out in March, but i decided to the Wu Tang and I put it to the side, but it`s done already 23 songs I just need to cut up sand give you 15 of those and give you the Digi Snacks, for those into Bobby Digital he`s on a mission trust me! And I`ve got another mc with me who I think is one of the illest mc`s around right now, he`s off the hook, I think I’ve got a good ear for mc`s Reverand William Burke - the man is a monster, watch out for him.
S: Are many members of Wu Tang still Five Percenters, when I first got Wu Tang Forever there was alot on Five Percenters and on the Gravediggaz album.
R: First of all you can`t be a Five Percenter you have to be apart of the 5% of the people the people who know the truth, live by the truth and teach the truth free of charge because it`s a natural thing to do, if you walk into a room of a hundred people, there`s gonna be five people who are real, there`s gonna be 10 people who know what time it is but there selling it to you and there`s gonna be eighty-five who are blinded and the five percent of the people will try and tell the eighty five percent to understand for themselves so they don`t have to be blood sucked by the ten percent, that`s what it means to be in the five percent, in this room right now if there`s ten of us, there will be half a man righteous that`s what it means by five percent so I’m gonna be apart of that always, cos i know who the true god is, i know who the devil is, i know the cause of things in there world, I know what causes rain, hail, snow and earthquakes, I`m not confused by how much the planet weighs I’m not confused by trick knowledge that`s real, so is the whole Wu Tang part of that? The whole Wu Tang should be part of that, that`s something you`d have to ask each individual member personally if his hearts still in that understanding for himself because sometimes you can be apart of something but like say your from London and you`ve got a London accent then you go to America for twenty years you may lose your accent because you let it go, but you may not lose it and it`s with you forever like Slick Rick for instance he became one of the best Mc`s of all time because he kept his accent.
S: So this `Life Changes` track a dedication to ODB is that on the album?
R: Yeah that`s on the album, first of all it took along time to record it, everybody didn`t record it at the same time, the first person to record it was Method Man when we was in California, I played him the track and was like I want to make this a dedication track to ODB and he wrote his verse and set it off very well with what he did, then everybody a chance to say in eight lines just how Proteck ya Neck was, so in eight lines you have to say what you have to say and I think everybody done a good job, I liked everybody`s verse but I practically liked U God`s verse cos it`s so simple he said `Rivers I cried, my brothers just died, I’m a see you my niggard, on the other side` it`s as simple as that but it`s real though, Raekwon said something powerful too he said `Word to my son we gone remember you, rubbing on a statue in my house that resembles you and what you meant to Wu... you know what I mean, I played that to my boy Tarentino and he was touched by that, he was touched by what Raekwon said, imagine that he built a statue in his crib so his son could remember who ODB was, those type of words cos you`ve asked me about the internal problems, but if you got words like that you gotter live by that yo, there should be nothing that takes you away from that, you can`t just say that and then tomorrow you got a problem, no you gotta live by that. I think alot of times artists say something, not knowing those words become flesh and it may become flesh if you say the wrong shit, we all love the great B.I.G but his record was `Ready To Die`
S: I`m really wondering how the Wu is gonna take it`s place in the current hip hop scene, cos you`ve got that snap music, that dirty south music and you got 50 Cent like, and the same way the Wu came in 93 and 97 and took it back to that raw, I’m really wondering were Wu`s place is now?
R: I think we gonna have a good spot. This is how I feel the Wu Tang album should be to a fan, it should be the one hour a day you`ve got to yourself, the radio plays what it`s playing, the TV plays what it`s playing, but this is the one hour a day you can play to your self and listen to what where talking about because that`s more medicine your gonna get them visions from our album. I`ve got the 50 album I got Kanye`s album I like both of there albums but I`m not getting these visions where I`m seeing the future and know how to better my life, `I still Kill` yea that`s still cool but I`m not getting no visions that`s like eating a McDonalds burger homie .
S: You know what`s sad to me as a Wu Tang fan is that it`s not as popular as it was?
R: First of all I wouldn`t say were not as popular as we was because the type of audience we see know we never saw back in those days, for instance in 1997 we were playing to 30,00 people and in those days that was the biggest we saw, but this year I saw up to 100,000 people with there W`s on so it`s popular, it may not be as popular in the media, people are finding it on there own. The first Rock the bells there were only 10,000 kids all of Wu Tang, then the second one there was 17,000 kids, the third 50,000, when you see a 19 year old kid in the crowd sing `Bring The Ruckas`, `M.E.T.H.O.D. Man` how does he know these songs, there’s a whole new wave of people getting into it. So you may not see it in the regular media but believe me it`s growing more than ever.
S: You what it is, is that on our radio station when we play some Wu Tang joints and some of the younger generation the 17 year olds don`t know about it, and I`m like how do you know about hip hop if you don’t know tunes like Triumph and Protect ya Neck, it`s just one of them things we go though but I wanted to ask you about you acting career, what`s happening with that?
R: I just finished another movie(laughs)
S: American gangster was a good look?
R: I appreciate that yo, I`m on a mission I`m taking it day by day, trying to do it right, I got a coach teaching me things, they said I got some natural as well. I just finished a movie called `Repossession Mambo, starring Forest Whitaker and Jude Law.
S: Can we expect another album after 8 Diagrams?
R: You know what, I can`t say if there will or there won`t be, but it really depends on the people too, I`m not doing it for the money, I`m doing it for the people. If the people want it I`ve got alot of it, if they don`t want it take what you got we got records already, there’s lots of album I did and produced already so if you satisfied with that go back and study, if you need new nourishment we got it for you, we study to teach, I live my life to example alot of other brothers, especially brothers like y`all most of brothers aint been more than a 100 miles outside there community, I been and seen the Pyramids I`ve been and seen Pyramids that havn`t been seen by the public because I was brought there by special people, I`ve been to the shaolin temple, Wu Dang mountain which has been the same for 1500 years, go there and see that general Wu, who started Wu Tang mountain you see the statue of him and you see all these asian faces then you see a black man, a black women and little black baby, that`s general Wu I was like how the heck is that and then the word Wu Tang means he who deserves to be god or man deserved to be god, you know we call each other god-body right so even back then that`s what that word meant, I’m the living example of that I` seeing it with my own eyes at the same time I’m breaking bread with some of the elite people in the world and becoming friends. I`ll give you a story there’s a kid called Homocide from my old neighbourhood in Brownville, he used to rob everybody even me, and his brother suicide we became friends but if you ever saw homocide you`d go the way and he saw American Gangster and my cousin yo tell Rza he did a great job in American Gangster and I`m proud of him, proud of me that`s crazy, I come from Brownsville, I`m a welfare kid, 13 flights of stairs and to see me sit beside Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe, Clive Owen, Danny Glover, Angela Bassett, Forest Whitaker, Jude Law, Quentin Tarentino to see me from there hood it gives the hope, it gives them a chance and that`s what I`m doing and that`s what Wu Tang is about, it aint just about us
S: It`s a honour talking to you man, we need some rapstars going into there 40`s like the rockstars
R: Exactly!
