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If I wasn't rooted in my study of Islam, and the study of other stories and religions, if I wasn't well versed in those studies I would have made a lot more mistakes in life. I looked at great men - Solomon, the Krishna, Muhammad - all these men evoke in you a desire to follow yourself and to not be bought off. It's been a big part of me. -The RZA |
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"Wu-Tang is the mother brand. Look at T-Mobile. You can get the Blackberry or the Sidekick. You can get many things from the same brand. They do different functions. That's how I look at it," the RZA continues. "The mother brand is Wu-Tang, but if you look at it like Nabisco, you've got your Oreos and your Nutter Butters. They're all by the same company but [offer] a different taste for different people."
 The RZA and his ladies |
As the RZA gears up to tour as Bobby Digital (on tour now, dates available here), he's actively working on the score to Spike TV's Afro Samurai, and will be acting alongside Jude Law and Forrest Whitaker in the upcoming Repossession Mambo. Always reaching for higher aspirations, he says, "My next endeavor is to be a movie director. I wrote a film called The Man With The Iron Fist, and we're looking to go into production by the end of this year. I took hip-hop to a certain level with audio, and now I want to go visual. I want to make movies to express my art - not just acting but directing. My goal is to make some classic movies."
As far as he's come, the RZA relates his current success to his family roots. "[When Wu-Tang started out] it was definitely family based. When I first started, my brother Devine was always part of Wu-Tang. He was the brother of mine who was older than me, got a job earlier than me, was on the streets earlier than me, and therefore he was the guy who brought me to buy my first turntable. He got a job to help me buy records."
Mitchell "Devine" Diggs has gone on to handle the business side of the Wu-Tang Empire. However, family alone didn't inspire the dynamic the RZA developed for the Wu-Tang Clan.
 RZA |
"My family was always involved, but also I've always been a big fan of The Godfather trilogy, and that inspired my business ideas. Loyalty, brotherhood, the brotherhood of the Shaolin Temple and the Shaolin Monks, all these things inspired my way of thinking. I read the Art of War and apply that to my thinking," says the RZA. "So, family is definitely a foundation. We called Wu-Tang the Clan because we were all family. It was a bunch of guys who knew each other from the beginning who had love and admiration for each other. That kind of thing built a family vibe. At one point it felt more like my family because I come from a big family. Look at Masta Killa. He doesn't have a brother. Look at the GZA. His brother was in jail. You look at Rae. He had younger brothers but he didn't have older brothers. I had five older brothers. I came from a big family of 11 kids and a whole lot of cousins, so it was always family vibes."
In addition to the influence of family, music, film and an "enlightening" on "Supreme Mathematics" from his cousin Gary "GZA" Grice, he's found considerable wealth in the lessons learned from Holy Scripture.
"I think if I wasn't rooted in my study of Islam, and the study of other stories and religions, if I wasn't well versed in those studies I would have made a lot more mistakes in life," reflects the RZA. "I looked at great men - Solomon, the Krishna, Muhammad - all these men evoke in you a desire to follow yourself and to not be bought off. It's been a big part of me."
One event he found particularly inspiring was the "rap story itself."
"The fact that it started out with a brother and a sister who put their money together with $35 and cut a record, that inspired me," he says. "When I founded Wu-Tang Records, I asked my sister to chip in. She didn't agree to it though."
For a man who has his hand in so many pockets, the question as to what he'll do with his future was answered with the same never-ending enthusiasm that helped him get his empire off the ground in the first place.
"I'm like a flower that's blossoming, that keeps on unfolding more and more petals about itself. There are many layers to me, like an onion. You'll just keep discovering more and more."
The RZA is on tour now with Stone Mecca, dates available here.
RZA as Bobby Digital "You Can't Stop Me Now":
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