RZA (pronounced a rizza, born Robert Diggs, July 5, 1969 in Brownsville, Brooklyn, New York, USA) is an African American producer, rapper and the leader of the hip hop crew Wu-Tang Clan. He was likewise the member of the class action Gravediggaz. Too when producing nigh tons of the Wu-Tang's albums, he hwhen besides produced several of their solo & affiliate projects, too as releasing a succession of solo albums (deuce under a vary-ego Bobby Digital) & composing the scores for several movies.

Early career
Fallowing an impoverished childhood inside the personal of X youngsters, RZA began his career inside hip hop in the late 1980s and early 1990s as a member of a trio Force Of The Imperial Master (which after became called the All in Together Now Crew after they got the successful underground individual of that title) by owning new Wu-Tang members, & his full cousin, GZA (then called a Genius) & Ol' Dirty Bastard (then called Ason Unique, a Specialist, & a Prof). Another time this acclaimed local band dissolved, each he & GZA attempted to kick start solo careers. By having a support of GZA's friend Melquan (so creator of Jamaica Records) it two secured lone deals by using album alternatives at successful labels, GZA attend Cold Chillin & RZA to Tommy Son. GZA at last freed a Words from the Genius album, but RZA's stint at Tommy Son ended by using just a EP "Ooh I Love You Rakeem" to show for it whenever he attend poky presently fallowing its release. GZA's album flopped, & them cousin-german became determined to conquer a hep hop industry in their have terms. From either this determination come a Wu-Tang Clan, formed by owning Ol' Contaminated Bastard too when by having Sixer others. Using a Kin, Prince Rakeem began running per title RZA (pronounced "the rizza" & from either a healthy produced whenever "Rakeem" or even "Robert" was scratched in the turntable). Fallowing a singles Protect Ya Neck & Method Human, two caused by raucous RZA-produced beats, mass produced a class action into underground sensations, a class action freed their debut LP Enter the Wu-Tang: 36 Chambers. A album was unbelievably successful, revolutionizing hip hop; one of the major reasons was RZA's thin, lean, gritty & super distinctive production style. When to each one of the class action's members start solo careers, RZA continued to green groceries about all about Wu-Tang related when you took a time 1994-1997, producing within two a "hip hop producer" feel (composing & arranging a instrumental tracks) & in the wider "music producer" feel (overseeing & directing a originative run too when devising song construct & structure). Indeed, RZA's rule across a Karound group at this period is described by himself in 2004's Wu-Tang Manual book when "like a dictatorship". His healthy was to get from either a raw, minimalist sounds of Method Man's Tical and Ol' Dirty Bastard's Return To The 36 Chambers to more cinematic & expansive soundscapes caused by strings or even heavy shells of synthesizer in Ghostface Killah's Ironman, GZA's Liquid Swords and Raekwon's Only Built 4 Cuban Linx. Completely of the class action's albums when you took a cycle from either 1994 to 1996 come extremely regarded by critics & hip hop enthusiasts. In the period of this instance, RZA as well participate in the Gravediggaz, an off-and-in rap supergroup including Frukwan of Stetsasonic, Poetic The Grym Reaper of The Brothers Grym, and Prince Paul who released a critically acclaimed album 6 Feet Deep in 1994. When a share of the Gravediggaz, he went per title RZArecta.

Wu Tang Forever
A profits of Wu-Tang Forever, which hit number one on a stock and index charts when merchandising 600,000 around its foremost week, as well marked the prevent of RZA's "five year plan"; at a class action's origination, he promised a class action in case he got aggregate dictatorial control of a Wu-Tang empire, it would conquer the hep hop globe inside 5 years. Fallowing Forever's profits, RZA ceased to oversee everthing aspects of Wu-Tang product when he experienced antecedently, relegation very much of his existent role to associates like Oli "Power" Grant & his brother Mitchell "Divine" Diggs, & yielding to each one Clan member further person control. This move was designed to enable a Wu-Tang empire to exp& farther & farther into a fabric of a hip hop industry, and around accordance using this an extremely big total of Wu-Tang music was to exist as freed on top the next 2 years. This got already to a few extent begun in Wu-Tang Forever, which for the first time featured RZA delegating lot of the beatmaking duties to more producers in the Wu-Tang camp, like his proteges True Master and 4th Disciple (known as a Wu-Elements) & Inspectah Deck. In a cycle of the 1997-2000 period RZA ceased to develop every Wu-Tang solo album when he experienced dof these antecedently, however continued to contribute unremarkably one or even ii beats on the average to each record besides when getting an Executive Producer credit. He likewise freed his foremost solo effort coroneted RZA as Bobby Digital in Stereo in 1999 (see 1999 in music). This wwhen an experimental conception album featuring him rapping as his hedonic, fun-caring vary-ego Bobby Digital & showcasing the unique keyboard-caused healthy RZA known as "digital orchestra", however it received mixed reviews. He likewise reformed sustaining a Gravediggaz for the album The Pick, The Sickle & The Shovel, a calmer and more mature album than their horrorcore-oriented debut.

Fallowing helming an additional Wu-Tang class action album titled The W (his production on which standard very much praise) & providing narration to the Kin group greatest hits album titled RZA Hits, RZA freed an additional Bobby Digital album, 2001's Digital Bullet. Digital Bullet was an attempt to acquire Bobby Digital farther, & a album followed a free story arc which saw the character becoming extra "enlightened" & supplementary disillusioned using hedonism when a album went in.

Recent work
Further recently he has get in composing film scores, earning praise for his hip-hop score to Jim Jarmusch's Ghost Dog - The Way of the Samurai, and appearing for the brief cameo in the film itself. He as well created & produced a original music for the Quentin Tarantino film Kill Bill, when well as Blade: Trinity and Soul Plane. RZA besides appeared alongside fellow Wu-Tang member GZA inside a single section of Jarmusch's Coffee and Cigarettes opposite Bill Murray. He & a GZA own as well manufactured many appearances in ''Chappelle's Show, in one appearance pitching a financial services firm called Wu-Tang Financial.

His number 1 solo album when just a RZA, Birth Of The Prince, was freed within 2003 (see 2003 in music and spawned the individual I personally Pop''. the album itself featured a mix of light-hearted Bobby Digital tracks & supplementary lyrically high-highbrow RZA tracks. Inside 2003 he as well freed an album of collaborations using international rap & R&B musicians (including the UK's Skinnyman, France's Saïan Supa Crew and Germany's Xavier Naidoo) entitled The World According to RZA, which was successful in many countries, despite not being sold in the USA.

RZA has been promising for numerous years to release A Therapeutic, said to become an heroic conception album containing collaborations using high-profile creative person like Stevie Wonder, to be mostly in the tedious, Five Percent Nation-influenced style of Wu-Tang tracks such as Sunshower. There appeared to become weak at a prevent of a burrow around mid-2004 for more and more raring Wu-Tang fans awaiting this release sustaining the limited release of the mixtape Formula For The Remedy which was designed to build anticipation for the finished article.

Inside 2005, RZA served as a Creative person inside Home for the LA Film Festival and released a long-gestating book Wu-Tang Manual, the inside-depth discussion of the Wu-Tang's virtues, vices & philosophies. RZthe has too announced that he & Method Human come in the studio working in a watch-as much as Ice's ill received Tical 0: The Prequel album, due in late 2005/early 2006. A album is completely by RZA. Cormega has stated on his site that he has visited RZA & Meth in their studio sessions, and that the new album is living up to its high expectations.

As the result a poll on the official Wu-Tang Kin places (web.wutangcorp.com), it appears that RZA's next album is titled Return of the Prince. No word eventually in features, release dates or even production credits, however Wu-Tang Corp stated that RZA has recently been working in a studio by having the likes of John Frusciante, Raekwon, Method Man & Masta Killa.

Aliases

Bobby Steels Bobby Digital Bobby Boulders The Abbot Chief Abbot the Scientist Prince Delight Prince Dynamite Prince Rakeem RZArecta (from either resurrector - waking higher a mentally dead) Ruler Zig-Zag-Zig-Allah King Ruler ZigZag Zag Zig Allah (King RZA)

Discography

Albums

1999 RZA as Bobby Digital in Stereo 2000 Ghost Dog OST 2001 Digital Bullet 2002 The World According to RZA 2003 Birth Of A Prince 2005 Kings of Funk (compilation of classic funk tracks compiled by RZA & Keb Darge)

Singles & EPs

1991 "Ooh We Love You Rakeem" (EP) 1999 "NYC Everything" 1999 "Holocaust (Silkworm)" 2001 "La Rhumba" 2001 "Brooklyn Babies" 2003 "We Pop" 2004 "Grits"

Appears on

1991 "Pass The Bone" (from either a Genius (GZA) album Words from the Genius, vocals & beat) 1993 Enter the Wu-Tang: 36 Chambers (album by the Wu-Tang Clan) 1994 6 Feet Deep (album by the Gravediggaz) 1994 Tical (album by Method Man, altogether beats, vocals in "Mr. Sandman") 1994 Return To The 36 Chambers: The Dirty Version (album by Ol' Dirty Bastard, completely beats except "Brooklyn Zoo", vocals in "Cuttin' Headz") 1994 "No Hooks" (from either a Shaquille O'Neal album Shaq-Fu-Da Return, vocals & beat) 1995 Only Built 4 Cuban Linx (album by Raekwin, all beats, vocals on "Wu-Gambinos") 1995 Liquid Swords (album by GZA, all beats except "B.I.B.L.E.", vocals in "Living In The World Today" & "4th Chamber") 1995 "Killa Hill Niggas" (from either a Cypress Hill album Cypress Hill III: Temples Of Boom, vocals & beat) 1995 "Doe Or Die (RZA Remix)" (from either a AZ album Doe Or Die, beat) 1996 Ironman (album by Ghostface Killah, all beats except "Fish", vocals in "After The Smoke Is Clear" & "Marvel") 1996 Pack Within Hand (Remix) (Ghostface Killah single, beat) 1996 "Warface" (from either a Bounty Killer album My Xperience, beat) 1996 Eyes The Bleed (Remix) (Bounty Killer single, beat) 1996 "Step Right In" (from either a Dog Eat Dog album Play Games, vocals & beat) 1997 Wu-Tang Forever (album by the Wu-Tang Clan) 1997 "Bachelorette (RZA Remix)" (Bjork single, beat) 1997 "Long Kiss Goodnight" (from either a Notorious B.I.G. album Long Kiss Goodnight, beat) 1998 The Pick, Sickle & The Shovel (album by the Gravediggaz) 1998 "The Legacy" (by Royal Fam), "Concrete Jungle" (by Sunz Of Man & Timbo King), "Co-Defendant" (by Shyheim & Hell Razah), "Execute Them" (by Wu-Tang Clan), "And Justice For All" (by RZA, Method Man & Killarmy), "97 Mentality" (by Cappadonna & Ghostface Killah) (from the Wu-Tang Killa Bees: The Swarm compilation) 1998 The Pillage (album by Cappadonna, various beats) 1998 Tical 2000: Judgement Day (album by Method Man, various beats) 1998 "Whatever Happened (The Birth)" (from either a AZ album Pieces Of A Man, vocals & beat) 1998 "Say What You Want (All Day Everyday)" (Texas single, beat) 1998 "Tribulations", "Inmates To The Fire" & "Can I See You" (from the Sunz Of Man album The Last Shall Be First, beats) 1999 "They" & "Stand Up" (from the Charli Baltimore album Cold As Ice, beats) 1999 "1112" (from either a GZA album Beneath The Surface,, beat) 1999 "Movers & Shakers" & "Friction" (from the Inspectah Deck album Uncontrolled Substance, beats) 1999 "Turbo Charge", "Stay In Your Lane", "Enter U-God" & "Turbulence" (from the U-God album Golden Arms Redemption, beats) 1999 "Cereal Killer" & "Run 4 Cover" (from the Method Man & Redman album Blackout!, beats) 1999 "Tres Leches (Triboro Trilogy)" (from either a Big Punisher album Capital Punishment, beat) 1999 "The End" (from either a Ras Kass album Rassassination, verse) 2000 Supreme Clientele (album by Ghostface Killah, vocals and beat on "The Grain" & "Nutmeg", beat on "Buck 50") 2000 The W (album by the Wu-Tang Clan, vocals & completely beats except "Do You Really (Thang, Thang)") 2000 Ghost Dog : The Way Of The Samurai - The Album compilatiin, tons beats, vocals on "Cakes", "Fast Shadow" & "Samurai Showdown" 2001 Iron Flag (album by the Wu-Tang Clan, vocals & completely beats except "Rules", "Y'all Been Warned", "Back In The Game" & "One Of These Days") 2002 Wu-Tang Killa Bees: The Sting compilation, all beats except "Bar Mitzvah", "Doe Rae Wu", "Dancing With Wolves", "Rollin", "Get At Me" & "Hatin' Don't Play", also produced entirety of limited edition bonus disc. 2002 "Bankstaz" (from either a Sunz Of Man album Saviorz Day, vocals) 2002 "Maxine", "Walking Through The Darkness", "Flowers" & "Jealousy" (from the Ghostface Killah album Bulletproof Wallets, beats) 2003 Legend of the Liquid Sword (album by GZA, vocals on "Fam (Members Only)", beat in "Rough Cut") 2003 "Da Great Siege" (from either a Mathematics album Love, Hell Or Right, vocals) 2004 No Said Date (album by Masta Killa, beats and vocals in "School" & "Old Man", beat on "No Said Date") 2004 "The Turn" (from either a Method Man album Tical 0: The Prequel, beat) 2004 "Run" (from either a Ghostface Killah album Pretty Toney Album, beat) 2004 Disciples of the 36 Chambers: Chapter 1 (album by the Wu-Tang Clan) 2005 "Lovely Ladies" & "Brutality (Grindz Remix)" (from the Prodigal Sunn album Return Of The Prodigal Sunn, beats) 2005 "Strawberries & Cream" (from the Mathematics album The Problem, vocals) 2005 "All In Together Now" (from either a GZA & DJ Muggs album GrandMasters, vocals) 2005 "Advanced Pawns (from the GZA & DJ Muggs album Grandmasters, vocals) 2005 "Bio-Chemical Equation (from either a Dreddy Kruger album Wu-Tang Meets the Indie Culture, vocals, beat)