Monday, October 19, 2009

RZA AND THE WAY OF THE WU


Droppin' science on the way of the WU, the RZA, the Razor, the Abbot, the RZArrector, in his newly released book The Tao of WU, expounds upon the journey he's taken through life and his amalgamated belief system. As the RZA makes the rounds promoting 'Tao', he's made a few interesting appearances and one of which we're putting you down with here- his appearance on the NPR related show On Point with Tom Ashbrook (a favorite show here we have to admit). Obviously, On Point is "on point"... the Razor's a house guest.

One more interesting note on the Razor: Over at TIME magazine's site you'll find a recent Gilbert Cruz conducted interview with Mr. Robert "the RZA" Diggs that we're confident you'll find enlightening. He mentions something that we here have been trippin' on a bit (being that we consider ourselves cinefiles as well as beat junkies and lovers of art and design), given the current economic collapse and its resulting job, career and life destroying aftermath, and the trip we've been taking is that of one into the land of John Carpenter's classic (to cats like ourselves and you) sci-fi film, THEY LIVE. We've excerpted the RZA's thoughts on the film from the TIME interview below and you can read the full interview at the link below. We'll dedicate a post to THEY LIVE coming up. Not only is the film relevant to the times it has a direct and indirect connection with the graphic design and visual communications of Rap music.

From TIME:

Gilber Cruz: One of the passages in your book talks about the anime movie Dragon Ball Z and how it represents the journey of the black man in America. And it struck me because in Inglourious Basterds, there's a scene about how King Kong represents the plight of the black man in America. Is there another movie or book or piece of art that you think represents what African Americans have had to go through?

RZA: Tarantino and I agree on King Kong. I'll give you another movie: John Carpenter's They Live. That's perfect for our times right now. That's where we're at. I saw that movie, and it really made me think. I started bugging out in the mall. I just felt like, wow, there was something about that movie that was real. I got locked up like two hours [after watching it]; I was drunk and acting crazy.


On Point interview

The Wu-Tang Way

http://www.onpointradio.org/2009/10/the-wu-tang-way


TIME Q&A

The RZA on The Tao of Wu

http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1930280,00.html


RZA also does some knowledge on another favorite radio show of ours, Tell Me More with Michel Martin.


Tell Me more with Michel Martin interview

Hip-Hop Icon The RZA Authors Book On Life's Lessons

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=113928467