8 Diagrams, The RZA 1 comment on RZA: Digi Snacks Is Finished

RZA: Digi Snacks Is Finished

RZA has only one eyeclaa7 got together a small recap from a RZA interview featured in the Swedish KingSize magazine. Here are a few things he pointed out that were said in the interview:

  • RZA announces that the whole ‘Digi Snacks‘ album is finished but put to the side for the release of 8 Diagrams (the goes same for OB4CL2). Bobby has matured allot on the album. This will be showcased by writing of the songs, which has gotten better according to RZA. There is a really beautiful song on Digi Snacks that’s called ‘Drama‘ which has an incredible chorus and Bobby tells people how to make their lives better. That one feels like a hit-record. But there is also tracks like ‘My Lovin’ Is Digi Pt.2‘ where he just talks shit; “my dick is hard” – that’s that Bobby Digital shit.
  • He says that his favourite Wu-Tang album is ‘Return To The 36 Chambers,’ there is no other album that provides so much joy. It’s a true piece of art.
  • In 1997 RZA found a book on music-theory which started his translation from hip-hop producer to musician. The first beats he made after reading this book were ‘It’s Yourz‘ and ‘Triumph.’
  • He says that Ghostface has a very good ear for music and that he is 100% sure that if he just learned how to use a sampler he would never have to work with a producer again. He also says that INS is the only one in the Clan that learned how to make beats and that ”He actually done a couple beats that are quite interesting.”
  • He gives a prediction that Young DB (ODB’s son) will have a hit-record on top of the charts in 2 years. And it will be a real song-song that people can sing along to. “That’s my first priority when 8 Diagrams is over; Young Dirty Bastard – he is wild, seventeen years old but just like his father. If he just can keep his health.”

Kudos to claa7 for translating the bits

Ol' Dirty Bastard, Wu-Tang 0 comments on VDB Rewinds: Review Return To The 36 Chambers

VDB Rewinds: Review Return To The 36 Chambers

oldirtybastard-returntothe-36-chambers-front-cover.jpgBy Toure
Rolling Stone 4/20/95

* * * THE VOICE OF LANGSTON HUGHES Langston Hughes Smithsonian/Folkways * * * * RETURN TO THE 36 CHAMBERS: THE DIRTY VERSION Ol’ Dirty Bastard Elektra

In 1967, the year Langston Hughes died and the year before Ol” Dirty Bastard was born, Senegalese intellectual Leopold Sedar Senghor wrote, “The organizing principle which makes the black style is rhythm.” Though characterized by an obsession with rhythm, the evolution of black style is generally marked by some level of thematic or sonic dissonance meant to distinguish new developments from past styles and present imitators. This dissonance is often simply the sonic interpretation of the chaos of day-to-day African-American lives. New York is often the center of such tumult and, not surprisingly, the birthplace of black styles, from the Harlem Renaissance to or Dirty Bastards “Brooklyn Zoo”
Continue Reading “VDB Rewinds: Review Return To The 36 Chambers”

Ol' Dirty Bastard, Wu-Tang 0 comments on VDB Rewinds: To Elektra, He’s Not Just Another Ol’ Dirty Bastard

VDB Rewinds: To Elektra, He’s Not Just Another Ol’ Dirty Bastard

oldirty2.jpgBy Havelock Nelson
Billboard 02/25/95

BROOKLYN BASTARD: As it nurtures and develops Ol’ Dirty Bastard “from the ground up,” Elektra Entertainment is hoping crossover and urban radio will eventually respond to its grass-roots efforts.

The company’s marketing strategy involves taking the rugged rapper’s solo debut album, “Return To The 36 Chambers: The Dirty Version,” from the hip-hop world to the world at large. The plan for the set, which ships March 28, revolves around the artist’s association with Wu-Tang Clan.

Born Russell Jones, Ol’ Dirty Bastard is a loose part of that gold-selling Loud/RCA collective. His moniker came courtesy of his cousin (and Wu-Tang ringleader) the RZA, and functions as a convenient description of his distinctive raw and soulful vocal style.

Jones breaks his hip-hop handle down: “I’m dirty because when I step to a mike I come uncut; I speak my mind from the heart. The ol’ comes from the fact that I was influenced by the old school–everybody from Al Green and Millie Jackson to the Sugarhill Gang. And the bastard part is there because there is no father to my style.”
Continue Reading “VDB Rewinds: To Elektra, He’s Not Just Another Ol’ Dirty Bastard”