Lost & Found: Raekwon’s “Ice Cream” Sample
January 20, 2010
Further proof that RZA is a Don…Props to HipHopIsRead
Parks And Recreation Is The Wu-Tang of Comedy
January 13, 2010
Roots drummer and television scholar Questlove proves the connection between Parks and Recreation and the Wu-Tang Clan with never-seen-before audition footage. (From FunnyorDie.com)
VIDEO: Rockwilder Talks About Stealing Switches From Dr. Dre
January 11, 2010
Props to VladTV
Superstar Jay & Ashlee Ray interview Rockwilder about the changes in technology, making beats for 50 Cent and the inspiration for the “The Rockwilder Beat.” He also says some interesting things about Jay-Z’s “Do It Again” being a 3-bar beat, (a tip he got from Q-tip) and stealing Dr. Dre’s switches from the beginning of 2001 on Xzibits “Front To Back.”
“I think every beat is like a science project, and I put it together for the artist…” -Rockwilder
“Front To Back”
VIDEO: RZA In Studio With The Black Keys
October 16, 2009
Our friend Ski Beats put us on to his work with the The Black Keys a few months ago and I just found this clip of RZA jamming with them on Hip-Hop Is Read. The hype is real. Watching RZA play guitar warms my heart. Make your own samples, dammit.
Who Is The Best Producer On The Mic?
August 2, 2009
In this clip The Alchemist, a very dope producer who dabbles in the MC lane (pick up Chemical Warfare on July 7th!) gives his favorite rapping producers. Watch his list and leave a comment with your favorites!
Alchemist Top 12 Rapping Producers from Jerry Barrow on Vimeo.
CD REVIEW: GZA/GENIUS “PROTOOLS”
August 22, 2008
“All I need is a beat with a continuous loop and the live vibe that’ll hypnotize like the flute…” –GZA “Alphabets”
Hooray, GZA has a new CD out. We all know he can spit, but how do the beats sound on a CD he had the balls to call Protools? [Read more]
WHAT THE WHATNAUT?? RZA AND NAS CAN’T BE STOPPED
July 9, 2008
Déjà vu is nothing new in the world of hip-hop samples, but it’s still odd to hear them used so close to each other. On RZA’s Digi Snax his first single “You Can’t Stop Me Now” makes liberal use of a sample by The Whatnauts “Message From a Black Man.” The cut was also previously used by MF Doom and Mos Def on “Anti-Matter” and “Undeniable” respectively. But hip-hop wasn’t done with it as Salaam Remi has put his hands on it for “You Can’t Stop Us Now” from Nas’ Unititled CD dropping next week.
The Whatnauts were a trio from Baltimore made up of lead vocalist Billy Herndom, Garret Jones and Gerald Pinkney. They released two albums Introducing the Whatnaughts: (Stang 1970) and Whatnaughts on the Rocks: (Stang 1974). One of their best known songs was “I’ll Erase Your Pain” which reached number 14 on the R&B charts in 1971. According to The-breaks.com it was sampled by Kanye West for the bonus cut “Late” from Late Registration.
RZA AS BOBBY DIGITAL: NOT LIKE CRAZY
July 7, 2008
There is so much you can ask the RZA. The master producer/composer/MC has done so much in his time with hip-hop (scoring films like Ghost Dog and Kill Bill, acting in American Ganster and producing umpteen Wu-Tang classics) that it’s hard to know where to begin. But with the release of Digi Snacks the third CD from his alter-ego, Bobby Digital, it was a perfect chance to throw everything at him: Wu-Tang Drama, production techniques, The Cure, Cuban Linx 2, ODB and where the heck he found the Charmel’s record he sampled for “C.R.E.A.M.”
Behind The Scenes: RZA Video Shoot for “You Can’t Stop Me Now” & “Drama”
May 20, 2008
In preparation for the new Bobby Digital album, Digi Snacks, RZA shot two videos for “You Can’t Stop Me Now” and “Drama.” Photographers Byron Chan and Charles Bae took exclusive snap shots of the filming. A video for the trailer has also been released. Watch below.
RZA HAS A SNACK ATTACK: RETURNS AS BOBBY DIGITAL
May 2, 2008
(New York, NY) — RZA’s much beloved character Bobby Digital returns this summer with Digi Snacks, a brand new studio album via KOCH Records. Digi Snacks will be out in July of 2008.
The Bobby Digital character was introduced some ten years ago with the release of In Stereo and went under seven years ago after the release of Digital Bullet. To date, Bobby Digital releases have sold a combined 1 million units.
“This world wasn’t in a digital format in 1998. Now digital is the most compelling force of commerce and entertainment,” RZA explains. “So this is like a re-launch of the character.” And some of the ‘real life’ characters that Bobby Digital tapped for Digi Snacks definitely lend to the mission: John Frusciante, Dhani Harrison, The Black Knights, Dexter Wiggles, Shavo Odadjian (System of a Down), Reverend William Burke, Stone Mecca and Scandinavian newcomer Thea. There’s even a track produced by David Banner. He continues, “I think Digi Snacks is an album with a lot of fun. This album is more of a performance album too. When you see it live, you’ll get a difference experience. I’m not trying to get into the world…I’m trying to bring the world to come to us.”
To celebrate the release of Digi Snacks, RZA will embark on a National U.S. tour with the future-soul group, Stone Mecca, as his backing band.
RZA has produced a number of albums for the Wu Tang Clan, its affiliates, and other A list artists that have lead to sales in the millions. He has a successful movie career and as appeared in films with Bill Murray (Coffee & Cigarettes), Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe (American Gangster), Angela Bassett (Gospel Hill), Jude Law & Forest Whitaker (Repossession Mambo), Clive Owens (Derailed). RZA’s also created soundtracks for Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill Vol. 1 & 2, Afro Samurai and the cult-classic Ghostdog: The Way Of The Samurai. He’s revolutionized the hip-hop world while simultaneously creating an empire upon it. And yet RZA says, “I’ve only just begun to enter my prime.”
Described by his colleagues, admirers, and even haters alike as a “mad scientist,” Robert Diggs, aka RZA, comes across more like a relentless warrior. And like any good warrior, he’s on a mission…an honorable quest to infect all he comes across with a positive polarity. “You taste everything every day. You go through these different shifts of positives and negatives throughout your whole day,” he explains. “I just make more of a fiction thing around it, metaphors in all different ways. That’s all I’m doing. You get the Manga, you get the Martial Arts, you get the Sci-Fi, you get the Blaxploitation, but you still get your real life because I’m a real person.”
Engulfed in a full on story of revenge, betrayal, seduction, hustlin’ and pimpin’ slaves as souls, completed with a cast of characters that includes the return of The Raven, The Hawk, The Eagle, The Vulture, The four fouls of prey and, of course, Barbara Peppers, Bobby Digital explains “if you follow the character, he’s always talking with himself between good and evil, trying to balance himself. Sometimes when you think you’re all the way at the end, you’re actually at the beginning.”
The Bobby Digital tour dates featuring Stone Mecca are:
June 10-Houston, TX@Warehouse Live
June 11-Austin, TX@Emo’s
June 12-Dallas, TX@Palladium Ballroom
June 14-Denver, CO@ Cervantes Ballroom
June 15-Salt Lake City, UT@ Urban Lounge
June 17-Tucson, AZ@ Rialto Theater
June 18-Phoenix, AZ@The Brickhouse
June 20-Los Angeles, CA@Henry Fonda Theater
June 21-San Francisco, CA@1015
June 23-Portland, OR@Hawthorne Theater
June 24-Seattle, WA@Showbox
June 25-Vancouver, CAN@Richards
June 27-Calgary, CAN@Sled Island Festival
June 30-Minneapolis, MN@First Avenue
July 01-Chicago, IL@House of Blues
July 02-Pontiac, MI@Crofoot Ballroom
July 04-Ottawa, CAN@New Capital HallJ
]uly 05-New York, NY@Webster Hall
July 07-Philadelphia, PA@Trocadero
July 08-Washington, DC@9:30 Club
