![]() ![]() On the back cover he’s praying, eyes closed. The front cover is a photo of him looking straight at us, his fingers at his temples. It’s the first album where he’s dropped the Bobby Digital moniker and is going simply as RZA. On the surface, his new album, Birth of a Prince, looks like an attempt to show the world who he really is. Album DescriptionThough he’s widely acknowledged as the musical mastermind behind the Wu-Tang Clan and is currently receiving acclaim for his soundtrack to Quentin Tarentino’s film Kill Bill, as a solo artist the RZA has been less reliable but just as mysterious, hiding behind his Bobby Digital alter ego. See More Your browser does not support the audio element. While many will no doubt see this as an unfocused record, those who take it on more of a song-by-song basis will value it as a respectable addition to RZA's body of work - an addition with plenty to offer amid some weak tangents. The opening and closing thirds show RZA firing on nearly cylinder - lyrically inspired, conceptually dense, sequentially tight. ![]() The Megahertz-produced "We Pop" serves up a vicious dose of zapping funk, but one of the worst verses in the history of hip-hop ("All y'all can see is the back of my jersey/Blowin' in the wind goin' back to Jersey/Off to Brooklyn, left ya back in Jersey/I was doin' a buck-90 like a throwback jersey"), delivered by an uncredited up-and-comer(?), kills the effect. Along with an ineffective middle patch, some of the guest appearances hold the record back. 1 (beneath the CD cradle is an ad for the film, and the disc is kicked off by a reference to it), Birth of a Prince neither diminishes nor bolsters RZA's stature. Following the all-but-completely unheard The World According to RZA - an ambitious project featuring lyricists representing continents other than North America - as well as arriving almost simultaneously with his contributions to the score of Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill, Vol. By no means is it a masterpiece, and it's not even one of the best Wu-Tang solo albums - but it has enough going for it to prevent most of the followers from losing interest. ![]() Hampered by a valley that's thankfully cleaved by some considerable peaks, Birth of a Prince is instead a durable addition to the Wu-Tang legacy. RZA's first full-blown "RZA as RZA" solo album is not The Cure, the long-promised masterpiece that has gathered a great deal of mystique throughout the years. Purchase and download this album in a wide variety of formats depending on your needs. ![]()
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March 2023
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