THE RZA
fresh air, always good radio.
so my man, the rza, is talking about all sorts of crazy shit, like how his idea for the Wu started in a porn theater that was showing old kung fu movies. and about his spiritual journey, and how he needs to meditate every day.
but one thing he said, that i thought would be pertinent to this class, was that the reason he, and the rest of the clan, embodied eastern culture and philosophy, was because of the positive message of these old kung fu movies. rza was sayin that he didn't have many positive black role models to look up to on tv. "mostly slaves and whatnot" was i think his phrasing. so they took another culture, one that still strayed from popular culture, and chose to model themselves after the positive message of of eastern movies and the tao te jing.
and NOW, the wu theyselves are positive role models for young people. well, kind of. they've cleaned up their act for the most part, and their rhyming is off the hook. good enough for me. and NPR!
Yea, Wu is straight. i saw them in New York a few years back at the Rage against the machine festival. I agree that there wouldnt be many positive black role models in his time. And now they are posotive black role models, for the mostpart. I mean they are no church boys, but im pretty sure they arent mainlining anything in their arms. So that makes them decent people
ReplyDeleteI can't say that I know much about Wu... however, I bet RZA was promoting his new book that's ALL about how eastern philosophy has influenced him personally... It's called 'The Tao of Wu' and I actually think its the second book that he's written on this subject.
ReplyDeleteHe's totally right though, about the lack of role models available. I'm a little surprised about the statement that kung fu movies give good messages. But that's probably because I never really got into kung fu movies.
I've always been a been a big Wu-Tang Clan fan both as a group and as individual artist. Rza is of course the main producer and driving force behind it. As a solo artist Rza is genuis as he also does the scores for movies such as the Kill Bill series. For an excellent example of Rza's skill I suggest checking out Rza's first album "Bobby Digital In Stereo"
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