Metal Lungies

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Here’s two for this picture (courtesy of David Corio)…

HOLY SHIT!

Today, the RZA-Rector’s all in your sector…

Download: RZA – “A Day To God Is 1,000 Years” (off Birth Of A Prince, 2003)

When an album that is deemed to be “Coming Soon” — such as RZA’s The Cure — has seemingly shown no progress in close to a decade, it makes things like this appear as wishful thinking (though intriguing and dope nonetheless). Although some have had a hard time accepting RZA’s Bobby Digital character, especially when knowing that he’s capable of so much more, Digital Bullet presented a brief glimpse, toward the end of the album, of that capability. Birth Of A Prince presented a greater glimpse, coming across almost like a half-Bob Digi, half-RZA album. This track was my favorite from the latter “half” of that album.

Download: Wu-Tang Clan – “Tearz (After The Laughter)” (off Enter The Wu-Tang: 36 Chambers, 1993)

RZA and Ghostface always made for an underrated duo amongst the Wu’s original 9. On “I Can’t Go To Sleep” off The W, they both sounded almost teary-eyed delivering their emotional verses around a beautiful Isaac Hayes sample and hook. In what could be considered a pre-cursor to that track, the duo reflect on lives taken too soon, RZA specifically discussing his younger brother. RZA, at least to my recollection, never really discussed the events that he speaks of in this verse, but he has mentioned growing up with 10 brothers and sisters, which makes it at least more believable. No matter, RZA’s narrative is truly powerful.

Download: GZA/Genius – “4th Chamber” featuring Ghostface, Killah Priest & RZA (off Liquid Swords, 1995)

RZA’s off-beat flow in this song, and his off-beat flows in many songs to follow, may be an acquired taste to some. I credit RZA for taking the “minority” approach (at least, in comparison to his fellow MCs on the song) to his verse, especially in the way he stresses certain words (“… ebola VI-rus, amid the reign of King CY-rus, you can see the weakness of a man right through his I-ris“).

Download: Ras Kass – “The End” featuring RZA (off Rasassination, 1998)

Typically, a RZA guest verse and a RZA beat come hand-in-hand, but here, Easy Mo Bee laced the beat for the closing track on the sophomore release from one of the most underappreciated MCs ever. RZA sounds like he’s freestyling his verse, which gives it a nice feeling of novelty. Ras Kass returned the favor to RZA by appearing on the original Bobby Digital album, which came out later in the same year.