RZA’s favourite rock albums of all time
RZA may be behind one of the most influential hip-hop groups of all time, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have his ear to the ground when it comes to rock music. The Brooklyn-born rapper/producer and de facto leader of Wu-Tang Clan is not only a fan of the genre, but also brought rock into his own catalog during the 2010s.
Bobby Digital joined forces with Interpol’s Paul Banks in 2016 for Anything But Words, a collaborative album under the name of Banks & Steelz. The project featured everyone from Florence Welch to Wu-Tang members Ghostface Killah, Method Man and Masta Killa, seamlessly bringing two worlds together.
As a self-proclaimed fan of rock music, RZA opened up about his five favourite rock albums ever during an interview with Q magazine in 2016. Given his collaborative work with Paul Banks, it comes as no surprise that he kicked off his list with an Interpol album: 2007’s Our Love to Admire. ”I chose this one because of that song ‘The Scale’,” he said. “That resonated hard with me. I love the progressions, the songwriting and the rock ’n’ roll sonics on this record.”
RZA went on to name Arctic Monkeys’s 2013 album AM, revealing his favourite song from the project while putting it in the same category as his Interpol pick. “I chose this for the song ‘Do I Wanna Know?'” he said. “I could play the Interpol album and this album back-to-back. It’s chunky, it’s a good measurement of rock.”
RZA then shouted out System of a Down’s Mezmerize from 2005, explaining, “The song that got me the most on this was ‘Lost in Hollywood’. It’s about a guy going to Hollywood. It sounded like they were singing about my life on that song.”
He also named Red Hot Chili Peppers member John Frusciante’s 2009 album The Empyrean, as well as Clutch’s Psychic Warfare from 2015. Speaking on the latter album, RZA said, “I don’t think they ever sold more than 50,000 records. Their guitars are heavy. HE-AVY. They happened to be playing L.A. one night and I went home sore ’cause I was moshing.”
RZA believes Wu-Tang Clan should earn recognition in the rock space by being inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, seeing elements of rock music in hip-hop.
“I think we should [get in], and I do care,” he told Rolling Stone. “It may take some time to get in there. I think it’s good for us and I think it’s good for rock and roll, because hip-hop is a form of music that grabs from every genre, but definitely grabs from rock and roll.”
He continued, “Listening to a song like ‘Bring Da Ruckus’, I thought I was making hip-hop, but shit, it has a motherfuckin’ rock and roll groove like a motherfucker. I don’t know how the fuck I did that. I go back and listen to some of The Beatles’ progressions and some of [Led] Zeppelin’s progressions and movements, like, ‘Okay, I was on some shit, though.'”