RZA picks his favourite rock albums of all time
When you listen to anything that the Wu-Tang Clan has produced, you may be forgiven for thinking that rock’n’roll was the furthest thing from what they were trying to achieve. ‘C.R.E.A.M.’ screams of classic hip hop, with a pleasant piano riff, uplifting horns and a classic drum pattern which samples The Charmels’ ‘As long as I’ve got you’. If you maintained that assertion around the clan’s founder, RZA, he would promptly disagree with you. As would other influential hip hop artists.
“Hip-hop is a form of music that grabs from every genre,” he has said, “but it definitely grabs from rock’n’roll.” The Brooklyn-born rapper went as far as campaigning for the Wu-tang clan to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Speaking about the group’s breakout debut album Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) and, in particular, the opening track ‘Bring Da Ruckus’, RZA found himself creating ties that he never thought were possible, “I thought I was making hip-hop, but it has a rock’n’roll groove like a motherfucker.”
Diving deeper into the world of rock ‘n’ roll, the Wu-tang lead man would go on to make a record with Interpol’s Paul Banks in 2016, adopting the pseudonym Banks & Steelz. When promoting the project, titled Anything But Words, RZA would illuminate the former deputy editor of Q magazine, Niall Doherty, about his favourite rock ‘n’ roll albums of all time.
Starting with a record by Interpol, of course, he chose their third album, Our Love To Admire. “I chose this one because of that song ‘The Scales’,” he said. “That resonated hard with me. I love the progressions, the songwriting and the rock’n’roll sonics on this record.”
Next, singled out AM by the Arctic Monkeys, and it’s easy to see why. “I chose this for the song ‘Do I Wanna Know?’. I could play the Interpol album and this album back-to-back. It’s chunky. It’s a good measurement of rock.”
Third on the list, RZA goes a little further back in history and a whole lot heavier, picking System of a Down’s 2005 project Mezmerize. “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.”
Clutch, a rock group from Maryland also got a mention for their 2015 album Psychic Warfare. “I don’t think they ever sold more than 50,000 records. Their guitars are heavy. HE-AVY. They happened to be playing [in] LA one night, and I went home sore cos I was moshing.” Rounding out his selection with the 2009 solo effort by Red Hot Chili Peppers’ guitarist John Frusciante, The Empyrean.
As distant as rock ‘n’ roll may seem from hip hop, especially in its current iteration, Wu-Tang and RZA serve as a polite reminder that in order to spit life-changing bars, you might just need to incorporate some head-banging as well.