RZA picks his favourite RZA verses of all time
There’s no question that the RZA is a genius when it comes to music production. But, because his beatmaking is so good, the Wu-Tang Clan mastermind’s rapping skills can go somewhat overlooked.
RZA is known more for his production than his rapping, but he can definitely hold his own against any of his Wu-Tang rappers, having himself laid down some incredible verses throughout his career. But when, during an appearance on the Lex Fridman Podcast in 2021, he was asked to choose his favourites, he was initially stumped.
“Wow,” he replied to Fridman. “That’s a hard question for me.” But, with a gentle push from the interviewer, RZA gave it some thought and came up with something. “I did a song called ‘Sunshower,’” he said.
Americans may be less familiar with ‘Sunshower,’ because it was only featured on the European and Japanese releases of Wu-Tang’s second album, Wu-Tang Forever, which came out in 1997. ‘Sunshower’ was a rare instance of RZA rapping solo on a Wu-Tang track, and, from his own perspective, its words were designed to help people get through life’s challenges.
“If anybody could go get those lyrics and write those lyrics down,” he told Fridman, “you could just put that in your pocket and I’m sure that it’ll answer at least 25% of your life’s problems.”
RZA talking about ‘Sunshower’ reminded Fridman about another of his verses, which featured in the song ‘Sunlight,’ which itself formed a part of Wu-Tang’s fifth album 8 Diagrams from 2007. RZA then revealed that these two songs are explicitly connected, noting that ‘Sunlight’ was actually written as part two of ‘Sunshower.’
Fridman recited his favourite verse from ‘Sunlight,’ which is long and extremely dense. Referring to God, this particular section ends, “He’s the all and all, you searching for the oracle / A mission impossible, purely philosophical / But you call him on your death bed when you laying in the hospital.”
RZA revealed that this particular part was inspired by a real-life situation. “My wife’s best friend Rebecca, she married a scientist—they’re both scientists,” he began. “So they both come over, and [we] go through the longest debates of science and religion. We could just go to the break of day with it.”
Rebecca’s husband was not a religious person, and he proclaimed during his debates with RZA that he didn’t believe in God. But, after he had become a father, RZA challenged him on this point. “After a child, he still kept his thing,” he explained to Fridman, “but I just hit him with the question, ‘If you was about to die, because now you got a child, when you’re thinking about yourself… you don’t think you’re going to make that call?’”
He was asking if he would be more open to the prospect of God, in light of the arrival of his child. According to RZA, he replied, “I’ll make that call.”
This response is where that section that Fridman liked so much had come from. “It kind of inspired my lyric,” RZA explained. “That is one of my favorite lyrics.”