RZA has stood up for podcasts’ role in hip hop culture. This comes after rappers like Lil Duval took to social media to trash podcasting in hip hop, saying, “seems like hip hop has become more about podcasting than music now”. When asked about whether or not podcasts are taking away from the music, the Wu Tang mastermind thought that hip hop has always been about more than just podcasts.
Though RZA mentioned being a fan of Joe Budden’s podcast, he mentioned not needing it to get your musical point across, saying, “Joe’s been success. He deserves that success. But at the same time, we did our New York State of Mind tour. No screaming and it all sold out. Hip hop is embedded in its culture and nothing is going to stop that”.
The podcasting medium came under fire when it was accused of being a platform to air feuds between artists rather than music. Despite the stigma, RZA has guested on podcasts of his own, featuring on spots like Essential Tremors talking about how certain songs shaped him in his early days with the Wu-Tang Clan.
When talking about the new school of hip hop, RZA also defended Afrobeat being incorporated into the genre, saying, “Afrobeat is hip hop. They’re basically doing their form of hip hop just like trap was hip hop, just like G-funk was hip hop. It’s just their rendition”. Duval has also criticized Afrobeat in the past as illegitimate, saying, “Afrobeats might be the death of hip hop as we know it”.
From RZA’s perspective, Afrobeat should have an opportunity in the spotlight as much as any other subgenre of hip hop, saying, “They deserve a chance to be heard. They deserve a chance like the rest of us to be heard around the world, inspire and feed families”.
