Rating: NN
The surprising question about the new recording by the RZA as alter ego Bobby Digital is not whether the outlandish masked get-ups, goofy comic strip scenarios and uninspired rhymes will undermine his credibility as the Wu Tang overlord, but whether he’s lost his production touch.
There are bound to be lengthy discussions on hip-hop blogs about the near-simultaneous appearance of a track called You Can’t Stop Us Now on the new Nas self-titled album (see above), which employs a sample of the Whatnauts’ Message From A Black Man in much the same way as the RZA uses it on his lead single from Digi Snacks, called You Can’t Stop Me Now. It’s a strange coincidence, but what’s perhaps more problematic for the RZA than being upstaged by the higher-profile Nas is that five years ago MF Doom flipped that same Whatnauts sample for the King Geedorah joint Anti-Matter almost exactly like the RZA did.
Crazy coincidences like the bizarre Nas situation can happen, but for a producer with the RZA’s mythic status as an innovator, the public perception that he’s now resorting to petty beat-jacking because he’s tapped of original ideas could be a devastating blow to his rep.
