Robert Fitzgerald Diggs (born July 5, 1969), better known by his stage name RZA, was born on 5 July 1969, and first became interested in making his own hip-hop music in 1979 when a friend of his introduced him to 'Rapper's Delight' by The Sugarhill Gang. In 1981, Diggs formed a rap group with his cousins Russell Jones, then known as The Specialist, and Gary Grice, then known as Allah Justice, called "Force of the Imperial Master", which they soon renamed as "All In Together Now" in 1984. Around this time Diggs formed the DMD Posse which consisted of RZA, Raekwon, Ghostface Killah, U-God, Inspectah Deck, 4th Disciple and Method Man. Diggs and Grice then signed with Jamaica Records for management purposes and Jamaica convinced Tommy Boy Records to sign Diggs as a solo artist in 1989 under the name Prince Rakeem. He released the original 'Ooh I Love You Rakeem' promotion version of his EP, but was forced to remix and rerelease the single when Tommy Boy failed to acquire the rights to the original sample. In 1992, Diggs formed a new group with his two cousins and five other childhood friends, and they named the group Wu-Tang Clan, after the 1983 kung fu film 'Shaolin And Wu Tang'. As part of the group's formation, each member chose a new nickname for themselves. Diggs chose "RZA", based on a nickname he had been given by fans of his music, "Rza Rza Rakeem", which in turn was based on a song by All in Together Now, "Pza Pza Pumpin", as well as Diggs' graffiti tag, "Razor".
Wu-Tang Clan released its first single, 'Protect Ya Neck', in December 1992, after which Masta Killa joined the group, becoming its ninth member. They released their debut album, 'Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)' in November 1993, with RZA operating as Wu-Tang Clan's de facto leader, producing the group's songs and deciding who would get placed on which tracks. As each of the group's members embarked on solo careers, RZA continued to produce nearly everything Wu-Tang released during the period 1994–1996, which included both composing and arranging the instrumental tracks as well as overseeing and directing the creative process. He released a hit single of his own, in the form of 'Wu-Wear: The Garment Renaissance', which was featured on the 'High School High' soundtrack, and was released to promote the Wu-Tang clothing brand, also called "Wu-Wear". 1997 saw the release of 'Wu-Tang Forever', the Wu-Tang Clan's highly anticipated second album, with the album for the first time seeing RZA delegating a small number of beat-making duties to other producers in the Wu-Tang camp, such as his protégés Mathematics, True Master and 4th Disciple. His first solo album was to be 'The Cure', but he considered that his actual lifestyle at the time did not match the positive, enlightened themes in his lyric books.
Instead of dropping 'The Cure', he shifted gears and created his alter-ego project, Bobby Digital, stating that "I had to put out 'Bobby Digital' instead of 'The Cure', because if I didn't do that I would've suffered two things. First, I would have revealed where I was musically too soon. Wu-Tang is the perfect medium to expose anything new because I got the most people coming together to buy it. For me to expose it for my own self, I don't think that would've been a wise thing for me to do. I might've caught more people than 'Bobby Digital' caught, but I still wouldn't catch the magnitude of what the Wu-Tang could catch. Maybe this year or next year the game may be different". In 1999, RZA moved into composing film scores, with his first work being Jim Jarmusch's 'Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai' in 1999, and which earned him some praise. By 2004 he was ready to release 'The Cure', but instead of the actual album, a fan-made mixtape titled 'The Formula For The Cure' leaked in the December, which was intended to be a prelude to the long-awaited album itself. It included classic tracks and unreleased material, but was premature as a prelude, as 'The Cure' has yet to appear some two decades later. To put fans out of their misery, here is the album that should have been released around 1999, after the palate-cleanser that was 'Bobby Digital In Stereo'.
Track listing
01 Intro (I'm Back)
02 Get Familiar
03 Martial Monks (feat. Method Man, Ol' Dirty Bastard, Raekwon and U‐God)
04 Money 1st (feat. Masta Killa)
05 Deadly Dartz (feat. Ghostface Killah, Method Man, and Street Life)
06 Never
07 Back To The Temple (feat. Masta Killa)
08 Shaolin Rooftop Talk (feat. Masta Killa)
09 Terrorist Revisited (feat. Black Knights and Killarmy)
10 U Used 2 Be
11 Who's The Champion (feat. Ghostface Killah)
12 Outro
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