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RzaRobert Diggs (born July 5, 1969) is the record producer and a leader in the hip hop crew the Wu-Tang Clan. He is also known as Prince Rakeem, Bobby Steels, the Abbott, the Rzarector, Ruler Zig-Zag-Zig-Allah and Bobby Digital, but best known as the RZA. Early Career He got his start in the late 1980s and early 1990s as a member of the All in Together Now Crew along with future Wu-Tang members GZA and Ol' Dirty Bastard. Once this acclaimed local band dissolved, then-Prince Rakeem started going by RZA (pronounced "the rizza") and joined the Wu-Tang Clan for their debut, . The album was incredibly successful, revolutionizing hip hop; one of the major reasons was RZA's sparse, lean production that made the sound distinctive. While continuing with the Wu-Tang Clan, RZA produced many of their solo albums, for Ghostface Killah, GZA, Ol' Dirty Bastard and Method Man. He also took part in the Gravediggaz, an off-and-on rap supergroup including Frukwan of Stetsasonic and Prince Paul. Wu Tang Forever In 1998, after the second Wu-Tang Clan album Wu-Tang Forever, RZA released his first solo effort titled RZA as Bobby Digital in Stereo, an experimental concept album featuring him rapping as his alter-ego Bobby Digital, which received mixed reviews. After another Wu-Tang group album, RZA released another Bobby Digital album, 2001's Digital Bullet, and in 2003 released Birth of a Prince, his first album released as The RZA. Birth Of A Prince spawned the hit single We Pop, and featured a mix of lighthearted Bobby Digital tracks and more lyrically high-browed RZA tracks. Both Digital Bullet and Birth Of A Prince received mixed reviews from the press and fans. In 2003 he also released an album of collaborations with international rap and R&B musicians (including France's Saan Supa Crew and Germany's Xavier Naidoo) entitled The World According to RZA, which was successful in many countries, despite not being sold in the USA. Recent Work More recently he has moved into composing film scores, earning praise for his hip-hop score to Jim Jarmusch's Ghost Dog - The Way of the Samurai, and appearing for a brief cameo in the film itself. He also created and produced the original music for the Quentin Tarantino film Kill Bill. RZA also appeared alongside fellow Wu-Tang member GZA in one segment of Jarmusch's Coffee and Cigarettes opposite Bill Murray. RZA has been promising for many years to release The Cure, said to be an epic concept album containing collaborations with high-profile artists such as Stevie Wonder, to be mostly in the wordy, Five Percent Nation-influenced style of Wu-Tang tracks such as Sunshower. There appeared to be light at the end of the tunnel in mid-2004 for increasingly impatient Wu-Tang fans awaiting this release when RZA authorized the limited release of the mixtape Formula For The Cure which was intended to build anticipation for the finished article. RZA
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