DX: No.
R: That means you can wrap all the veins in your body around the Earth two-and-a-half times. So that’s what I was getting at by the mathematical, biochemical equation. But, remember, I said the preexistence of it though. [Laughs] Now the preexistence is rock, plant, air, fire and water. The elements were made first, and then those elements were put together to make the body. First the 99 elements, that’s like 99 names, those elements were here first. The sun is just two elements—hydrogen and helium. From just those two elements alone, the whole fuckin’ solar system is nourished.

In that one sentence, I was trying to give brothers a sentence that, if they deciphered that lyric, it was a lesson. I learned that lesson from mathematics as well. If they could decipher that lyric, it explains life, creation and the meaning of life in that one song. It starts from gas, because we existed as gases first, then liquid, and then sold. The first atom moved out of darkness, so I was trying to take brothers back to that in their minds. Your mind knows about all this shit.

DX: What about the part with the broke Sudanese immigrant telling stories to the kids?
R: He’s an immigrant from Sudan, and Sudan is one of the ripest places on Earth. That’s where we were captured from, and it was a beautiful land. But this man was from the new colony of Sudan, and he knows certain things about history, astronomy, Deuteronomy, and books of The Bible, but he doesn’t understand the basic principles of economy in our world. That’s what you need to understand in this world. That’s why I told him, “A wise man don’t play the rules of a fool/the first thing a man must obtain is his twelve jewels.” He obtains his knowledge first, and then his wisdom.

DX: When there’s that much in a 16-bar verse, then that probably creates the need for a Bobby Digital, which comes with the less complex stuff.
R: Yeah, that’s where I go back to having fun just rhyming. I started as an emcee, and I never wrote rhymes about sex, driving cars, imaginary stuff, life’s tales or things that happened in my life. As I started getting knowledge of self and knowledge of different things, I wrote lyrics so I would never forget what I learned. I don’t know if you heard Birth of a Prince, where I have a song called “See the Joy" [click to read].

DX: Yeah, it’s like the last song on the album, right?
R: Right. When I wrote the sperm-cell rhyme, I wrote some of those rhymes so I don’t forget. I could be in my science class, and the teacher would be teaching me a science lesson, but I’d write a rhyme out of it like, “Mitosis, meiosis,” or something.

DX: When you’re still dropping rhymes from high school, how do you find time to balance it with all the other stuff?
R: The sad part about it is that I feel like I didn’t do nothing. How about that?

DX: How so?
R: I feel like I’m not doing what I’m supposed to yet. I feel like…Okay, I come from the ghetto. We were a poor, starving family—I had 11 brothers and sisters. It was all kinds of hell, and I’m not talking about that to brag about it or anything. I had to get out of there, and I wanted my family out of there. We got out of there, and all praises are due to Allah for getting out of there. All praises due to Allah for everything, you know that. But, I got out of there from entertainment, so I feel that I’m not really being utilized properly in this world.

If I was somebody in power and I knew the RZA existed, I would call him to my aid. I would have him as one of my people to talk to, because I see he has an analytical way of thinking. If I was somebody in power, I’d be like, “Yo, let’s hire him.” Even if I was in the scientific community, or a professor at a college I would invite somebody like me to come. I have the analogies to make things make since to the common man, because I started as a common man. I was blessed to study, and I had a greed for knowledge. I engulfed that stuff, and at the same time I have an analytical mind. Maybe it’s genetic, because I can’t really trace that.

I’m grateful and gracious and I’m proud. I’m gonna keep doing what I’m doing—making movies and new music and whatever I do. They pay me to do that, yo. I need money, and I definitely need money now, because I’ve got a lot of shit I have to keep up.

DX: I think you might be underestimating the influence of quality entertainment. If you were to give it to us straight, like that “Twelve Jewelz” verse with no explanation, nobody would understand that.
R: Yeah, I guess so. I mean, I’m not taking anything away from what I did, I just feel like they’re not utilizing me properly. I’m a grown man now, and in two years I’ll be prophet age. It’s just like how the Prophet Muhammad didn’t reach prophethood until the age of 40. I’m 38 now, and in two years I’ll be a real grown man. I think that’s when true manhood starts. I’m stepping toward that. Someone is supposed to invite me in to be a part of something to help in any direction they want to go in. I’m well-studied in many subjects. Anyway, that’s a whole different conversation. Continued on page 5 »