Although Wu-Tang Clan‘s Rza is best known for his unique brand of Hip Hop production, it appears he’s ready branch out and work on a few other projects for the latter half of 2008. This year he will release at least two albums–Digi Snax, which will be released through Koch on June 24 and the Hip-Hop/Metal project Achozen with System of a Down bassist Shavo Odadjian. Rza gave HipHopDX some exclusive information about his upcoming projects during a recent phone call.
“I think the Achozen album is gonna come later this year,” says Rza of the project which features himself, Odadjian, Kinetic 9 of Killarmy and Reverend William Burke. “We took a few years to do that album, and I did that album as a lead [vocalist]. I did a few productions on there, but Shavo produced most of the music.”Rza says the unlikely pairing happened after he and Odadjian found they had similar interests and had overcome some of the same struggles.
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“We came together because we had a common struggle–his people and the Armenian genocide,” adds Rza. “Once I learned about his struggle, we became friends and began talking about different things in life. That allowed us to start making music together. The album is a super-conscious album. I think we’ve got a lot of good lyrics, but there’s also some witty and fun stuff on there too. That’s too early right now, though. We can’t even put that out there like that.”Achozen released their fist single, “Deuces,” on April 22 through the website Ursession.com.
Although he has appeared in several movies and also scored the 2003 film Kill Bill, Rza has hopes of moving behind the camera. After working with both Quentin Tarantino and Jim Jarmusch, “The Abbot” hopes to have his directorial debut, The Man with the Iron Fist, finished and released before the end of 2008.
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“You saw me studying with Mr. Tarantino for six years, and I want to be a movie director,” says Rza. While he refused to give any details about the film, sources tell HipHopDX that the project will be related to Kung-fu, and the script has been reworked at least twice. There have also been rumors of martial arts master Lau Kar Leung, whose credits include The 36th Chamber and Master of the Flying Guillotine, being involved in some capacity.
Finally, Chesspark.com and Rza have successfully launched Wuchess.com. The site offers memberships for competitive chess players for $48 per month. Rza‘s chess skills have been well-documented, and he still holds the title as the holder of the 2007 Hip Hop Chess Federation belt. Members of Wuchess.com tell the New York Times that hundreds of free memberships will be given to school-age children and 10 to 20 percent of the revenue generated from the site will finance academic scholarships to be awarded through the Hip Hop Chess Federation.
