RZA — Digital Bullet

Sophomore jinx for RZA, which releases his second solo album again under the pseudonym Bobby Digital. It's not an album-producer, the boy actively engages himself in rapping and produces almost the entire disc, leaving a rhythm each to Tony Touch, Mathematics and True Master, while rapping features Masta Killa, Method Man, Ol' Dirty Bastard and GZA of the Wu-Tang Clan, Beretta 9 and Killa Sin of Killarmy, Prodigal Sunn of Sunz of Man, Black Knights, the affiliates Jamie Sommers, Streetlife (in "Glocko Pop", credited as "Wu-Tang Clan") and Tekitha, and finally the external guests Big Gipp, Mad Cez and Junior Reid.

RZA throws down a light oriental rhythm for the intro of the first cut, skit, then boom bap tense and skeletal, jazzy and dark, just decent background for Diggs's average hardcore delivery. Fortunately, the first help arrives soon and it's Killarmy's Beretta 9: hard rhythm that sounds curiously light, with a soul sample looped too tightly by the beatmaker, the sound becomes annoying beyond belief very soon, RZA sounds mediocre as usual, while the guest raps better. "Glocko Pop" is supposed to be the super-hyper-mega banger who saves the entire LP with all the Wu-Tang Clan: instead, there are exclusively Method Man & Masta Killa of the nine MCs that make up Voltron, Jamie Sommers offers a single line in the middle of the verses, RZA places one of his worst hooks ever, while the affiliate Streetlife offers a stanza that's better than all the ones spewed out by RZA over the course of the season and, while obviously not, it even appears to be a dissing to Bobby Digital. Although the rhythmic, simple and light jazzy boom bap of RZA is quite generic and doesn't remain in the history of the Clan, this is one of the best cuts of the edition, especially as the guy steps aside in rapping leaving room for others.

Unfortunately, Bobby returns, yes, alone, on track number four: the word "bobby" is endlessly looped in the background, recited by a girl, mediocre hardcore delivery of RZA on skeletal and simplistic hard beat created by Mathematics, with hook lame. It's easily one of the worst tracks on the CD. The Abbot hasn't finished surprising yet, also because the album has just begun. In "Brooklyn Babies", he brings up Masta Killa on the joint, who like him grew up in Brooklyn and places a, what? A ballad? Ahaahah, man. Ruler Zig-Zag-Zig Allah provides a fast-paced, skeletal and simplistic boom bap on which he delivers in a mediocre way, the beat slows down on the hook, while Masta Killa is better than him effortlessly. The record doesn't improve in "Domestic Violence Pt. 2" which, on the contrary, is an even worse choice than the previous one: Tony Touch replaces the lead producer behind the keyboards and delivers a basic, simplistic beat that is truly decadent and one of the worst on the record. The guest of the song, Big Gipp delivers with a light-hearted, yet mediocre RZA style.

"Do U" is a breath of fresh air, finally back to being competent artists on a decent beat. Intro by Bobby Steels & Johnny Blaze, then RZA keeps everything in the family, he brings his cousins GZA and Prodigal Sunn on the track: on rhythmic and skeletal jazzy boom bap with tight looped soul sample and gorgeous sax sample, RZA spits hardcore bars with raw style, Prodigal Sunn sounds energetic and demolishes the cut, closes GZA, which sounds lazy, maybe not completely inspired, but better than Diggs. By far, it's the best choice of the edition. Killarmy MC Killa Sin sadly doesn't look at his best in "Fools": jazzy noir rhythm, dark and simple, generic and skinny, functional hook and average rapping by Prince Rakeem, then Killa Sin tries to lift the track again, without succeeding. The Killarmy rapper stays for the next posse, "La Rhumba", with Beretta 9 and Method Man: a girl sings that this is the rumba, what the? Another ballad. Fantastic. True Master accredited in production. Inside, there's a RZA that is never, never, ever inspired, damn. Meth is easily the best with just presence, the others gasp, while the hook is one of the lamest things of 2001.

We are halfway through the disc and we are only halfway through a long grueling 15% climb with a gradient that continues to rise in the final: arrived at this point of no return, you could get off the bike and continue on foot but it would only take longer. "Black Widow Pt. 2": simplistic, tense, dark, skeletal and even annoying rhythm, due to a female soul sample looped too tightly and too heavily, Bobby Digital spits bars with his usual style, then Ol' Dirty Bastard comes along, crazy, but not like in the heyday, here he's pretty generic. Track number eleven follows, it should be one of Rzarector's rare solo pieces, but there's an uncredited dude's hook: tense and dystopian dark beat, almost Silenthillian, made by Bobby Digital, female soul sample in the background on the hook, the rapper never impresses, then, the track is closed by Beretta 9, uncredited.

"Break Bread" has a simplistic, basic and shoddy, very weak and poor rhythm, made by Bobby Digital, however, the annotation I entered is interesting: «Jamie Sommers kills RZA on his own ish.» In the same year, you can find this same phrase that identifies two other rappers in a famous track of "Blueprint", having said that, I didn't understand the reason for my own annotation and how this practically unknown affiliate had obscured RZA in his track. Twice. With first and third verse. I would never have understood it, if I hadn't reviewed the lyrics on Genius site and read that Ghostface Killah wrote the lyrics for her in this song. Excellent performance in any case, confident voice, fresh, dope. She saves the track and refresh the project. The record continues to skip, despite everything: "Bong Bong" (the meaning of this word has remained obscure to insiders for years) boasts the return of the guest with the most appearances on this LP, Killarmy's Beretta 9, unfortunately, he cannot save the track, here sunk by a ridiculous hook on a very weak skinny production.

Choice number fourteen is a posse with one of RZA's most beloved affiliate groups, the Black Knights: Crisis & Monk save the cut with admirable delivery, Ms. Roxy offers a couple of words in the outro, uncredited, while Bobby Digital juggles a verse delivered with a generic style and a jazzy, light, poor and cheap rhythm. A weak solo track of The Abbot follows, decent jazzy rhythm, tightly looped male soul sample, hardcore bars. Junior Reid is the host of "Righteous Way", Steelz's production doesn't improve, still jazzy, suitable for the guest's spoken and sung style: for most of the time, the piece is performed by Reid and this doesn't bother me. Tekitha, the brilliant Wu-Tang affiliate, has the delicate and impossible task of helping the supergroup founder in "Build Strong": she performs an appreciable soulful hook, but the rapper's shouted delivery clashes even with the weak lean rhythm he himself devised. "Sickness" is one of the simplest assists to realize in the history of hip-hop reviews: it's the summary of the whole project.

Released by Koch Records, the album achieved good commercial success, reaching the top 25 among pop records and in the top 10 in the rap chart. Critics welcomes the product: can't do otherwise, RZA is the Drake of the nineties — pass me the comparison, for this time — cannot be criticized at the peak. Hip-hop heads cannot be totally satisfied: from the point of view of a fan outside Wu-Tang, this record has neither good music nor good lyrics, and normally the lyrics don't interest me for most of the listening, while from the point of view of a Wu-Tang stan, this project is practically an enigma. These 18 cuts, for a total of over 71 minutes of listening, all seem to be scraps from sessions derived from different albums: half of these tracks could easily be discarded from Killarmy ("Can't Loose", "Fools", "La Rhumba", "Shady", "Bong Bong"), GZA ("Do U") and from "The W" ("Glocko Pop"), combined with some other casual and cheap original tracks.

The production made by Bobby Digital is simplistic, cheap and skeletal, far too minimal almost to the point of annoyance, with several extravagant musical traits, generic and tasteless, in a sort of failed attempt to make a dark and distorted skeletal production. Lyrically, Robert Diggs is uninspired, bland and doesn't know what to say for practically the entire time he's in front of the microphone: he knows, or probably senses, that he's not exactly the best rapper on the circuit, and decides to gather as many friends as possible to help him carry out this grueling project. He could call anyone: it's RZA in 2001! Instead, he just keeps things in the Wu-universe and this does him seriously credit: nonetheless, the other performers don't help him, and in the end, it seems to be closer to a Killa Beez record than to a record by the founder of the original group. Prodigal Sunn (Sunz of Man) and GZA record the only track that is worth listening to and, theoretically, if I wanted to be good, I would say they save the circus, while the others disappoint more or less everyone.

Beretta 9 is the main guest on the CD with four appearances (he's not credited on "Shady"), but adds little or nothing to the tracks, Killa Sin goes almost unnoticed as he should be up to par with the best MCs in the Wu-Tang, if not superior, Method Man and Masta Killa have two spots each but, as I wrote earlier, their performances seem to be scraps, neither showing anything vaguely memorable. all the others, simply adds color to this greyish soup which, unlike the rhythms that RZA offered to the rappers of the Wu-Tang Clan in the late 1980s and mid-1990s, no one wants to eat. I've repeatedly written that Cappadonna is the worst interpreter in the Wu-Tang Clan house and that sometimes U-God even made him regret releasing a couple of indecent LPs, but here RZA almost makes me change opinion. Basically, he proves to be at the level of the worst rappers in his own group, yet he's not really at that level and has shown it on several occasions.

To sum it up, it's a flop, and I don't want it to be: I see the tracklist, I see that there are good Wu-Tang MCs, good Killa Beez, and I think it must be a good album. Even if something goes wrong, how many tracks could there be on eighteen? One, four at worst? It'll still be a sufficient, more than enough, certainly enjoyable disc. But no. None of this. There's only one track, maybe two, discreet, almost good. And the rest is quite weak. Here RZA falls. If he excludes the movie soundtracks, from here, he'll never get up again.

Rating: 4.5/10.