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RZA: real good or real cheap?: a debate with da beats

© Steve Juon

From the start, let me say that I speak as a long time supporter of the Wu. Therefore, to those who are about to be offended, I urge you to consider that I say this with no malice or ill will whatsoever and that I will in the end qualify my remarks with a counterpoint.

Prince Rakeem a.k.a. the RZA has some serious problems as a producer. I noticed it the very first time I heard "Enter the Wu-Tang" (which I *still* consider to be a classic). Listen to the way the finger snaps don't sync with the beat on the cut Wu-Tang Clan Ain't Nuttin Ta F Wit. Listen to the haphazard way the sound effects samples are laid onto Bring Da Ruckus. Check out the obvious miscue at the beginning of 7th Chamber.

RZA has done far worse though. The Wu-Tang Mix of Supercat's song Scalp Dem has a part which goes completely off beat altogether and has to be restarted MID track. Sunshower, off the extender version of Wu-Tang Forever, has a splice six seconds in that for all the money in the world will make you think your CD was skipping. RZA has even shamelessly jacked his own beats -- he reused the drums from Can It All Be So Simple as the beat for Shaquille O'Neal in No Hooks.

Sometimes, you've got to sit there and wonder WHAT goes through this man's head. He is getting paid money like no man has seen since Billie Jean to do remixes for EVERYBODY let alone his own Clan and yet with all that time and money there is shit that just plain sounds sloppy or unfinished. It's as though RZA mixed it down a couple of times, hit the bone, and said "fuck it, I'm through."

I said I would qualify this with a counterpoint, and I will. Part of the reason _Enter the Wu-Tang_ is a classic album is because it IS so rugged. It sounds like the demo tape you heard of some boys from New York who got rhymes for DAYS. It sounds like the grit of true D.I.Y. And some of it is just so dirty it's beautiful -- as bad as Bring Da Ruckus is, I LUH that motherfucker. It's my heart, bad production and all. Same on Wu-Tang Ain't Nuttin Ta F Wit. It's just pure adrenalin from a lyrical and musical standpoint; so intense that it makes mistakes sound like design elements instead of lazyness.

RZA has also made some ASTOUNDING music. It may be his unconvential production techniques that create miscues and mishaps but it also

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