Why is RZA’s RZA As Bobby Digital on my best 1,000 albums ever list?
The mic is cast to the floor and shapeshifted. Heavy as the hammer of Thor you can’t lift it.
Some stats & info about RZA As Bobby Digital
- What kind of musical stylings does this album represent? East Coast Rap, Hardcore Rap, Hip Hop, Rap
- Rolling Stone’s greatest 500 albums ranking – not ranked!
- All Music’s rating – 4 out of 5 stars
- When was RZA As Bobby Digital released? 1998
- My ranking, the one you’re reading right now – #664 out of 1,000
RZA As Bobby Digital on Spotify
What does the “best 1,000 albums ever” mean and why are you doing this?
Yeah, I know it’s audacious, a little crazy (okay, maybe a lot cray cray), bordering on criminal nerdery.
But here’s what it’s NOT: a definitive list of the Greatest Albums of All-Time. This is 100% my own personal super biased, incredibly subjective review of what my top 1,000 albums are, ranked in painstaking order over the course of doing research for nearly a year, Rob from High Fidelity style. Find out more about why I embarked on a best 1,000 albums ever project.
What does RZA As Bobby Digital mean to me? What does it make me feel? Why is it exciting or compelling?
From the origins of the Wu-Tang Clan (from the slums of Shaolin), RZA has always had a wildly eclectic and highly cinematic sensibility as a hip hop producer. So it’s no surprise that RZA’s first solo album, RZA As Bobby Digital, ostensibly a movie soundtrack (The Digital Bullet, which was never released), has that same imprint.
And, further, RZA’s stepping out on his “own,” even if with the help and willing participation of a good chunk of the Wu-Tang Clan family, allows him to get just a little more experimental in putting on the guide of the Bobby Digital persona.
As legendary as RZA is as a producer, his lyrical skills also deserve all the plaudits. Enter “B.O.B.B.Y.,” a wildly weird track in which RZA and crew obviously had a tremendous among of fun messing around with crazy keyboard sounds. And lyrically, RZA is as comfortable rapping about philosophy and religion as he is burying fools who would question his rap game supremacy.
“N.Y.C. Everything” has more of a party vibe, and has the incredible feeling of being out on the New York City late night when it’s time to get fully right. There are some hilarious lyrics here, too, such as, “…stuck to your ass like a Victoria Secret wedgie.” Method Man also puts in a memorable verse here.
“My Lovin’ Is Digi” has really grown on me over time. The slower pace and repeated string sample becomes kind of hypnotic, and RZA has never sounded better as a rapper than here.
Side note: for some reason I can’t entirely explain, I enjoy every time RZA announces himself as Bobby Digital.
Pop culture stuff that has something to do with RZA As Bobby Digital
Here’s the trailer for The Digital Bullet, RZA’s unreleased Bobby Digital movie.