RZA Keeps Busy

Though he may not be in the spotlight as much as your Kanye Wests or Lil Waynes, The RZA manages to keep himself busy with a multitude of projects, many of which have little to do with hip-hop. ChartAttack recently caught up with Prince Rakeem himself to discuss such non-musical aspects of his career, such as directing his own movies and being sued by fellow Wu-Tang Clan members.

ChartAttack: Can you set the record straight about Ghostface and Raekwon "defecting" around the time 8 Diagrams was released?
RZA: Ghost and Rae both were being deluded. They were saying some stuff that was straight-up untrue. They were saying I took their money. Took your money? I gave y'all more money than I was supposed to! There's no facts to that shit. Everybody in the business side of the industry looks at me like a fool for the advances I gave the group. As a producer of the album, I'm writing 50 per cent of the music. If we get $500,000 and I make half the music, I'm liable for $250,000. I didn't do that. I let everybody else take $50,000 each. I was giving up my money.

Ghost took me to court, and we still saw each other [outside of court] and we talked, and I wanted to talk about the court case. He didn't want to talk about it. We got to court, and he got on the stand, and I couldn't believe that Ghostface stood up there and said lies. He was saying he didn't get money for this and that. I was like, "Hold on, buddy." When I was doing a deal for Wu-Tang Records, that's my deal. People came to me, I'm the executive, and they gave me some money. I still cut Ghost in for a piece of the action! Come on, man. But you have to understand how we are sometimes. It's a money thing. Sometimes business can cause confusion. My plans for future Wu-Tang shit is to never be involved with their money again. Maybe Ghost could get a million dollars to make his own album and pay me a fuckin' hundred grand to rap [laughs]. So I don't wanna do that no more.

Have you reconciled since then, or is there still some friction?
There's never no friction, though, that's the funny part. We see each other and it's all real love. That's why I felt it was stupid. I was like, "If we ain't got no problem, then what's the problem?"

GZA recently did a tour where he played his Liquid Swords album in its entirety. Do you see the entire Clan getting together for a 36 Chambers tour any time soon?
That's a great idea for hip-hop. That's good for hip-hop to take it to another level. It's definitely for the older audience. Bringing a band and doing a concept tour, that's the way to go. The thing I was telling GZA was that he needs to plan it so that he could get everybody who's on the album to get out there with you! He was doing everybody's verses, and that's cool, but schedule it so that people can come out and do their verses. That's what Wu-Tang is about. I'll come up and do a song for free.

You recently worked with Hans Zimmer for the Babylon A.D. soundtrack. What was that like for you?
The studio didn't want to hire me because it was a big movie. They wanted to hire someone they felt safe with, like Hans, but [director Mathieu] Kassovitz wanted me, so we worked together. It was cool. Hans Zimmer is a genius, and he has a whole team of people where he can come up with an idea and they can make it real. I had a team also, with Shavo [Odadjian, bassist of System Of A Down], and a lot of people came by the studio, like George Clinton.

What's the status of your project with Shavo?
We did an album called Achozen. That shit is crazy. It ain't finished yet. It's been two or three years now. Shavo, he produced the album as well. I'm the lead singer. I can't even describe it. It's the future, though. When Mathieu Kassovitz came to me for the soundtrack, I said, "I'm working on this project with Shavo. I think this is the kind of music you need for this movie." We invited him to the studio and he said, "This is the future." You're going to love it.

What about making movies? Do you see yourself working with Quentin Tarantino or Ridley Scott again?
I have a few movies on the table. I'm waiting to see how they unfold. I'm doing Afro Samurai right now, and part two comes out in December. That's going great. I'm also doing my own movie, called The Man With The Iron Fist. I'm doing it with my buddy Eli Roth. I've got the blessing from Quentin already. It's my directorial debut.

Can you tell us a bit about that? Is it a kung fu movie?
[evil laughter] I checked with Quentin, and he's my teacher, so I asked, "Am I ready to direct films?" I'm like the grasshopper. I asked him, and I felt ready, and he said, "OK, you are ready." I'm very happy about that. For me, life is unpredictable, but if this goes well, this will be the creative crest, a high point. This is something I've wanted to do for years.