The RZA’s tracks drip sweat. They’re dusty and menacing. They get right up in your grill and and dare you to say something. His loops are often truncated in the oddest places, like two puzzle pieces that don’t quite fit together but make the illest design.
In the early ’90s, The RZA, then know as Prince Rakeem, had begun making music for his then new Staten Island (aka Shaolin) based supergroup, Wu-Tang Clan. When Enter The 36 Chambers was finally released in late ’93, the effect was seismic. The RZA’s “awkward” combination of rugged drums and off-center loops formed the foundation of a unique sound that would inspire a whole new generation of samplists, as well as set off searches for the components of those loops.