Wu-Tang Clan rap star RZA pivots to ballet: ‘People would call it leftfield – but it’s right in my alley’
He is one of hip-hop’s most influential voices, mastermind of the groundbreaking Wu-Tang Clan collective – as well as a solo star, producer, filmmaker and actor.
Now, US rapper RZA is turning his hand to classical with a symphonic ballet.
He began working on the record during the pandemic, inspired by the discovery of an old Tommy Hilfiger book bag stuffed with notebooks he had filled over five years from the age of 14; lyrics on life and love as a teenage Robert Diggs, who grew up in the housing projects of Brownsville, in Brooklyn, New York, and later Staten Island.
There was a story to be told, he felt. The obvious thing to do would be to turn the words into rap, the music he is best known for. But it evolved into something new.
RZA (left) and members of the Wu-Tang Clan in 2001. Pic: Adam Scull/PHOTOlink /MediaPunch /IPX/AP
“I started reading through these lyrics and I’m recalling all the young love, the young exploration. The first time you had a drink or smoke. All this is written in my lyrics, like a lyrical diary… at first I thought I should rap it, right. Because I’m known as a rapper. But then I said, no, I should just write music to it.”
Starting at his piano, the project became A Ballet Through Mud, a coming-of-age story told through music that delves into the complexities of love and the bonds of friendship – very different to the music most of RZA’s fans will know him for. It was performed to a standing ovation by the Colorado Symphony Orchestra and dancers from the Alvin Ailey dance theatre school on stage in Denver 2023. Now, RZA is releasing the score as his first classical album.
“I think I’ve definitely been a guy that’s pushing the boundaries and trying to surprise people,” he says. “Definitely, you know, people would call it leftfield for me. But it’s not, it’s right in my alley.” He describes the work as a “natural creative evolution” and says he has always been “fascinated” by classical music and composers, inspired by everyone from Mozart, Beethoven and Bach to Leonard Bernstein, Duke Ellington, Sergei Prokofiev – who wrote the children’s symphony Peter And The Wolf – and Quincy Jones’s collaborations with Frank Sinatra.
“Looking at Peter And The Wolf and knowing every character, every animal in that ballet or suite had an instrument to match to it – the flute was the bird, the trombone was the wolf… I started learning then that you can take instruments and give them characters,” he says. “As a movie composer, that philosophy got reinforced.”
RZA says he hopes his orchestral score will inspire young hopeful musicians to pick up instruments. Pic: Danny Hastings
The title, A Ballet Through Mud, is symbolic of his own life. He references his formative years in Staten Island, or Shaolin, as Wu-Tang rechristened it. “The mud is considered to be foul, dirty… you know, I’m RZA, I’m from the slums of Shaolin. But yet, out of the mud grows the lotus plant, considered pure, beautiful… so hopefully, you can go through the mud and come back up a lotus.”
It tells the story of six young people with a theme of “youthful exploration”, he says. “I thought about women in the sense of how men, that we are still kind of in the cave when it comes to our emotions, we’re like cavemen.” One of the characters isn’t sure how to communicate with the girl he likes, he says. “It was from one of my lyrics… as a high school guy, I fell in love with some girl and was scared to tell her.”
His fellow Wu-Tang Clan members are yet to hear the entire score, he says. “But we did a tour last year with Nas and if you came on my bus, you had to hear some [of this] music,” he laughs. “But everybody who heard it, they said it sounds beautiful.”
Of course, RZA isn’t the first hip-hop star to embrace classical music. In July, Cypress Hill made their debut at the Royal Albert Hall in London, performing hits from their seminal album Black Sunday alongside the London Symphony Orchestra. That show happened to be inspired by an almost 30-year-old joke in The Simpsons, famous predictor of the future, but rappers B-Real and Sen Dog have long had classical influences.
Cypress Hill performed with the London Symphony Orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall earlier this year. Pic: Andy Paradise
“We started off as hip-hop artists, this is what we love to do, the roots of our existence,” said B-Real ahead of the show. “But we’ve always challenged ourselves to be out of the box and do different things.”
In recent years, ravers have also embraced the genre at classical tours by the likes of club favourites Ministry Of Sound and the Hacienda. And there has also been a metal crossover with the likes of Metallica performing releasing albums with the San Francisco Symphony – and even a Black Sabbath ballet.
RZA says there are parallels between hip-hop and classical. “If you listen to some of the Wu-Tang production you hear I bring in strings. You’ll hear some of my production has incorporated classical samples.” He cites famous examples of hip-hop sampling classical scores, such as Beethoven’s Fur Elise in Nas’s I Can.
The rapper began studying more himself when he scored his first film, Ghost Dog: The Way Of The Samurai, starring Forest Whitaker, released in 1999. He went on to score other films, including Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill. “These types of ideas have been evolving in me through my progression of work,” he says. “It’s like it’s in my blood now.”
As we speak, RZA is working in post-production on his latest project, the upcoming film One Spoon Of Chocolate, which he has directed. Across music and film, he has never wanted to tie himself down to one genre or medium of art. In September, the Wu-Tang Clan play shows in Las Vegas – extra dates added to a residency billed as “more than a concert… a tribute to their prolific careers as individuals and as the most storied group in hip-hop history”.
The most expensive album ever made
RZA pictured at A Wu-Tang Experience in New York in 2023. Pic: Charles Sykes/Invision/AP
And earlier this year, their famous unique and rarely-heard 2015 record Once Upon A Time In Shaolin, the most expensive album ever made, made headlines once again as it went on display briefly as a piece of fine art in Australia. The album exists in a sole physical CD copy, created at the time as a statement on the value of music as streaming started to take over, and comes with a legal stipulation that the owner cannot publicly release the tracks until 2103.
The record was bought at auction for $2m (£1.5m at the time) by pharmaceutical executive Martin Shkreli in 2015, but was sold again by the US government to clear debts after he was jailed for defrauding investors. Earlier this year, about 500 fans got to hear the music – complete with a reported Cher cameo – at secret listening sessions.
The Wu-Tang Clan’s RZA has composed a ballet score, A Ballet Through Mud. Pic: Danny Hastings
It has been a wild journey. “Some of its journey has taken me by surprise and I think rightfully so,” says RZA. “To me, that album has a life of its own and that’s something I wanted for it, in all reality. It was a statement that was supposed to breed conversation. You know, should music be devalued? Is there more value on it when you can’t have it? Is music really considered a serious form of art by today’s society?
“Because it was like that as I was growing up… to get up and save my coins and then get on a bus and go to a record store and get it and read it, the cover, and open it and put it on, and to hold it… so you don’t get fingerprints on it. It is something we value. And now it’s more like swipe, swipe, swipe, swipe, swipe. I always said that it was similar to an Egyptian sceptre, something that belongs in museums and art galleries. It ended up there this year and that had nothing to do with me, you know. I heard that people came from around the world, they flew in to hang out, you know. And I wasn’t even there. It’s like my son right now. He’s over in college right now, hanging out with his buddies, and I don’t know what’s going on, he’s just having his own life.”
There is a part of him that would love to still be involved in some way, he says. But that was never the point. “There’s always a piece of me on anything that I’ve created or been part of that, you know, you want it kind of for yourself – but it don’t belong to you. It’s created for the world. And whoever gets a chance to hear it and enjoy it and create their own memories with it… those memories won’t belong to me.”
For now, though, he is concentrating on his classical work. He hopes it will inspire young children to learn instruments and feel “it’s cool to grab that violin or oboe”.
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
He continues: “It’s a certain type of brain stimulation that comes from this type of music creation. Hip-hop and rock music, or just say today’s music, has been able to be created on a computer, and that’s great, that’s the power of an orchestra in your hand.” But knowing how to play an instrument, he adds, enables you to be “more elaborate, more communicative – not cookie-cutter”.
And after A Ballet Through Mud, there is more to come, he promises. “I’m not going to stop here. I’ve already started writing something for the future that I’m also fascinated with.”
You heard it here first. RZA, the hip-hop legend – now adding another string to his bow.
Entertainment
BAFTA Games Awards: Astro Bot tops leaderboard – with psychological horror close behind
Astro Bot was the big winner at this year’s BAFTA Games Awards, taking home five prizes, including the coveted best game.
The 3D platformer, which was launched to critical acclaim in September to mark PlayStation’s 30th anniversary, was nominated for eight gongs, while Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II, led with 11 nods.
But in the end, the critics – some of whom had dubbed Astro Bot a “perfect game” – were right as it dominated the awards at London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall, hosted by comedian Phil Wang for the second year running.
Astro Bot. Pic: Team Asobi
Nicolas Doucet with his five awards for Astro Bot. Pic: PA
BAFTAs for audio achievement, game design, animation, and best family game completed the set for developers Team Asobi, who designed multiple galaxies and dozens of levels for the titular Astro to journey through, retrieving spaceship parts and rescuing lost robots.
“We’re a team based in Japan, but we have over 12 nationalities. We really mix it up and get ideas from everyone,” Nicolas Doucet, president of Team Asobi, told Sky News.
“We do a lot of jokes in the game, but the joke has a different meaning depending on where you are in the world. So it’s really, really nice to go around and ask everyone ‘is that joke fine in your country?’ And then together we come to a kind of universal playfulness.”
Among the gongs for Astro Bot was the best game award. Pic: BAFTA
It’s a very different atmosphere than that generated by British psychological horror Still Wakes The Deep, which won three awards for best new intellectual property and best supporting and leading roles.
Compared to John Carpenter’s 1980 sci-fi horror The Thing but on a Scottish oil rig, the game sees players take on the role of an electrician trapped on a damaged facility while being pursued by monsters.
Still Wakes The Deep. Pic: Sumo Digital Limited
Developer The Chinese Room has been praised for using home-grown talent to voice the characters, including comedian and actress Karen Dunbar, who picked up best performer in a supporting role for voicing Finlay.
“I’ve been nominated for quite a few BAFTAs in my time in Scotland, and I’ve never won one,” said Dunbar.
“It was such a great category, so many great performances. When they shouted my name, I think I started clapping for someone else!”
Read more: See full list of winners
Still Wakes The Deep star Karen Dunbar won best performer in a supporting role. Pic: BAFTA
Meanwhile, best multiplayer game went to Helldivers II – a satirical, sci-fi shooter that sees players fight bugs, aliens and robots with the gumption and gullibility of the characters in Paul Verhoeven’s Starship Troopers.
It has gained a cult following since launching in February 2024 with so much initial interest it created server problems.
“Games for me are about connecting people and forging those bonds of friendship and the multiplayer award is exactly what it stands for,” said Johan Pilestedt, chief executive of Arrowhead Game Studios.
Helldivers II. Pic: Arrowhead/Sony
From outer space to a fictional Yorkshire town called Barnsworth. Thank Goodness You’re Here! – a cartoonish, comedy platformer – won Best British Game. Like Still Wakes The Deep, it has won praise for the authenticity of its actors and setting.
“I think it’s been a real privilege to be able to represent Barnsley on the silver screen,” said Will Todd, who is from the town and one of two game designers behind the project.
Thank Goodness You’re Here! Pic: Coal Supper/Panic Inc
Co-creator James Carbutt added: “Me and Will wrote everything in our tone of voice, quite literally. The further along development we got, the more we lent into it. I think the voices from different parts of the UK and different voices in gaming are super important, and hopefully we’re one of them.”
By the time the BAFTAs wrapped up, Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II was only handed one of the 11 BAFTAs it was nominated for, technical achievement.
Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II. Pic: Ninja Theory
But developers Ninja Theory are already adding this year’s win to a tally of five BAFTAs they were awarded for the first game in the series, which created a protagonist with psychosis by drawing on clinical neuroscience and the experiences of people living with the condition.
Blondie drummer Clem Burke has died at the age of 70
The band said Blurke had been diagnosed with cancer, and described his death as a “profound loss”.
He featured on all the Debbie Harry-fronted group’s studio albums since joining a year after their formation in 1975.
Blurke was with the band from their self-titled debut, through their 1978 classic Parallel Lines, to 2017’s Pollinator.
Drummer Burke.
Pic: Reuters
In a statement on Blondie’s Instagram, Harry and the band’s guitarist, Chris Stein, said: “It is with profound sadness that we relay news of the passing of our beloved friend and bandmate Clem Burke following a private battle with cancer.
“Clem was not just a drummer, he was the heartbeat of Blondie.
“His talent, energy, and passion for music were unmatched, and his contributions to our sound and success are immeasurable.
“Beyond his musicianship, Clem was a source of inspiration both on and off the stage. His vibrant spirit, infectious enthusiasm and rock solid work ethic touched everyone who had the privilege of knowing him.
“Clem’s influence extended far beyond Blondie, a self-proclaimed ‘rock and roll survivalist’, he played and collaborated with numerous iconic artists.”
Burke in his performance at Festival Estereo Picnic 2023.
Pic: AP
Burke featured on Iggy Pop’s 1982 album Zombie Birdhouse and also performed with Bob Dylan, The Ramones, The Who guitarist Pete Townshend and Joan Jett.
The statement went on to say Burke had left an “indelible mark on every project he was part of”.
It added: “We extend our deepest condolences to Clem’s family, friends, and fans around the world. His legacy will live on through the tremendous amount of music he created and the countless lives he touched.”
Burke, who performed on classic tracks such as Call Me, Heart Of Glass and One Way Or Another, made his final live appearance with Blondie last year.
Read more from Sky News:
King arrives in Rome for Italy tour with Queen after health concerns
Global bank chiefs hold talks over Trump tariffs crisis
Blondie performing during Glastonbury Festival in 2023.
Pic: Invision/AP
Among those paying tribute to him was Kinks guitarist Dave Davies, who said: “I feel saddened that Clem Burke was taken from us so soon.
“May he rest in peace, spectacular drumming, we were friends.”
Nancy Sinatra said: “My heart is shattered. Clem became an icon as a member of Blondie, but he was also an important part of my band, the K.A.B. I was blessed to call him my friend.
“If I ever needed him, he was there. Always. Sending healing prayers and comfort to his widow, Ellen, his family, and all who loved him.”
-
Sports2 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports1 year agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports1 year agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike
-
Business3 years agoBank of England’s extraordinary response to government policy is almost unthinkable | Ed Conway