Wu-Tang Clan founder RZA goes classical with new album

RZA’s hoarding habit led to his newest adventure in music: a ballet and surprisingly traditional classical album he calls “A Ballet Through Mud.”

Early in the pandemic, the 55-year-old Wu-Tang Clan founder, born Robert Diggs, was rummaging through a bag of old spiral notebooks he found in his library.

He pulled out a blue Mead notebook full of rhymes, phone numbers and movie ideas that he’d written as a teenager growing up in Staten Island.

Looking through the books, a series of storytelling raps stood out - ones that he’d deemed too “immature” to use when he started his first rap group with cousins Russell Jones and Gary Grice, who later took the names Ol’ Dirty Bastard and GZA/Genius.

He’d been studying music theory for years, and had already composed the scores to 10 films. So, noodling along on the keyboard, he began crafting melodies that matched the emotions of one of his teenage rhyme-stories about six friends, “Joe Is A Nerd.” Was it an opera, potentially?

He kept going, finding further inspiration and building out orchestration, until his wife weighed in: No vocals needed.

After watching a documentary about Alvin Ailey on a flight, he sought out dancers to visualize his imagined narrative, and eventually collaborated with the Colorado Symphony for two performances in February 2023.

RZA sat down at his office in suburban Los Angeles to speak with The Associated Press about the nostalgic genesis of the project, the growing bridge between the worlds of classical and hip-hop, and his hopes for what happens next with his composition and ballet.