RZA can’t be categorized. This is immediately obvious as I begin talking to him to discuss his directorial debut, The Man with the Iron Fists. To call him a rapper vastly understates the endeavors he has undertaken over the past decade, becoming not only a songwriter but also an author, a composer, an actor, a filmmaker, a director, and… a vegetarian. He is impressive as a man who seems determined to self-actualize, regardless of the conventions or norms, especially within a genre that can be as confining as hip-hop, where image is everything and there are strict rules and social mores.
RZA has possessed a socially defiant energy since early in his life. When asked about which has been more exciting, being part of hip hop as an underground movement or culture’s hottest commodity, he edges around the question, saying, “I liked being the hip-hop that I represented. I found a number of ways to express this energy—like martial arts films, expressing my brotherhood and my loyalty.” He also draws an important distinction between what hip hop was and what it has become, using what else as a metaphor? Kung fu. He explains that the language surrounding martial arts styles shifted from employing the word “fighting” to utilizing the word “playing,” as in, “you play tiger style.” “Which was kind of cool in one way,” grants RZA, “but was also misleading because these are deadly techniques.”
Regarding the deadly techniques of filmmaking, RZA learned at the hands of one of the best, Quentin Tarantino, and he admits that one might even liken the relationship to that of a kung-fu pupil and master. However, RZA quickly dispels any fodder for the rumor mill: “I mean, I didn’t bring him tea or nothin’.” RZA expresses the importance of ultimately outgrowing the guidance of the mentor and coming into one’s own. He confidently states, “I want to make more films as a director. I think I’m ready. I think I got it.” He’s not kidding. As it turns out, RZA is already slated to direct two more pictures, one will be a biopic on Genghis Khan and was written by John Milius (Apocalypse Now); the other is an action thriller entitled No Man’s Land. For the future, RZA is thinking big, tossing out A-list actors as names of guys he’d like to work with—names like Ryan Gosling and Daniel Day Lewis. “This guy’s talent is ridiculous,” RZA says of Lewis.
When I ask which of his many roles he enjoys the most or which provides the most fulfillment, RZA wastes no time: “director.” He explains, “It encompasses all of the above… artistic design, weapon design, act[ing], becom[ing] a writer.” He even says he may have one up on Robert Rodriguez, saying of the famed director, “He’s one of the most unique. He’s able to write it, compose it, direct it, and edit it, but he doesn’t act in it. I’ve got one on you! Hahaha.”
On top of these many roles, RZA has found time to incorporate a regimented dietary lifestyle into his routine by being an adamant vegetarian and healthy eater. He says, “If I wasn’t a vegetarian and a guy who likes to work out and focus, I would be fucked up.” He continues to point out that “as a director you get fat, as an actor you gotta stay skinny.” However, perhaps the most vital aspect of RZA are none of the things that we see, but the internal focus on the soul that we cannot. In parting, he humbly states, “The other element I gotta add to what I am is the way anybody should be… and that’s a good man.”
RZA’s directorial debut The Man with the Iron Fists opens today. The kung-fu picture stars Lucy Liu, Russel Crowe, and RZA. Get out there and see it.
