REVIEW: RZA - BOBBY DIGITAL AND THE PIT OF SNAKES

4/5

Snakes On A Digital Plane.

Jack White isn't the only legendary artist of our generation releasing two albums this year (the rocking 'Fear Of The Dawn' and the rolling in reverie 'Entering Heaven Alive'). A month before Jack, Wu-Tang Clan head honcho The RZA released 'Saturday Afternoon Kung Fu Theater, Pt.1', in March. Chopping it up with DJ Scratch in collaboration. Now itching for more from Spring to Summer grass, Bobby Digital is back like DMX (rest peacefully) debuts on the double as the RZA 'Presents Bobby Digital And The Pit Of Snakes', the same day as White's 'Heaven'. An eight track wonder just a few seconds of shade under a half hour that won't leave you like Samuel L. Jackson screaming, "I'VE HAD IT WITH THESE MOTHERF###### SNAKES!" Instead as Bobby goes Digital again throwing up the W for his clan, but soaring in his solo career to a new stratosphere, you will just hope 2022 is a trilogy year for The Godfather of Wu. 

Storytelling is the true nature of hip-hop, all the way down to the poetic prose. But no one twists and tells you a tale quite like the Clan that's for the children. Are you sitting comfortably? Then he'll begin. Like the great Slick Rick, "heeeeere we go!" Once again. And this new adventure for your hi-fi (if anyone still has one like an ipod) is an R.E.M. dream for the legend with sleepy eyes like Tracy McGrady, but always engaged like Mac balls just as hard. 'Under The Sun' this one sounds like a Western, Gary Cooper. Although theatre of fu for the Wu still slaps and kicks your ass. Setting the scene like a rap Shakespeare, "He traveled across waters many oceans rivers and lakes/Slept in the desert amongst a pit full of snakes (sssssss)/Slap boxing with kangaroos/Running with the wolves/He ran so much with the wolves/You think his foot had hooves/Slept in a bed full of wool stuffed inside his pillow/Spent his days counting flowers and petals upon the willows," by the campfire like the '8 Diagrams' return in '07. Spinning the chambers of his six-shooter in this duel, RZA has' Trouble Shooting' with Shot of all rap names, rapping "Trapped in a web of trouble/I untangled it". Before coming back "Wrangled up my golden horse/Then I angled it." There's 'Something Going On' with Stone Mecca to the tune of, "The sky may fall and worlds may shake/I bonded friendships I'll never break/We were brothers from another mother/Now when we speak/We both seem to stutter/Have we've grown that far apart/With a stone inside our heart," he ponders and wonders with brutal beauty. But still 'We Push' like "One nation under god, indivisible/Approached with a force, that seems invisible/We drink gold nectar and make a miracle."

Graphic like the lyrics, this pit is actually based on a new graphic novel by the RZA of the same name. Coming alive when he draws his samurai sword through the videos for this visual album, scratched and scrawled to new artistic strokes. This ain't for 'Cowards' as the razor raps with Moon Diggs and Shot, "Protecting women of color I discovered/A fiendish plot of the micro dots/That has to be uncovered/The truth has been smothered/About the queens who mothered." Really representing for black women. 'Fight(ing) To Win' with Mecca again as he discography extends a catalogue bigger than Madison Square. Let alone the collective Wu one in union's that is like the rap Dylan great American hip-hop songbook. "I don't thirst nor hunger/God walks amongst us/Snakes laying by the grave/I told them freeze/I'm not afraid, I'm no longer a slave", he says like the mantra of this anthemic chorus for really one of the most important years of his career or hip-hop history with his best work. Focussed to a fine sword point and sharpened. Honed and owned all the way to the 'Live Your Own Rhythm' of the spoken statement outro that stresses, "nothing beats the sound of nature" and everything has a rhythm. Urging us to 'Celebrate Life', beat-to-beat. "Let our spirits soar like the clouds up above", because "we're not weak anymore". Amen to this positivity and strength of self. Like the amazing album artwork, get ready for Bobby Digital to be a comic-book superhero like the Black Panther. Wu-Tang forever. Timeless like those classic rap legends who felt like iconic characters of your favourite story. All the way down to the clocks ticking on Public Enemy, the Adidas on Run-DMC's feet and the ninja swordsmen the Wu-Tang Clan looked like on a chessboard, shadow boxing for the art. From the gravel comes a new pit, but make sure you cut the grass. Because here like Jay-Z quoting Nas said, "the snakes will show." TIM DAVID HARVEY. 

Playlist Picks: 'Under The Sun', 'Fight To Win (Feat. Stone Mecca)', 'Celebrate Life'.