In his nearly 40-year career, RZA has proven himself time and again as a renaissance man: as a rapper, producer, songwriter, actor, filmmaker and author.
RZA Releases Classic Album: A Ballet Through Mud
On August 30, the artist born Robert Diggs added “classical composer” to his repertoire with “A Ballet Through Mud,” his first orchestral score. It’s a feat he sees as an act of pure creation, and yet one that wouldn’t have been possible without all that prior experience. After rediscovering a notebook of lyrics he’d written as a teenager, Diggs spent the Covid-19 pandemic creating a project that synthesized decades of firsthand musical knowledge with an education in orchestral composition that, while largely self-taught, was no less rigorous for its informality. The resulting ten pieces transport listeners through a musical landscape that’s alternately mournful and brooding, contemplative and playful, yet emotionally evocative in a way that’s unique to his expansive oeuvre.
Two days before the release of "A Ballet Through Mud," RZA sat down with Variety in his Woodland Hills, California studio for a lengthy chat about what initially drove the project, how it connected to his previous work and how it's already shaping what he hopes to do with his career going forward.
To what extent did you see this experience, even subconsciously, as an opportunity to try out classical melodies, approaches and styles that you had heard?
