Album Review: RZA Loses Focus w/ Digisnacks

Last winter, New York's seminal Wu-Tang Clan dropped the highly debated 8 Diagrams, marking the fifth and perhaps final chronicle in their kung fu Hiphop mythology. Powerhouse members of the Clan, primarily Ghostface Killah and Raekwon, met widespread criticism and poor album sales with fingers pointed at their musical director and spiritual leader, Robert Diggs, known to most simply as RZA.

Devoted Wu-Tang connoisseurs shrugged their shoulders at Digg's unworkable sonic explorations, hoping that a second coming of RZA's alter-ego, Bobby Digital, the futuristic street hustler sage, would vindicate the co-founder by proving the genius of his beatsmith experiments.

However, not only does Digi Snacks never venture into the unchartered psychedelic Hiphop territory of 8 Diagrams, it also fails to weave together the brooding cinematic coherency that typically marks RZA’s grime-soul production.

Digi Snacks fumbles endlessly for a sense of identity, jumping abruptly from introspective meditations on death in the slicing “Long Time Coming,” to the flailing club banger, “Straight up the Block,” that negotiates Digital’s slowed down clunking rhymes en français, hyper-speed Jay-Z vocals formed into the hook, and silly thug rants courtesy of David Banner.

The sonic environment parallels the schizophrenic lyrical content, steering wildly through spacey video game sound effects mismatched over crisp syncopated drums that only occasionally pull the flows back down to earth.

RZA pushes his idiosyncratic gritty-shaman style on a few singles, but the most notable joints lose their credibility when placed within the washed out context of the album as a whole. The hardest hitting joint on Digi Snacks, “You Can’t Stop me Now,” a soul powered epic devoted to the Wu-Tang legacy, made many (including myself) prematurely believe Diggs could rejuvenate the prowess of the Clan.

Featuring the ubiquitously sampled chant “No matter how hard you try / you can’t stop me now” from psych-soul group Whatnauts’ single, “Message From a Black Man,” RZA interweaves melodic chords of lingering bass plucks over crunchy percussive claps. Nonetheless, upon completion of listening to Digi Snacks, the championing flow of the song rings hollow, and might keep you second guessing whether it was just the sample that made Digital sound fresh in the first place.

We might give Diggs the credit that the personality disorder inflicted Bobby Digital reflects the ongoing internal battles that plague us in the digital age, as the album commences with a short introduction to the conflicted savior-gangster as a character “that struggles between the good and evil within himself.” But Digi Snacks glides on the boundaries of any spiritual synthesis, succeeding in providing the listener with only what the title offers, a haphazard assortment of decadent side dishes that not only feel gluttonous, but also leave the listener hungry for a fulfilling meal.

Here's the track list. The last song is ill (so, listen to tracks 2, 3, and 16)

01: Digi Snacks (feat. Understanding)
02: Long Time Coming (feat. Danny Keyz)
03: You Can't Stop Me Now (feat. Inspectah Deck)
04: Straight Up the Block (feat. David Banner, Beretta 9 & Monk)
05: Booby Trap (feat. Dexter Wiggles)
06: Try Ya Ya Ya (feat. Monk & Thea)
07: Good Night (feat. Reverend William Burke, Thea & Crisis)
08: No Regrets
09: Money Don't Own Me (feat. Monk, Christbearer & Stone Mecca)
10: Creep (feat. Black Knights, Christbearer & Thea)
11: Drama (feat. Monk & Thea)
12: Up Again (feat. Beretta 9, Reverend William Burke, George Clinton & El DeBarge)
13: Put Your Guns Down (feat. Startel)
14: Love is Digi Pt. II (feat. Beretta 9, Crisis & Thea)
15: O Day
16: Don't Be Afraid

Waste your time and download it.
Waste your money and buy it off koch records.