- Considerably. - Okay.
[laughing] - It's--no, no, no.
No, no, as far as an official stamp, yes.
- Right, but no one has really heard that album.
Tell us why. What went down there?
- I mean, look, that was a single album,
you know, that we sold to Martin Shkreli,
and the idea was to pit the value of music
back into art form, right? - Mm-hmm.
- Because we felt music was being devalued.
Look, Martin Shkreli, of course,
has his own history that's crazy and--
but yet, nevertheless, that idea
of creating a single album,
people are saying that's the precursor
to NFT right now.
At the time, once again, nobody's done it before.
It was unprecedented.
And some of the fans was really upset
with me to be honest.
They was like, "Yo, how could you do that?"
And, you know--and I feel their pain.
You know what I mean? I felt their pain,
but my statement still remains,
which is, you know, why would we have
a pair of headphones that costs $400, $500, right?
A phone itself that's $500, $600.
And we're using it for music.
And yet we won't pay a dollar for music?
- So you don't regret it?
- No, definitely don't regret it, you know what I mean?
I strive not--look, I strive,
Lilly, not to regret whatever I do.
And I got some things that I'm not happy that I did it,
but I'm not regretting it. - [laughs]
I love that mantra.
It's a good mantra to have in life.
So aside from everything you've done with Wu-Tang,
you also compose for films, correct?
- Yeah, yeah, yeah, yes. - So how did you transition
from Wu-Tang into that?
- That was crazy, right?
Because imagine being a hip-hop producer, right?
Number one album in the country,
in the world, right?
"Wu-Tang Forever,"
sensation, right? - Mm-hmm.
- And you go to a store like Sam Ash,
and here comes a guy who looks at you
and he's mad at you
because he says you're not a real musician.
It's like, what you mean, I'm not a real musician?
I produce hits, baby.
I got Platinum, Platinum, Platinum, yo.
He's like, "Yeah, but you don't even know
what a C chord is."
I'm like, "Well, I don't."
[laughter]
And so--and so I basically
picked up a music theory book
and started studying the theory of music
and understanding the circle of fifths
and progressions and things of that nature.
And I was fortunate, during that period of time,
to meet a director named Jim Jarmusch.
And he asked me to come on board
to compose a film for him called "Ghost Dog."
And it all made logical sense.
Where I was headed to, as a musician,
was preparing me for this particular path.
And so I did the film "Ghost Dog."
It was critically acclaimed.
We sold a lot of soundtracks.
And that led on to me meeting Quentin Tarantino later on
and him telling me to come
and be the composer for his movie "Kill Bill: Vol. 1"
and "Vol. 2."
- Mm. Wow. So... - Yeah.
- Boom, boom, boom.
So you taught yourself music theory?
- Yeah, well, I had books, you know?
You know, I got to go through music school
book on jazz theory.
I had Leonard Bernstein's book on composing.
I worked under Hans Zimmer for year.
And I just took all that knowledge
and Quincy Jones as well, Isaac Hayes,
they all distilled the knowledge,
and I'm gonna say, I'm going on and on with this
because the biggest thing I try to tell
people of any craft
is that study, study, study.
- Mm-hmm. - Right?
- And after studying,
go find the other masters who's already studied
and have the experience,
and that will help elevate your craft.
- Mm-hmm, absolutely.
We've got to, of course, talk about your new film
called "Nobody." I--
It's coming out the end of this week on streamers.
I cannot wait to watch it
because every time I'm sitting at home
and I google best new movies to watch,
this movie comes up, and I can't watch it yet.
But I'm so excited. Tell everyone what is it about,
who do you play.
- I play a character named Harry,
who is the brother to Hutch, played by Bob Odenkirk.
And you've got Christopher Lloyd in the film
and Connie Nielsen.
And it's really about a family
that are trying to hide from their past.
And certain events happen
to whereas they gotta come back and face their past.
And their past is kicking ass, a'ight?
And so it's a fun film,
a lot of action.
Produced by the same producers from "John Wick."
- Mm. - So you know they always
make crazy action sequences,
and I'm telling you,
it's the two bucket of popcorn movie, yo.
- Dang. So now your character does some stunts, right?
In the film. - Yeah, definitely.
- Now, considering you're into martial arts and stuff
did you do the stunts yourself?
- Yeah, I did my own stunts,
you know what I mean? - Whoo!
- Look, now, we got a stunt man on deck also,
y'know what I mean, just in case I break my leg, a'ight?
- [laughing] - Or--nah.
Or just in case, you know, to double down
with the action.
But I was, you know, in good enough shape
to do what the stunt director put together.
And one thing that was really cool
was when he had me do this shotgun
behind my back, bust a shot,
you know, it was kind of cool. It was fun, too, you know?
- Well, RZA, thank you so much for chatting with me.
For everyone watching at home,
"Nobody" drops on streaming services
this Friday so don't miss it.
Signing out Tuff Commander.
What's good?
[laughs]
[lips trill]