RZA's much beloved character Bobby Digital returns this summer with "Digi Snacks," a brand new studio album via KOCH Records. "Digi Snacks" will be out in July of 2008.
The Bobby Digital character was introduced some ten years ago with the release of "In Stereo" and went underground seven years ago after the release of "Digital Bullet." To date, Bobby Digital releases have sold a combined 1 million units.
"This world wasn't in a digital format in 1998. Now digital is the most compelling force of commerce and entertainment," RZA explains. "So this is like a re-launch of the character." And some of the 'real life' characters that Bobby Digital tapped for "Digi Snacks" definitely lend to the mission: John Frusciante, Dhani Harrison, The Black Knights, Dexter Wiggles, Shavo Odadjian (System of a Down), Reverend William Burke, Stone Mecca and Scandinavian newcomer Thea. There's even a track produced by David Banner. He continues, "I think 'Digi Snacks' is an album with a lot of fun. This album is more of a performance album too. When you see it live, you'll get a difference experience. I'm not trying to get into the world... I'm trying to bring the world to come to us."
To celebrate the release of "Digi Snacks," RZA will embark on a National U.S. tour with the future-soul group Stone Mecca as his backing band.
RZA has produced a number of albums for the Wu Tang Clan, its affiliates, and other A-list artists that have led to sales in the millions. He has a successful movie career and has appeared in films with Bill Murray ("Coffee & Cigarettes"), Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe ("American Gangster"), Angela Bassett ("Gospel Hill"), Jude Law & Forest Whitaker ("Repossession Mambo"), and Clive Owens ("Derailed"). RZA's also created soundtracks for Quentin Tarantino's "Kill Bill" Vol. 1 & 2, "Afro Samurai" and the cult-classic "Ghostdog: The Way Of The Samurai." He's revolutionized the hip-hop world while simultaneously creating an empire upon it. And yet RZA says, "I've only just begun to enter my prime."
Described by his colleagues, admirers, and even haters alike as a "mad scientist," Robert Diggs, aka RZA, comes across more like a relentless warrior. And like any good warrior, he's on a mission... an honorable quest to infect all he comes across with a positive polarity. "You taste everything every day. You go through these different shifts of positives and negatives throughout your whole day," he explains. "I just make more of a fiction thing around it, metaphors in all different ways. That's all I'm doing. You get the Manga, you get the Martial Arts, you get the Sci-Fi, you get the Blaxploitation, but you still get your real life because I'm a real person."
Engulfed in a full-on story of revenge, betrayal, seduction, hustlin' and pimpin' slaves as souls, completed with a cast of characters that includes the return of The Raven, The Hawk, The Eagle, The Vulture, The four fouls of prey and, of course, Barbara Peppers, Bobby Digital explains, "If you follow the character, he's always talking with himself between good and evil, trying to balance himself. Sometimes when you think you're all the way at the end, you're actually at the beginning."
The Bobby Digital tour dates featuring Stone Mecca are:
1. June 10 Houston, TX - Warehouse Live
2. June 11 Austin, TX - Emo's
3. June 12 Dallas, TX - Palladium Ballroom
4. June 14 Denver, CO - Cervantes Ballroom
5. June 15 Salt Lake City, UT - Urban Lounge
6. June 17 Tucson, AZ - Rialto Theater
7. June 18 Phoenix, AZ - The Brickhouse
8. June 20 Los Angeles, CA - Henry Fonda Theater
9. June 21 San Francisco, CA - 1015
10. June 23 Portland, OR - Hawthorne Theater
11. June 24 Seattle, WA - Showbox
12. June 25 Vancouver, CAN - Richards
13. June 27 Calgary, CAN - Sled Island Festival
14. June 30 Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue
15. July 1 Chicago, IL - House of Blues
16. July 2 Pontiac, MI - Crofoot Ballroom
17. July 4 Ottawa, CAN - New Capital Hall
18. July 5 New York, NY - Webster Hall
19. July 7 Philadelphia, PA - Trocadero
20. July 8 Washington, DC - 9:30 Club
The rest of his virtual super-enigma includes WuChess.com, "a great platform for the digital world... a whole new world of myth and reality where people can come talk about chess and challenge the Wu members in our chambers," a video game, a comic book, and a film, all in development and all mostly focusing on the story of a digital superhero who "transforms into a powerful being that struggles with the good and evil inside himself by saving the lives of others."
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