Briggs Interviewed Wu-Tang Clan’s RZA, And It’s Even More Delightful Than You’d Expect
The two titans cover a lot of ground.
Last week, Wu-Tang Clan took over the Sydney Opera house for four nights, performing their debut album 36 Chambers. While they were in town, RZA sat down with Australian rapper Briggs to have a big ol’ chat. It’s a hip-hop nerd’s dream.
Over the 20+ minute chat, the two titans cover a lot of ground, discussing Wu-Tang’s legacy and cinematic sound, playing the Opera House, but they start off by comparing how they first got into hip-hop.
“I was handed the mic at my first block party with my cousin, GZA,” says RZA. “…I was 8 years old…I became immediately addicted… And hip-hop became my calling for my expression, for my musical talent and non-talent [as a kid].”
Briggs says he’s indebted to Wu-Tang, having grown up in the ’90s. “It was the affinity with seeing something that was black on TV,” he says.
“And seeing something so dangerous and cool; I was the perfect age for that era of Wu-Tang and Dr. Dre; to have both sides. I consider myself so fortunate to have been around that era.”
The two also talk about 36 Chambers‘ great shadow, discussing how it continues to sound so urgent and potent more than 20 years on. RZA reckons a lot of it’s in the immediacy of how it was recorded — and how that urgency is somewhat lost in 2018 productions.
“In today’s marketplace, some [of the magic’s lost],” RZA says. “A guy made the beat Monday, send it Friday, you send it back to him and send it back — it’s never a capture of time.”
“When we were recording ‘C.R.E.A.M.’, there’s only two or three guys on that song, but you’ve got six or seven guys in the studio. So Raekwon is in there kicking his verse, but everyone is in there — the energy is there — those first albums had that attendance, that pin-pressure.”
It’s a really great interview, with RZA asking a few questions to gain insight into Indigenous history, and how Briggs, as one-half of A.B. Original, uses music to shine a light on continued injustices and violence inflicted upon Indigenous Australian people.
“That’s part of the education and teaching of what I bring to my music,” Briggs says. “I’ve learnt a lot of that from the artists that I followed in my youth and I knew that the 36 Chambers of Wu-Tang was about teaching and that’s what I carry in my music.”
You can watch the full thing over on the Sydney Opera House’s website, or catch a snippet below.
Feature image by Maria Boyadgis.