Happy Birthday RZA!: 5 More Creative Outlets For the Wu-Tang Abbot

Categories: Lists, Pop Life

The Wu-Tang Clan is full of big personalities we know and love. And while Method Man may have had the most success away from the group, Ghostface Killah is the most fun to parody online, and Ol' Dirty Bastard is the most beloved, in terms of influence on hip hop as a whole the most important member of the group is and always will be Rza.

The man born Robert Diggs may go by many names -- Prince Rakeem, Bobby Digital, and Samuari Apocalypse to name a few -- but no matter what you call him his influence looms large. Whether it was being one of the first instances of a hip-hop group designing their own clothes or creating a style of production that Kanye West would later ride to the stratosphere, the simple truth is the man is a first ballot Hip Hop Hall of Famer if they ever decide to build one.

But he's not one to be content on just producing music. He's scored movies, done some acting, written a book, and later this year will be releasing The Man With The Iron Fists, a movie he wrote and directed.

So while he may turn 43 today, it's hard to imagine RZA slowing down any time soon. But what does a man who has done so much do next? We have a couple of suggestions.

5. Architect

When the Wu headed out west to start work on a new album, RZA took it upon himself to find the right location for the group to settle in and get to work. Dubbed the Wu Mansion, the house he chose ended up in the above clip from MTV's Cribs.

As a place to record an album it might have worked, but it doesn't look particularly Wu like. We'd like to see what kind of place the Rza would build given the means and opportunity. Would it feature a mediation garden? A kung-fu training facility? A bad-ass sound studio? Fancy toilets? There's only one way to find out.

4. Museum Curator

RZAa is a man with many influences, be they musical, literary, spiritual, or philosophical. A while back he put out the The Wu-Tang Manual to further delve in to the various things that inspired his work. That's great and certainly appreciated, but even if you sat at your computer with the book in your lap doing further research it's still only words on a page/screen.

That's why we think a Wu-Tang Museum of Art could be a fascinating prospect. Martial-arts film retrospectives, comic book art galleries, Wu-Tang concert photography -- the possibilities are pretty broad. Add in some classes with a RZA-approved curriculum and you have a place to take your kids, because as we all know Wu-Tang is for the children.

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