Who

RZA is one of the founding members of hip-hop collective the Wu Tang Clan. These days, he pays the bills by composing scores for movies and TV shows.

Backstory

Born Robert Diggs in Brownsville to a family of 11 kids, RZA spent his childhood skipping school and hanging out in Times Square watching Kung Fu movies. He recorded his first album in the early '90s as part of the rap group All In Together Now, which he formed with two cousins, the late Ol' Dirty Bastard (Russell Jones) and Genius/GZA (Gary Grice). After recording a solo album under the moniker Prince Rakeem in 1991, RZA got back together with ODB and GZA and added another half-dozen members—including Method Man and Ghostface Killah—to form the Wu Tang Clan. Combining martial arts movie imagery and heavy sampling, the group released the influential Enter the Wu Tang (36 Chambers) in 1993, with RZA serving as the collective's quasi-general manager (or "deranged genius scientist," as one paper described him). In 1997, Wu Tang released the album Wu Tang Forever and followed up in 2001 with Iron Flag. ODB died of a drug overdose in 2004, which slowed the group's output, but in 2007 they released 8 Diagrams.

Of note

RZA has produced several solo albums, including 1998's Bobby Digital in Stereo, which he released under the alter-ego Bobby Digital. He's also composed music for films, including Jim Jarmusch's Ghost Dog (in which he also makes an appearance), Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill films, and Afro Samurai, an anime series on Spike TV starring Samuel L. Jackson. RZA's acted in a few other movies: He had tiny parts in 2005's Derailed (alongside Clive Owen and Jennifer Aniston), the straight-to-video Blood of a Champion, and the silver screen version of Miami Vice. In 2007, Wu Tang released its first studio album in six years, the lukewarmly received 8 Diagrams; masterminded by RZA, the record was released by SRC Records, Steve Rifkind's imprint.

For the record

RZA (pronounced "Rizza") comes from the word "Razor," which was his graffiti tag back in the day. If you're having trouble keeping all the pseudonyms straight, RZA's 2005 The Wu Tang Manual breaks it all down.

Legal file

In early 1999, Wu Tang's members were suspected of involvement in a gun running operation in Staten Island, although no charges were ever filed. The group has long boasted ties to the Gambino family; their actual connections to organized crime have never been substantiated. But RZA's criminal leanings did amuse conservative commentators in 2007 when it was revealed he'd donated to Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign.

Vice

RZA says that he smoked marijuana for the first time at the age of nine. A connoisseur of sorts, his cannabis of choice these days is the Humboldt County strain, in case you're interested in buying him an early birthday present.

Personal

In April 2006, RZA and his wife of six years, Eboni Mills, divorced. (Apparently Mills was miffed that the rapper had two children, Raindia and Pranda, with other women.) RZA has four children with Mills, all with very special names: Shaquasia, Melchizedek, Understanding, and Eternity. RZA lives in central New Jersey in a house dubbed the "Wu Mansion." He purchased the five-acre home in 1996.