He is the de facto leader of one of Hip Hop’s pioneering super groups and as its entrepreneurial heart, he has turned it into a commercial dynasty, making 50 Cent’s G-Unit seem pale in comparison. With stars like Kanye West and Jus’ Blaze citing him as a heavy influence on their own production styles and his popularity and CV continually transcending the Hip Hop bubble, it seems as if Wu Tang Clan’s RZA may soon crash and burn and be forced into the early (and wealthy) retirement that us mere mortals can only dream of.

However after talking to him, there seems to be no sign of ‘The RZA’ halting his artistic growth as he celebrates over 15 years in the business. Fresh off the back of his latest project, the original musical score for feature anime series ‘Afro Samurai’, The Situation caught up with RZA to talk about his latest adventures.

You’ve been busy involved in a project called ‘Afro Samurai’. Can you tell us a bit about it?

‘Afro Samurai’ is an animated mini TV series that I composed the music for. And after composing the music and getting into character I wanted to release a soundtrack on it too. So I got a few people together and we came up with the music for a soundtrack album… ‘Afro Samurai’.

How did you get involved in the project in the first place?

Well the producers of the series were looking for someone from the musical world that they thought would fit that genre and raise the character, and they reached out to me. I had a meeting with them and they had a script and a storyboard and everything. They told me about the character and when I read what it was all about I was like, yeah, I definitely want to be involved. And they already had Samuel L. Jackson so, I mean, it made it a real interesting project for me. And being an animation fan… being one of those people, it was my pleasure to get involved in that world.

Did you feel like this project was an extension of some of the core Wu Tang themes? Music, animation, the martial arts…

Yes exactly. ‘Afro Samurai’ goes into that same thing. It definitely goes along with the whole Wu Tang movement.

What do you think you have brought to the series?

I give the mental identity of ‘Afro Samurai’. If you watch the movie you’ll see that he doesn’t talk a lot… He’s a Samurai… He’s a fighter, a thinker. So what’s going on inside his mind… what is he thinking? I wanted to be that… I’m what’s inside his mind. For example, on the soundtrack there’s a song by Q-Tip from A Tribe Called Quest called ’Who’s That Over There?’, which covers a scene when Afro is about nine years old and he makes his first killing. Q-Tip has a very unique voice so I wanted him to fulfill the representation of Afro as a child.

Then when he’s a teenager Afro Samurai is a good Samurai but he’s not the best… so I thought, who can I get to represent that? So I got Talib [Kweli], who to me is a dope MC. And finally as adult Afro Samurai I got Big Daddy Kane and GZA. Big Daddy Kane, one of the dopest emcees to touch the mic and one of the coolest dudes ever, and GZA is also one of my favourite emcees.

Did you MC on any of the soundtrack or just produce the whole thing?

I did. I did a song called ‘Take the Sword’. My lyric also reflects Afro as an adult, when he first becomes the No.2 warrior in the world and has to kill his teacher. So that’s my mentality right there… ha ha!

How long had you been working on this project?

We started this in March [2006] and finished it in November… so about nine months in all.

Having worked on the music for ‘Kill Bill’, you are no novice in producing the soundtrack for a feature. How is it different from working on your own material?

Well I think when I’m making an album for myself I can draw on things emotionally and I can use my real life experiences and imagination. When I’m composing the score for a film it’s my job to find the music that is right for a scene or a character. Sometimes I’m totally not part of it… Sometimes I think there is maybe only one cut where I feel like there is a bit of me in the music.

Did you feel that ‘Afro Samurai’ was a bit more personal than any other score you’ve worked on?

Totally. This one was personal, you know, I had total creative freedom. I could jump into any world that I wanted to and when you watch ‘Afro Samurai’ there is a scene where one of the characters does this hand signal, which was actually the director’s tribute to me… to thank me for my participation in the project and everything that I did for it.

When are you most comfortable at work? Do you ever get a creative block when the pressure is on?

You know, I work best under pressure. With Wu Tang, if I knew a record needed to be finished in 20 days, I’d start 10 days before the deadline. Raekwon’s classic (‘Only Built 4 Cuban Linx’) was created in two weeks, and most of my most acclaimed records were done in like, seven to eight days!

Now moving on to the bigger picture in your career, success stories like Kanye West and Jus’ Blaze have said that you have been a big influence on their production style. How do you feel when you hear that?

It’s the best form of respect really. I’m absolutely proud about that. I mean, my whole idea was to open people’s minds up and for somebody like Kanye who is a great success and an innovator himself to use me as a source of inspiration makes me feel like I’ve done my job properly. A lot of us who came from the ghetto… we don’t know about music theory, we don’t know how it works or have the necessary equipment to make real music. So for me to create certain techniques and it then become accepted by the world definitely makes me feel proud. I mean sometimes we would listen to live sessions by artists like Isaac Hayes and turn something that may have been a mistake or a warm up melody into Hip Hop… that was what would capture me.

What do you feel about Hip Hop right now? Do you feel much has changed since Wu Tang started out?

I don’t think Hip Hop has changed. The people representing it and that are classified as Hip Hop has changed but not Hip Hop itself. I mean, just because you are rapping over a beat it doesn’t make it Hip Hop. I mean, was MC Hammer Hip Hop?! Hip Hop is just something you feel. I mean, I was a fan of Wu Tang as well as a member. I would be in the car with our music on real loud… I didn’t care. It gave me an adrenaline, freedom. Nothing has taken control of me in that way recently. I haven’t heard anything recently that I has made me want to start a f**king revolution. We could really use that right now.

So are you planning on bringing that revolution back to Hip Hop?

We are in the middle of talks to do that right now actually… you know bringing the Wu Tang back together. I’m gonna just blow it on you right now. There is a lot of talk going on… There is a big press release at the end of month so, you know, watch out. I don’t see a better avenue right now.

For more information on ‘Afro Samurai’, please go to: www.afrosamurai.com.