cosmicben's Full Review: RZA as Bobby Digital in Stereo by RZA
A concept album that's not much of a concept or an album, RZA As Bobby Digital In Stereo sounds overlong, pointless, and wacker than wack to my ears. Given that I dragged my best friend all around town looking for it and paid full price, I feel like punching Bobby in his blunt-smokin' face for making me sit through 65 minutes of this crap.
The "concept" is that RZA plays superhero Bobby Digital, whose main powers seem to be making time with hoes and smokin' weed -- RZA, however, ends up treating it like an excuse to slur his vocals, ramble incoherently about how he's gonna mess you up, and produce backing tracks that are adequate at best. Consequently, Bobby never gets a real backstory, although I'm sure it was fun posing in the superhero mask for the liner notes.
A few tracks rate multiple listens: "B.O.B.B.Y." is funny and has a brilliantly obnoxious hook; and "Lab Drunk", one of four bonus tracks featuring RZA as himself (!), is the only song to feature the dynamics that made the Clan's debut record so engaging.
The standout track is "Domestic Violence", which, once you get past the grating chorus, features a piercing, filthy rap that's part righteous rage and part clueless mysoginy -- all this before it dissolves into an all-out screamfest between Bobby and his "ho". Not to mention the brilliant U-God guest shot as a muffled voice on the other end of the phone.
It's bizarrely fascinating, and it makes you sit up and pay attention, which is more than most of these tracks do: the lyrics don't say much, the guest shots don't impress, and the backing tracks usually slip by unnoticed. There are a few other nice moments, like the weird link tracks that feature low-key grooves and seductive female voices praising Bobby in foreign languages, and the pretty "Love Jones" -- but the Abbott didn't even produce that. And the straight RZA tracks give him a chance to deliver lines that actually make sense.
But it's all way too long -- the decent tracks are buried amidst too much pointless, obnoxious garbage. It's made even more frustrating by the fact that RZA is a brilliant producer and a darn effective rapper -- when he's trying to be. Here, though, he's not -- even if this is on sale for half-price at the first store you hit, think twice before picking it up.
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