RZA Discusses His Role Producing 'Watch the Throne'

RZA

Dario Cantatore/Getty Images

Kanye West produced much of his full-length collaboration with Jay-Z, Watch the Throne, by himself – but he reached out to old-school vets such as Q-Tip and RZA for a few key assists. "I'm really honored to be a part of the project," RZA, who produced the grimy "New Day," tells Rolling Stone. "These two are obviously very capable in their own right, so to include me in this classic project is a testament of how much respect we share for one another."

RZA was in China on the set of The Man With the Iron Fists, the Russell Crowe-starring martial arts movie he's directing, when he heard from West last December. "Kanye asked me to send tracks while they were in Australia," says the Wu-Tang Clan master. "I just thought I would send some shit that would be rugged. I know they can find the poppy, hip-hop places, but I wanted to send them some real edgy shit. Apparently they thought they were great – Kanye said, 'Send some more of that Wu shit!'"

While RZA hasn't yet heard the completed Watch the Throne (due August 8th), his expectations are high. "In the past, when Jay-Z did Best of Both Worlds with R. Kelly, I thought it was a great album but the campaign went south because of personalities," he says. "With this project, it's the best of many worlds. These two guys have a great chemistry and a great relationship. I'm excited."

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Song Stories

“Piano Man”

Billy Joel | 1973

Billy Joel’s first hit, “Piano Man,” was – ironically – an autobiographical lament about how his first album wasn’t a hit. When Cold Spring Harbor didn’t take off, Joel briefly became a lounge pianist in Los Angeles, and this song, about that experience, expressed his frustrations and fears at the time: “And they sit at the bar and put bread in my jar/And say, ‘Man, what are you doing here?’” “It was all right,” Joel said later, about the gig. “I got free drinks and union scale, which was the first steady money I’d made in a long time.”

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