Album: Digi Snacks
Release Date: June 24, 2008
Producers: RZA, David Banner, Che Vicious, King Tech, et al.
Review: It's no secret that I'm not too excited by RZA's alter-ego Bobby Digital. RZA is one of the best music producers on the planet and his lyrics (while rapping as RZA) are fascinating and brilliant trips through biology, metaphysics, religion, philosophy and New York life on the streets. When he puts out an album as Bobby Digital, he spends time sleeping with as many women as possible and doing as many drugs as he can to put himself in the hedonistic perspective that Bobby lives. The beats often lose their luster and RZA rhymes as dirty as Ghostface or Ol' Dirty Bastard do in their own most sex-obsessed songs. I always feel like he isn't living to the full potential that The Abbott of the Wu-Tang Clan has to offer. But let's go through it as thoroughly as possible.
"Digi Snacks Intro" has some thick, murky Wu-style drum loops and "Long Time Coming" has a cleaner and more electronic-focused sound but is an enjoyable track overall. RZA saves Bobby's usual obsessions with blunts and honeys for elsewhere on the album, focusing here on the devil's tricks and other contemplations on how to live, spoken over a dark piano loop to lend emotional weight to the song. "You Can't Stop Me Now" follows, with quiet blaxploitation funk (curious electric bass and wah-wah guitar) and an appearance by Inspectah Deck. All in all, the first three tracks are a great start to the album. The lyrics are nothing to scoff at either; RZA talks about the how and why of starting Wu-Tang in 1993 on "You Can't Stop Me Now" after busting solid lyrics on "Long Time Coming" like "The great mind surpass space and time / Seven planes of energy interlace, combine / Five conscious stages, stand up courageous / Change your polarity and seek mental clarity."
Which makes it so frustrating when the senseless tune "Straight Up the Block" comes after "You Can't Stop Me Now." David Banner's spastic hi-hat over slow crunk beat belongs on some third-tier flavor of the week rap, not even in the same state as the Wu. RZA's lyrics don't save it here either: "Who got the biggest dick? / Who got the fattest whip? / Who got the baddest bitch? / Who got the fullest clip?"
Next, Dexter Wiggles does the hook for "Booby Trap," faring better than he did on 8 Diagrams' "Unpredictable." RZA is also on his game here, recovering from the previous track with a murky beat and sci-fi reference lines like "I lounge like a hungry jaguar into agua / Trying to catch a fish that multiplies like the Mogwai / Pocket fat be Jabba the Hutt, Clan gallops up / Feel The Force of my steel but you can't count the caliber."
Unfortunately, several more weak tracks follow. The Che Vicious-produced "Try Ya Ya Ya" doesn't do anything for the album, and "Good Night" is a forgettable song with some shitty lyrics about getting laid - RZA promises "In your Atlantic abyss, I'm gonna sink my Titanic" and guest Crisis talks about a girl's ass "that make you cum fast like Porches." Really?
There's a small bounce-back on "Money Don't Own Me" with a modest and resonating sung hook by Tru James and passable lyrics from RZA, Monk and Christ Bearer (recently made infamous for cutting off his own penis before trying to commit suicide). It offers a mysterious beat that never wears out its welcome, with strummed guitar and a curious bassline. Not the best track on the whole record, but definitely enjoyable.
I hate to say there's little good to say about the second half of the album. The brightest point is that Thea Van Seijen appears throughout the album to varying degrees of success. She showcases her voice brilliantly on "Drama," over minimal drums and a descending progression of piano chords. RZA and Monk rap about poverty and the ghetto, but Thea is the real star here.
But after that (track 11 out of 16), it's mostly downhill. "Up Again" sounds like it would've (or should've) ended up on the cutting room floor; "Put Your Guns Down" is produced by The Bad Parts and they earn their name and then some with piqued lyrics, an awkward hook, muffled music and a forgettable beat. "Love is Digi Pt. II" lacks energy and the vocals show it. RZA's despondent, slow piano is kinda cool but overall the track needs some oomph somewhere and never finds it, especially with lackluster rhymes like "Park the whip, then dismount it / 40 ounce? Yeah, I down 'em / Shorties drowns in pools of love / With these ounces I be loungin'" and "Purple kush buy the bush / Dick is curved like Nike Swoosh / Push push in this bush / Guaranteed to make her shush." It was actually hard for me to keep going through "O Day" and the hidden track "Don't Be Afraid," but I did solely for the sake of completing the album for review. And no, they don't fix the wanting second half of Digi Snacks.
On the whole, it's sub-par at best. There are some standout tracks on the first half, but the second half crashes and burns in what sound like demos, leftovers and silliness. I opened this review talking about other Bobby Digital albums and I'm sorry to say there are only about as many decent songs as on Bobby Digital in Stereo. Maybe if you took the best tracks from that album and the best ones from here, it would be a pretty good ten-song 40-minute record and you could forget the remaining 25 or so tracks that span the rest of them.
Legacy: It's been nearly seven years since Digi Snacks and RZA hasn't put out another solo album. He still produces great records and comes up with very solid lyrics for Wu-Tang albums, but where the Hell is that solo record that fulfills the promise made by tracks like "Samurai Showdown" from Ghost Dog and "Sunlight" from 8 Diagrams? It's a shame to say Digi Snacks couldn't come at a worse time - 8 Diagrams received mixed reviews as did the next several steps on the Map of Shaolin. In terms of what's coming up, I've heard plenty of shade thrown at GZA's Pro Tools (although I'll share my thoughts on it next week), and Method and Red's Blackout 2 is a very hit-or-miss record. The Wu compilation Wu-Tang Chamber Music that released just a month after Blackout 2 also caught some flak for, some argue, marketing itself as a Wu-Tang record when it's more a showcase of The Revelations and Wu-related artists. All said and done, Digi Snacks comes six releases (and a full 15 months) before the next inarguable smash hit in the Wu oeuvre, Raekwon's Only Built 4 Cuban Linx Pt. 2.
Recommended Tracks: Long Time Coming, You Can't Stop Me Now, Booby Trap, Money Don't Own Me.
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