The RZA Talks Sway & King Tech's '2010 Wake Up Show Anthem' Video
Bobby Digital says innovative new clip was shot by sending flip cams to guest MCs around the country.
It seems only fitting that a rapper named Bobby Digital would be involved in such a technologically resourceful video.
Wu-Tang Clan' s the RZA, a.k.a. Boggy Digital, is one of the MCs featured on the "2010 Wake Up Show Anthem," the follow-up to MTV News correspondent Sway and his "World Famous Wake Up Show" radio partner King Tech's groundbreaking "The Anthem." (The original Eminem-assisted track was released on the radio jocks' 1999 album This or That.) The brand-new clip debuts Sunday on MTV Jams.
The Wu founder spoke with Sway about the project, saying how amazed he was that the visual was completed via portable, flip-style video cameras.
"Technology definitely helped this video," the RZA acknowledged. "It was a case of artists being in different locations around the country, in different cities. They got these small, pocket cameras now that you can just go and film," he explained. "There's a lot of brands out there, but they got 'em. A lot of the video was shot with those types of cameras and then put together. "I remember Tech coming up to my West Coast studio and he came up like, 'Yo, you're busting a verse for the video.' I was like, 'Huh?' He just pulled out this small camera and went for it. When I saw the result, I was like, 'Yo, I gotta get me one of those cameras!' "
In addition to the RZA, Cypress Hill's B-Real, Ras Kass, Tech N9ne, Crooked I, Kam Moye and Bay Area rappers Locksmith and Tajai round out the lineup for "2010 Wake Up Show Anthem." An Internet-only edition is slated to include contributions from DJ Revolution, DJ Qbert and DJ Jazzy Jeff. The RZA participated in both the original and its sequel. Sway said he and Tech followed a tradition of selecting unique contributors to the culture — from Eminem to the RZA — to be a part of the project.
"For the 'Wake Up Show Anthem,' it's just usually people or artists that we respect, who are known spitters that innovated their own styles," Sway said. "Someone like the RZA a.k.a. Bobby Digital, there's something really distinct about when he came out early in his career as Prince Raheem and then into the Wu-Tang Clan. He's always had a distinct voice and distinct way that he spit his lyrics.
"We try to put together MCs that we feel will have a great synergy and represent something that's important to hip-hop," Sway added.
