Wonder if you think that The Cure was what became the Birth of a Prince.
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Wonder if you think that The Cure was what became the Birth of a Prince.
no.. but i think that thematically "Birth of a Prince" could have been like a prequel to "The Cure" with the shredding of the Bobby Digital character and embracing a more spiritual and knowledgeable perspective - the birth of Prince Rakeem
Agreed, so do you think RZA still owes the cure to us. And can you guess why he ever step off that project?
if birth of a prince was the equivalent to the cure, id be super dissapointed, not saying BOAP is wack,its a dope album in its own merit but i have way higher expectations for the cure
Haha, what a coincidence, had the same thought yesterday.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jzarecta
i don't think RZA owes us anything but the reason he stepped off the project from what i understand is that he never found himself in the right mind frame to create it in the honest way it would need to be done. he worked on it before "In Stereo" and there were songs completed, i know there was track titles thrown around back then. would be incredible to hear those joints but i don't think a "The Cure" themed album from RZA in 2017 would be something i'd care too much for. just compare "Sunshower" with the song "Sunlight" on '8 Diagrams' - an album of tracks like the former would've been a classic, an album of songs like the latter would've been torture
after that album he dropped with the interpol guy, I'm 99% sure we won't be getting anything new.
the last few tracks on BOAP always sounded like Cure material to me
That's actually correct from what I recall, the last few tracks are when Bobby gets knowledge of self and transforms into Prince Rakheem which is the persona he planned on embodying for the Cure album. The last few tracks were supposed to be a prequel of sorts, they're probably as close to the Cure as we'll ever get to hear, and that's not too bad considering A Day to God Is 1,000 Years is one of his best tracks. I thought it was a good album 13 years ago when I bought it at Tower Records the day it was released. I loved the first 2 Bobby Digitals and remember how exciting it was walking home with the CD.
The Cure with a whole album of joints like Sunshower woulda been an all time classic especially back then. But I understand why he did what he did as an artist. Regardless to anything he'll never make the album that he originally envisioned as The Cure, it's impossible. I liked Birth of A Prince but it wasn't all that. Still play it occasionally.
exactly, the whole "Birth of a Prince" album was a concept album of Bobby Digital transforming into Prince Rakeem by finding knowledge of self. as a concept album, or even as any album, it's far from perfect in its execution but it is an interesting ride to take every once in a while. RZA came up with some absolutely CRAZY beats that way overlooked for this LP, such as "The Chase" (which he kind of fucked up by wack rhyming over it but what A BEAT), "You Never Know" and "Grits". Barracuda's and True Master's joint is HEAT and then there's the inclusion of Bronze towards the end which felt kind of him being officialy knighted into the Wu-Elementz as far as I am concerned. so there's a lot of interesting stuff here both musically and lyrically but some of it also falls flat. the single "We Pop" never did shit for me, "Smoke, Drink & Fuck" felt like an auto-skip every time, and there's some tracks that's so weird in their construction that only RZA would put the samples together like that (e.g. "The Whistle").
after drug deals, living like a slob not giving a fuck about anything, and getting chased and almost pinned by the cops towards the end, Bobby meets a friend who introduces him to 5% teachings. this occurs on track #11, the skit after that song (always liked that one; good atmosphere). from there the album takes a thematic turns and becomes a lot more serious and introspective, while the mood grows more somber. Bronze contributes the amazing "A Day to God..." but i'm always suprised that "The Birth" is never being held up in the same esteem. to me it's even iller than the former. What a sample, what a beat, what a song these two guys made out of that!! And then come the final track, which represents both Robert Diggs physically being born into the world but also Prince Rakeem's spiritual birth after the death of Bobby Digital. I always loved that final song.. ODB's brother plays drums on that, and also on "Babies" from 'Iron Flag'.
After this album it was pretty weird that RZA decided to come back as Bobby Digital for his next album.. especially as that was continuing in a more analoug direction, production wise. it didn't really fit, either spiritually or thematically imo.
All in all I'd give RZA's album a 3/5.
Yeah I think he's dropped tracks that were originally intended for the cure on a few albums.Quote:
Originally Posted by Lee Towers
I think the reason he abandoned the cure is cos as he got older and wiser he realised he was nowhere near as deep or wise as he thought he was and that the whole concept was a total farce.
Weren't they produced by Bronze too? The Birth was a dope track and even the title of the album points to the Cure as the next release and the transformation to Prince Rakeem like claaa7 said. It's a shame we never got The CureQuote:
Originally Posted by Lee Towers
What exactly is wrong with sunlight??Quote:
Originally Posted by claaa7