Wu-Tang Clan Mastermind RZA to Receive 2024 NAMM Innovation Award at the Prestigious TEC Awards

[Jet Set]

Wu-Tang Clan Mastermind RZA to Receive 2024 NAMM Innovation Award at the Prestigious TEC Awards
Christian Wissmuller • MMR GlobalUpfront • January 2, 2024

Revered producer and the mastermind behind the influential hip-hop collective Wu-Tang Clan, RZA (Robert Diggs) will be presented with the TEC Innovation Award at The NAMM Show’s 2024 TEC Awards on Saturday, January 27 in Anaheim, California. The award honors individuals that have set the highest standards of excellence in the creative application of recording technology.

“RZA’s formidable body of work and talent is unquestionable,” said John Mlynczak, NAMM president and CEO. “His legacy of accomplishments and lasting power on music inspires many music makers beyond hip-hop and he deserves this high recognition.”

Diggs is a trailblazer in culture and in hip-hop, having created the group’s widely imitated core sound consisting of stark, booming beats, and chilling samples heavily drawing from vintage soul records as well as kung fu movies, which set the backdrop for the crew’s gritty narratives.

The Staten Island group entered the music scene in 1993 with “Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers),” an album Rolling Stone dubbed one of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time (#27). The debut album included C.R.E.A.M.,” a track the magazine also feted in the #1 slot in its list of The 100 Best East Coast Hip-Hop Songs of All Time. Since then, the collective has sold more than 40 million albums globally.

Diggs’ renaissance career has also reached beyond recording with ventures into the world of television and films, earning him acting, directing, scoring, and producing credits on several notable projects. Diggs scored Jim Jarmusch’s “Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai” and soundtracks for “Kill Bill Volume 1” and “Kill Bill: Volume 2.” He stars in the comedy film “Problemista,” which premiered at SXSW. He is also an Executive Producer for, and directed several episodes of, the original Hulu series honoring his group called “Wu-Tang: An American Saga.”

Now in its 39th year and presented by NAMM, the TEC Awards recognizes the best in professional audio and sound production and take place as a part of The NAMM Show, the largest music trade show in the world. Finalists in Outstanding Technical Achievement across twenty-three categories can be found at tecawards.org/nominees/2024/technical. Studio Design finalists can be found at tecawards.org/nominees/2024/studio. All finalists will be celebrated at a special communal reception designed to gather the crossroads of the industry being held on the campus of the Anaheim Convention Center on the evening of Saturday, January 27.

This honor continues NAMM’s celebration of all genres of music that resonate across culture and society and follows The NAMM Show’s 2023 Hip-Hop 50 events that honored Chuck D and GrandMixer DXT. The NAMM Show will include many opportunities for live music and panels, including a performance by emerging female hip-hop artist Blimes, and sessions such as Innovate and Elevate: Exploring DJ Technology with DJ Hapa, as well as signature events such as the Parnelli Awards, She Rocks Awards, and many other industry gatherings.

Learn more about the TEC Awards at www.tecawards.org and purchase tickets by visiting https://www.eventbrite.com/e/namm-te...s-739701807017

First time hearing of TEC Awards

[Goldenchild]

Eminem getting into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame before Wu Tang is annoying. That's all I gotta say

[Kutman]

Eminem getting into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame before Wu Tang is annoying. That's all I gotta say

[ForensikZ]

The funniest intwrview of all time is rzas with katori round 8 diagrams

”what do you think about serato”

”i invented it.”

”what?”

*tells the story of the replicator.

dope interview. Itd be dope if they went into that. Rza was a true pioneer.

[Jet Set]

The funniest intwrview of all time is rzas with katori round 8 diagrams

”what do you think about serato”

”i invented it.”

”what?”

*tells the story of the replicator.

dope interview. Itd be dope if they went into that. Rza was a true pioneer.

I remember that interview. That was a wild statement. Au contraire to most hiphop wild statements, he could actually back it up. Never really did, but throughout the years the replicator has been on display at shows.

Heck, even I thought it was insane at the time. Reading into this, I seem to have forgotten RZA was doing this whole Wu-Electronics around this time. Way before Beats by Dre or any of that shit.

[Buddah_MAC]

[ForensikZ]

I remember that interview. That was a wild statement. Au contraire to most hiphop wild statements, he could actually back it up. Never really did, but throughout the years the replicator has been on display at shows.

Heck, even I thought it was insane at the time. Reading into this, I seem to have forgotten RZA was doing this whole Wu-Electronics around this time. Way before Beats by Dre or any of that shit.

Oh its all true. I know about the replivator. I was waiting for it as a kid. I wanted to buy one. Did he show it off on mtv cribs or was tjat his psa sams amp guitar amp he used for drums. (Yes its sansamp not replicator). I remember reading about it in the source and prolly seen it once in a video.

but yea. Replicator interview is the goat rza interview of all times. RZA is a god freal. Props buddah. Havent seen it in years.