RZA As Bobby Digital: Digital Bullet

Considering Wu-Tang Clan's well-documented eccentricities and flair for reinvention, it came as only a mild surprise when mastermind RZA announced in 1998 that he'd be releasing an album in character as Bobby Digital, the pot-head cyborg lead character of a film he was ostensibly making. Alas, RZA's Bobby Digital movie still awaits release—assuming it exists somewhere outside RZA's active imagination—but the producer's enthusiasm for the character remains undiminished, as witnessed by his release of a second disc revolving around the little-loved Bobby Digital persona. While the idea might initially seem as appealing as a Chris Gaines B-sides collection, RZA's impressive production skills make it hard to dismiss anything he does, no matter how unpromising it might seem. Accordingly, Digital Bullet is both every bit as self-indulgent as it sounds, and far better than it has any right to be. The first single, "La Rhumba," shamelessly but effectively co-opts the already dated trend toward Latin-flavored beats, but for the most part, RZA seems content to follow in his own familiar footsteps, with largely successful if uneven results. Opening with an agreeably cheesy mock-radio program and some of RZA's endearing homemade sound effects, Digital Bullet maintains a raw quality that hearkens back to his early production work. As on RZA As Bobby Digital In Stereo, he seems questionably committed to fleshing out Bobby Digital as a character, but his trademark pastiche of hypnotic loops, blaxploitation soundscapes, chopped-up soul screams, and haunting pianos remains surprisingly artful. Digital Bullet doesn't reinvent the Wu-Tang universe, but, like the best late-period Wu-Tang releases, it's a potent reminder of what made the group so remarkable in the first place.