On New Years Day, RZA unveiled “Victory or Death,” a reinterpretation of Emanuel Leutze’s “Washington Crossing the Delaware.” The piece features RZA as George Washington with GZA and ODB by his side on that fateful day. There are also other hidden details that can be found in the painting. RZA collaborated with When Art Imitates Life to release the limited edition canvases and prints. From music to film to books to art, it’s useless to try and predict what new mode of artistic expression RZA will participate in. So we just figured we’d ask him. We also took the time to ask him what and who inspires him and why the rest of the clan didn’t cameo in this painting. In true RZA fashion, it was an enlightening experience…
If you could have any artist, dead or alive, paint a self portrait of you who would it be?
Michelangelo.
What inspired you to use “Washington Crossing the Delaware” as the foundation for your piece?
George Washington was the first American president. He started the American Revolution and tried to bring freedom and justice to this nation of people. He tried to bring out their philosophy and their ideas with the Declaration of Independence. Same with Wu-Tang, we were bringing out the ideas of hip-hop, the ideas of freedom of expression. At the time hip-hop was very glossy, I felt the true hip-hop emcees weren’t making it. I also felt that hip-hop wasn’t being represented even by the other [hardcore] artists, even though I got much respect for the other artists, Public Enemy, A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, all of them. But the producers that were producing hip-hop weren’t emcees, they weren’t breakdancers, they weren’t graffiti writers. They didn’t have all these hip-hop elements combined in ‘em, into one being. That’s what I am. I was a graffiti writer, a deejay, a breakdancer, as well as an emcee. I took all those elements and I became a producer, a new form of hip-hop; taking the beat machines and all that. So I see me being the same kind of pioneer as George Washington, causing a revolution in the game.
Why did you choose to only have yourself, ODB (RIP), and GZA in the painting? Is there a back-story there?
Two reasons. One: the pioneers of the Wu-Tang sound are RZA, GZA and Old Dirty. We started as teenagers, and we were the first foundation of the group, and everyone else was, in one way or another, students of ours. So we brought the three masters, the three elders together for the piece. Ask the other Wu-Tang members and they’ll tell you that RZA, GZA and Old Dirty are the teachers. Ghost said ‘I learned from the best.’ That means RZA, GZA and Old Dirty. Everybody will tell you that we are the ones who inspired them. So that’s the main reason why we said ‘let’s use them, that’ll be enough.’ We did talk about using the whole clan at one point because we thought it would make a great album cover, but Wu-Tang is so scattered in ideas and scattered in business right now, we didn’t wanna get a business jamboree going on. Even though I do have the rights to do it, I didn’t want to go through the headache of arguing over my own rights.
You’ve done just about everything. Are there any other mediums/art forms that you are looking to explore? Pottery perhaps?
Thanks for thinking that I’ve done a lot of things, but there’s a lot more for me to do. Right now my strongest aspiration is to direct movies. In the way that I was producer of the Wu-Tang Clan and produced what many consider classic albums, I want to produce and direct classic films.
Recall the last time you felt that art imitated life.
Daily. It’s a daily experience for me. Because I’m an artist, and through my art I express my life.
