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RZA announces release date for new Wu-Tang album, also tries to sell a speaker
RnB/Hip Hop | Friday 3rd October 2014 | Bobby
Today Wu-Tang head honcho and all round shaolin master, RZA, announced November 28th as the drop date for the Clan's next full studio album. Titled, A Better Tomorrow, the album is already wetting the driest Hip Hop head with it's details - set to feature all remaining members of the original Clan (40oz pour for ODB), with long time Wu affiliate, Cappadona finally becoming an official member, the album marks Wu-Tang's 20th anniversary, already giving it reason enough to exist. There's a loose concept involved, explained by the RZA in a recent interview with Billboard, telling the story of "A guy who is going through difficulties, [who] tries to find himself, gets involved with some violence, some troubles, but then realises that its best sometimes to walk away from the past and all the bad times and maybe work on his life better, and making a better tomorrow." - see what he did there.
For such an occasion, and being no stranger to a more inventive release, RZA also detailed the manner in which A Better Tomorrow will be dropped on our anxious heads - There's set to be a limited 3,000 strong release (prior to the albums official retail release) of "The Wu-edition Boombot Rex", a music streaming device officially branded with the now legendary 'W', containing eight tracks off the album, as well as two exclusive instrumentals and an exclusive track Big Horn B, to pull the Killa Bee swarm in. With the Clan album included, the Boombot Rex also has the power to stream music from any Bluetooth device, basically making it your very own Wu-Tang speaker.
Coming somewhat from the left, RZA explains the whole set up as "a record that merges the way music was made in the classic essence, in an analog way, as well as merging what's going down the digital way." leading to intriguing ideas on the future of album releases, in a much more digitally-driven, big company-backed present. Jay-Z had his Samsung album, U2 annoyed everyone with their iTunes album, and now the Clan look set to push the trend of more accessibly courageous music with their inspired Boombot Rex. If all goes well, we could see a kick-start in the growing theme of pre-loaded albums from your favourite artists (barring U2) on multiple devices, pushing the digital consumption of music into new, Shaolin-finger-styled spheres.
