Review Summary: Now Dr. Octagon, imma let you finish, but Bobby Digital had the best goofy stupid ass persona of all time! OF ALL TIME!
I want to stop being serious with reviewing for a second. I want to, instead, write about something that pertains to what most writers do today, like for example, I want to add a lot of curse words to my review writing vocabulary. No problem, f
uck reviewing, I’m going to work at the Rolling Stone. How does this pertain at all to anything and what was the point of starting like this? This is the basic concept of Bobby Digital, and his first album Bobby Digital in Stereo, which exemplifies Wu-Tang production mastermind and arrogant smart ass RZA making an incredibly inconsistent album out of the strange ‘digital orchestra’ and rhyming that is technically proficient but completely meaningless, and somehow making it sound decent.
RZA does a lot of wrong on this album, no doubt. The production at times sounds ridiculously stupid, and feels like a kindergartener with a keyboard could make more complex and intriguing beats. Mix this with RZA’s inane gangster rhyming and off kilter flowing and you get what makes up most of the worst tracks on Bobby Digital in Stereo. “B.O.B.B.Y.” features a brain-less chorus that involves Bobby and some vocally distorted children spelling out Bobby Digital, while interludes that ‘Slow Grind’ interludes manage to just sound like a less pretentious and annoying version of the interludes that managed to ruin the newest pseudo Wu-Tang album, while “Mantis” features a messy beat whose West Coast-posturing ruins any potential that rhymes hold, and even then, there isn’t much due to Tekitha’s awkward posturing behind the microphone. Stupid b
itch.
At the same time though, this works to the advantage of the RZA. For example, his production on “Holocaust – Silkworm” is the most minimalistic thing he’s produced since Liquid Swords, and it works as a backing for Holocaust’s show stopping verse. “N.Y.C. Everything” features production that is both low budget and driving and riveting, and RZA and Method Man manage to work together well. “Domestic Violence” and “Lab Drunk” represent what could be some of RZA’s best tracks, with “Domestic Violence” sounding like RZA’s response to Em’s “Kim”, and “Lab Drunk” features more of what should be expected when RZA said he was making a digital orchestra.
Overall, Bobby Digital in Stereo is a good album, with a lot of obvious flaws that are visible to even the blindest eye. The production a lot of times sounds like RZA ran out of soul samples to weave into a beat, and just picked up whatever he could, and then picked up Swiss Beatz’s Casio keyboard and did the best he could to sound like he actually knew what he was doing, while the rhymes at their very worse sound off beat and at times just wack. But at its best, RZA manages to make old heights, with rhymes that are incredibly proficient and at times of the same smart ass status that he used to reach. Ultimately this album is pretty inaccessible, even for most Wu-Tang fans, but once you get past the original disappointment of RZA not sounding as intellectual he usually did on guest appearances before, this album is actually good. Not too good though, damn it!
