Better known as: The RZA
Peak era: 1999
Greatest hit: “B.O.B.B.Y.” on Bobby Digital in Stereo
The ruling god of the Wu-Tang Clan empire was all over the place in the Nineties, presiding over a couple dozen of the most vivid characters in the hip-hop world. (Several of whom were Ol’ Dirty Bastard, a.k.a Dirt McGirt a.k.a. Big Baby Jesus.) But RZA finally went wild with his own sci-fi alter ego Bobby Digital, tripping on sex and drugs and computers. “It came from a really good bag of weed one day, right?” he told The A.V. Club. “I was in my studio. My birth name is Bobby Diggs. So at the time, creatively, I felt like I was in a digital frame. I felt like I was in high-speed, where everything was digital, in numbers, mathematics.”
What happened?: Bobby let the RZA explore the hedonistic id behind his intellectual mystique. After his divisive 1999 debut Bobby Digital in Stereo, he wore the mask for two more albums. “As Bobby Digital, I could use a character to describe some of the earlier days of my own life,” he said. “Partying, bullshitting, going crazy, chasing women, taking drugs. At the same time, I would mix in my love for comic books. It was a mixture of fiction and reality together to make a character I thought would be entertaining, and I could utilize that character to get fans into me as an MC, as a lyricist, and also following the path of my life.”