"We're off to see The RZA..."

So I just booked my tickets to see RZA...at The Duchess in York. That's right. RZA. From the Wu Tang. Playing at The Duchess. In York. I guess you could say I'm pretty psyched. To put this in context, The RZA isn't a regular Duchess booking. A regular Duchess booking would be, say, 'The ELO Experience: A Tribute To ELO' or 'Henry Priestman (Ex-Christians)'. It's that kinda place. RZA playing The Duchess is just nuts. This is a musician, a rapper, a producer, an author, a soundtrack composer, a...thinker... whose weight of influence on hip-hop culture - and by extension all pop culture - is second to none. The Wu Tang introduced a whole new vocabulary to rap music; Eastern philosophies, chess, Kung Fu movies and martial arts...they just came to the game with tons of new, interesting ideas, and The Kids & The Critics both loved 'em for it. This man produced every significant Wu Tang release, from the Clan's mind-wigging debut to solo joints like GZA's untouchable 'Liquid Swords'. He produced the soundtracks for Tarantino's Kill Bill double-feature, and Ghostdog: Way Of The Samurai, maybe my favourite movie of the Noughties, and a film totally indebted in style, tone and subject matter to the world created by RZA and the Wu Tang. He starred in Coffee & Cigarettes alongside Bill Murray. He's still putting out dope material - the recent (and strangely under-promoted) Chamber Music LP (most of which is performed live by New York soul group The Revelations) features some of this years very finest old-skool flavoured hip-hop. Few individuals have contributed more to my musical and cultural education than RZA, and I can't wait to be in the same room with him. Wu Tang Forever.

RZA's 'Tao Of Wu Tang' tour lands at the York Duchess on the 5th of October.