RZA Gets Philosophical, Mathematicians Cringe

The Colbert Report Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
The RZA
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Michael Moore

Wu-Tang architect RZA makes an appearance on The Colbert Report to promote the release of his book The Tao of Wu, discuss philosophy, and give a quick intro to Wu-Mathematics.

Notable Quote:
“The truth is mathematically correct, it’s never something that belongs to somebody.  One plus one is two no matter where you go.  Uno, uno still translates to the number two.  Mathematics don’t lie, so we use mathematics to express our truth more than anything.” – RZA

164 thoughts on “RZA Gets Philosophical, Mathematicians Cringe”

  1. …uh, math is math and truth is truth, and they’re related (i.e. you can express truths mathematically) but they’re not the same thing (i.e. you can’t do the reverse). No big deal though, let’s all embrace a brand-new pop-philosophy mainly to annoy our parents.

  2. when he talks about using mathmatics i belive he is refering to structure in music its all mathmatics. From the rhyme scheme to the way a song is constructed everything breaks down. But if anyone has any suggestion on sylablle counts beside the 5/8 7/6 biggie type ands want to enlighten me on say what joe budden uses that would be appreciated.

  3. RZA knows what he’s talking about, but its silly to try to analyze it too deeply, cause its RZA’s own wacky, spiritual, psuedo-eastern world view. He’s a rapper…I mean, comon’. What’s so cool about the RZA is how he takes little bits from so many diverse cultures and combines them into this unique outlook. The guy has been an original since day one. All that success and he still comes off like a real down to earth dude.

  4. benjamino is totally right, but RZA is a crazy mofo – 1 + 1 is 2??? – holy shit, my whole world changed! He doesn’t actually answer anything, just gives these vague statements. You gotta love it –
    the RZA is awesome, but he is kinda a funny dude – I mean, he poses in front of a Shaolin temple wearing a karate gi in his last book – anybody that knows anything about kung fu knows that’s a HUGE no no, but whatever, it’s the RZA so we gotta make allowances

  5. wow ya’ll are stupid. He means Maths is the only truth we have in the world. Everything else is not. Philosophy 101. Maths is “a priori” whereas everything else is “a posteriori”. Obviously theres debate whether maths is actually a priori but most people agree that it is.

  6. I don’t dig the title it is as if this the author acts as if the RZA does’nt know what he is talking about this is the same cat that was in movies, so he has understanding he is not out of touch it is you people who are out of touch the way he speaks is like poetry you have to take and break it down to gain understanding this is his way, the black way it is not ignorance or uneducation some people need to come off of their high horses

      • yes i do and you have a problem with it state ya grace don’t just give a short shit type of reply explain yourself and your gripe with what i said. What have You done to even be talked to or about idiot

        • The fact that you’ve actually admitted to believing this statement is all that’s needed to know that you have nothing of value to contribute to any sort of logical conversation.

    • wow. a lot of fools are in movies. roman polanski was in, and has made movies… anyway, im not comparing rza to rp in any way or calling rza a fool. but rza is a bugged out dude who sometimes says things that dont add up. and ibn yasir – math is NOT the ONLY truth in the world.

  7. i saw him speak at barnes and nobles the other night. i think dude is a prodigy. hella creative and gifted. but i think it’s obvious he relates a lot of what he’s studied back to the 5% Nation (Supreme Mathmatics) – much like most of the Wu material, esp the early stuff, which is full of math and 5% references, as is much NYC hiphop from that era (it’s not “brand new pop philosophy,” this is Clarence 13X from the ’60s). shit, hiphop would look a lot different if not for 5% slang and ideas.

    also, he said he was reading Freud at age 10. dude is on some shit.

Comments are closed.