RZA interview: On ‘Afro Samurai’ and building the bridge between hip-hop and anime

When the 10th Crunchyroll Anime Awards took place in Tokyo last month, the guest list from around the world offered a useful measure of how far anime has travelled. The annual ceremony, organised by streaming giant Crunchyroll to honour the previous year’s best anime productions, featured presenters ranging from actors Rashmika Mandanna and Winston Duke, to K-pop stars BamBam and Ten, to even The Weeknd . Though Robert Diggs, better known as RZA — the American producer, rapper and founding architect of the legendary Wu-Tang Clan — felt like one of the most inspired invitees among them, whose relationship with Japanese animation predates anime’s arrival in the cultural mainstream by decades.