Pfff... RZA, he lost his way a long time ago.
Also, is the east/west thing really still relevant? I stopped listening to Hip Hop a few years ago, and I thought that was irrelevant by then.
I think RZA still has the talent, but he's stretching himself beyond his limits. He doesn't seem to understand that he's not say...Jon Brion talented. IE able to transcend genres because you can play a shit ton of instruments and read music. RZA can barely do that, and 8 Diagrams is the ultimate example of this. He needs to get back to his...chamber, at least with respect to Wu shit and stop trying to do stuff he can't do. I heard his Bobby Digital album was horrible, and I really didn't like the production on 8 Diagrams outside of a few tracks.
I wasn't referring to east/west feuds, just the different underground scenes right now. The west has a rather lively one which produces great stuff every year while IMO the east is still trying to replicate 1994 or something. They're a bunch of battle rappers who are very talented but can't really take things to the next level in terms of creating full, compelling albums. On the west there's such a variety of good shit, from battle rhyming stuff (Dilated Peoples...if you're into that type of stuff) to more conscious hip hop (Murs) to blunted out madness (Madlib and his many faces). On the east I like newer guys like Joel Ortiz but they don't strike me as the Next Coming of Nas or something, which is what everyone's trying to do imo
