RZA of the Wu-Tang Clan and director Quentin Tarantino, both devoted kung-fu film fans, met in 2001 at a press event and bonded instantly over cinema. The friendship led RZA to compose music for Kill Bill: Volume 1 in 2003, beginning a creative partnership rooted in their shared love of martial-arts movies.
Both RZA and Quentin Tarantino are known for their over-the-top love of Kung Fu flicks, and it was fate that led the pair to join forces on Kill Bill: Volume I in 2003.
According to a 2004 IGN article, the two first met in 2001 at a press junket for Miramax’s wide release of the film Iron Monkey where they instantly hit it off.
“Quentin and I just started talkin’ about movies and next thing I was like ‘Did you see…?’ And he’d say ‘No, but did you see…?’ And it started being like a little baseball card flip-off and we wound up promising to get each other copies of the films we’d been talkin’ about,” RZA recalled.
“The next time I was in L.A., he invited me up to check out some movies. He had a print of a rare movie and was like ‘You want to come check it out?’ I said ‘Sure, why not?’ We just became friends like that and after about 8-9 months I wound up gettin’ on the project with him.”
After Tarantino requested RZA’s input on Kill Bill’s script, the Wu-Tang rapper suggested helping with sound effect consultation and theme music selection.
RZA eventually orchestrated the film’s score and soundtrack
and spent thirty days on sets in China, Mexico, and Los Angeles.
According to a 2003 MTV article, RZA produced new music for the movie and also incorporated some of Tarantino’s song choices like Nancy Sinatra’s “Bang Bang (My
Baby Shot Me Down).”
“I really enjoyed working with him,” RZA stated. “He’s a real genius at what he does. All I had to do was add seasoning salt to it. It was already tasting delicious; I just had to sprinkle this, sprinkle that.”
RZA also shared the most difficult part of scoring the film.
“My most challenging scene was when the Crazy 88 runs in [the House of Blue Leaves],” RZA revealed. “Then it shows Gordon Liu with his mask on and the beat comes in. Everybody gets in a circle around [Uma] and they’re all getting ready to fight. It took me three days to compose that piece of music right there. I had to build it up like a band was playing it, and I had build it up with the scene. You will see the hand movements of the fighters is going with the music.”
When it was all said and done, the usually laid-back rapper couldn’t help but crack smile when he saw his name pop up on the silver screen as the credits rolled.
“I ain’t gonna front; I take that as a blessing and accomplishment,” RZA expressed. “I cheesed up last night at the afterparty. People was like, ‘I ain’t never seen you cheesing up.’ It’s a good accomplishment for hip-hop.”
Sources:
https://www.ign.com/articles/2004/04/22/rza-talks-tarantino
https://www.mtv.com/news/uxnfyt/rza-cracks-a-cheese-smile-over-kill-bill-calls-tarantino-a-genius
