Wu-Tang Clan mastermind RZA has never been one to pull up short on ambition. How else do you keep a colossally talented group of 9 MC’s together for more than three decades? So when Rolling Stone asked Bobby Digital who is on his short list to induct the group into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame later this year, you better believe his short list was long on major names.
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
“I’m doing one that’s going to be super egotistical, but probably the only person that I’m a superfan of that I never met: Barack Obama,” he said of the former president who included the Wu-adjacent Method Man and Mary J. Blige track “I’ll Be There For You/ You’re All I need” on his 2016 summer playlist. “But I always remember [Quentin] Tarantino saying he was a ‘rock & roll director.’ Tarantino is a great name. I think Leonardo DiCaprio. I’m gonna give you one more. How about LeBron James as a unique piece of culture?”
RZA wasn’t done, though. He asked the magazine if legendary agit rock bomb throwers Rage Against the Machine were in the Rock Hall — they are, they were inducted in 2023, though only guitarist Tom Morello showed up — so he said maybe that would make the most sense. “What if Rage f–kin’ inducted us?” he asked of the group who canceled what is very likely their last-ever tour in 2022 after reclusive singer Zack De la Rocha ruptured his Achilles tendon during a show early in the outing. “If they would come back out and say, ‘I want to welcome my brothers back into it.’ F–kin’ one day, do one concert to close that book. One night only. That would be crazy.”
The group, who’ve been eligible for induction since 2018, will be officially ushered into the Rock Hall later this year alongside Phil Collins, Billy Idol, Iron Maiden, Joy Division/New Order, Oasis, Sade and Luther Vandross. RZA called the honor “one of those pillars in life,” noting that his first house he ever bought was in Cleveland and he’s driven by and visited the Rock Hall “hundreds of times” in the years since.
Describing how he found out about the honor, RZA said a friend invited him and his wife to dinner on Monday night and he noticed a bottle of champagne on the table. “He pops the bottle, pulls the glasses, and then my wife told me,” he said. “My wife and I actually watched the East Coast and West Coast version of American Idol [to see the announcement Monday night]. Then I woke up [Tuesday] morning and the first thing my wife said was, ‘Good morning, Rock & Roll Hall of Famer.’ The child in me feels it.”
He also noted that he’s talked to every other member of the crew in some fashion in the days since and it’s been all love. “The thanking each other. Knowing where we came from to where we’re at and being grateful to each other,” he said. “Everybody just chimed in. ‘Thank you, brother.’ ‘I love you, brother.’ It was a lovefest.”
And while not everyone made it to the group’s recent Australian tour, RZA said he fully expects the whole Clan to be there for the big night. “I don’t see nobody taking some type of boycott,” he said. But when the magazine noted that Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band chewed up more than a half-hour when they were inducted in 2014 to notch the Hall’s longest-ever acceptance monologue, RZA promised to keep things tight.
“Some of us could talk. Some of us don’t talk,” he said of the group that also includes, GZA, Method Mad, Raekwon, Ghostface Killah, Inspectah Deck, U-God, Masta Killa, Cappadonna; original member Ol’ Dirty Bastard died in 2004 at age 35. “I talk and it’s done through the lyrics. So they’ll probably nominate one of us. We’ll probably have a conversation like, ‘Who wants to talk? Let’s regulate this.’”
The 2026 induction ceremony will take place Nov. 14 in Los Angeles, to be aired on ABC and Disney+ in December.
