Q&A: RZA on the nostalgic origins of his first classical album, ‘A Ballet Through Mud’

LOS ANGELES (AP) — RZA’s hoarding habit led to his newest adventure in music: a ballet and surprisingly traditional classical music album he calls “A Ballet Through Mud.” Early in the pandemic, the 55-year-old Wu-Tang Clan founder was rummaging through a bag of old spiral notebooks he found in his library. He pulled out a blue Mead notebook full of rhymes, phone numbers and movie ideas that he’d written as a teenager growing up in Staten Island. He began crafting melodies on the piano to match the lyrics, a challenge to himself that over the next several years grew into the super-producer’s first classical album.