HIP-HOP RZA Says Wu-Tang Clan Should Be Inducted Into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame

RZA feels that the Wu-Tang Clan deserves to have its name called at the induction ceremony, but the Staten Island crew is yet to make an appearance on the ballot since becoming eligible in 2017.

"I think we should [get in], and I do care. It may take some time to get in there," the Wu frontman told Rolling Stone. "I think it’s good for us and I think it’s good for rock and roll, because hip-hop is a form of music that grabs from every genre, but definitely grabs from rock and roll."

The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame began inducting hip-hop acts starting in 2007 with Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five, and has since added a select group of artists that includes Public Enemy, Run-DMC, Beastie Boys, N.W.A and Tupac Shakur.

RZA also highlighted 36 Chambers standout "Bring da Ruckus" as one of the Wu's tracks that dabbled in both hip-hop and rock. "I thought I was making hip-hop, but shit, it has a motherfuckin’ rock and roll groove like a motherfucker," RZA explained when re-listening to the track. "I don’t know how the fuck I did that. I go back and listen to some of the Beatles progressions and some of [Led] Zeppelin’s progressions and movements, like, okay, I was on some shit, though."

The 49-year-old seems to agree with Kanye West's sentiment that "rap is the new rock and roll." "Rock and roll has a certain spirit; it was the spirit of the Sixties and Seventies youth. Hip-hop is the Eighties, Nineties, up to now, the youth," RZA said. "It’s called hip-hop, but it’s in the same spirit of rock and roll at the end of the day. Lyrical, stories, music, unorthodox, dissonant sometimes, energetic, all the things that rock is and was, hip-hop embodies."

Janet Jackson leads the class of 2019 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees, which will be inaugurated on Friday (March 29) at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. She's joined by Def Leppard, Radiohead, the Zombies, the Cure, Stevie Nicks, and Roxy Music to receive the call.