Bobby Digital: Staten Island Native Wu Tang Clan Member Adopted This Alter-Ego Superhero-Like Character

Bobby Digital

Brian VanNostrand

 

 

In a previous article, I discussed Method Man’s love of comic books and I’ve decided to return to the Wu Tang well one more time to discuss the character of Bobby Digital.

Bobby Digital is one of the personas for the RZA (real name Robert Diggs) who serves as the main producer and de facto leader of the Wu Tang Clan, and grew up in the Park Hill neighborhood of Staten Island. He described the origins of Bobby Digital in a 2003 interview with the Onion’s A.V. Club as:

“I said to myself at the same time that as Bobby Digital, I could use a character to describe some of the earlier days of my own life. Partying, bullshitting, going crazy, chasing women, taking drugs. At the same time, I would mix in my love for comic books. It was a mixture of fiction and reality together to make a character I thought would be entertaining…”

Just as I mentioned in my article about David Johansen, Diggs created the persona of the RZA in order to accomplish something he would be unlikely to achieve as just Robert Diggs from Staten Island, then created an even more super heroic persona in Bobby Digital to accomplish something he felt he couldn’t do as the RZA.

This is the same concept as when Spider-Man pulls on his mask to obscure the bookish and timid Peter Parker so he can be a bolder and more colorful character who has no problem facing off against the strange villains haunting his version of Manhattan. This is the same idea as when Bruce Wayne dresses as a bat in order to deal with the horror and grief of his parents’ murder and try to ensure that it doesn’t happen to others. This is similar to when Kal-El of Krypton assumes the glasses and suit of mild-mannered reporter Clark Kent to blend in with human beings, only to drop that persona when he is needed by the world as Superman. Robert Diggs becomes the RZA and, when someone else is needed to get a different job done, he adopts the science fiction identity of Bobby Digital.

So, what does this say to the rest of us normal humans?

If I were cynical (okay…if I were more cynical) I would say these are prime examples of “fake it ‘til you make it,” but that’s probably a far too easy answer. I think what these ideas, these “fiction suits,” are telling us is that every person contains multitudes, and when we aren’t sure we can accomplish something, we can look into ourselves and find a version of us that can succeed. Maybe the you that you are right now can’t get it done, but I’ll bet there’s a superhero version inside you that can.

 

So, put on those boots and capes and let’s believe we, or a version of we, can get this done.

 

Banner Image: RZA at the 2007 Eurockéennes.  Image Credit – Rama – Own work, CC BY-SA 2.0 fr