RZA To Be Honored With The 2024 NAMM Innovation Award

Rza is kicking off 2024 on a high note as the hip-hop icon will receive the Innovation Award at The NAMM Show’s 2024 TEC Awards.

RZA is kicking off 2024 on a high note as the hip-hop veteran will receive the Innovation Award at The NAMM Show’s 2024 TEC Awards.

The Wu-Tang founder and hip-hop producer will receive the award which “honors individuals that have set the highest standards of excellence in the creative application of recording technology,” Billboard reported. The TEC Awards takes place on Jan. 27 in Anaheim, CA. The nearly four-decade-old ceremony celebrates the best in professional audio and sound production and coincides with The NAMM Show, the world’s largest music trade show.

RZA will be the first hip-hop act to receive the award formerly known as the NAMM TEC Les Paul Innovation Award, after the late guitarist and inventor who passed away in 2009. Former recipients of the award include Stevie Wonder, Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, and jazz legend Herbie Hancock.

“RZA’s formidable body of work and talent is unquestionable,” John Mlynczak, NAMM president and CEO said. “His legacy of accomplishments and lasting power on music inspires many music makers beyond Hip-Hop and he deserves this high recognition.”

An icon in hip-hop, RZA, born Robert Fitzgerald Diggs, is credited with being the leader of Wu-Tang and producer of almost all of the legendary group’s albums, including the various solo projects from its members. Regarded as one of the best hip-hop producers of all time, the Grammy-winning producer has also released solo albums under his alter ego Bobby Digital, via Hip Hop Scriptures.

As an actor, RZA has appeared in a variety of films and television shows including American Gangster, Kill Bill: Vol. 1, Snowfall, and Coffee and Cigarettes, among many others. He’s accredited his success to remaining true to his core, a Brooklyn native with a passion for the arts.

“The most important rule is just keeping it 100 percent with myself, preparing myself for what’s in front of me and making sure that I complete my goals,” he told Rolling Stone in 2019.

“First you set your goal, right? Identify what it is, envision it and then I prepare. If my goal was simply to climb a tree, I’m gonna study a tree-climbing book, understand the tools and equipment that I need to do it, understand that if I gotta go up, you know, that may be easy. But what about coming back down, right?”

The award comes weeks before RZA joins his group mates for the Wu-Tang’s first-ever residency in Las Vegas. “Wu-Tang Clan: The Saga Continues… The Las Vegas Residency” will run from Feb. 9-10 and pick up again from March 22-23 at the Virgin Hotels Las Vegas.