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We wanted to show a little love to our good friend The RZA since he's been such an integral part of Afro Samurai. Always extremely passionate about his work, he has gone above and beyond to help us promote Afro Samurai. Heck, he even did personal vlogs just to talk more about Afro. If you watch the videos, you'll see that The RZA's not only a talented musician, but a very deep, spiritual person. So, it's only fitting that he writes a book to explain his way of life.

The Tao of Wu (IN STORES NOW) describes itself as a book of wisdom and experience that reaches from the most violent slums of New York City to the highest planes of spiritual thought by the RZA, hip-hop's most exalted wise man.

Want to hear more?
RZA on The Colbert Report and interview with Time & AllHipHop.com below.

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
The RZA
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Michael Moore

One of the passages in your book talks about the anime movie Dragon Ball Z and how it represents the journey of the black man in America. And it struck me because in Inglourious Basterds, there's a scene about how King Kong represents the plight of the black man in America. Is there another movie or book or piece of art that you think represents what African Americans have had to go through?
Tarantino and I agree on King Kong. I'll give you another movie: John Carpenter's They Live. That's perfect for our times right now. That's where we're at. I saw that movie, and it really made me think. I started bugging out in the mall. I just felt like, wow, there was something about that movie that was real. I got locked up like two hours [after watching it]; I was drunk and acting crazy.

Also, here is an excerpt from AllHipHop.com's interview with The RZA about his new book:

AllHipHop.com: The book posits 7 Pillars as a pathway to gain spiritual enlightenment and peace. How long did it take you to finalize these attributes into a set system?

RZA: The 7 Pillars was actually suggested to me by [co-author] Chris Norris. First we thought about 9, being we’re always dealing with 9: 9 chambers of the heart, 9 Wu members and everything like that. But then when we started going through it, we didn’t want to do 5 like it was the 5 Pillars of Islam and we were changing Islam. That’s impossible. The 7 does represent the body of work of the book and the steps that can be taken for a person to gain the wisdom that I’m trying to instill. And I still strongly advocate the 12 Jewels of the Nation of Gods and Earths. I’m not the author of those, but I’m a person that lives by them and they are 12 steps that every man should be able to obtain.

The last jewel is happiness. But there’s basically enlightenment, an awakening you gain that leads to freedom. The goal of life is to be happy.

AllHipHop.com: Personally, what would you say was the most difficult jewel for you to master?

RZA: I'll say this. To obtain the jewels you must have them mentally, spiritually, and physically. I ain’t going to go into the other planes because that'll take forever. Now mentally you gain them all in one night simply by memorizing them. Spiritually you can gain them by living it and making sure the next man you come across you don’t infringe on his jewels. But, physically? That’s a difficult task in our society, because you’re not given food, clothing and shelter. So that means I can get knowledge, wisdom, and understanding just from my own studies. But to get freedom, justice, and equality I have to turn to my government for that. And it may be hard to obtain that if they don’t offer it. You may find love in the realm of a woman or children, but if you don't have food, clothing, and shelter how are you going to find peace? You ain't going to be at peace or feel free. How are you going to be happy? So you can obtain some of the jewels but if you don’t have all of them, you liable to lack in more than one of them.

Deep.

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Critically-Acclaimed Series First Anime Ever To Be Nominated

The critically-acclaimed, funktastic anime movie "Afro Samurai: Resurrection" has been honored with a 2009 juried Primetime Emmy® Award win for Art Director Shigemi Ikeda in the category of Outstanding Individual Achievement In Animation.

"Afro Samurai: Resurrection" was also nominated in the category of Outstanding Animated Program (for programming of one hour or more) earning Spike TV its first-ever Primetime Emmy nomination from the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. The nomination also marks the first time in Emmy history that an anime series has been nominated in any category.

"Afro Samurai: Resurrection" stars Academy Award®-nominated actor Samuel L. Jackson opposite Emmy Award®-nominated actress Lucy Liu and featuring Mark Hamill and Yuri Lowenthal. Jackson also served as executive producer of the stylish series and the original score was provided by renowned rap artist and producer The RZA.

"Afro Samurai: Resurrection" is the sequel to the network's 2006 series “Afro Samurai" and best-selling anime DVD release of 2007. The series is based on the original art and story of manga artist Takashi Okazaki, about a black samurai's quest for revenge and justice for his murdered father. Samuel L. Jackson starred as the uncompromising hero, Afro and his motor-mouthed sidekick Ninja Ninja. When his father’s body is stolen from its grave, Afro is forced to pick up his sword again and wreak bloody vengeance against an army of deadly foes lead by a sadistic mastermind.

"Afro Samurai: Resurrection" was produced for Spike TV by Japanese studio GONZO in association/partnership with GONZO K.K. and FUNimation Entertainment.

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We are aware of an audio problem affecting some units of the Afro Samurai: Resurrection Blu-ray™ release. While it was intended that the audio on this title be English Dolby TrueHD 5.1, it has come to our attention that the audio track on some of these units is a Dolby Digital 5.1 mix.

We wish to rectify this issue with any consumers who believe they may have purchased one of these units. If you have purchased Afro Samurai: Resurrection on Blu-Ray and believe this copy does not have the TrueHD audio track, please contact productconcerns@funimation.com to resolve the issue.

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Afro Samurai Resurrection is IN STORES TODAY!
Get it at Best Buy, Amazon or RightStuf.