Between Samurai Champloo, various Boondocks cartoon bits, Afro Samurai, and, of course, the Wu-Tang Clan, I’ve been wondering at the crossover I see between African-American hip-hop culture and feudal Japan, in particular the samurai. What’s the connection? Where did it start?
I’m guessing that a large part of it stems from Kareem Abdul Jabar’s role in Bruce Lee’s Game of Death.
Carl Douglas
The Rza* of Wu-Tang Clan grew up watching kung-fu and samurai movies. He alone has had a HUGE effect on this intermingling, I would guess much more than Kareem’s friendship with Bruce Lee. If you want to go with the theory that black guy + kung fu movies = influence on hip hop culture, then I think Jim Kelly would be a more likely culprit.
Note that the OP asked about samurai (Japanese) and not kung fu (Bruce Lee, Kareem Abdul Jabar; predominantly Chinese.) I’m still saying the Rza, though. He spent a lot of afternoons at the cinema watching Kurosawa flicks.
*The head when Wu-Tang forms like Voltron
The Chinese/Japanese distinction tends to get lost at times, such as Bruce Leroy v. Sho-Nuff, The Shogun of Harlem
It should also be noted that Rza also does film scores, including Kill Bill and Blade: Trinity.
Really the primary connection between Hip Hop and Samuri culture is the Wu-Tang. Mostly other groups tend to incorporate stuff like Scarface or Godfather references.
Yes. I listen to a lot of hip-hop and I think this is a fair assessment. I read the title, and was intrigued - “there’s a connection between samurai and hip-hop?”, then I see a few references to Wu-Tang and thought “ah.”
Martial arts in general are popular among young urban men anyway, so it’s only natural that you’ll see some overlap, but I don’t think there is any particularly strong connection between the two.
And Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai. Just Whitaker’s face and the score make this worth watching.
Also, RZA has a camo in Ghost Dog as “Samurai in Camouflage.”
Whoops - make that a “cameo.” 
I read something by the director of Samurai Champloo saying that he incorporated hip-hop for the same reason he incorporated jazz into Cowboy Bebop-- because it contrasts. They’re two cool things that have nothing to do with each other, but when you bring them together, you get this neat dissonance that’s really striking and actually kind of works.
As for Boondocks, I think their opening was a bit of a play on Champloo’s, but that’s just my perspective.
Wu-Tang… eh. it’s really more the influence of one man (RZA) and the rest of them going “whoa, samurais and ninjas, yeah, cool” than anything else.
the two are not OFTEN associated, but when they are, you notice, because they contrast. that’s why they anyone attempts to associate them.
Everyone one who wants an example of when it DOESN’T work should watch Afro Samurai.
Not to hijack, but I have a standing offer of $50 for anyone who can actually point to one piece of music in either Kill Bill or Kill Bill 2 that the RZA actually composed or created. None have been able to thus far. I believe that he was initially supposed to do some music for the movie, but it wasn’t used or wasn’t included, and they decided to just keep his name on it for cred reasons.
That aside, I think that there’s too much “noble savage” mentality going on when we talk about a young RZA spending afternoons at the cinema watching Ozu and Kurosawa and eating popcorn with chopsticks a la Bruce LeeRoy in The Last Dragon - it’s more likely that there was just a lot of grindhouse kung-fu and samurai flicks, such as the actual Wu Tang movies, being aired on public television around Staten Island in the seventies when Bobby Digital was a kid.
I think he chose the songs, remixed some of them, decided where to place them in the movie, etc. He was on NPR around the time of the release talking about what he did, but I can’t remember specifics.
Kill Bill -06- The Rza - Ode to Oren Ishii
Im not sure if it was in the movie but its on the soundtrack, does that count?
No, it really doesn’t, because it’s not in either of the two movies.
Actually, there was a seperate music supervisor (or someone with a title like that) that chose the Bernard Hermann pieces and other stuff. I know that Tarantino personally chose the 5, 6, 7, 8’s and Zamfir pieces.
I remember the RZA interview with Terry Gross, but if you listen to it again, he doesn’t actually mention anything that he actually did.
Ok well song 12 was definitely in the movie, i believe right before she fights the crazy 88 and that one is attributed to RZA also.
My wife, who grew up in NYC in the 80’s, says a TV station there used to show samurai movies every Saturday afternoon. It’s not too far of a stretch to think that some folks who grew up to be rappers or who like rap grew up watching these movies, too.