We take it for granted that these films hold prized placement in American popular culture, along with hip-hop\u2019s influence across Asia. But that wasn\u2019t always true. Long before RZA and the GZA became musical legends \u2013 when their friends called them Robert Diggs and Gary Grice\u00a0 \u2013 martial arts cinema was relegated to cinematic margins.<\/p>\n
Jeff Chang, author of \u201cCan\u2019t Stop Won\u2019t Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation\u201d (and of no relation to Sophia), puts it more bluntly in a 2023 podcast episode for KEXP-FM.<\/a><\/p>\n The reason the RZA or any non-white American fans of these movies were exposed to them was because of racism, he said. Films from the Shaw Brothers\u2019 catalog and other Hong Kong-based studios were segregated into run-down theaters, often in the inner city, where tickets cost around a buck and anyone could hang out and enjoy some air conditioning.<\/p>\n \u201cSo the folks who are fans of Black exploitation movies go to the kung fu movies, and they see the same types of connections between . . . these Confucian, Taoist and Zen-like principles and values, and these ideas of loyalty and brotherhood,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n Thus, in the discriminatory early marketing of a cinematic genre, we eventually reap the benefits of two non-white cultures meeting and mixing concepts. Hip-hop prowess is established and honed through lyrical battles. Martial arts films portray competition as a means of pushing your opponent to do better, to go further. Then the Wu-Tang Clan\u2019s first album, \u201cEnter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)<\/a>\u201d comes out, and as Jeff Chang describes it, \u201ccompetition gets turned into this beautiful cultural building type of thing.\u201d<\/p>\n (Kevin Winter\/Getty Images for Live Nation) Megan Thee Stallion performs onstage during the Hot Girl Summer Tour at Crypto.com Arena on June 21, 2024 in Los Angeles, California.<\/p>\n Part of that building inspired the next generation of rappers to incorporate their love of other aspects of Asian pop culture, such as anime, into their prose and performance style. Hip-hop\u2019s biggest anime ambassador these days may be Megan Thee Stallion, who built a whole alter ego, Todoroki Tina, around her\u00a0 favorite character from \u201cMy Hero Academia.\u201d And her explanation of why she loves anime is very similar to the philosophies that drew RZA to kung fu movies and, eventually, Asian philosophies and martial arts.<\/p>\n \u201cI like how you grow with the character, and you see all the trials and tribulations he\u2019s got to go through, and then you see him meet new people along the line that\u2019s really helping him become the hero that he\u2019s meant to be,\u201d she told Crunchyroll<\/a>. \u201cSo, I feel like I apply that to my life a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n These connections made anime and martial arts cinema\u2019s incorporation into hip-hop, an art form built on collaboration and sonic collage, somewhat inevitable. Whether in the films beloved by the Wu-Tang or the animated sagas Megan favors, characters battle not simply for survival but to achieve mastery. \u201cIt was through these films that I was able to see and feel from a non-Western point of view,\u201d RZA once said<\/a>. \u201cSome of the dialogue struck a chord with me. It was Buddhism and psychology. \u2018Without wisdom, there is no gain.\u2019 There\u2019s beauty in that.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Read more<\/p>\n from Salon\u2019s Culture newsletter, The Swell<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"But regardless of who\u2019s on the mic, every Wu-Tang joint is designed to be the sonic equivalent of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":676380,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[88,216],"class_list":["post-676379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=676379"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676379\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/676380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=676379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=676379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=676379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Megan](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/megan_thee_stallion_2158693779_listicle.jpg\")
<\/p>\n