DIGI SNACKS

Koch Records

These days, it seems every rapper has at least one alter ego, a character he can use to explore different sides of his personality.

It’s a songwriting device that has its limitations, as few artists go beyond the simple comic-book psychology of Batman or the Incredible Hulk.

On his latest album, Wu-Tang Clan sonic sensei RZA revisits Bobby Digital, a role he has played throughout his career. The disc promises to be a meditation on Bobby’s inner struggles, but a few songs in, it’s clear that RZA doesn’t have the discipline to pull off such an analysis.

Instead, he flings boasts and drops wordy nonsense, his kaleidoscopic rants sometimes leaving him breathless, as on “Booby Trap.”

He reveals himself to be an underrated emcee, a slightly less imaginative version of Ghostface Killah, the Wu-Tang member with the greatest gift for left-field lyricism.

Of course, RZA is more a producer than a rapper, and it’s for that reason that “Digi Snacks” truly disappoints. Stacked with would-be club and jeep jams, the album pushes a broad, populist hip-hop that has never been RZA’s bag.

His strength lies in harsh beats and phantom piano, elements he has long used to conjure urban paranoia and alienation.

Here, cast in a mainstream light, he’s stripped of his powers — Superman in kryptonite bling.

— Kenneth Partridge,

The Hartford Courant