Predicting what Robert “The RZA” Diggs will wear on any given day is tougher than leather. With more alter egos than a T.I./Tyrese collaboration, the Wu-Tang Clan leader’s closet options run the style gamut, from Bobby Digital’s full-out orange-and-green tuxedos to RZA’s basic concert T-shirts, complete with tour dates on the back.
Yet his latest role, a 1970s-era detective helping to track down Harlem druglord Frank Lucas (played by Denzel Washington) in American Gangster, has the rapper/producer/film composer in a throwback mood. Feeling like his father’s echo in tight slacks, collar tees, blazers and an Afro-puff ablaze throughout the film, RZA felt so at home in the “funky” ’70s looks that he’d go straight from daytime shooting to nightclubs–still in full wardrobe.
Now out of character, RZA’s style remains eclectic. “Yesterday, I had a shirt with ODB’s picture on it, Eddie Bauer jeans and old Timberlands,” he says. “[Other days], you may see me with a whole $2,000 Asian suit on like a kung-fu master.” The mastermind  behind the highly influential Wu Wear clothing line, he’s come a long way from W-clad hoodies and Clark Wallabees footwear. But there’s one constant. “I may have a three-piece Prada suit on, but my shoes are Timberland, baby,” says RZA, who’s spearheaded a Clan reunion on the group’s forthcoming fifth disc, 8 Diagrams. “There’s always one hood piece on me, no matter what.”

For more details on the styles shown here from KING Magazine’s Hollywood Issue, cop the November 2007 issue on newsstands now!