RZA of the Wu Tang Clan, released a new song titled “Be Like Water” based on the famous quote by Bruce Lee and inspired by the ESPN 30 for 30 documentary on the life of Bruce Lee. Read our review of the ESPN documentary on Bruce Lee Here.
RZA kills it with a smooth flow and amazing allegory in his lyrics that embodies the history and ties between rap and Kung-fu, between the flow of a rap battle and the flow of martial arts.
Here is the video:
Here are the lyrics:
Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water
Boundless, yet when it’s surrounded, it appears to be bounded
It takes the shape of that which bounded it
Then imprints it’s old shape and [?] and move on
Leaving a new landscape behind it
So we’re reminded
Be like water, don’t be bonded
Sometimes we gotta dig deep into our inner selves
Our own hurt to find it
Intercept the fist, cheek and [?]
[?] even blow
Even though that it sounds like a lethal blow
We should know [?] to simplify the best version of yourself
In light then, synthesize all days into one
We all one, under the same sun
So why you gotta fight against him and he gotta fight against Dun?
Be like water, water crosses over every border
From the mud of the Yangtze River to the sand beaches of Florida
My mental caught up
Turn my brain storm into a Range storm
You know if it’s uninspired then, here’s the new Wu-Tang song
(Be like water)
(Be like water)
[?] begins to realise what it is he actually has to offer
There was more to Bruce Lee than they’d originally imagined
Bruce comes on to the screen, he ignites it
His very presence on screen is a protest
(Be like water)
(Be like water)
Adaptations to situations
Before evaporating back to vapor
Then return back through precipriation
Cascading and pervading, existing as a mist
The one-inch punch is being drawn from the formless
I use that same Chi style to perform this
To understand the fury inside of Bruce Lee’s first
Be like water (Water, water, water)
Be like water
Be like water
Be like water (Water, water, water)
