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The RZA, the Abbott and leader of the Wu-Tang Clan, is prepping to release his third solo effort, “Birth of a Prince” on Wu Records/Sanctuary Records on October 7th, 2003.

“The music itself is going to give you the concept but I’ll give you a taste of it,” the RZA told AllHipHop.com in between takes at the video shoot for his new album’s lead single “We Pop.”

“Sometimes we all walk around like motherf**kin’ toads or dogs. The kiss of a woman or some kind of spiritual information or the love of God can turn your form into a prince,” he continued. “So this album is showing you we all go through what we go through; you go through hell and come out right, you made it. If you come out right, you come out as that prince. This album is showing the birth of me as a prince. I use the name Prince Rakeem a few times in the album.”

Whether as Prince Rakeem, Bobby Digital or a host of other aliases, the RZA has been putting his stamp on hip-hop sounds for over ten years as a producer, emcee and architect behind arguably hip-hop’s most influential group ever, The Wu-Tang Clan. Besides constantly contributing tracks to his Wu brethren (Ghostface, Dirt McGirt, Method Man, et al.) he also has provided his dusty and gritty production credits (check your old Wu Tang affiliated albums to learn where today’s soul vocal sampling trend began) to artists including The Notorious B.I.G. and Big Pun to Isaac Hayes and Dido. Besides his new album, he’s been busy producing the score for Quentin Tarantino’s upcoming flick, Kill Bill.

He remains unfazed by his once again hectic schedule.

“I love the artistic world that I’m in so it’s nothing for me to do it,” says the RZA. “It takes a lot of time, it’s a lot hard work, it ain’t like it’s an easy job. But I’m a hard working man. If my job was to cut the tree down, I’d be out there just swinging that axe, yo.”

Followers of the RZA can expect the usual razor sharpened lyrics and avant garde production he’s known for with this new album.

”On the real to real, they going to expect to be totally banged out and entertained,” he explained. “This album right here, it’s in the top five of the year, I know that for a fact. It’s like seeing a pretty woman but you don’t like girls. No matter how pretty she is, it ain’t going to work for you. If you love hip-hop, then y’all will love this one.”