It’s not possible to think about rap with out Wu-Tang Clan, the biggest and most influential group New York will in all probability ever know. Learning previous types to style innumerable new ones, Wu-Tang reimagined venture buildings as pagodas, transposed the violence of their respective neighborhoods (AKA Shaolin) into verbal kung-fu and John Woo flicks. They created a cinematic world, a free ideology, and a lexicon that followers, critics, and different artists have studied like scripture. Disciples know the core tenets: psychological self-discipline and lyrical mastery, the pursuit of information (of the world and of self) to sharpen your verbal sword. No Wu-Tang member adhered to the code just like the eldest, GZA, AKA The Genius.
“Rakim, Kool G Rap, [Big Daddy] Kane – I’ve listened to them since day one. I’ve met them, and they’re exceptional MCs. I mean, exceptional MCs,” RZA wrote in 2004’s The Wu-Tang Handbook. “…[N]one of them could touch the GZA. I knew in my heart way back before the Wu-Tang, and I strived to be like him, not like them. GZA’s the only one with a style that actually instilled fear in me… He could make “cat” and “rat” sound threatening.”
A cousin to RZA and ODB, GZA was one-third of Wu-Tang’s foundational trio. His profession defied F. Scott Fitzgerald’s aphorism that American lives don’t have any second acts. GZA was the one member to launch an album earlier than Wu-Tang. His inauspicious 1991 debut, Phrases from the Genius, didn’t chart or produce any profitable singles. It may’ve been over for him; no second act. Two years later, after becoming a member of Wu-Tang, he emerged as arguably the sharpest amongst all the revered swordsmen on the group’s Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers), delivering reducing anchor-leg verses on “Protect Ya Neck” and “Wu-Tang: 7th Chamber.”
GZA didn’t have the charisma and swing of Technique Man, the outlandish and fascinating presence of ODB, the slang-laden verses of Raekwon, or the vivid and immediately quotable free-associative bars of Ghostface Killah. As a substitute, he extra intently resembled a ninja, rapping with swiftness and power however an unshakable calm, the subtext as menacing as specific threats. Someplace between crime writer and wisened monk, GZA by no means yelled, virtually rapping conversationally whereas delivering deadly traces to MC’s, shady document labels, and anybody else who elicited his scorn. GZA’s greatest songs had been approachable to the informal rap fan however deep sufficient for these prepared to probe beneath the floor. He wasted few phrases whereas laying waste to the whole lot in sight.
Wu students will at all times debate which Clan member had the best solo document. With out query, although, GZA has among the best solo catalogs of the group, one as calculated and economical as his verses. 1995’s Liquid Swords, his sophomore album, is an accepted basic, a darkish and damaging treatise on the artwork of rap and the horrors of Brooklyn and Staten Island. 1999’s Beneath the Floor and 2002’s Legend of the Liquid Sword didn’t measure as much as the business success of Liquid Swords or the album’s profundity, however they discovered GZA pushing himself and had been critically lauded. However the tail finish of GZA’s profession stays a testomony to his adherence to the code. On 2005’s Grandmasters and 2008’s Professional Instruments he penned a few of his most intricate but deceptively easy verses. There have been no GZA albums since, however he is perhaps ready till we catch all we missed.
Liquid Swords
(Liquid Swords; Shadowboxin; 4th Chamber; Duel of the Iron Mic; Labels
Liquid Swords deserved 5 mics. The Supply gave it 4 and stated that GZA could also be “the Clan’s most accomplished verbalist.” Looking back, it looks like a slight. Liquid Swords was a continuation and a perfection of the aesthetic and ethos of Wu-Tang Clan’s 1993 debut, Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers). With 12 tracks produced by RZA at his peak (4th Disciple produced “B.I.B.L.E.”), the rugged and grim beats sound like they had been made in subterranean dojos, smoke-choked, and thundering. The themes had been the identical however utilized to a better diploma: battle raps (“Duel of the Iron Mic”), kung-fu (“Liquid Swords”), chess (“Gold”), crime narratives (“Cold World,” “Investigative Reports”), Fiver Percenter Islam (“B.I.B.L.E.”).
Opening with a clip from Shogun Murderer, your entire album is framed as a sequence of lyrical homicides. GZA swing swords and lower clowns, whether or not these clowns are document labels, different rappers, and even his Wu-Tang friends. In 1995, there was no extra devastating takedown of the rap business than “Labels,” the place GZA slashed almost each imprint you’d care to call. He didn’t look after business opinions or politics, proclaiming that his model would at all times be underground: “So duck as I struck with the soul of Motown/My central broadcasting systems is low down.”
However GZA wasn’t content material to take down foes exterior of the group. He wanted a sparring companion inside it, somebody to sharpen his sword. He discovered his congenial adversaries on “Duel of the Iron Mic” and “Shadowboxin.” Each are prime examples of GZA’s skill to claim his mic prowess. On the latter, the place he matches Technique Man bar for bar, he compares his model to a professional wrestler and a sword earlier than scratching the serial quantity off the mic prefer it’s a homicide weapon. At its core, Liquid Swords is an try and discover a metaphor that encapsulates GZA’s greatness. He wanted each one.
Wu-Tang Is For The Youngsters
(Defend Ya Neck; Wu-Tang: seventh Chamber; Reunited; As Excessive as Wu-Tang Get; Uzi (Pinky Ring))
In the event you examine the batting order of Wu-Tang songs on which GZA seems, you’ll discover he’s virtually at all times final. It’s not a slight however an honor granted to an MC that the group revered. Or, maybe, nobody needed to rap after him.
You’ll be able to hear why each theories are in all probability true on “Protect Ya Neck” from Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers). He viciously assaults Chilly Chillin (right here referred to as “Cold Killin”), the document label that launched Phrases from the Genius and did not market it: “Should’ve pumped it when I rocked it/N—s so stingy they got short arms and deep pockets.” GZA is chilly and calculated, by no means dropping his mood. It’s as if he’d been meditating on this since his debut album proved unsuccessful. His calm is crushing.
The alternative is true on “Reunited,” one of many first songs on 1997’s Wu-Tang Without end. 4 years after their debut, Wu-Tang clearly needed GZA on the high of the album to set the tone. Backed by RZA’s cavernous drums and dramatic strings, GZA sounds extra amped than wherever else in his catalog. He clowns rappers “scatting off soft-ass beats” for the period, reminding them that his verses are extra vivid and have better depth: “I splash the paint on the wall, formed a mural/He took a look, saw the manifestation of it was plural.” Solely ODB was loopy sufficient to observe him.
The Options
(Guillotine (Swordz); Third World; Wu Banga 101; Do U; Silverbacks)
Seemingly, GZA by no means took a job to pay the payments. There are rappers who document extra options in a yr than he did in a long time. Maybe, the shortage of visitor appearances is a testomony to his reverence for the artwork. If GZA had nothing to contribute, he would stay silent. However when he appeared, he was unforgettable. On “Third World,” he and RZA linked with DJ Muggs, the producer behind Cypress Hill’s funky and banging beats, for 1997’s Muggs Presents… The Soul Assassins Chapter 1 album. Right here GZA reminds listeners that he’s a pupil of rap (“Still branching off the tree that sparked any MC”) and a grasp practitioner, his sword “so swift [the] naked eye couldn’t record the speed.”
However GZA shines greatest amongst his compatriots. For proof, see his verses on Raekwon’s “Guillotine (Swordz)” in 1995 and Ghostface Killah’s “Wu Banga 101” in 2000. On the previous, he’s delivering unbelievable metaphors, slicing MC’s “where the Mason-Dixon line cross” (additionally learn: reducing them in half). Like the perfect chess gamers, GZA wanted to compete towards a number of rappers to really feel challenged, to push himself. On “Wu Banga 101,” the place he’s one of many first (and doubtless the final) rappers to match his velocity and energy to that of ants, he admits as a lot: “My Clan’ll make me rhyme like D. Banner under pressure.” Nobody would mistake GZA’s power for the Hulk, however his lyrics hit like a large inexperienced fist smashing by means of brick and concrete.
The Grandmaster
(These That’s Bout It; Destruction of a Guard; Queen’s Gambit; Pencil; Paper Plate
GZA wrote a few of his greatest songs late in his profession. By the point GZA launched Grandmasters in 2005, he was a decade faraway from Liquid Swords and virtually 40, usually deemed historic in rap years. With DJ Muggs doing his greatest RZA interpretation on the beats, GZA pushed himself narratively and lyrically, discovering new methods to inform tales and batter the opposition. He left the competitors in “intensive care” on “Those That’s Bout It” and “Destruction of a Guard,” however “Queen’s Gambit” is among the crowning achievements of his profession. An prolonged double entendre, GZA subtly title drops each NFL group as he narrates a tryst utilizing soccer analogies: “She dated jolly green Giants that flew on Jets/An A-list actress, who was never walked off sets/She loved stuffed animals, especially Bears.” This can be a feat that appears easy, however a much less seasoned rapper would’ve fumbled.
Then there’s 2008’s Professional Instruments, which bests each late-period Wu-affiliate album that wasn’t made by Ghostface. Working with producers like Dreddy Kruger to RZA, GZA as soon as once more appeared reinvigorated. He additionally proved a greater A&R than these he dissed a long time in the past on “Protect Ya Neck,” choosing each KA and Roc Marciano years earlier than they might turn into critically acclaimed for reviving New York avenue rap.
One of the best tune from GZA on the album, although, is “Paper Plate.” A 50 Cent diss, the tune finds GZA at his most cruel. After years of attacking MCs within the summary, it was as if he’d been ready for a goal. He critiques 50’s thirst for the highlight and questions the legitimacy of his again story, throwing his lyrics again at him: “If you was a pimp, put tricks on the stroll/And if those were soldiers, give ’em bigger guns to hold/Who shot ya? You don’t have enough on your roster/You move like a fed, but you talk like a mobster.” 50, by no means one to draw back from a problem, didn’t reply. GZA might have been the one rapper he wasn’t prepared to check.
Store GZA’s music on vinyl now.
