Wu-Tang Clan’s coordinated assault on hip-hop within the 90s was nothing wanting magisterial. Their 1993 debut album, Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers), launched every extremely particular person member of the group whereas laying the groundwork for a flurry of solo releases, all helmed by producer/mastermind RZA. The general impact was to have the Wu appear as if one thing of a superhero posse, every particular person bringing a novel energy. RZA had the manufacturing nous, creating a novel environment by tweaking soul samples and lifting dialogue from martial arts movies. Ol’ Soiled Bastard was the free cannon: you by no means fairly knew what was going to occur when he grabbed this mic. And GZA – effectively, there’s a motive he was also called The Genius. And that motive is Liquid Swords.
Launched on November 7, 1995, the fourth Wu-Tang solo album (and third affiliated launch in that 12 months alone), Liquid Swords is an out-and-out masterpiece – and probably the most cinematic album within the collective’s historical past, thanks partly to RZA’s medical manufacturing. He digs up movie dialogues which might be creepier than on another Wu report earlier than or since; warps soul samples to rid any traces of retro kitsch (the disembodied vocal hook on “Cold World” nonetheless haunts); runs synth strains that add additional menace, not least with their staccato stabs on the opening title monitor. The outcomes are a sinister, nearly glacial soundbed for GZA to put his vocals on.
And GZA introduced his A-game, his thought-about, narrative movement coursing by means of the report – “flowing like liquid metal”, as he later put it; sharp just like the swords within the movie the album borrowed its title from, Legend Of The Liquid Sword, wherein “people would get their head cut off but it would still be on their shoulders… because the sword was so sharp.” On group efforts, Wu-Tang members needed to battle for the prime spots, competing like martial arts combatants to show they have been worthy sufficient to hold a monitor. However although each Wu affiliate of the time makes a visitor activate Liquid Swords, it’s clearly GZA’s present, his ghetto lyrics peppered with each martial arts and chess motifs – memorably mirrored within the paintings – as he takes his place because the grandmaster of the group. And he’s understated with it, too. “Shadowboxin’” would possibly give the opening and shutting verses to Methodology Man, however GZA bobs and weaves within the center, scoring all of the deadly hits.
In a method, Liquid Swords ruined it for everybody else. It made the US Prime 10 and in addition gave the Wu their first displaying on the UK album charts since Enter The Wu-Tang. And whereas the Wu, each collectively and individually, would have lots to supply within the coming years – not least Ghostface Killah’s Ironman, launched the next 12 months – the following slowdown in Wu-Tang releases maybe not directly stated one thing about how daunting a process it was to observe Liquid Swords. As a solo artist, GZA himself would go silent for 4 years, returning with 1999’s Beneath The Floor, a greater than worthy effort at a time when the hip-hop panorama had modified once more, its focus turning to the south as OutKast, Timbaland, and The Neptunes ushered in a brand new period.
However Liquid Swords stays timeless, its stature mirrored in the truth that GZA has carried out it reside in its entirety since – an honor extra usually reserved for traditional rock and prog albums. However then Liquid Swords pushes in opposition to boundaries, not solely regularly reaching the higher echelons of “hip-hop’s greatest albums” lists, however comfortably showing in run-downs of the all-time greats, no matter style.
Store for GZA’s music on vinyl or CD now.
