Happy 25th Anniversary to GZA’s second studio album Liquid Swords, originally released November 7, 1995.
The GZA a.k.a. The Genius a.k.a. Gary Grice enjoys rarified air in Wu-Tang Clan lore. Now and eternally the Voltron-esque head of the Wu, GZA is the crew’s sharpest pure lyricist, and everyone in the crew recognizes it. It’s no surprise during the crew’s first few years of existence, if GZA appeared on a Wu-Tang track, he was going last. The group’s elder statesman always got the final word, often out-shining everyone that preceded him in the process.
As an emcee, GZA shines brightly even outside the realm of the Wu-Tang Clan. He was one of the most gifted lyricists of the 1990s and early ’00s, weaving together complex imagery, intricate rhyme patterns, multi-faceted metaphors effortlessly. He’s also an underrated storyteller, able to compose meticulous narratives simultaneously wide in scope and narrow in focus.
GZA was also the first member of the Clan to record and release a full-length album, a few years before the collective became a proper entity. He was signed to Cold Chillin’ Records in the early ’90s and released Words From The Genius (1991) under The Genius moniker. Mostly remembered for the overly slick, dance friendly, and pretty forgettable “Come Do Me,” the album was a commercial dud, but not altogether bad. Cold Chillin’ tried to market Genius in the Big Daddy Kane-esque smooth player mode, which didn’t fit his personality. However, there were things to like about Words, namely Easy Mo Bee’s production and The Genius’ obvious talents as an emcee.
The problems GZA faced while on Cold Chillin’ shaped how the Wu-Tang Clan would assert their own independence. The RZA, then known by his previous stage name Prince Rakeem, faced similar issues during his brief stint with Tommy Boy. Both of their experiences with labels functioned as lessons about the wrong path to success and with this shared knowledge, they retooled their approach and developed the Wu-Tang Clan, a crew that created its own image and determined its own destiny.
An integral piece of the crew’s legacy is Liquid Swords, GZA’s second album, released 25 years ago. It’s no worse than the third best solo album to come out of the Wu, and arguably the best, depending on how I feel on any given day. It’s also among the 20 greatest hip-hop albums ever released, and pretty close to the top 15. It’s a near flawless artistic statement, combining GZA’s deadly lyricism and the RZA’s most distinctive production undertakings. The pair had a special alchemy that was rarely shared by any of the other members of the Clan’s core.
During Wu-Tang’s early years, Clan members recorded their albums in a studio in RZA’s basement, and the subterranean sounds permeate Liquid Swords. It’s the darkest and most grim Wu-Tang release to that point, more so than even Method Man’s Tical (1994). The beats are grimy, filled with distorted electric guitars and evocative vocal samples. RZA lifts snippets of dialogue from the 1980 film Shogun Assassin, with characters from the film providing memorable narration throughout the album, giving us such memorable moments as “People said his brain was infected by devils…” and a lengthy soliloquy about the sound made by one’s own throat being cut.
GZA displays superior lyricism throughout Liquid Swords. On the mic, GZA didn’t reinvent himself from Words From the Genius—he simply advanced his game. Sure, there’s considerably less material about chasing women, but GZA still gives a stunning performance behind the microphone and crafts thoughtful narratives. It’s all through the lens of Wu-Tang’s prism, but it doesn’t feel like a radical departure.
A preview of what Liquid Swords could hold was “I Gotcha Back,” which first appeared on the Fresh soundtrack in the fall of 1994. Musically, the song skews towards what was the established Wu-Tang sound, mixing Stax soul samples with Kung-Fu flick sonics. The song is a showcase for GZA’s narrative abilities. While Wu-Tang cohort Inspektah Deck may have said “Life of a shorty shouldn’t be so rough” on “C.R.E.A.M.,” GZA transformed these sentiments into a feature-length hymn here.
He delivers an impressive 32-bar verse from the perspective of a pre-teen “going through hell” and struggling to survive the deadly environment that threatens to engulf him during every waking moment. GZA’s voice channels raw emotion, adding to the desperation he conveys of being “trapped in a deadly video game with just one man.” GZA has said that the track was inspired by the lives of one of his nephews, who was a teenager at the time. Sadly, that nephew has ended up spending time incarcerated, succumbing to some of the same issues that GZA rhymed about.
The first real entrée to Liquid Swords proper was “Labels,” which was huge on the mixtape circuit before the album dropped. And in this case, I’m referring to an actual tape with songs mixed by a DJ. “Labels” is just about the perfect mixtape song for the era, an expertly crafted song built around a creative hook. GZA earned a “Rhyme of the Month” in The Source for his lengthy verse, namechecking 36 different record labels, warning of the overall shadiness of the music industry. The Genius still sounds bitter about his previous lousy experience, snarling, “Tommy ain’t my motherfucking boy” and vowing to “Ruff up the motherfucking House ’cause I smother / You Cold Chillin’ motherfuckers, I still Warner Brother.” The song is murky and fuzzy and claustrophobic, making it stand out in comparison to many Wu-Tang-related tracks that had been released up to that point.
Liquid Swords is best known for the title track, which still stands out as one of the best tracks on the album and one of the finest songs the GZA has recorded. He exhibits pure lyrical braggadocio at its finest, delivering some of the sharpest metaphors to ever appear on a Wu-Tang track. Lines like “Catch a swollen heart from not rolling smart,” “Drop megaton bombs more faster than you blink,” and “Get vaccinated, my logo is branded into your skin” are all in the pantheon of all-time great lyrics. The beat, constructed around a brief piano intro from Willie Mitchell’s “Groovin’,” is odd and unorthodox, but still unmistakably a RZA creation. The track also features the best-constructed and most anthemic hook on a Wu-Tang artist’s solo track, with GZA and RZA teaming up to recite of a hook from their days as All-N-Together Now in the mid-1980s.
“Living in the World Today” is another track centered around the art of emceeing. The up-tempo banger is GZA’s dedication to his craft, as he generates a two-verse tour-de-force from a marathon rhyme-writing session in RZA’s basement. “My preliminary attack keep cemeteries packed with n****s who think it ain't like that,” he raps, and later “swingin' swords strictly based on keyboards / Unbalanced like elephants and ants on see-saws.” The song’s hook was inspired by a routine by the Ranch Crew (they get name-checked during the track’s opening seconds), who GZA used to watch perform while attending park jams in the Bronx during hip-hop’s formative years.
GZA often uses unique storytelling skills to reflect on the seedy underworld of Staten Island and New York City as a whole. “Gold” features GZA at his absolute grimiest, as he describes his rise as a drug dealer and criminal entrepreneur, pursuing cash and power through absolute ruthlessness. Over the cacophony of wailing keys, blaring guitars, and haunting vocals, he describes the often messy process of asserting his domination of the streets. He takes you to the backstreets, underground subways, and abandoned park-benches of Brooklyn, as he schemes to push weight, acquire territory, and eliminate his enemies, leaving scores of corpses and addicts in his wake. By the end of the track, he’s risen from pawn to King.
“Killah Hills 10304” is another masterclass in setting a scene. The track serves as a sequel to “Life of a Drug Dealer” from Words From the Genius, except this time out GZA has risen from street level dealer to Pablo Escobar-level kingpin, stashing small fortunes in Syria and sending judges threatening photos to keep them in line, all with 50 immigrants with fake visas at his disposal. The song also features some of GZA’s most unique characters. These include a drug smuggler who surgically implants a key of cocaine in his leg to sneak through US Customs, only to be foiled by his own “pirate limp.” He’s targeted for assassination by explosive expert Mohammed from Afghanistan, adept at devising ingenious ways to incinerate those that he’s contracted to kill.
Things get even bleaker on “Cold World,” the album’s second single. Few can paint a picture of desolation and pain like GZA, and here he creates a vision of a dark winter night in Brooklyn on the crime-riddled Brooklyn streets. Inspektah Deck makes an appearance, authoring a modern-day opera with his verse, telling of aspiring criminals littering the avenues with bullets and the dead bodies of both their enemies and innocent bystanders. RZA’s stripped-down melancholy soundscape adds to the sense of despair, as he takes pieces of The Dramatics’ “In the Rain” and mixes in chimes and strings.
Even by late fall of 1995, the members of the Wu-Tang were still careful not to over-expose themselves, making guest appearances on solo albums by Clan members a source of great anticipation. So it went with Liquid Swords as well, and nearly every member of the immediate collective gets their moments.
GZA conducts a three-way brawl with Deck and Masta Killa on “Duel of the Iron Mic,” complete with a suitably unhinged hook from Ol’ Dirty Bastard. All three are on their A-Game, but it’s worth noting that “Picture bloodbaths in elevators shafts” remains GZA’s most evocative opening line. All three emcees perpetrate a brutal verbal slaughter over the most gothic of all Stax loops, here taken from Dave Porter’s “I’m Afraid the Masquerade is Over.”
GZA later teams up with Method Man on “Shadowboxin’” the album’s third single. Method Man actually gets more real estate on the track, with his opening and closing verse sandwiching GZA’s contribution. Meth was awarded The Source’s “Rhyme of the Month” for his first verse on the track, where he “breaks it down the bone gristle,” rhyming in a slower and more deliberate fashion than he had utilized on his previous recordings. Meth has said that GZA was supposed to contribute a second verse of his own, but it never materialized. As it stands, GZA still shines that brightest, boasting that “I slayed MCs back in the rec room era / My style broke motherfucking backs like Ken Patera” and “We reign all year round from June to June / While n****s bite immediately if not soon.”
“4th Chamber” is chaos captured in a little more than four-and-a-half minutes. Determining who had the best verse on this posse-cut is a difficult feat, as GZA, Killah Priest, Ghostface Killah, and RZA are all in peak form over hard-charging guitars and squealing synths. Ghostface ponders “Why is the sky blue? Why is water wet? Why did Judas rat to Romans while Jesus slept?” while Killah Priest lounges “between two pillars of ivory.” RZA decrees that “unloyal snakes get thrown in boiling lakes of hot oil,” while GZA declares that “veterans got the game spiced like ham.” It’s on the shortlist of best Wu-Tang Clan songs that don’t appear on an official Wu-Tang Clan album. However, the Mystery of Ghostface’s Sky Blue Bally Kid remains unsolved.
“Investigative Reports” also covers criminal activity, sounding like it would be at home om Only Built 4 Cuban Linx….. This partly has to do with the fact that both Raekwon and Ghostface Killah drop verses on the track. Amidst the backdrop of muffled news footage and snippets of the retelling of the bloody Battle of Long Island from the Revolutionary War, all three emcees drop vividly descriptive verses. “The corner emperor—the golden thieves play the benches,” Ghostface raps. “Rednecks be hanging big n****s down in Memphis.”
“The Swordsman” is GZA’s essay on learning to question what many regard as “truth” and shedding outdated ways of thinking. The central theme is the evolution of his spirituality, moving from Christianity to becoming a member of the Five-Percent Nation while still young. However, the verses apply to anyone coming of age, learning to question what they’ve already learned and becoming their own person in the process. GZA astutely explains how his awakening his changed him, rapping, “But with knowledge of self from off the shelf / Made things seemed complicated now small like elves.”
Guys like Meth, Ghostface, and Raekwon have stayed the most active during the last quarter century, but GZA has put together a remarkably dope discography and is still the most gifted outright lyricist in the Clan. Liquid Swords is the crown jewel of GZA’s discography, showing Cold Chillin’ really was slipping in completely mis-marketing him. But the truth is that he never would have released an album like Liquid Swords if it hadn’t been for the missteps before. GZA learned from the mistakes of those surrounding him and this album is a monument to his transcendence.
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