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Rediscovered: ‘Liquid Swords’ by GZA/Genius
The Genius of Wu-Tang Clan delivered a dark, brooding classic that cemented his legend both within and apart from his iconic crew — and continued RZA’s production hot streak.
The first thing you hear on GZA’s legendary sophomore album, Liquid Swords, is a clip from the 1980 Japanese film Shogun’s Assassin. Soundbites from the movie are peppered throughout the LP. It’s a fitting touch for a cinematic release that slices through generic gangsta rap with imagination and masterful execution of an elite swordsman. Indeed, GZA’s evocative rhymes meshed with RZA’s most sinister production make for a gripping listen that, 30 years later, represents GZA and RZA at the peak of their idiosyncratic craft. It was a formation years in the making.
To that point, GZA had always been a bit of an elder statesman in the crew. Born Gary Grice, his recording career predated Wu-Tang Clan: as “The Genius,” he’d landed his first record deal back in 1990, signing with Cold Chillin’ Records at a time when the label was stacked with talents like Big Daddy Kane and Kool G Rap. His debut album, 1991’s Words From The Genius, only made a minor dent, but he’d been rapping with his cousins Robert Diggs and Russell Jones since the mid-1980s. When they re-emerged in the early 1990s as Prince Rakeem (soon to be RZA) and Ol’ Dirty Bastard, Genius joined them as the GZA and the foundations for the Wu were laid. After Wu-Tang Clan dropped Enter the Wu-Tang: 36 Chambers in 1993, the nine-man crew was thrust to the forefront of hip-hop. Liquid Swords reintroduced GZA to the public, but just as importantly, it expanded both the Wu-Tang brand and East Coast hip-hop’s claim to the rap throne.
Like most early Wu projects, Liquid Swords was recorded at RZA’s basement studio in Staten Island. The sonics of Liquid Swords reflect just how much the Wu’s resident production maestro had grown since the group’s debut album …36 Chambers. The sound he’d forged on that classic project–the dusty samples over murky, off-kilter drums and kung-fu movie snippets–was now more refined and was deeper and more soulful. It was obvious from the album’s title track that RZA was definitely in his bag.
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“Liquid Swords” is obviously the most famous song on the album, a Wu standard that’s been revisited and reworked (see Rapsody’s hit “Ibtihaj” with D’Angelo and GZA himself). Over a slowed-down sample of the distinct organ intro from Willie Mitchell’s version of “Groovin,’” GZA lays bare his manifesto as an emcee.
Energy is felt once the cards are dealt / With the impact of roundhouse kicks from black belts / That attack the mic-phones like cyclones or typhoons I represent from midnight to high noon / I don't waste ink, nigga, I think I drop megaton bombs more faster than you blink '/ Cause rhyme thoughts travel at a tremendous speed / Through clouds of smoke of natural blends of weed / Only under one circumstance, that's if I'm blunted / Turn that shit up, my clan in the front want it”
GZA’s Wu-contemporaries shine brightest on three standout crew-driven tracks: “Duel Of the Iron Mic,” “4th Chamber” and “Investigative Reports.” On “Duel…,” ODB turns up to play carnival barker as The Genius, Masta Killa and Inspektah Deck verbally spar; and “Investigative Reports” is arguably the closest to a true Wu posse cut on the album: with Ghost, Rae and U-God joining the fray.
With a reinterpolated chorus by Life (borrowed from Stevie Wonder’s “Rocket Love,”) RZA and Deck drop bars that paint a sinister portrait of project life on “Cold World.” It’s the kind of song that typifies part of the appeal of Liquid Swords. GZA’s masterwork feels wintry and desolate, like it was recorded in the middle of a nor’easter in January. Unlike the approach of his bandmates, Ghostface Killah and Raekwon, GZA tends to sound more observant than directly involved in the criminality in his street tales. He’s a thoughtful and insightful, if somewhat grim, commentator.
A song like “Labels” could be dismissed as dated today, simply because GZA references several record labels that have been defunct since Y2K, but the humor he uses to dismiss the record business is evergreen. Coming from a guy who had to endure a curious false start with his first label, you can understand his cynicism towards an industry that was only now starting to embrace the commercial and creative potential in hip-hop. “Shadowboxin’” features one of RZA’s spookiest beats and one of Method Man’s best guest spots.
Once again mining the Memphis soul of Willie Mitchell, (this time via Ann Peeble’s timeless “Troubles, Heartache & Sadness”) RZA finds a hypnotic loop with which to build up the backdrop for Meth and GZA to drop some serious lyrical heat. It’s a standout on the album and one of the best Wu tracks of all time.
One of the most popular skits/intros on the album, “Hell’s Wind Staff/Killah Hills 10304” opens with a confrontation between RZA and a Mr. Grieco over an associate named Don Rodriguez from the Bronx — as Life faintly croons a version of “Lost In Love” by New Edition — before GZA announces “Life of a drug dealer” and begins a first-person narrative about a high-stakes kingpin; telling stories about trafficking cocaine and lethal champagne bottles.
The grimy “I Gotcha Back” recaptures the knockaround energy of Wu’s classic “Protect Ya Neck,” as GZA delivers pensive rhymes rife with violent images of dangerous streets.
I was always taught my do's and don'ts / For do's I did, and for don'ts, I said I won't / I'm from Brooklyn, a place where stars are born / Streets are shot up, apartment buildings are torn / And ripped up, stripped up, shacked up and backed up / From fiends, cause the bosses on the scene, they got it cracked up…”
Killah Priest gets a showcase on the infamous album closer “B.I.B.L.E.” which retains its power despite also inviting the kind of cynical smirks at “hoteppery” from more modern listeners. It was initially only included as a bonus track for CD purchases of the album, but served as an excellent exhibition for Wu-affiliate Priest, as he makes plain some Five Percenter teachings while questioning some tenets of Christianity and religion as a whole. Unlike that particular track, GZA’s album left no question.
GZA’s Liquid Swords is three decades old and the album hasn’t lost an iota of its musical and lyrical weight. It sits alongside Only Built 4 Cuban Linx… as arguably the best release in the storied Wu-Tang Clan discography and the album that cements GZA as one of the greats. The cerebral emcee who’d transplanted to Shaolin from Brooklyn never really seemed to want to be a star, but he’d already been primed for a breakout. In establishing his own unique perspective as an artist, and with peerless skill as an emcee, he set a new standard — both for his crew and for anyone who embraced a scholarly approach to street tales. For generations of emcees, he’s been a guide. They’re still working to wrap their minds around words from The Genius.