#59: GZA — Liquid Swords (1995)
New York, NY — Geffen Records
GZA, the Genius! Hip-hop’s favorite comic book nerd, martial arts flick connoisseur, chess aficionado and rhyme savant, all at once, straight outta Brooklyn with his second ever solo project, Liquid Swords. As you may know, Wu-Tang Clan’s many members didn’t waste time after their earth-shattering 1993 group debut, Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers), and immediately got to working on their solo projects, still in a tight collaborative formation, and it wasn’t long before they were all making waves in the east coast scene; Swords remains one of the most illustrious Wu releases from that first era of theirs.
Now, GZA had already released a solo album, 1991’s Words From the Genius, which was not successful and thus prompted him to join Wu-Tang. I haven’t jammed that one, so I can’t really attest to his evolution since then, but I have jammed 36 Chambers quite a few times, and I can tell you that G is still on that absolute roll he’d started two years prior; pretty much everything in here is top notch, from the beats to raps to the general encompassing idea, and Swords is not your run-of-the-mill mid 90s east coast boom-bap record, as you can guess by the cover art. Drawn by comic book artist Denys Cowan, it portrays two different teams of armed, hooded warriors engaging in bloody battle over a giant chessboard, with a clear advantage to the black “pieces”. And these are all common themes in this record, either as in general philosophical concepts or witty, ingenious and abundant metaphors, similes and images.
I’ve already said that this album is very strong on pretty much every front alright, but if I had to pick one highlight I think it would be GZA’s lyricism. It’s no joke: his level of wordplay, the creativity, the sheer density of mind-bending bars all throughout, the ease with which he conjures them up… It’s surely some of the best we’ve seen so far, reminiscent of KMD’s wild creativity, Black Moon’s realness and Organized Konfusion’s technical mastery (and occasional unintelligible nerdy ass verse if I’m being honest), with a bonus serving of a Main Source-esque effortless, free-flowing vibe to boot. GZA’s performance, I think, compliments his bars’ density nicely: it’s loose, low-key, almost sleazy at times, which, along with his husky, slightly stodgy voice, gives it all some nice contrast, even if it can get a little bit grating from time to time.
One of my personal favorites is found in the chorus of Living in the World Today: “Well, if you like the way it sound, then clap, man”. It’s simple, straightforward and easily missed: it might be referring to clapping your hands for a song you like, or shooting a weapon because you like how it sounds, that is, because you’ve already become a ruthless killer and didn’t even notice. He doesn’t rub it in your face, but it’s still right there and you can easily perceive it, provided you just keep your ears open. Still on the theme of effortlessness, G’s writing does really remind me of Main Source’s Large Professor. Quoting my aforementioned review of Breaking Atoms, I said that:
The rapping is clever, technical in structure yet loose in feel, and I feel like subtle is the key word here: Prof seldom goes into extravagant diatribes and flexy sections, rather keeping a varied yet steady rhythm and letting the cohesiveness of his bars and flows speak for themselves (and) quietly and efficiently do their thing and win you over through discrete rather than harsh mechanisms […] he enriches it with elaborate metaphors, similes and entendres, in a way that’s neither overwhelmingly crafty and cerebral nor empty and self-serving. For me it hits dead center in a sweet spot between complexity and simplicity.
This is something I really value in rap, even though I seldom talk about it. There’s nothing wrong with unabashedly flexing your skills and making it the whole point of your rapping as a whole, but it’s just that much nicer when they’re just unassumingly sitting there, open for you to pick up on them and have your mind blown, or just as very effective helpers to the general storytelling of it. And that is another strong characteristic of Liquid Swords: the narratives present in it, both as an all-encompassing concept and track-specific stories. The intro greets us with a monologue from Shogun Assassin, an 80s movie based on the manga Lone Wolf and Cub (which is incredible, by the way), and such skits and interludes keep appearing all throughout, making it clear that there is a general theme with martial arts, both literally and metaphorically; nothing new, given Wu-Tang Clan’s nerdiness about ninjas and shit, but it’s there.
I’m gonna make one more comparison to a previously reviewed album, and I promise it’s the last one. If we move back some years to 1989, we’ll be greeted by Kool G Rap & DJ Polo’s Road to Riches, a solid record if memory serves me right. Now, in that review, I had mentioned how Road is an early example of something called mafioso rap, the east coast’s “…response to California’s gangsta rap […] mafioso rap, as the name implies, references the east coast’s particular brand of organized crime and racketeering […] while also being somewhat grittier and more gloom”. If Kool and Polo’s debut effort displayed some seeds and saplings of this, Liquid Swords is a fully grown orchard. Grim, blood-chilling references to violent murder, heinous crimes and dangerous schemes are found all throughout, crafted and developed into full-blown narratives. G himself said that the whole concept he was working with starts in the title itself:
…that shit really happened, but I’m trying to make it more visual. Liquid Swords is a concept of being lyrically sharp, flowing like liquid metal […] Wu-Tang is a sword style, and this here is the sharpest. I’d rather slip on the pavement than slip on my tongue. [source]
A fair number of tracks in here consist of that good old bragging for its own sake, but there are many songs developed around stories and narratives, such as Hell’s Wind Staff/Killah Hills 10304 and Gold. His storytelling style is meandering and highly picturesque, making for a somewhat more difficult but that much wilder ride. And one other thing I loved about this is how most if not all tracks have one or many guest features, something that greatly enriches this record as a whole, but GZA is still always at the forefront, never ceasing to be the protagonist of his whole movie, with his Wu-Tang buddies providing some nice support and variety but not stealing the show.
Finally, let’s move on to the production. As is usual with Wu-Tang Clan member and affiliate releases, all beats were handled by G’s cousin RZA, who did a great job. The tunes in Liquid Swords are a little off the curve, relatively to RZA’s other work: while his usual stuff is jazzy and full of little trills and riffs, a lot of the beats in here are very much more toned-down, lowkey, sometimes consisting of literally a quasi-ambient sample loop layered with simple drums and nothing more, like the ones in Labels and Swordsman, with a few more that are simply weird as all hell, like 4th Chamber and Gold, and a number that are just cold, impersonal and sometimes absolutely gorgeous, such as Cold World and Duel of the Iron Mic. None of them, however, is overbearing or excessive, and GZA is always comfortable to rap his heart away without being constrained to a tight rhythm.
Liquid Swords is known as one of the greatest Wu-Tang Clan solo releases for good reason. I often use the term solid to describe an album that’s good on all fronts but not mind-blowing in any. While Swords is undeniably strong in all aspects, its solidity amounts to more than just that; it extends to the feeling you get, the consistency of the vibe and the stories shown in here. Listening to it feels like watching a movie for the first time, and it’s one of those that start out pretty unassuming and end up becoming a little more than you bargained for and you can’t help but be a little disturbed by it, but it still effortlessly mesmerizes and draws you in.
Favorite tracks
Living In The World Today: amazing rhyme engineering and straight up menacing beat, with rapping that doesn’t let go of the ball at any point. No wonder it’s widely considered one of their best junts. “My rhyme gross weight vehicle combination/ Was too heavy for the Chevy’s, is chased out the station/ Double-edged was the guillotine that beheaded it/ Gassed up, fuckin’ with some regular unleaded shit”
Gold: yet another beat that makes you feel like some heavy shit’s gonna go down real soon and some masterful crime and hustle-themed storytelling, with some of GZA’s most imagistic and metaphorical lyrics at the same time. “Peeped my convo, the address of my condo/ And how I changed a nigga name to John Doe/ And while we set up camp, we got vamped/ Put the stake through his heart, I ripped his fucking fangs apart […] Who promised his moms a mansion with mad room/ She died and he still put a hundred grand in her tomb/ Open wounds, he hid behind closed doors/ And still organizes crime and drug wars”
Cold World (feat. LifeLines & Inspectah Deck): an underappreciated heater from Liquid Swords in my opinion, it features one of the best beats in this record, some great first-person storytelling and an unexpected but amusing Stevie Wonder-interpolating chorus sung by one of GZA’s cousins, who was apparently just fucking around in the studio and ended up getting dragged into the song. “Babies cryin’, brothers dyin’ and brothers gettin’ knocked/ Shit is deep on the block/ And you got me locked down in this cold, cold world […] You witness the saga, casualties and drama/ Life is a script — I’m not an actor but the author of a modern-day opera/ Where the main character is presidential papers, the dominant factor”
