Rap Kumite 9
The Wu-Tang master of the liquid sword vs. the king of avant-garde underground rap.
I took my 20 favorite rappers and put them in head-to-head matchups to battle for their rank in Rap Kumite.
With their massive rap vocabularies, Aesop Rock and GZA are academic MCs from different departments at the Hip-Hop Uni. Aes Rock, Dean of the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences; GZA, Dean of the School of Science (GZA actually gave a lecture at MIT back in 2015). Like true educators, both MCs make you work to catch what they’re saying. You have to take notes, press rewind, and unpack all the figurative language in their lyrics.
Using Wu-Tang slang, swift puns, and sharp metaphors, GZA’s rhymes cut swiftly, with the speed of the Liquid Sword. When he spits something like “An athlete with his iron cleat in the ground/Wireless nigga sprint off the gun sound,” you don’t catch the telecom pun until you go back and hear it again. Even with GZA’s clever use of language, his lyrical creativity appears like mere colloquialisms in comparison to Aesop Rock’s dense metaphors and obscure euphemisms. Their opposite styles make for an interesting matchup, and the fight for Kumite 9 was a lot closer than I expected.
Aesop Rock
“I left some years, a deer in the light/I left some will to spirit away/I let my fears materialize/I let my skills deteriorate.”
His work is unmistakable. He’s the Frank Lloyd-Wright of rap.
Aesop Rock never strayed far from his avant-garde roots, negotiating a lane between making indie music for the sake of being different and making music as a true creative outlet. At first drop, when you hear Aes start rhyming, the avalanche of words can sound incomprehensible. This is a point of criticism about Aes’ style, but it’s misguided. His spirit has been called to rap, and the way he delivers his rhymes sounds like he’s possessed by another entity, or in another realm, like a “Spirit World” flow state, articulating everyday experiences and emotions in hyper-creative rhymes. You might have to pop open Genius to realize that he’s telling you a story, but the effort is worth the reward.
Check out these few bars from the first verse of one of his great bangers, “ZZZ Top”. Allow me to set the context of the track. Ace Rock divulges that it’s about “a younger person discovering what they like.” In the case of the three subjects in “ZZZ Top”, these folks are fans of music groups, and they go on to show how deeply they love these acts imprinting their names on something. Check this verse about a Led Zeppelin fan carving up his desk in class:
Somebody in a cultivated moment of distress/
Composed themselves enough to artfully carve “Zoso” in his desk/
They was probably thinking “fuck you, fuck you, fuck you!” in they head/
With a hell bound arm in a acidy wash/
Homemade curfew a thousand o’clock/
And the pot leaf tattoo his friend did drunk/
Like a badge of mystique though it technically sucked/
There are a million ways to tell a story, and no one in hip-hop does it quite like Aesop Rock.
Favorite Track
“None Shall Pass” is a blistering example of Aes’ breath control, and it remains a staple in my diet along with “Cycles to Ghenna”, the aforementioned “ZZZ Top”, “Rings”, and “The Gates” are on staples in my Aesop Rock diet, which feels like a betrayal to the great work he put out earlier in his career. Labor Days is one of those moments on record when an MC and a producer form one being to create something incredible. It’s universally acclaimed. Aes Rock and Blockhead work well together. Damn near 20 years later, they’re still giving us gems with Garbology. That’s kind of what I’m getting at with all this; Aesop Rock’s music has gotten better over the last decade. Skelethon (which just celebrated its 10-year anniversary), The Impossible Kid, and Spirit World Field Guide slap. That’s a lot of good music, but my favorite from that bin is one of Aes’ more straightforward cuts.
“Blood Sandwich”
It hits different for those who can relate. Aes raps about his brothers (one younger and one older) and separates memories of each brother into verses, weaving the story through the overarching theme repeated in the hook.
I have older and younger brothers, who I love, and sometimes it’ll be a minute before we catch up. So, “just in case of rough waters, I want to put one up for my brothers.”
GZA
“Formed in a very strong advanced post, east to west coast/Ahead of time, competition not even half close.”
If RZA is the head of the Wu-Tang Clan — the brains of the operation — then GZA, The Genius, a scholar, a rap savant and chess Grandmaster — is the spiritual center of the Wu-Tang Clan. His solo masterpiece, Liquid Swords, is one of the greatest hip-hop albums ever made. It is atmospheric, putting us in the dark, foreboding environments of Staten Island, aka Shaolin, in the grimey streets and subways, guided by the master swordsman. GZA took us on a lyrical journey through the Killah Hills, dueling with competition along the way, no one a match for the liquid sword, the blade so sharp that it can decapitate someone while still leaving their head still atop their shoulders. An appropriate metaphor for GZA’s rhymes.
GZA’s Wu-specific slang is part of the allure of listening to any Wu-Tang album. Each of them, especially those they dropped during their Golden Era run of albums, refers back to previous WTC projects. When you listen to them enough, you begin to unlock the Easter eggs in their lyrics. Liquid Swords played a crucial role in further establishing Wu-Tang MCs as a cut above the rest, and GZA is the most formidable MC in the Clan.
Favorite Track
GZA shines on verses in both his solo work and on Wu-Tang Clan projects, but I wanted to emphasize his solo shit. “Labels” is the first in a series of tracks on which GZA takes a concept (like record labels) and writes pun-laden verses around that concept; “Sparring Minds” has GZA and Deck trading verses; “Liquid Swords” the classic opener to the classis album; and the B-side, “Alphabets”, are all dope tracks. His collab with Ras Kass, “Lyrical Swords”, on that Wu-Tang meets the indie culture album slaps, but I have a clear, no doubt favorite GZA track.
“Shadowboxin’”
GZA and Method Man spitting throwing hands over some of RZA’s best production.
That’s all you need to know.
There can only be ONE!
This is Rap Kumite 9, reserved for the 9th spot in my “Top 10”, and because styles matter in fighting and in hip-hop (and because none of the rappers I’m writing about are actually going to kick the shit out of each other), I’m keeping my criteria for victory simple: Whose style do I like more?
GZA
It was close, though. Aesop Rock has a better catalogue of solo work than GZA, but Liquid Swords is one of my favorite albums, and sentiment goes a long way in the realm of subjectivity. Aes Rock put up a valiant effort; he’s earned praise from legendary rappers, but he couldn’t take down this Wu-Tang legend.
Congratulations! The prize is a special place in my heart.
RAP KUMITE
10. Evidence
09. GZA
Next: the ‘Cain Train rolls into Daytona for Rap Kumite 8.
*Previously: Rap Kumite 9: Evidence vs. Slug
