20 Years On: Angus Batey On Liquid Swords By GZA
- Thread starter IronFist
- Start date
JayBaldacci
All Star
I thought priest got him on the title track
up for the fans
I love Latina women
Veteran
great read 
GZA Gives Wu-Tang Clan First Platinum Album In More Than A Decade
GZA’s follow-up Beneath The Surface went gold in 1999. Like 1995, it was a banner year for Wu-Tang Clan in terms of RIAA awards, with gold status for new albums from Ol’ Dirty b*stard (N**** Please), Raekwon (Immobilarity), and RZA (Bobby Digital In Stereo) in addition to GZA. The certifications continued on the other side of the millennium, with platinum plaques for the group’s third full-length The W and Method Man’s collaborative Blackout album with New Jersey native Redman, both honored in 2000. That same year, Ghostface Killah’s Supreme Clientele went gold within a month of its release. The group’s fourth outing, 2001′s Iron Flag, did so as well.
Though it doesn’t match the Wu-Tang Clan’s sales king, the quadruple platinum Wu-Tang Forever, GZA’s Liquid Swords remains one a favorite among hip-hop fans and critics alike. Featuring a dozen beats from producer RZA, the album proved a logical extension of the group’s signature sound, blending samples from old kung fu movies and dusty records into gritty albeit robust instrumentals designed to support GZA’s dextrous wordplay. Arguably the Wu-Tang Clan’s most verbose emcee, GZA graciously shares the mic here with each of the group’s members, making for rap classics like “4th Chamber” and “Shadowboxin’.”
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In an interview this summer with The Guardian, GZA described the recording sessions in intimate terms:
“Making an album was a great feeling, and there were many hours in RZA’s house, in his basement, and hours of beat playing. We were still in our early stage, so there was so much support from everyone. I was doing the album, and every now and then a Clan member would come through, Rae would be there one day or Ghost another. It was just fun.”
While rap remains a fluid genre with evolving aesthetics, Liquid Swords has endured as one of its essential releases, typically ranking well in both critical and fan-made lists of the best hip-hop albums of the 1990s. In 2012, a limited edition deluxe version replete with actual chess set prompted Pitchfork to give the album Best New Reissue status and an incredibly rare 10.0 rating. In recent years, GZA has taken to performing Liquid Swords in concert start to finish, backed by a full band. These live performances and festival appearances no doubt aided the album’s gradual sales climb that led to this year’s platinum finish.
GZA’s long-awaited new solo album Dark Matter is expected in 2016.
GZA Gives Wu-Tang Clan First Platinum Album In More Than A Decade
GZA’s follow-up Beneath The Surface went gold in 1999. Like 1995, it was a banner year for Wu-Tang Clan in terms of RIAA awards, with gold status for new albums from Ol’ Dirty b*stard (N**** Please), Raekwon (Immobilarity), and RZA (Bobby Digital In Stereo) in addition to GZA. The certifications continued on the other side of the millennium, with platinum plaques for the group’s third full-length The W and Method Man’s collaborative Blackout album with New Jersey native Redman, both honored in 2000. That same year, Ghostface Killah’s Supreme Clientele went gold within a month of its release. The group’s fourth outing, 2001′s Iron Flag, did so as well.
Though it doesn’t match the Wu-Tang Clan’s sales king, the quadruple platinum Wu-Tang Forever, GZA’s Liquid Swords remains one a favorite among hip-hop fans and critics alike. Featuring a dozen beats from producer RZA, the album proved a logical extension of the group’s signature sound, blending samples from old kung fu movies and dusty records into gritty albeit robust instrumentals designed to support GZA’s dextrous wordplay. Arguably the Wu-Tang Clan’s most verbose emcee, GZA graciously shares the mic here with each of the group’s members, making for rap classics like “4th Chamber” and “Shadowboxin’.”
Recommended by Forbes
Wu-Tang Taps Paddle8 Auction House To Sell Secret Album
In an interview this summer with The Guardian, GZA described the recording sessions in intimate terms:
“Making an album was a great feeling, and there were many hours in RZA’s house, in his basement, and hours of beat playing. We were still in our early stage, so there was so much support from everyone. I was doing the album, and every now and then a Clan member would come through, Rae would be there one day or Ghost another. It was just fun.”
While rap remains a fluid genre with evolving aesthetics, Liquid Swords has endured as one of its essential releases, typically ranking well in both critical and fan-made lists of the best hip-hop albums of the 1990s. In 2012, a limited edition deluxe version replete with actual chess set prompted Pitchfork to give the album Best New Reissue status and an incredibly rare 10.0 rating. In recent years, GZA has taken to performing Liquid Swords in concert start to finish, backed by a full band. These live performances and festival appearances no doubt aided the album’s gradual sales climb that led to this year’s platinum finish.
GZA’s long-awaited new solo album Dark Matter is expected in 2016.
GZA Gives Wu-Tang Clan First Platinum Album In More Than A Decade
These pieces are cool but they never talk about the other albums in the artist's discography. I am over reading these as they all try to find ways thread the same path. I want someone to do a piece on Grandmasters. Write about an album that isn't already cemented.
Big Mel
@bigboss
I liked it a lot. Obviously not Liquid Swords level but for a second wave Wu release with limited Rza it was pretty damn good. I still play it.
JayBaldacci
All Star
I listened to Legend of the Liquid Sword last night. I think that's his second best.
Big Mel
@bigboss
i be honestly forgetting i make certain threads props on upping this though.
Grandmasters is also a monster. I went to see liquid swords performed live in its entity. That was ill.
cant believe LS finally went plat, broke Ghost's record for longest time between gold and plat certs
i dont think Cuban has hit plat yet, which is a crime against humanity
i dont think Cuban has hit plat yet, which is a crime against humanity
ManBearPig
half man half bearpig
It was the night before New Year's, and all through the fukking projects
Not a handgun was silent, not even a Tec
Outside as I'm stuck, by enemies who put fear
and blasted on the spot before the pigs were there
You know hoods robbers snipers new in sight, fukk blue and white
They escape before them flash the fukking lights
Gunshots, shatter first floor window panes
Shells hit the ground and blood stained the dice game
Whether broke callisthenic, any style you set it
Beat nikkaz toothless, physically cut up like gooses
But with iron on the sides thugs took no excuses
Therefore, your fifty-two handblocks was useless
Links was snatched off necks, scars on throats
Jackets took, after bullet rips through coats
Against those who felt the cold from the steel made em fold
and squeal, once the metal hit the temple of his grill
Destruction worker, who was caught for his bomber
No time to swing the hammer that was hanging from his Farmer's
And it's bugged how some nikkaz catch slugs
and pockets dug from everything except check stubs
and it does, sound ill like wars in Brownsville
Or fatal robberies in Red Hook where Feds look
For fugitives to shoot cops, nikkaz laying on roof tops
for his cream he stashed in a shoebox
But he was hot, and the strip was filled with young killers
you don't suspect, so cops creep like caterpillars
And born thieves stay hooded with extra bullets
those who try to flee they hit the vertebrae, increase the murder rate
Similar to hit men who pull out Tecs and then
drop those who crack like tacos from Mexican
Rapid, like recipients cashing cheques again
Back to the motherfukkign spot on Lexington
Not a handgun was silent, not even a Tec
Outside as I'm stuck, by enemies who put fear
and blasted on the spot before the pigs were there
You know hoods robbers snipers new in sight, fukk blue and white
They escape before them flash the fukking lights
Gunshots, shatter first floor window panes
Shells hit the ground and blood stained the dice game
Whether broke callisthenic, any style you set it
Beat nikkaz toothless, physically cut up like gooses
But with iron on the sides thugs took no excuses
Therefore, your fifty-two handblocks was useless
Links was snatched off necks, scars on throats
Jackets took, after bullet rips through coats
Against those who felt the cold from the steel made em fold
and squeal, once the metal hit the temple of his grill
Destruction worker, who was caught for his bomber
No time to swing the hammer that was hanging from his Farmer's
And it's bugged how some nikkaz catch slugs
and pockets dug from everything except check stubs
and it does, sound ill like wars in Brownsville
Or fatal robberies in Red Hook where Feds look
For fugitives to shoot cops, nikkaz laying on roof tops
for his cream he stashed in a shoebox
But he was hot, and the strip was filled with young killers
you don't suspect, so cops creep like caterpillars
And born thieves stay hooded with extra bullets
those who try to flee they hit the vertebrae, increase the murder rate
Similar to hit men who pull out Tecs and then
drop those who crack like tacos from Mexican
Rapid, like recipients cashing cheques again
Back to the motherfukkign spot on Lexington
ManBearPig
half man half bearpig
ManBearPig
half man half bearpig
The 10th year anniversary of that album is this month.