A Quick Hit: Liquid Swords Cut Deep
Liquid Swords (Geffen, 1995)
The classic rap album from a legendary Wu-Tang MC turns 30.
There’s always an anniversary to celebrate when you’re an old feller like me. This year marked the 20th, 25th, and 30th anniversaries of some monumental pieces of media in my biosphere. While I missed the actual anniversary dates of a couple of those works of art, I am on the money with this little shoutout to Liquid Swords, the iconic solo album from Wu-Tang Clan’s genius emcee, GZA. If an alien showed up in my backyard and asked me which single Wu-Tang Clan album it should listen to if it wanted to glean the Clan’s aura, I would point them in the direction of Liquid Swords. An argument can be made for any of the six albums released before Wu-Tang Forever, but Liquid Swords has the type of energy that fueled my favorite Wu-Tang tracks.
RZA was at his creative peak between 1993 and 1996. Armed with both Ensoniq ASR-10 and Ensoniq EPS 16+ samplers, RZA was able to give these albums the dusty, grimey sound they all had. Compare Enter the Wu-Tang… to Forever, and you can hear what I mean. Circumstances necessitated that RZA switched up the way he produced music, but for a four-year stretch, he was about as locked in as any producer could be. He was to Wu-Tang Clan what Dave Roberts is to the L.A. Dodgers: a maestro who knows his guys and knows when to use them. RZA thematically shaped Liquid Swords by sampling lines of dialogue from Shogun Assassin, a samurai revenge mash-up cut of the epic Lone Wolf and Cub movie series. The brilliance behind this maneuver is that RZA knew GZA would create his rhymes to match where the dialogue samples were guiding the tracks, and GZA hadn’t even seen the movie from which these samples came. Yet, he managed to weave his lyrics into RZA’s sonic vision for the album. They were in perfect synergy here.
GZA is a wordsmith, and he packs lyrics into dense bars of solid gold rhyme. He is meticulous in his writing method, and the attention to detail is what stands out in Liquid Swords. Here are the hottest bars from my favorite songs on the album.
1. “Liquid Swords”
Fake niggas get flipped in mic fights
I swing swords and cut clowns
Shit is too swift to bite, you record and write it down
I flow like the blood on a murder scene
Like a syringe, on some wild-out shit to insert a fiend
But it was your op’ to shop stolen art
Catch a swollen heart from not rollin’ smart
GZA’s rhymes are relentless. They are filled with iconic boasts and metaphors, and his bars on “Liquid Swords”, the opening track, are a masterclass in establishing the tone for this album.
2. “4th Chamber”
I learned much from such, swift cons and run scams
Veterans got they game spiced like ham
And from that, sons are born and guns are drawn
Clips are fully loaded, and then blood floods the lawn
Disciplinary action was a fraction of strength
That made me truncate the length one tenth
Woofers thump, tweeters hiss like air pumps
RZA shaved the track, niggas caught razor bumps
This track is stacked with legendary bars from Ghostface Killah, Killah Priest, and RZA, but it’s GZA’s calm and calculated threat that gives the track its ominous vibe.
3. “Shadowboxin’”
I slayed MC’s back in the rec room era
My style broke motherfucking backs like Ken Patera
Most rap niggas came loud but unheard
Once I pulled out, round ‘em off to the nearest third
Check these non-visual niggas with tapes and a portrait
Flood the seminar trying to orbit this corporate
Industry but what them niggas can’t see
Must break through, like the Wu, unexpectedly
GZA and Method Man going back and forth on another Wu team-up track with one of the illest beats RZA has ever produced. Method Man drops the best verse of his epic career, and GZA just attacks another track like the Michael Myers of rap.
I had the good fortune of seeing GZA perform Liquid Swords in its entirety back in January. He had a live band backing him up, and the dude still has it. He’s pushing 60, so the show started and ended on time (just before 10pm, so all the Millennials and Gen-Xers in the crowd could go to bed at a decent hour). But, GZA didn’t miss a lyric and even sprinkled in a few additional WTC songs to round out his set. As it turned out, I got to see him again in June with the Wu-Tang Clan during their “Final Chamber” tour. He can get lost on stage among the bigger stars in the group, but he casts the largest shadow when it comes to raw emcee ability.
Liquid Swords remains a beautifully dark listen and a testament to true artistry in the genre all these years later.
