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Genius/GZA - Liquid Swords
(Geffen/MCA Records; 1995)
Liquid Swords begins with the voice of a small child talking about his father being the greatest samurai in the empire who is now being pursued by the Shogun. The vocal sample, taken from Japanese film Shogun Assassin, sets an ominous tone. While the first self-titled track is traditional Wu-Tang fare featuring RZA’s trademark minimalistic production, Liquid Swords’ production becomes more ambitious as the album progresses, often employing synthesizers more often than samples. Even though it is a GZA solo album, all the other members of the Wu-Tang Clan make frequent appearances.
Shogun Assassin samples appear several more times and not only to set the mood, but serve as inspiration since the film used a heavy moog synthesizer soundtrack. Lyrically, the tracks touch on samurai themes and frequently feature brag-raps about the Wu-Tang Clan’s MCing skills (“Liquid Swords,” “Duel of the Iron Mic,” “Living in the World Today”) but the real standouts are the drug-world storytelling (“Killah Hills 10304,” “Cold World”) and the clever wordplay (“Labels”).
Trial track: “Killah Hills 10304”
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