GZA’s “Liquid Swords”: A 20th Anniversary Retrospective
Decomposing an undisputed classic Rap LP that also happens to be the perfect Winter album…
When the Wu Tang Clan was formed in 1992, it was a direct result of the bad experiences both RZA (formerly Prince Rakeem) and GZA (formerly The Genius) accumulated while being signed to record label deals in 1991. While Prince Rakeem only released an EP on Tommy Boy, The Genius released a full length LP “Words From The Genius” which recieved next to no push from Cold Chillin’/Warner Bros. By 1992, they both were done with their obligations to their former labels but developed an idea that yielded Wu Tang Clan’s debut 12" “Protect Ya Neck”/ “Method Man”. The next year, the Wu Tang Clan released their 1st album on Loud/RCA which kicked off their new careers as members of a group/collective.
Beginning in November 1994, the first of the RZA orchestrated Wu Tang Clan solo LP’s were released. First was Method Man’s “Tical” followed by Old Dirty Bastard’s “Return To The 36 Chambers: The Dirty Version” released in late March 1995 then came Raekwon’s “Only Built 4 Cuban Linx…” in early August 1995. Each album became progressively better and was better recieved than the previous project. The Wu were on a roll and next up to the plate was GZA, who had the advantage of experience on his side plus being present for the creation of the preceding albums. He toiled meticulously on trying to take the cinematic approach Raekwon & Ghostface employed but ramping it up to another level.
Both GZA & Raekwon/Ghostface Killah contributed songs/singles to the original soundtrack of the 1994 film “Fresh” which served as lead singles for their upcoming projects. For Rae & Ghost that was “Heaven & Hell” and for GZA it was “I Gotcha’ Back”. GZA threw himself into writing and recording his forthcoming opus and building with RZA in his basement studio where the bulk of the first round of Wu Tang solo projects were crafted until the final product met his high standards.
GZA recorded his verses over and over again and carefully constructed them over time until the rhymes and production matched the urgency and intensity of a film noir suspense/thriller or a crime film. The dark, somber, heavily detailed, layered super visual aesthetic he wanted to replicate was crucial to relay to the audience as the listener had to suspend belief as if they were watching a movie as opposed to just listening to a cassette tape or a CD.
On October 10th, 1995 GZA released the single “Liquid Swords” on an unsuspecting populace. It was the same day AZ released his debut album “Doe Or Die” and immediately caught on with audiences. It got steady radio play and the video entered the rotation on both MTV & BET. This was crucial as MTV did away with “Yo! MTV Raps” back in August 1995 so GZA’s “Liquid Swords” video was being played in the regular rotation right alongside Smashing Pumpkins, No Doubt, Bush, Silverchair, Goo Goo Dolls, Alanis Morrisette, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Oasis, Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston and Michael Jackson’s latest jawns.
Due to the haunting, eerie sounds of the single and the fact the video was played alongside the popular Rock & Alternative hits of the time, it soon gained favor with that same audience. This resulted in “Liquid Swords” cracking the Billboard Hot 100 and climbing high enough that it entered the Top 50, ultimately peaking at #48. That was certainly a surprise. It not so surprisingly went Top 5 on the Billboard Hot Rap charts, peaking at #3.
The album was released on November 7th, 1995. On that same day Erick Sermon’s “Double Or Nothing” and Goodie Mob’s “Soul Food” also dropped. Two weeks previously Onyx released their sophomore effort “All We Got Iz Us”. The next week The Pharcyde will drop their second album “Labcabincalifornia” and the following week LL Cool J will complete yet another succesful comeback by dropping “Mr. Smith”. Other albums released during this stretch include Mic Geronimo’s “The Natural”, Fat Joe’s “Jealous Ones Envy” and Funkmaster Flex “60 Minutes Of Funk — The Mixtape Vol. 1”.
I do this to provide context for those who weren’t privileged enough to be of record buying age at the time. Also, I do it to let you all know about what the landscape looked like at the time GZA’s album first hit the market so you can better understand its reception. Given the recent wave of online “Rap writers” who feel it’s a good idea to try to downplay the classic Rap releases of the 90’s they’re actually simultaneously revealing how little they know about the period. In order to bridge that gap, I write pieces like these. Now back to the subject at hand…
The psychology of the audience/listener directly relates to the art they consume at the time they ingest it. In November, the days suddenly got darker way sooner following Daylight Savings Time (which switched back on October 29th, 1995) as the Fall season slowly transitioned into Winter. On November 28th, GZA released the Inspectah Deck guested single “Cold World”.
The ominous sounding single would steadily ascend the Rap charts and crack the Top 10 (peaking at #8), enter the R&B charts (peaking at #57) and surprisingly even sneak its way onto the Billboard Hot 100 before stalling at #97. The single’s life was no doubt extended by a brilliant remix featuring D’Angelo at the top of 1996 which gained serious legs on the mixtape circuit, mixshows and college radio.
Both November and December 1995 were rather cold and January 1996 opened up with a huge blizzard all up and down the Eastern Seaboard. This provided the perfect storm (pun unintended) for “Liquid Swords” to gain traction with music fans organically. As the weather got progressively colder more & more people began to gravitate to “Liquid Swords”, it seemed. This isn’t based on sales number provided by Soundscan via a Google search, this was my personal experience from that same time period. I remember this album being the unofficial soundtrack to the entire 1995/96 holiday season.
I traveled to Morgan State University in Baltimore (MD) during that same blizzard just to spend a close to a week snowed in at my new home, O’Connell Hall. That dorm housed athletes, freshmen and thugs (seriously) from New York, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania (mainly Philadelphia & Pittsburgh), Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, D.C. and all over California. One thing they all had in common (even when they beefed over Tupac and Biggie) was they all played GZA’s “Liquid Swords” throughout those cold ass months.
“Liquid Swords” became the official soundtrack of Winter 1995/96 and has become one of the greatest Winter albums ever made due to the early commitment RZA and GZA made to constructing such a dense, haunting project. In January 1996, the RIAA awarded GZA with a plaque denoting his album topped sales in excess of 500,000 units to go Gold.
In March 1996, I remember GZA’s split video for “Shadowboxin’”/”4th Chamber” becoming the Hip Hop Pick on BET’s “Rap City” when it switched to the font that looked like a typewriter. It made perfect sense that RZA & GZA were able to collaborate on such a cinematic project seeing as how they were both accomplished directors themselves.
Their eyes for detail and hyperawareness of the importance of visuals was apparent in the graphic design and packaging of the album (a collaboration between GZA and comic book artist Denys Cowan) and the fact GZA directed all of the videos for “Liquid Swords”. Seems more than fitting seing as how he was the architect of the lyrics he should’ve been the man behind the visuals supporting them.
I have rarely seen an artist execute an album to this level until Kanye West had control of not only his creative process, production and visuals in the early to mid 00’s. Most recently, I was reminded of “Liquid Swords” by KA’s self produced 2012 magnum opus “Grief Pedigree” where he also directed videos for each song.
A testament to the timelessness of “Liquid Swords” is the fact that it finally went Platinum last month, almost 19 years after it initially went Gold. I saw GZA perform this album in its entireity with a live band 3 years ago and it just solidified exactly how concise of a project it was. No matter how many years removed we are from its initial release it still sounds as raw and gritty as it did when it was first removed from the shrinkwrapped plastic and inserted into either the box, Walkman or CD player.
Even to this very day whenever I hear “Duel Of The Iron Mic”, “Killah Hills 10304” or “Swordsman” I’m instantly transported back to those frigid nights playing this cassette in my Walkman. I remember those excursions in cars with “Liquid Swords” playing in the CD player plus all of those days & nights playing Super Nintendo, PlayStation & Sega Saturn in dorm rooms all over Morgan State University with “B.I.B.L.E (Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth”) blaring out of speakers.
When I write, my hope is that the words I agonize over right now will resonate with readers 20 years from now and hopefully even beyond that the same way GZA’s did on “Liquid Swords” which even warrants me writing about it a full generation later. Otherwise, what exactly is the point/allure of creating art that’s disposable? I’ll wait…
