Legend Of The Liquid Sword
label: mca

producers: bink, arabian 'q-base' knight, allah mathematics, jaz-o, dj muggs, rza, gza, tyquan walker, others.

guests: ghostface killah, rza, masta killa, inspectah deck, prodigal sunn, 12 o'clock, streetlife, governor two's, others.
year of release: 2002
website: liquidswords.com
 
After the Wu has pleasing us with good releases by themselves (i.e. the Wu album) and by Ghostface, you look forward to cracking open the new GZA album and to delve into the tight lyricstry of the Genius they call GZA. And the words are coming on "Animal Planet": "you see the vultures pick the pocket of whatever remain / in the brain we watch but a shadow of the lion's mane / whose roar is loud enough to take the stripes from a zebra / he camouflage his bets and his spots of a cheetah". Mentioning the reason with: "what costs little, is a little worth / so some lose they lives wandering on the wrong turf / from birth they grow up walking the thin line / it's like the jungle sometimes".
And while at some lengths GZA sounds more grounded, with straighter thought pattern, you only come up with this thought for him to sneak out another "this W.itty U.npredictable TA.lent or N.atural G.ame / with non added of slang, it's all actual fact" (on "Auto Bio") or a "watch the river flow backwards once we storm the shore / nigga, mark with razor-sharp eyes of the scope / on the ropes, hanging from the towel and cliffs and slopes" ("Sparring Minds"). And GZA also does the obligatory name dropping "Fame", running through everyone with a name suitable for his rhymes. Then there's also the things go wrong "Did Ya Say That", while on "Silent" GZA goes with Ghostface Killah and Streetlife for the spitting. And there's more of that on "Highway Robbery" and serious venom pours out of "Fam (Members Only)" with RZA and Masta Killa.

tracklisting
1. Intro
2. Auto Bio
3. Did Ya Say That
4. Silent feat. Ghostface Killah & Streetlife
5. Knock, Knock
6. Stay In Line feat. Santi White
7. Animal Planet

8. Fam (Members Only) feat. RZA, Masta Killa
9. Legend Of The Liquid Sword feat. Anthony Allen
10. Fame
11. Highway Robbery feat. Governor Two's
12. Luminal
13. Sparring Minds feat. Inspectah Deck
14. Rough Cut feat. Armel, Prodigal Sunn & 12 O'Clock
15. Uncut Material
On the beat tip "Animal World" and "Auto Bio" succeed with the soul sample, while "Did You Say That" gets an organ going, but to less effect. Things get gritty on "Silent, "Luminal" and the excellent "Sparring Minds", funky and dirty on "Knock, Knock" and forward directed on "Legend Of The Liquid Sword", where Anthony Allen does his best Pharrell Williams impersonation. Finally things get unimpressive on "Rough Cut" by RZA and "Uncut Material" by GZA, while a "Fam (Members Only)" and "Fame" is opting for a too typical sound. What makes you wonder how GZA would sound like, let's say, on a Opus production.
Nevertheless GZA does the vibes we expect from him. And he probably didn't just once "thought of this tune on a blackout guided by the light of the moon / on a camp-out, the kerosene lamp out, so we walked the road we paved / with trails that left vinyl footsteps engraved" ("Sparring Minds"). This album does have that outcast, lonely and dark vibe to it and oftentimes does plenty of good, while barely returning to the classic quality of the initial "Liquid Swords" installment, that truly did "mace write the verse on the walls of cells" (as claimed on "Stay In Line").
review: tadah
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