Step Five: GZA: Liquid Swords

Artist:  GZA
Album:  Liquid Swords
Release Date:  November 7, 1995
Producer:  RZA

Review:  Liquid Swords opens with a lengthy dialogue clip from the samurai classic Shogun Assassin, which is the first in a series of films in the Lone Wolf and Cub series.  In it, a paranoid shogun in feudal Japan sends his henchmen to kill his best assassin, fearful that he will turn on the shogun one day.  The henchmen kill his wife instead and he takes his infant son on the road with him.  Dialogue from the movie appears regularly throughout the album and sets a weighty tone throughout its 55-minute runtime.

Liquid Swords is the first album since Enter the Wu-Tang to feature all nine original members of Wu-Tang Clan, but even more exciting is that this is the fifth straight album by the Wu family to be practically flawless.  Granted, by this point in time any Wu fan would have a good idea of what to expect from RZA's production, but that doesn't detract from the sound.  For example, I've already commented nearly every week about the horn-heavy funk- and soul-inspired beats RZA often concocts but that doesn't make the music for "Living in the World Today" or "I Gotcha Back" any less fantastic.  It wasn't broke and RZA didn't fix it.  I'm especially partial to the jazzy piano on "Duel of the Iron Mic" and the beat on "Labels."  Another interesting note on Liquid Swords' musical side is that along with Only Built 4 Cuban Linx..., it's the second album in a row for which RZA didn't hire an engineer or assistant engineer to assist in the recording process.  It's all him from front to back once again, and both these albums are often regarded as the best of the 65+ albums on the Map of Shaolin.

There are plenty of highlights throughout the record.  GZA wisely incorporates some hooks with RZA on backing vocals, including "I Gotcha Back" and "Liquid Swords," which translate well to a live show - in fact, GZA has been quoted as saying the hook for "Liquid Swords" is a routine from club shows that he, RZA and Ol' Dirty Bastard performed in the mid-'80s.  The subwoofer-busting bass fills "Shadowboxin'," which brings a facet of RZA's sound that would later repeat in "Fast Shadow" for the Ghost Dog soundtrack - listening to the two back to back, they sound almost as if one is a musical outtake of the other.  "Swordsman" is an exceptionally dark track with wavering keyboards and rugged drums and one to watch out for; it also would have been comfortable on Tical.

GZA is often referred to as the strongest lyricist in the group, and that's easy to see with Liquid Swords.  Consider the chess metaphor in "Gold" - "He got swung on, his lungs was torn / The kingpin just castled with his rook and lost a pawn."  The song is a gangland story and GZA perfectly fits in a metaphor about one side's king (here, a drug kingpin) using a move called "castling" with his rook - in which the king switches places with the rook to avoid danger - before losing a pawn, which is obviously an unimportant piece.  GZA is saying that a death that's occurred in the tale occurred because a drug kingpin ducked out of a dangerous situation, left his subordinates to suffer the fallout and let a low-level member of his group get killed.  And GZA has always been a chess fanatic - he released a solo album in 2005 called Grandmasters in which every song uses chess metaphors in its verses.  Deep lyrics like the castling metaphor in "Gold" are typical of GZA's style and earn him the nickname "The Genius."

I mentioned "Labels" earlier as a musical favorite, and it's also the first of three tracks to use a clever acronym in its lyrics:  "The capitol of this rugged slang is Wu-Tang / Witty Unpredictable Talent And Natural Game."  A similar line follows in "4th Chamber" by RZA, who spits "Protons Electrons Always Cause Explosions."  Third, in "I Gotcha Back," GZA says "What's the meaning of Crime? / Is it Criminals Robbin' Innocent Motherfuckers Every time?  The other accolade "Labels" deserves is its amazingly smooth inclusion of countless record labels in its rhymes, starting with Tommy Boy ("Tommy ain't my motherfuckin' Boy") and also including Def Jam, Epic, East West, Jive, Atco, Mercury, Death Row, Tuff City, Jive, Sleeping Bag, Uptown, 4th and Broadway, Columbia, Interscope, RCA, Atlantic, Arista, Motown, Geffen and CBS.

Which brings us to "4th Chamber," a fan favorite featuring a grimy beat and verses from Ghostface Killah, Killah Priest (who seems to be channeling Masta Killa here), RZA and GZA.  RZA's lyrics feature some of the government-fearing paranoia familiar to Wu fans:

"A hit was sent from the President to raid your residence
Because you had secret evidence and documents
About how they raped the continents and lynched the prominent
Dominant Islamic Asiatic black Hebrew."

The guest spots throughout Liquid Swords are so strong (including a later appearance by Raekwon) that GZA could've found himself lost in the mix if he weren't so exceptional in his own right.  He even manages to stand his own when up against the buttery-smooth Method Man verses in "Shadowboxin'."  GZA's verse here ends with a shout-out to his cousin RZA and a confidence that the Wu murder the mic: "Set the lynching and form the execution date / As this two thousand beyond slang suffocate / Amplify samples through vacuum tubes compressions / Cause RZA to charge niggas 20 G's a session."  If "Gold" gave us a peek into the future with GZA's chess-obsessed album Grandmasters, this analysis of a drum machine's innards foreshadow GZA's upcoming science concept record Dark Matter as much as his tech-titled release Pro Tools.  However, it's much easier to see Genius's genius in its full scope, and his purely solo tracks are evidence of that.  The aforementioned "Gold," "Labels" and "Swordsman" evidence GZA's standalone chops, as does his last proper song, "I Gotcha Back" - the last of which was released as a single a full year before Liquid Swords hit the store shelves.  The album's final track, "Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth," is a solo track by Killah Priest - just as Raekwon gave Ghostface his own spotlight with "Wisdom Body" on Cuban Linx... and Ghost then gives Raekwon his own solo track "The Faster Blade" on Ghost's 1996 debut Ironman.

All in all, Liquid Swords is a brilliant, concise solo effort that may be the emotionally heaviest album the Wu had released by that point.  Tical sounded pretty dark with its musical production, but few of its verses compare to the true story in "Hell's Wind Staff / Killah Hills 10304" about the young man smuggling a kilo of cocaine into the states by having it surgically implanted in his leg.  If you're looking for a legendary Wu solo album but Raekwon's mafioso rap isn't your style, this is the album to own.

Legacy:  Like the others before him, GZA set the bar for himself pretty damn high by releasing this album.  It frequently ranks highly on "Best Hip-Hop Albums of All Time" lists, having earned increased respect over the years.  The stakes are still high for Dark Matter despite a 20-year gap between it and Liquid Swords.  Two albums after the original Liquid Swords he offered Legend of the Liquid Sword, which some criticized as an insincere effort, but next to the flawlessness of Liquid Swords, it would be nearly impossible to bottle lightning a second time.  Having said that, I feel any stumbling critics may see in his albums Legend of the Liquid Sword or Beneath the Surface come close to being retroactively erased by the on-point Grandmasters and Pro Tools.  GZA announced years ago that he's working on Liquid Swords 2, perhaps hoping to match the success that Raekwon had with Only Built 4 Cuban Linx...Pt. 2, and until it comes out, all we can do is hope.

Recommended Tracks:  Once again (but maybe for the last time), pretty much every song on this album is fantastic.  Check the mash-up video for "Shadowboxin' / 4th Chamber" first to see how GZA plays with others, then "Liquid Swords" to check how he stands on his own.

Next Week:  Ghostface Killah: Ironman.

Step Four: Raekwon: Only Built 4 Cuban Linx

Artist:  Raekwon the Chef
Album:  Only Built 4 Cuban Linx...
Release Date:  August 1, 1995
Producer:  RZA

Review:  Kung-fu movies may help set the tone for the average Wu-Tang affiliate project, but Raekwon's Only Built 4 Cuban Linx... could be called the closest thing to a concept album so far on the Map of Shaolin.  The story goes that Raekwon and Ghostface (who appears on the album nearly as much as Rae) transition from being petty New York thugs to setting up a future, even if that means doing so illegally.  The album begins with a skit where Raekwon discusses getting a better deal wholesaling drugs; similar skits are peppered throughout the album.  For example, the remix of "Can it Be All So Simple" opens with Rae catching a thief stealing from his operation; Raekwon gets shot trying to bust up the robbery.  "Wu-Gambinos" starts with RZA receiving a call from Ghostface Killah, informing him that a man who's just arrived for an illicit deal is tied to a criminal who's been caught and is "singing like a canary" at a nearby police station.  Furthermore, the already-nickname-laden Wu-Tang Clan and other guest stars receive extra aliases to sound like mobsters for their appearances on this album:  RZA is Bobby Steels, Raekwon is Lou Diamond, Masta Killa is Noodles, Cappadonna is Cappachino, Nas is Nas Escobar, U-God is Lucky Hands and Inspectah Deck is Rollie Fingers.  Continuing with pre-existing names from their earlier careers, GZA is The Genius, Method Man is Johnny Blaze and Ghostface is Tony Starks (the latter two after the Marvel Comics characters of the same name).  GZA is also referred to as Maximillian, referencing (alongside Masta Killa's "Noodles") the gangster film Once Upon a Time in America.

Understanding the Scarface-style conceit of Cuban Linx helps understand just part of what made this album so influential, but more on that later.  It also runs the length of the album and lends an air of realistic fiction to the disc.  If we imagine the pinstripe suits and mountains of cocaine associated with films like The Godfather and Scarface, respectively, RZA's smoother beats and lighter pianos fit like a glove.  It's no wonder there are so many samples from the John Woo assassin movie The Killer throughout the album.  RZA has admitted in interviews that he spent close to four years in his basement studio, working on production for Enter the Wu-Tang, Tical, Return to the 36 Chambers, Only Built 4 Cuban Linx, Liquid Swords and Ironman.  This led to a consistent but never repetitious sound across all six albums.  Cuban Linx's proper music starts with a bang (literally) on "Knuckleheadz," a popping and buttery-smooth hip-hop joint followed by a triple threat of gang-related Wu bangers - "Knowledge God," "Criminology" and "Incarcerated Scarfaces."  RZA's beats turn to a beautiful wariness on "Rainy Dayz," which features an unforgettable violin line; more strings and a curious guitar follow on "Guillotine (Swordz)."

On the first half of the album, there are plenty of great lyrics waiting to pounce on the listener - especially from the guest stars.  "Knuckleheadz" alone provides some great lines:  Ghost's verse starts with references to the yakuza ("chop his fingers in the drug game,"a punishment for mistakes by gang members) and The Killer ("lead singer, humdinger, flash is the aftermath" referring to the nightclub singer who is blinded by a gunshot in the beginning of the film); U-God blasts off with a tongue-twister: "The rap scar is on, rap parmesan / Put it on, seal it on; we're silicone / Spark it to your talkathon, this rap phenomenon."  "Rainy Dayz" is a great moody piece that finds the return of Blue Raspberry, who provided the interpolation of "I Will Survive" on Method Man's "Release Yo' Delf."  Here, Blue Raspberry provides beautiful, original vocals about her man going insane from the life of a criminal.  "Guillotine (Swordz)," my personal favorite on the first half, provides perfect space for Inspectah Deck to unleash yet another mind-blowing verse as well.  His spot opens with "Poisonous paragraphs smash the phonograph in half / It be the Inspectah Deck on the warpath."  He's giving himself a shout-out - which you come to expect in hip-hop - but implying that his lyrics (paragraphs) infect your body like a poison and are strong enough to break the record (smash the phonograph in half).  Great rhyming.  None of this is to imply that Rae is outshone by his contemporaries, though.  The Chef brings it to the table on every track - "Incarcerated Scarfaces" and "Knowledge God" are 100% solo tracks that stand well on their own, with "Incarcerated Scarfaces" receiving considerable airplay despite never being a single.

At the midway point in the album, RZA returns to the eerie, murky beats reminiscent of Tical with "Ice Water," which also marks the first-ever guest spot of the unofficial 10th Wu-general, Cappadonna. Cappadonna is known for his odd line breaks and spread-out imagery, and he shows initial traces of that on "Ice Water" with the following:

"Donna holy fat bags of weed, ravioli
Pasta, bodyguard the killa bees
songs like Kevin Costner
Infrared all inside your bumbo
Rasta, Cappadonna pimp the derby like a mobster."

If that sounds a bit freeform, look at it again using the words "pasta," "Costner," "rasta" and "mobster" as the anchor points.  They rhyme, but they land at such strange places on each beat (as is shown by the structure I used above) that it's easy to be thrown off by them, unlike his earlier clearly-structured couplet "Sipping on Moet, laid up, Rae-Gambino / Mastermind the plan, Tony Starks, Cappachino."  Cappadonna has been a "love him or hate him" voice since debuting on this song.

Blue Raspberry returns on "Glaciers of Ice," which also features Masta Killa - one of the most mysterious members of the Clan.  Masta Killa smuggles in some deep thoughts before slipping back into the shadows, e.g. "Violent temperaments left continents dented / Poison vintage wine rhymes I invented / Drunk by the drunken punches that puncture the heart / Vital sparks from the arteries start."  Nas guest stars on "Verbal Intercourse" alongside Rae and Ghost.  "Wisdom Body," a Ghostface solo track, brings back a great staple of RZA's production - old-school soul music, specifically in its jazzy New York piano.  Before RZA's self-described "closing credits" song "North Star (Jewels)" that ends the album/story, the NYC jazz piano from "Wisdom Body" goes a lot more uptempo for two of the album's best tracks - "Ice Cream" and "Wu-Gambinos."  The active and engaging drums, bass, piano and string sounds go to great lengths to set the Wu family up for some of the finest verses of the '90s.  "Ice Cream," the album's third single, boasts a hook from Method Man that sticks in your head for days along with the music behind it, but Ghostface's opening lines (once again) kill it.  "Yo honey dip, summertime fine jewelry drippin' / Seen you on Pickens with a bunch of chickens how you're cliquing" translates from Wu slang into an anecdote of Ghost making his moves on a beautiful, diamond-wearing girl on Pickens Ave. in Brooklyn surrounded by either 1) several low-class, promiscuous women or 2) cowardly men.  Then "Wu-Gambinos," my other personal favorite, lights off an intensely loquacious verse from The RZA himself in his only lyrical guest spot on the album.  RZA's style has only gotten more unique and intelligent over the years, but when he spits his fast and conspiratorial lyrics on "Wu-Gambinos," it's easy to see he's always had it in him.  "Double-breasted, bulletproof vested, well-protected / The heart, the ribcage, the chest and solar plexus / Casting stones, breaking two hundred and six bones / And watch your ass get blown to a sea of fire and brimstone," he states, followed later by "Local biochemical, universal giant, the black general / Lickin' shots at Davy Crockett on the bicentennial."  It's a flurry of Biblical, criminal and biological warfare imagery that depicts the stakes of the attempted characters' heists and coups before the album settles to its logical finale.

In short?  Only Built 4 Cuban Linx... is regarded alongside GZA's Liquid Swords as being the best solo album from the Wu, and with good reason.  It's a 73-minute mindfuck of fantastic music and Grade-AAA lyrics.

Legacy:  The Italian mafioso theme of Cuban Linx has been imitated and echoed by rappers for close to 20 years.  It's one of the premier albums to associate hard gang life as something more than utter chaos and degradation, likening it to the strategic and psychological power playing of the classic mobster.  Cuban Linx is such a perfect album in music and lyrics that some critics and listeners trashed Rae's sophomore release, Immobilarity, simply for not being another hour of the same.  Rae had such big shoes to fill from his own debut that he would spend the better part of the 2000s just working on the sequel, Only Built 4 Cuban Linx Pt. 2.  Many critics have hailed Cuban Linx as one of the greatest rap albums of all time.  It is an absolute must-own for any hip-hop listener in general, let alone a Wu-Tang fan.  If you don't own it already, shame on you.  If you do, pull it out and give it another listen.  If you're already listening, turn it up.  This is the sound of the industry changing forever.

Recommended Tracks:  All of them, really, but you shouldn't put away whichever device on which you're reading this until you've heard "Guillotine (Swordz)," "Rainy Dayz," "Ice Cream" and "Wu-Gambinos."

Next Week:  GZA - Liquid Swords.

Sources:
http://www.xxlmag.com/news/2010/08/raekwon-the-making-of-only-built-for-cuban-linx/
http://www.acclaimedmusic.net/Current/A951.htm

Step Three: Ol' Dirty Bastard: Return to the 36 Chambers (The Dirty Version).

Artist:  Ol' Dirty Bastard
Album:  Return to the 36 Chambers - The Dirty Version
Release Date:  March 28, 1995
Producers:  RZA (except "Brooklyn Zoo" prod. by Ol' Dirty Bastard and True Master, "Damage" co-produced by 4th Disciple, "The Stomp" co-produced by Ol' Dirty Bastard, "Drunk Game" prod. by Ethan Ryman and Ol' Dirty Bastard, "Harlem World" prod. by Big Dore)

Review:  Return to the 36 Chambers is the third Wu-affiliated album straight to be produced primarily by RZA (although he's missing on four of the CD's 17 tracks) and sounds, at times, noticeably lighter than the cryptic Tical.  In fact, the album doesn't have a murky track on it until the dark and catchy "Raw Hide.".  RZA and ODB also roll the dice on some of the less accessible tracks on the album.  They really gamble on "Brooklyn Zoo II (Tiger Crane)," which is a seven-minute mash-up track containing snippets from half the previous songs (including an alternate take of "Damage"); and "Drunk Game," a soul-inspired love song in which ODB fakes sex noises for the last minute or so.

Speaking of the vocal performance, ODB's rap style and personality are so wild and erratic that one could be forgiven for mistaking it for sloppiness or a genuine indifference to the material.  He really has four kinds of songs on the album: with tracks like "Shimmy Shimmy Ya" and "Don't U Know," ODB spits a seemingly-random, loosely-structured stream-of-consciousness style that always seems to almost get the best of him.  Next, his more concise solo tracks like "Brooklyn Zoo" perfectly balance Dirty's madness with a club banger.  He also works damn well with others - "Raw Hide" features Raekwon and Method Man and may be my favorite track; his first closer "Cuttin' Headz" is an old-school back-and-forth duet with RZA that never lets us down.  Finally, at other times on the album, ODB tests the casual listener's patience.  The album is introduced with a five-minute spoken-and-sung piece parodying "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" as a raunchy oral sex song; "Brooklyn Zoo II" also features a 90-second bootleg clip of him hyping his audience at a show.

But somehow, in some intangible way, it all just works.  Something comes together over the course of the CD's 66 minutes (including two bonus tracks that fill up nine minutes of the runtime) and the entire album is like a mad scientist's beautiful monster.  It strikes odd chords with its audience like a David Lynch film, occasionally making us wait patiently while Dirty is let off his leash, but he always reels it in to form a cohesive album.  If there could be any doubt that ODB and RZA are in perfect control of the chaos, it's dispelled by "Goin' Down" - one of the strangest songs on the album.  In the middle of the track, Ol' Dirty spits a quick verse that's interrupted by a woman - presumably his wife - chewing him out about him seeing other women.  For some reason, Dirty sings the chorus of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" - and with real soul, vibrato and all - over the sounds of being yelled at, still on top of the RZA beat. The song picks up again after that, with no explanation.  Listen to that bizarre breakdown and, considering that the album features appearances by RZA, GZA, Raekwon, Ghostface Killah, Method Man, Masta Killa and other Wu affiliates, it's easy to picture Ol' Dirty Bastard as the ringmaster to his own drunk circus.  Arms spread, singing the Judy Garland classic, unconquerable even by the forces of nature, he's the master of ceremonies to one of the most guest-heavy and unconventional albums in the Wu catalog.

Legacy:  So much of the Wu-Tang Clan legend rests on the shoulders of Ol' Dirty Bastard.  Like Heath Ledger's Joker in the film The Dark Knight, ODB was a barely-contained force of chaos.  In The Wu-Tang Manual, RZA tells a story in which ODB, at the age of 15 or 16, was held up by men in a van.  They rolled down the window of the van and pointed a shotgun at him, and without missing a beat, ODB grabbed the shotgun by the barrel, took it and turned it around on the muggers, who drove off.  Return to the 36 Chambers is so evident of Dirty's infamous personality that it says more about him than almost any other source could.  It introduced the world to the legend that is Ol' Dirty Bastard - a legend which followed with him cashing his welfare check from a limo on MTV and becoming one of the most lovable rascals in the history of music.  Return to the 36 Chambers is also the first Wu-related album to be nominated for a Grammy for Best Rap Album - which he lost to Puff Daddy, prompting ODB to crash Puffy's acceptance speech and complain live onstage - and proof that Method Man's Tical wasn't the only solo Wu album that could make lightning strike.  Dirty only released two solo albums before his death in 2004, cutting short a brilliant career; Return is the first half of an all-too-brief discography.

Recommended Tracks:  "Brooklyn Zoo," "Raw Hide," "Goin' Down," "Cuttin' Headz."

Step Two: Method Man: Tical.

Artist:  Method Man
Album:  Tical
Release Date:  Nov. 15, 1994
Producer:  RZA ("Sub Crazy" co-produced by 4th Disciple; "PLO Style" co-produced by Method Man)

Review:  The stakes couldn't be higher for Method Man's Tical.  As the first Wu-Tang related album to be released since the classic Enter the Wu-Tang a year before, Tical (also a slang term for marijuana) was the test balloon to gauge the continued interest in the Wu.  Would RZA's record deal, in which each solo member signed his own contract to any label and earned royalties, some of which went back to Wu-Tang's master bank, ultimately work?  Sure, everyone liked the first record, with all nine emcees in the Clan working together, but Tical is about 90% Method Man.  It only features Wu-Tang guest spots on "Meth Vs. Chef" (with Raekwon) and "Mr. Sandman" (from RZA and Inspectah Deck).

Fortunately, not only was Method Man one of the standout voices on Enter the Wu-Tang, but he proved more than capable of standing on his own.  RZA's production here sounds a bit darker than much of Enter the Wu-Tang, especially on tracks like "Sub Crazy" (co-produced by 4th Disciple) and "I Get my Thang in Action."  Like Enter the Wu-Tang, there are some funk/soul-inspired, brass-heavy beats (e.g. the single "Release Yo' Delf," which introduced frequent collaborator Blue Raspberry).  Even still, the chunkier, more plodding beats like the title track also set listeners up for Method Man's peculiar 1998 follow-up, Tical 2000, a concept record about millennium apocalypse theories.  Tical also introduced the darker side of Meth's image, including his appearance in a straitjacket in the video for "Release Yo' Delf" and his oft-worn gold fronts - vampire-style gold teeth.

It's also worth noting that the music for "Guillotine (Swordz)," which appeared in full on Raekwon's Only Built 4 Cuban Linx... a year later, makes a cameo at the beginnings of "Tical" and "Meth Vs. Chef" - appropriately.  This is just one chance the album takes, which also includes the odd falsetto on the title track and "Mr. Sandman" and the previously-mentioned Blue Raspberry take on "I Will Survive" at the beginning of "Release Yo' Delf." There are even lyrical shout-outs to the Alfred, Lord Tennyson poem "Charge of the Light Brigade" and the 1972 film The Poseidon Adventure, but somehow it all works.  Somehow it all pays off.

Other instant classics include "Bring the Pain" and "All I Need" - the latter a rare rap song promoting monogamy, love and the support that men and women give each other in a relationship.  The music for "Bring the Pain" was written by RZA in its entirety on an Emulator SP-1200 that he got by paying the down payment and just keeping the machine.  With no instruction manual, he stayed up for two days to master it, and eventually "Bring the Pain" came out.  "Bring the Pain" also has some of Meth's smoothest lines on the album, including this stanza from the second verse:

"Brothers wanna hang with the Meth, bring the rope
The only way you'll hang is by the neck, nigga, bump
Off the set, comin' to ya projects
Take it as a threat or better yet it is a promise
Comin' like a vet on some ol' Vietnam shit
Nigga you can bet ya bottom dollar hey I bomb shit
And it's gonna get even worse
Word to God it's the Wu comin' through
Stickin' niggas for they garments."

The extended usage of the soft "e" consonance extends through the entire stanza (Meth, neck, set, projects, threat, better yet, vet, bet, get, garments) and reinforces its appearances at the end of certain lines (off the set, to ya projects, etc) helping to keep the rhyme in mind when it disappears for a couple lines and reappears at the ending "for they garments."  In The Wu-Tang Manual, RZA talks about how impressed he was that Method Man could switch up his flow and internal rhymes so frequently, and this record provides as solid proof of that claim as the original "Method Man" on Enter the Wu-Tang.

All in all, the rhymes and the beats are untouchable from the beginning of the album to the end.  Things wind down a bit by the end as Meth and RZA bring it home with the steady "Stimulation" and a remix/alternate take on "Method Man," but don't think that means they get boring, because there's a lot to love from front to back on Tical.  It remains a frequent guest in my CD player and a great start to the prolific solo catalog of the original nine Wu-Tang members.

Legacy:  As I mentioned, Tical was the first Wu-Tang solo album after Enter the Wu-Tang.  It set the tone that a single Wu member could carry a whole album essentially by himself, and that neither RZA nor the Wu were one-hit wonders.  It topped the Billboard 200 charts at #4, compared to Enter the Wu-Tang's peak at #41 the year before.  Tical also kickstarted Method Man's storied career thereafter, from his dirge-filled follow-up Tical 2000 and Method Man's other solo records to his partnership (on wax and on-screen) with Redman.  If rap fans hadn't expected a cornucopia of Wu-related albums between group records, Method Man's Tical was the first warning that they'd better start saving up for a catalog of some of the strongest American hip-hop to date.

Recommended Tracks:  If you haven't heard Tical, a good sampler to familiarize yourself with the tonal range on the album would consist of "Tical," "Bring the Pain," "Release Yo' Delf," "Meth Vs. Chef" and "Mr. Sandman."

Coming Next Wednesday:  Ol' Dirty Bastard's Return to the 36 Chambers (The Dirty Version) (1995).

Sources:  
RZA - The Wu-Tang Manual.  Penguin / Riverhead Books, print.
Method Man - Tical.  Def Jam Records, CD.

How I Learned to Deal with "The N-Word."

Before we get going on this, this is about the most delicate subject I can possibly imagine discussing.  I don't use racial slurs, I don't judge people based on their ethnicity and I don't look for excuses to stir up controversy.  I promote freedom of speech, but I oppose hate speech.  As I lay out my thoughts on the use of racial epithets in music, I'd like to make it clear that neither I (jonny Lupsha) nor my publisher (A Carrier of Fire) condones prejudice or discrimination of any kind, especially and including racism.  If this offends you, I offer my sincere apologies.  The only reason I use "The N-Word" in this blog is to discuss its place (if it has one) in pop culture.  Thanks.

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So here's the problem.  On the one hand, I'm as white as white gets - I burn in the sun, my hair was platinum blonde until I was 20 years old and in middle school they used to sing "Blinded by the Light" when I took off my shirt in gym class, in between beating me up while calling me Casper and Powder.  On the other hand, I love hip-hop - especially, as you can imagine, Wu-Tang Clan and its affiliates.  This wouldn't be a problem, but rap music throws out the ever-controversial "N-Word" like they're giving away candy.  You know which N-Word I'm talking about.

"Nigga."

It used to bother me.  I bought a copy of Del tha Funky Homosapien's Both Sides of the Brain when I was 17 or 18 and I wouldn't even listen to the songs that said it.  I just skipped them because I was afraid I was condoning bigotry by enjoying those songs.  But the more music I listened to - from Public Enemy all the way back to Sly and the Family Stone - the more I heard it, and I had to settle what I imagined was an ethical debate in my head:  Am I going to stop listening to any song with the lyric "nigga" in them?  Or am I going to get over this issue and listen anyway?  If the latter, how?

So I started looking it up online, in discussion groups and on websites; and I started talking to some other rap fans I knew, some black and some white, about their feelings on the subject.  "Doesn't it make us bigots?" I asked.  "Is music with the n-word perpetuating some hideous 'softshoe, house slave, Uncle Tom' stereotype?!"  The responses came back and it seemed that as usual, I was worrying too much.

To explain why I don't bat an eyelash anymore, I've collected some of my thoughts on varying words meant to describe people of African descent - especially the oft-used "nigga" in rap music.

"Negro" comes from the Spanish and Portuguese for "black," meaning the color (with no connotations), but as evidenced in films like X, other language and arts students propose that the color black be associated with ignorance, death and evil.  Saul Williams, a brilliant poet, does a poetry slam in the film Slam that contains the line "Negro from necro meaning 'death' - I overcame it so they named me after it."  I saw Slam in 1999 and that poem opened my eyes to the possibility that some pejorative terms can be repurposed for a more friendly, familial usage in certain communities.  In my opinion, Saul is saying that there is a positive way to look at an ethically-questionable word like "negro" to describe the hardships his ancestors have come through with African lineage over the course of human history.

Saul Williams opened the floodgates for me.  Some of my high school and college friends of African descent told me the same thing about the contemporary use of the term "nigga" that I inferred from the Saul Williams poem.  "No, no, it's not racist; when they say something like 'my nigga' to someone, it's like saying 'my brother.'  It's familiar, like a war buddy."  And I asked "Then why not say 'my brother' if they're talking about someone who's come through hard times with them?  Wouldn't that be better?"  The response I got, I'll never forget.  "Who do you have more long-term history with: your blood brother, or your entire bloodline?"

And as silly as it may sound, the simple two-letter difference between the insult "nigger" and the contemporary slang "nigga" is monumental.  The former is a racial slur, used with malice and venom and disgust and derision; the latter is that repurposed badge of familiarity that its users pin on someone else - someone with whom they share a past, an affinity.  If you don't believe such a slight difference can create two diametrically-opposed meanings, look at "bisexual" and "asexual".  Bisexuals find both genders attractive; asexuals find neither attractive.

By college I'd come to a rudimentary philosophy of the six-letter insult form of the word - I'd never use it myself; I knew that.  If I heard anyone else use the slur with an ounce of prejudice or insult intended, I'd take a stand against their racism.  Now, why not "If I heard anyone else use it at all?"  First, if I see a guy walking away from a girl and he has a fresh red handprint on his face, I'll ask someone what happened.  If that person says "Oh, she slapped him because he called her a nigger," I'd rather that person find a way around saying it but if they don't, it's not fair to assume they meant it with malice instead of just relaying a news event and not having much tact.  I'd probably say "Well, you could say 'he called her the n-word' because some people might not appreciate you throwing it around like that," but again, we can't assume that that messenger meant any harm.  The second instance is akin to this blog post.  I'm not making excuses for myself, but if it helps to diminish racial prejudice or to understand human history and its follies - since "forget the past and you're condemned to repeat it" - I can understand someone objectively discussing etymology and events surrounding the racial slur.  I wish there were a way around it, but when Mark Twain wrote it into Huckleberry Finn he was showing the world how openly racist people could be without consequence in the 19th century - that they had no regard for the pain and suffering associated with that word.  It's a brutal look at social inequality, but it teaches us a lesson about taboos and hatred.  I've never believed that ignorance is the best cure for a problem.  No matter what the issue - from slavery and the Holocaust down to teen pregnancy and recreational drug use - knowledge and understanding beat blinders and secrecy any day.

So how did I get over on the five-letter, borderline-affectionate alternative "nigga?"  I've heard white friends say "Why can black guys say it when we can't?  That's not fair!" and I disagree.  Considering the history associated with the word, especially its uses in American slavery; considering that any of the aforementioned "black guys" who say it could have had ancestors who were raped, beaten and killed by somebody who thought of them as subhuman because of the color of their skin; but especially considering its intention as free speech, not hate speech, I think white people should just let this one go.

Getting back to rap, rap music is often identified by making references to both classic and modern history as well as pop culture and sociological and political concerns.  Loud enough voices in art can affect change - just look at Jonathan Swift.  Similarly, Public Enemy has a song called "Anti-Nigger Machine," which deals with both censorship of music and the deliberate racial epithet its name contains.  It was released in 1990, when Tipper Gore's war on mature-themed art was still going strong, and the Public Enemy track places a time stamp and interpretation of that historical legal battle.  Without using such controversial language, a lot of the song's impact (as well as the irony of being a song about censorship so replete with profanity) would be lost.

The same goes for the Mos Def song "Mr. Nigger," about racial prejudices in the entertainment world and the ancient expectations set for black entertainers.  The list goes on and on.  Even the Les Claypool song "Ding Dang" talks about how harshly a young man's life was affected because the bullies in his class called him "little nigger boy."  It's an anthem against bullying and hearing the harsh language really punches the listener in the gut.

So why write this?  Who cares what I think about the n-word?  In reference to this blog in particular, Map of Shaolin is analyzing every group and solo album from Wu-Tang Clan, as well as many Wu-based soundtracks and compilations - over 65 albums in all.  Wu-Tang uses the n-word like it generates clean oxygen, so there's almost no way to navigate the minefield of n-words without discussing it here and there.  I skipped one last week, which I'll mention in a moment, and I regret it.  It's a good line - no, a great line - by Method Man, and makes good use of internal rhyme.

In Wu-Tang's "7th Chamber," Method Man's verse opens with the following couplet:

"I be that insane nigga from the psycho ward
I'm on the trigger, plus I got the Wu-Tang sword."

Often, hip-hop lyrics only rhyme at the end of the line - in this case, "ward" and "sword" - and there's nothing wrong with that in the least.  But here, Meth also manages to rhyme "nigga" with "trigger" - pronounced "trigga" - and the whole thing just shine.  These first two lines set off his verse like a bomb and they really, really pop.  If I still let that language upset me, I wouldn't be able to listen to 99% of the songs Wu-Tang has put out - and my music collection and my love for music would have some big holes in them.  Please keep in mind as Map of Shaolin reviews future Wu-Tang-related albums that our (very rare) uses of the word are only meant to analyze and interpret the rhythm and context of lyrical expression.

So think what you want, and keep which sensibilities you choose.  For my money, after my experiences with the n-word, I grew a thick skin about my rap lyrics and learned a bit of history and sociology along the way.  It doesn't bother me to hear it as creative expression anymore, and I can appreciate a larger amount of artwork because of it while taking a stronger stance against bigotry than I did in the past.

Thanks for your time and be sure to check back tomorrow for my look at Method Man's 1994 debut, Tical.