Genius/GZA-”Alphabets”
This is why they call him the Genius. (No Leaping Lanny Poffo). On “Alphabets,” the first single off Pro Tools, Gary Grice goes in hard off the haunted soul loop from True Master, who imitates early Rza probably better than Rza can at this point. Consider me cautiously optimistic for the record, considering in my opinion, GZA’s never really come weak (long pause).
Granted, Beneath the Surface was merely okay, but Legend of the Liquid Sword and the Grandmasters joint with Muggs are sorely undervalued gems within the Wu discography. And if you don’t believe me and because it’s Friday and I’m feeling good, I’ll throw in “Silent,” from Legend, featuring Starks and Street Life, who presumably was allowed 16 bars for rolling the blunt.
Download:
MP3: Genius/Gza-”Alphabets”
MP3: Genius/Gza ft. Ghostface Killah & Street Life-”Silent”
July 25th, 2008 at 3:16 pm
I love this joint, good to hear that RZA and the Wu Elements handled the boardwork. Too bad the reference to the great Leaping Lenny Poffo (brother of Randy Poffo AKA “Macho Man Randy Savage” and member of the wrestling Poffo clan) will fly over the heads of most young’uns.
Remember when Poffo got injured and he was too heavy to do his high flying stunts so he became “The Poet” and got his fat ass kicked repeatedly by up and comers like the Ultimate (Dingo) Warrior? Man was that sad.
Fuck ever happened to Rick Martel (AWA Champion)?
One,
July 25th, 2008 at 4:40 pm
Didn’t he become The Model? Pretty Ricky. The Derek Zoolander of pro wrestling.
The Poet. Wow, that just takes me back.
July 25th, 2008 at 5:10 pm
Method Man Presents Streetlife - Street Education
http://www.sendspace.com/file/qzu19r
Your job this weekend is to regret throwing a cheap insult at Streetlife. He’s amazing on every song he appears on Tical 2000 and he tears the shit out of “Deadley Melody” and “Hells Wind Staff”. His solo album, above, is also sadly overlooked. Great live performer, too.
July 25th, 2008 at 5:17 pm
It is downloaded and I will give it a listen. He is good on Hellz Wind Staff, yes.
I’m waiting for you to start riding for Solomon Childs and American Cream Team.
July 25th, 2008 at 5:35 pm
Funny you mention that. Schwa and I smoked a blunt to Royal Fam’s Black Castle today. Shits pretty bangin’.
July 25th, 2008 at 7:32 pm
Solomon Childs would be pretty good if his flow was just a little bit better. This is surprisingly good. I didn’t like Grandmasters, thought it was too, I don’t know, faux-retro. And GZA sounded half-asleep the whole record.
July 26th, 2008 at 8:26 am
Ooooh… this is very nice. Here’s hoping the LP is as good as this.
Hit me up on FB Jeff. Hope the work went well.
Cheers,
Dan
July 27th, 2008 at 11:32 am
“Legend of the Liquid Swords” was worth every bit of the 4 bucks I paid for it the other day at the CD Trader. Very underrated album.
July 28th, 2008 at 12:04 pm
new genius? nice. he set the standard for wu solo projects. true about beneath the surface, that one really hurt.
this sounds like vintage wu. fingers crossed on that new album.
July 28th, 2008 at 1:25 pm
“Granted, Beneath the Surface was merely okay, but Legend of the Liquid Sword and the Grandmasters joint with Muggs are sorely undervalued gems within the Wu discography.”
Totally disagree with that.
If anything, it’s the other way around. “Beneath The Surface” is a slept-on classic imo, that merely suffered from being the follow-up to “Liquid Swords.”
“Legend of the Liquid Sword” is a pretty vapid record if you axe me.
…which you didn’t.
July 28th, 2008 at 1:36 pm
Nah, Legend of the Liquid Sword is really good. For real. On your word, I’m going to go back and give Beneath the Surface another listen though. It’s been too long.
July 28th, 2008 at 2:08 pm
Fair enough-Beneath is better than I remember it being. I think it threw me for a loop having to follow up like Liquid Swords.
July 29th, 2008 at 9:56 pm
I also second the “Beneath the Surface is underrated” motion. I remember hoping that Raekwon’s second album had a similar dusty-meets-digital sound after being kind of disapointed by Inspectah Deck and Meth’s last albums (dunno if that’s the order they came out, just the order I copped em back in the CD era). Sadly most (but not all!) of Immortability sucked production wise.
Never really liked “Legend of the Liquid Sword”. When the production and guest spots stayed in the Wu vein it worked but a lot of it felt compromised (The Allen Anthony, Santi White stuff) or a victim of post-Blueprint dramatic soul (as opposed to Wu-Tang minor key soul).
Anyways, Alphabet sounds dope as fuck.