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Liquid Swords | 
| Artist: Genius/gza
Label: Polydor Group
Category: Music
List Price: £5.99
Buy New: £3.97
You Save: £2.02 (34%)
New (47) Used (8) from £3.14
Rating:  24 reviews
Sales Rank: 3502
Media: Audio CD
Running Time: 55
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 5 x 0.5
MPN: 720642481325
UPC: 720642481325
EAN: 0720642481325
ASIN: B000000OUJ
Release Date: March 20, 1999
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually dispatched within 9 to 14 days
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| Tracks:
| • | Liquid Swords - Genius/GZA | | • | Duel Of The Iron Mic - Masta Killa, Dreddy Kruger, Inspectah Deck, Ol' Dirty Bastard, Genius/GZA | | • | Living In The World Today - Genius/GZA | | • | Gold - Genius/GZA | | • | Cold World - Inspectah Deck, Genius/GZA | | • | Labels - Genius/GZA | | • | 4th Chamber - RZA, Ghostface Killah, Killah Priest, Genius/GZA | | • | Shadowboxin' - Genius/GZA, Method Man | | • | Killah hills 10304 | | • | Investigate reports | | • | Swordsman | | • | I gotcha back | | • | B.I.B.L.E. |
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| Customer Reviews: Read 19 more reviews...
CLASSIC! November 12, 2008
What more can i say that has not been said yet.
THIS IS A CLASSIC, go get it
The Finest November 7, 2008
Listen to all the reviews and buy, a true classic. In my opinion it does not get better than this, as an album i think it's virtually untouchable.
Classic, raw, timeless October 7, 2008
It's a close call between Method Man's 'Tical', Raekwon's 'Only Built 4 Cuban Linx' and this album, but in my opinion, the GZA's 'Liquid Swords' is the de facto Wu-Tang solo album. A dark, menacing masterpiece, underpinned by a mysticism and intelligence that you will rarely find in a hardcore rap album. The production is ace - RZA truly was on fire in this period of frenetic productivity which yielded so many classics and this album is equal, if not better than anything he has produced prior or since. To call it dark is an understatement - this is pitch black territory. Sparse, menacing and raw, but also interspersed with RZA's trademark, spaced-out samples that define his unique soundscapes. And of course the kung-fu samples, brilliantly employed here.
Yes, the production is top-notch and will definitely compel any fan of the genre. So what about the lyrics?? Well, if GZA was good - no, great - on '36 Chambers' then this album can surely be identified as the period in which he was on top of his game. His flow is cool, calculated and precise, and the content surely proves that he is by far the most cerebral, literate, and visual member of the Clan. There is something about the understated, intelligent menace of this album which makes it more dark and terrifying than anything which is openly hostile. It's like someone throwing punches compared to someone walking around with a bomb strapped to their waist; you just know which one is more dangerous.
"I'm swinging swords strictly based on keyboards/ Unbalanced like elephants and ants on see-saws" - Living in the World Today
"Snake got smoked on the set like Brandon Lee/ Blown out the frame like Pan Am flight 103" - Gold
Witty, original, and packed with quotables like this. I never tire of listening to this album.
If you've never heard this, you are missing out on a real hip-hop masterpiece.
the gza September 9, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
a bold statement but........this is the best hip hop album ever made, full of dark menacing beats with an unstoppable fury of (genius) lyrics, a must buy for any rap music fan.
Artistic tour de force August 17, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
All the reviewers have given this 5 stars across the board and I can only concur.
The first thing to say is that that this is a serious piece of artwork, not just an incredible hip-hop album. It deserves to be disected in english language lessons, just as much as Bob Dylan's stuff is. The Rza and Gza are the artistic core of the group and this album demonstrates that. All the weight comes from them.
The characterisation of Staten Island NY. as 'Shaolin', and themselves as Hip-Hops 'Monks' (the abbot and the master in the case pf Gza and Rza) is an imagery and a mythology developed by those two.
This imagery and mythology becomes fully understood on this album, whereas on the other albums it really never rises above the threshold of interesting background.
An example is the way that the clip from the film 'Shogun Assassin', when Lone Wolf tells his baby son to choose the ball or the sword. A life of normal play or of abnormal seriousness and violence. A life that skips past childhood. This choice, the father explains, is a choice between death and life, because in the situation they are in, 'playing' is not an option. One has to be 'grown-up' from the 'get-go'.
This of course is the situation on th streets of New York. This is what GZA is telling us and this is why this is included. Pure Genius.
Hip-Hop has always been about the kind of culture that makes insects eating filth under a rock in the garden thrive. The world forgets them. The world creates systems, economic, educational, pseudo-religious, social (and always has done) that means that only certain types of people reach their promised 'destination' while everybody else falls through big cracks in the road. What are those people who fall supposed to do? How can they find self-worth when the world tells them that they are worthless? How can they aspire when the world tells them that this is not for them? This is the modern 'caste' system that is the shadow side of the American dream (and as I write this in London, we all of around around the world have bought into this dream. Often, the only ones who know the truth are those who have been systematically denied it. To build the pyramids in egypt, slaves were required. Slaves and other types of 'lesser human' are still required today. We are living in Huxley's Brave New world)
This essentially is what the album is about, and it is well illustrated in about 10 secs of lyrical dexterity that, to my mind, put in the shade the entire oeuvre of people like 50 cent and Jay-Z
'Veterans got the game spiced like ham, and from that sons are born and then guns are drawn, clips are fully loaded, and then blood floods the lawn'.
Governments, Presidents, societies, nations, the better off, have been loading the dice in their favour for centuries and have become veterens at the game, while the sons born on the streets of NY and other american cities (and now other places) are just learning the game. Just like Pacino's Scarface, who so many street kids identify with, they start from the bottm everytime. Scarface for them, represents revolution. This shows that these kids realise the situation they are in. It shows that they are intelligent and that they know this is their lot. That is the bleak outlook that provides the context and background for violence and crime on the streets of the worlds inner cities. It even explains 50 cent's 'Get Rich or Die Tryin' attitude.
Thats the intelligence which lies behind this album, which is the result of two of the most talented and intelligent insightful kids growing up and eventually chanelling thier disenfranchisement in a more positive way
Having said that, it's a dark piece of work. It's a whole life story. It's no wonder GZA hasn't been able to reach those heights again. Black music has always been about the social context which or course changed for GZA when he and his cohorts made it big.
As I write this, 13 yrs after it was released, this is the album that Hip-Hip promised for so long.
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