Liquid Swords (studio album) by GZA/Genius

really fucking good

Great concept album, pairing great production and sampling with catchy hooks and amazing imagery. Only weakness: some very good, but not excellent, songs on the second half keep the album from being perfect, IMO. 9.5/10!

For me this is example of absolutely perfect hip-hop album, atmospheric intros and outros, great samples, every beat here is astonishing, rapping skills are superb and the album has great flow. Dark atmosphere of danger never leaves and is probably thicker than ever and then we get that uplifting last track that makes you feel this album was like a very cool movie.

From VictorVale 08/22/2023 16:07

Pedrada hipnótica!

Far superior production than on 36 Chambers, and one of the best I ever heard, and many of the performances are spectacular, but some of GZAs verses lack the necessary energy, taking a more introverted stance, which makes 36 Chambers more powerful overall.

This, along with 36C and Only Built 4 Cuban Linx are the quintessential WU-Tang records. The film sound bytes are perfect, GZA's lyricism is insane, and the features all hit.

1995 was an essential year for any Wu fan and GZA - Liquid Swords is the prime reason for that. RZA is easily the star of the album, as he successfully goes for the typical dark and dirty atmosphere - saying it's a sequel of 36 Chambers wouldn't be that much of an exaggeration. GZA does his best to elevate the album even further by his great writing ("I'm just swingin' swords strictly based on keyboards Unbalanced like elephants and ants on see-saws I throw raps that attack like the Japs on Pearl Harbor MCs be out like bank robbers Fleeing the scene, to be a sole survivor DJ, the getaway driver Tried to dip, but he dive, I socialize on vocal vibes On tracks stabbed up with razor-sharp knives Criminal subliminal minded rappers find it Hard to define it, when narrow is the gate For fat tapes and then played out and out of date"), but the truth is I can't wait for the guests to show up, I find him so underwhelming as a rapper. The back to back hits of 4th Chamber and Shadowboxin' (both easily rank among the very best Wu songs) more or less summarise the whole album for me: top-notch production and everyone else being a more enjoyable rapper than GZA.
To sum it up, there at the very least 7-8 Wu related albums I prefer, but this is an irrelevant and unfair comparison and it should have nothing to do with the way I evaluate this one (as a classic, that is).

From Larcx13 02/08/2021 22:38

Nothing but love for this. People on here rate by genre too much and are too closed minded and hinder the better rating this deserves. GZA is a Genius.

From planetneutral 01/09/2021 23:28

I'm generally not into skits and interludes, but it never seems to bothers me in Wu-ville. Another entertaining Wu-adjacent release.

From teague 07/10/2020 20:11

Liquid Swords sounds like a watered down version of Wu-Tang Clan's debut. Not bad by any means, though, just disappointing when compared to Enter the Wu-Tang.