Legend of the Liquid Sword

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Media Type: CD
Artist: GZA/GENIUS
Title: LEGEND OF THE LIQUID SWORD
Street Release Date: 12/10/2002
Domestic
Genre: RAP/HIP HOP

Bouncing back from the deplorably mediocre Beneath the Surface, GZA reasserts his position at the head of the Wu-Tang corpus. The most obvious improvement is in the production, masterminded by various Wu-Tang acolytes of RZA's dissonant funkalistics. Beats are kept simple--one- and two-bar loops sampled from across the musical spectrum--but despite their austerity, they're impressively efficient sonic packages that complement GZA's own powerfully compact lyrical style. The self-proclaimed "ill rhyme kicker / with no parental sticker" rolls with almost nonstop braggadocio on the album, flashing his virtuosity with metaphorically inspired songs like "Fame" and "Animal Planet" and wordplay parties such as "Knock, Knock" and "Sparring Minds." The album's main liability is that it's consistent to a fault. The 15 tracks begin to sound like variations on one another and, despite the individual qualities of any given song, the overall album begins to get monotonous halfway through. --Oliver Wang