classic Wu-Tang solo run poll

yeah but that's no fun, so instead we gotta nitpick about shit like "damn those diva vocals on Cuban Linx can be annoying when I have a headache" or "what the hell is GZA talking about, it would be AWESOME to have a zodiac sign on my sweatshirt!"

rappers are inhabiting a persona, and while GZA is one second rapping about "life of a drug dealer!!" apparently hes a drug dealer who spent his crack rock cash on a shitty clock radio.

Nowhere on "Liquid Swords" (the song) does GZA claim to be a drug dealer. Can't rappers inhabit different personas on different songs? This particular tune is full of pretty wild metaphors and similies, so I don't see how "clock radio speakers" doesn't fit there. And what does the simile have to what the character in the song owns?

No; when you think about similes, you come to the inescapable conclusion that a well-formed simile is not random.

What I meant by random is that, in a simile that starts "weak like...", you can pretty much pick anything you think is weak. Of course, in order for a simile to be good the thing you choose has to be:

1) recognizable as weak (so you can't, for example, say "weak like cayenne pepper", because that makes no sense), and

2) imaginative (you can say "weak as a 90 pound weakling", but you aren't gonna impress anyone with your lyrical skills if you do that).

At least to me, "weak like clock radio speakers" fits both of these criteria.

can i just say ... UNOFFICIAL WET TISSUE

let's just be positive. where one finds linx overlong i find it epic -- especially when you get to 'heaven and hell' at the end. and on what aesthetic grounds can the production be classified as unimaginative? it's broken, fucked up, lurching and banging at the same time. the criminology>incarcerated>rainy dayz run shows off three different, equally awesome styles. on the first one alone you go from the rush of the horns to that creepy jangling sound, which is a really powerful sonic transition to these ears. and the record is filled with those moments! scarfaces has one of the all time great open hihat sounds. etc etc etc

I've always kind of underappreciated Linx but lately I've warmed up to it in a major way and I don't know what changed. just gotta stop resisting and ride the gonzo cinematic crime-opera wave, I guess.

i'm with tuomas. i like that line. and it doesn't come out of nowhere, he is talking about LYRICS which are part of MUSIC which comes out of SPEAKERS. i mean, it's hardly totally random.

yeah and it's an evocative choice of words because EVERYBODY has had a clock radio with shitty little speakers, does anyone seriously go "that really took me out of the song, because I didn't imagine GZA as the kind of guy who's had a clock radio!"

he is talking about LYRICS which are part of MUSIC which comes out of SPEAKERS. i mean, it's hardly totally random.

I could reach into my hip hop collection at random and stand a good chance of picking out an album with at least one simile much worse than this. Such a weird line to have issues with. GZA is a terrific lyricist.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090721151701AAFpzde

http://grab.by/grabs/88560dd7321eafc7b3ec6e224513b674.png

I think the Ghost one is pretty damn good. I'm surprised people here don't like it. It's even more surprising that so many like Tical. That shit sounds so half-assed and rushed, I can barely listen to it.

lmao @ "talib fiasco"

i'd rank em rae>ghost>gza>meth>odb

Iron Maiden is one of my all-time favourite opening tracks - the movie sample, the siren, the Willie Mitchell horns, the way everything but the beat cuts out for Ghost's entrance.

i'm with tuomas. i like that line. and it doesn't come out of nowhere, he is talking about LYRICS which are part of MUSIC which comes out of SPEAKERS. i mean, it's hardly totally random.

s1ocki OTM (w/ a side of lolz)

I listen to the GZA one the least but it's not because of the lyrics, it's more because the beats are sort of all over the place.

All these albums are fantastic in their own right, depends what mood I'm in.

pablo kweli

saying any of these five records are less then classic is just fighting words to me

― interk3llar overdrive (Whiney G. Weingarten), Wednesday, October 13, 2010 9:55 AM

^^

odb, gza, and rae are pretty equal in my book...ironman only SLIGHTLY off that pace...tical is great but not in the same league (still better than shitloads of rap albums tho that's how great wu was in their prime)

i think i'm voting ODB cuz granny was talking bad about it and i love ODB for all time.

i'm going to listen to liquid swords today to see if it has aged awkwardly or not but idk, that album is like perfect combination of evil cool smart shit. & a lot of the things deej is saying about clumsy similes are things i would agree with wrt gza's later stuff, he kind of atrophies after ls and loses a lot of the pungency, meanness -- all fully intact on this album though

i still think legend of the liquid swords is way underrated

ya its pretty good

i think i'm voting ODB cuz granny was talking bad about it and i love ODB for all time.

― da poupier (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, October 13, 2010 11:52 AM (41 minutes ago) Bookmark

you have a weird family

nana always challopses about how the sunz of man album is better than nigga please

rae>gza=odb>ghost>meth i think. all close though. had LS on in the car a lot lately. sometimes rza on 4th chamber is my favorite verse

i like the clock radio lyrics -- im just saying theyve aged in a way rae's havent & sound very of their era. and yeah tuomas i think having different personas in different songs at least w/in rap music is weird & dated & unusual. 'unofficial wet tissue' is classic.

lyrics on 'gold' aged well. "waitin for the train to make noise... "

i think ppl are more forgiving of some of the more awkward lyrical turns bcuz they get buried under RZA's erm 'soundscapes' so it sounds more menacing than they would on later GZA records. doesnt change the fact that 'feminine like sandals' is a goofy thing for a dude rapping about the drug trade to say

i mean those kinds of similies are basically like, your literature/language arts teacher explaining rap music kind of goofy. its just ... dated juice crew type ish. rappers inhabit personas more fully now

would you prefer "feminine like scented candles"

seriously don't get holding "dated" sounds/styles against a musician

what kind of travesty is that fucking tattoo.

rappers inhabit personas more fully now

I feel quite the opposite; rappers now seem to me to be lame caricatures compared to the stuff on early Wu albums.

rappers inhabit personas more fully now

yeah I dunno if I would count this as a net positive. it's certainly made rap music more monotonous.

rmde x10000

I will take that as an otm directed at me :)

and to pay it forward:

sometimes rza on 4th chamber is my favorite verse

― another al3x, Wednesday, 13 October 2010 16:45 (51 minutes ago)

rmde x10000

yeah yeah we've had this argument

I think we exist in a weird transitional period where the visibility of extra-musical gossip-blog/twitter/etc stuff in relation the the music itself has increased, and the artists are aware of it and try to work it sometimes, but people aren't quite willing to extend artistic license to 'real life' shit. which I guess means that lady gaga is our only hope.

(if it wasn't clear, this is my attempt to explain the current state of rap personas)

Tical > Return > Liquid > Linx > Ironman

i mean those kinds of similies are basically like, your literature/language arts teacher explaining rap music kind of goofy. its just ... dated juice crew type ish. rappers inhabit personas more fully now

good to know rappers don't use similes anymore

"clever and/or unexpected wordplay is so dated" goes a very long way towards why I don't feel a lot of current hip-hop

shit's outdated like milk in liquor store fridges

If rappers inhabit their personas more fully now, and having different personas in different songs is "dated", you'd think that'd be a bad thing for rap music and not a good thing, as that means rap is less versatile now. Isn't there room for both approaches?

sandals are pretty fucken feminine whether you're a drug dealer or a CEO

not if you are CEO of Sandals

its just ... dated juice crew type ish.

;_;

that ish could be your life.

Not wildly enthusiastic about Meth or ODB albums. Enjoy the Ghostface okay but feels like a straight fight between Gza and Rae. Oh, who am I kidding? Liquid Swords all the way, influenced mainly by the fact that it was the only tape I had in my car for a 5-7 month period back in the day and I love Meth on this way more than anything on Tical.

i think tical 2000 judgement day is kinda underrated too

Tical was the first one released, right? presumably because Meth was viewed as the one with the most pop potential? which is funny considering how NON-pop the album ended up being. it's so sludgy and murky, even moreso than 36 Chambers

imo meth didn't really find his voice until Forever