this is pretty tough, it being my favorite rap album and all, but "ice water" is my instinctive choice
― ciderpress, Saturday, 6 October 2007 07:40 (sixteen years ago) link
i agree w/ the good reverend's choice, and it was mine as well.
― Eisbaer, Saturday, 6 October 2007 07:59 (sixteen years ago) link
"Glaciers of Ice"
― groovemaaan, Saturday, 6 October 2007 10:31 (sixteen years ago) link
this poll should NOT languish in obscurity! BUMP
― Eisbaer, Monday, 8 October 2007 04:01 (sixteen years ago) link
u dead on this purple tape! fuck outta here!
― am0n, Monday, 8 October 2007 04:07 (sixteen years ago) link
Why does everyone think this album is better than Liquid Swords
― Whiney G. Weingarten, Monday, 8 October 2007 04:22 (sixteen years ago) link
my attempts to answer this most often come up glaciers of ice, but i never, you know, rested easy in any of my choices. as it were.
― gabbneb, Monday, 8 October 2007 04:23 (sixteen years ago) link
I'm going with Glaciers of Ice. This article is so great.
― clotpoll, Monday, 8 October 2007 04:26 (sixteen years ago) link
tho actually my favorite thing on the album is the Spot Rusherz skit ("") w/ the RZA bars in the background
― gabbneb, Monday, 8 October 2007 04:30 (sixteen years ago) link
"Wu-Gambinos" by a nose over "Criminology"
― milo z, Monday, 8 October 2007 04:34 (sixteen years ago) link
incarcerated scarfaces
― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Monday, 8 October 2007 04:47 (sixteen years ago) link
Knuckleheadz for me
― l, Monday, 8 October 2007 04:52 (sixteen years ago) link
ban Whiney
― am0n, Monday, 8 October 2007 04:54 (sixteen years ago) link
simple possible answers -- it's less claustrophobic, more in tune w/ that era's hip-hop trends (esp. the whole mafioso theme & ready to die/illmatic), its lyrics are more accessible (street hustling and storytelling, as opposed to GZA's chess metaphors) and arguably more influential thematically & sonically.
that said, i prefer liquid swords myself.
― Eisbaer, Monday, 8 October 2007 04:55 (sixteen years ago) link
Good insights, Eisb.
I think I like LS better because it sounds like a rock record (I like the claustrophobicness of it too!). Plus GZA has a real classic DITC style flow that's fun to follow, while Raekwon has more of an impenetrable swirl that'll leave you in the dust if you're not careful.
I actually listened to both albums again this weekend (I listened to them a TON in the '90s, fairly equally) and was really surprised at how few memorable lines are on Cuban Linx. The whole album just sort of shot over my head in high school (I was mainly enamored by RZA's production), but I was rapping along with a shitload of Liquid Swords (in Bed Bath And Beyond, no less, lolz adult). Which made me wonder what about Cuban Linx stuck with so many people that wasn't in Liquid Swords, because the album just sort of washed over me in my teens.
― Whiney G. Weingarten, Monday, 8 October 2007 05:19 (sixteen years ago) link
7 "Guillotine (Swordz)"
― Jordan Sargent, Monday, 8 October 2007 07:13 (sixteen years ago) link
2 "Knuckleheadz" 3 "Knowledge God" 4 "Criminology" 5 "Incarcerated Scarfaces"
^ this is my favorite run here, 'criminology' being the the peak. 'wisdom body' and 'verbal intercourse' are underrated
― am0n, Monday, 8 October 2007 16:22 (sixteen years ago) link
-- BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Sunday, October 7, 2007 11:47 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Link
we can trade places get lifted under staircases word up PEACE incarcerated scarfaces
― deej, Monday, 8 October 2007 16:33 (sixteen years ago) link
Can it all be so simple? Yes, it can.
― Oilyrags, Monday, 8 October 2007 16:35 (sixteen years ago) link
its not really more 'accessible' at all tho, maybe in terms of subject matter but lyrically its a lot more impressionistic w/ rae and ghost working more w/ imagery than GZA's old school juice crew style wordplay + constant similes and metaphors ('blown out the frame like pan am flight 103')
― deej, Monday, 8 October 2007 16:40 (sixteen years ago) link
i would agree with that.
― Whiney G. Weingarten, Monday, 8 October 2007 16:43 (sixteen years ago) link
i like 36 CHAMBERS but not LIQUID SWORDS will i like this?
― pisces, Monday, 8 October 2007 17:20 (sixteen years ago) link
yes.
― ian, Monday, 8 October 2007 17:22 (sixteen years ago) link
cant believe i have the same choice as fuckin jordan sargent but guillotine is dope dope dope
― and what, Monday, 8 October 2007 17:22 (sixteen years ago) link
props for the purple tape pic btw
― and what, Monday, 8 October 2007 17:23 (sixteen years ago) link
PEACE CONNECTICUT
― sleep, Monday, 8 October 2007 18:40 (sixteen years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.
― ILX System, Monday, 8 October 2007 23:01 (sixteen years ago) link
"Wu-Gambinos" or "Criminology."
I won't to Eisbaer's excellent remarks, but compared to <i>Cuban Linx</i> seems...monotonous? It's got two of my favorite Wu tracks ever ("Shadowboxin'" and the title track) but GZA's intensity means I rarely listen to it all the way through. I never feel this way about Raekwon's.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Monday, 8 October 2007 23:08 (sixteen years ago) link
"This is slang rap democracy".
I remember watching the "Glaciers of Ice" video on Rap City. Raekwon's opening verse was censored seemingly to death. I thought he was cursing so much. But of course he was just making references to drugs and guns. Still, the LP version isn't exactly accessible, or comprehensible lyrically. What struck me and my other middle school friends about it was chiefly RZA's production. LIQUID SWORDS was the first Wu-related album I bought. My friends listened to it and not surprisingly were bigger fans of the songs with Method [he had a more direct personality as a vocalist]. I thought it was fine and nearly cried after my parents threatened to take it away from me when they saw the cover art. But at the same time, I wasn't really impressed with the beats, which seemed to make way for GZA the lyricist/vocalist, rather than engulf by "scene stealing". Maybe my friends were too turned off by the plain voice of GZA to really focus on what he was saying.
With all that said, I'm real surprised that 10 or so years later people are calling LIQUID SWORDS the best Wu solo album. When did people start reevaluating this album?
― dreamsonvhs, Tuesday, 9 October 2007 05:36 (sixteen years ago) link
I voted for "Glaciers of Ice." But I find that the impact of this very heavy, exhausting record as a whole overshadows any individual track. So it's a blasé vote.
And I don't get these claims of storytelling acuity. None of this makes any A-B-C-D narrative sense for more than a few lines at a time. But I always thought that was part of the point - confusion as protection.
Then again, I recall being totally stunned watching tons of white boys at a Wu-Tang concert c. 1996 rap along to every single word. Whether they understood what they were rapping is another matter entirely.
― Kevin John Bozelka, Tuesday, 9 October 2007 05:49 (sixteen years ago) link
And trust me - I've tried my damnedest to decode these lyrics. In fact, I think the first lyrics I ever sought out on the internet were Wu-Tang related. Didn't help then and doesn't help now. I just read along with several cuts and still don't get it.
But I do like the record a great deal.
― Kevin John Bozelka, Tuesday, 9 October 2007 05:53 (sixteen years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.
― ILX System, Tuesday, 9 October 2007 23:01 (sixteen years ago) link
no votes for Knowledge God = :(
― Shakey Mo Collier, Tuesday, 9 October 2007 23:06 (sixteen years ago) link
9 "Shark Niggas (Biters)" 1
o_O
― am0n, Tuesday, 9 October 2007 23:13 (sixteen years ago) link
dreamsonvhs, did I understand you correctly that your parents objected to the cover art of Liquis Swords? They don't approve of cartoon ninjas or something? If you meant the Cuban Linx cover, that makes more sense, what with the crack preparation.
― Oilyrags, Wednesday, 10 October 2007 19:05 (sixteen years ago) link
but... crack preparation is in the sleeve, not on the cover
― Shakey Mo Collier, Wednesday, 10 October 2007 19:06 (sixteen years ago) link
i think my mom would assume raekwon was just making breakfast
― deej, Wednesday, 10 October 2007 19:08 (sixteen years ago) link
"mmm, this pot of boiling water needs another handful of sugar"
― Shakey Mo Collier, Wednesday, 10 October 2007 19:11 (sixteen years ago) link
Well, he said 'take it away' so presumably it was already home and out of the shrinkwrap.
― Oilyrags, Wednesday, 10 October 2007 19:15 (sixteen years ago) link
I would be kinda alarmed if my parents' knew what crack preparation looked like
― Shakey Mo Collier, Wednesday, 10 October 2007 19:19 (sixteen years ago) link
We were in the car and my parents decided to look through my CD booklet. They said they were going to listen to it when we got home, but they never did.
Oilyrags, they were turned off by what they thought the music sounded like based on the artwork. Understandable really.
― dreamsonvhs, Monday, 22 October 2007 19:41 (sixteen years ago) link
CHEFll SHINE LIKE MARBLE, RHYME REMARKABLE
― deej, Monday, 22 October 2007 19:42 (sixteen years ago) link
totally stand by my vote
UNOFFICIAL WET TISSUE!!!
― deej, Monday, 22 October 2007 19:43 (sixteen years ago) link
love that section of one of those funkmaster flex 90s mixes from this summer where he just plays that verse over and over and keeps laughing about "unofficial wet tissue'
YOU ROLLIN LIKE TRUMP, YOU GET YA MEAT LUMPED
― deej, Monday, 22 October 2007 19:44 (sixteen years ago) link
Word up cousin, nigga, I seen it Like a 27-inch Zenith - believe it!
Verbal Intercourse was actually the one I remember as a fave, not Glaciers of Ice, which is a little, you know, chorus-y for a Wu track. I'm still not comfortable picking, maybe because I don't want to give in to Criminology.
Not that it's any big revelation or anything, but who else hears a lot of Monk in Incarcerated Scarfaces?
― gabbneb, Monday, 22 October 2007 19:59 (sixteen years ago) link
criminology is the one w/ the big repeating horn section that samples black ivory right?? i'm mixing up the beats in my mind.
― deej, Monday, 22 October 2007 20:06 (sixteen years ago) link
-- deej, Monday, 8 October 2007 16:33
on the real
― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Monday, 22 October 2007 20:24 (sixteen years ago) link
Yo back in the days, baggin crack, scrapin plates Flippin cakes to them heavy head niggaz hatin Jakes It be us, all the war's soldiers, hangin in halls gettin over City niggaz who for blood money rockin Rovers
― ciderpress, Monday, 22 October 2007 22:02 (sixteen years ago) link
otm
― gabbneb, Monday, 22 October 2007 22:19 (sixteen years ago) link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0CmIRODuI4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yUk683Sl3U
― am0n, Friday, 2 November 2007 17:13 (sixteen years ago) link
criminology is the one w/ the big repeating horn section that samples black ivory right??
yeah
― dmr, Friday, 2 November 2007 17:30 (sixteen years ago) link
Julio Iglesias Makin cream like that nigga
you lookin good fly colored asian
― The Reverend, Friday, 24 September 2010 23:40 (thirteen years ago) link
6 "Rainy Dayz" 0
this, prob :/
― the decline of the altbro-hongarian empire (nakhchivan), Saturday, 25 September 2010 00:34 (thirteen years ago) link
CAN YOU FEEL ME / STORYTELLIN RAP MAGELLAN
so many amazing lines. yeah this is probably my favorite rap album, if i had to choose, just for the sheer density -- lyrically and production wise.
cat-surrounded/this political brown kid
we gon get that crunchy chump for all of his lump
― teflon dawn (uptown churl), Saturday, 25 September 2010 14:18 (thirteen years ago) link
claimin New York was ancient Babylonwhere the sky stayed the color of grey like heron
― drunk 'n' white's elements of style (Hurting 2), Sunday, 23 December 2012 04:30 (eleven years ago) link
robbed imo
extra live, he claimed he couldn't die, top ranksixteen shots in his fishtank
― drunk 'n' white's elements of style (Hurting 2), Sunday, 23 December 2012 04:51 (eleven years ago) link
how the fuck do "Rainy Dayz" or, yeah, "Knowledge God" have no votes
― one bish two bish red bish blue bish (fadanuf4erybody), Sunday, 23 December 2012 04:55 (eleven years ago) link
ditto
― drunk 'n' white's elements of style (Hurting 2), Sunday, 23 December 2012 05:00 (eleven years ago) link
rap world needs more mythoses
― j., Monday, 31 August 2015 18:39 (eight years ago) link
― deej, Monday, October 22, 2007 3:44 PM (7 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― Now Dom Go Suggbanizer Way (Why?) (Whiney G. Weingarten), Monday, 31 August 2015 18:47 (eight years ago) link
I've always thought it was weird that RZA considers this a "summer" album, it's strictly winter listening for me
― Οὖτις, Monday, 31 August 2015 18:50 (eight years ago) link
WANNA BATTLE FOR CASH AND SEE WHO SONS WHO (Sun Tzu)
― on entre O.K. on sort K.O. (man alive), Monday, 31 August 2015 20:59 (eight years ago) link
man this album. the best start-to-finish Wu album probably, so rich.
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 25 October 2016 19:53 (seven years ago) link
"Criminology" just hits like a sledgehammer, of razor sharp rapping. and lord those samples/that beat
― We were clothed, except for Caan, who was naked. Don't know why. (Neanderthal), Tuesday, 19 July 2022 01:37 (one year ago) link
That line about the sky staying the colour of grey like heron is one of my favourite rap lyrics ever. Can't really explain why tbh
― paolo, Saturday, 26 November 2022 10:56 (one year ago) link