POLL BUILT 4 CUBAN LINX...

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.

I'm going with Glaciers of Ice. This article is so great.

tho actually my favorite thing on the album is the Spot Rusherz skit ("") w/ the RZA bars in the background

"Wu-Gambinos" by a nose over "Criminology"

incarcerated scarfaces

Knuckleheadz for me

ban Whiney

Why does everyone think this album is better than Liquid Swords

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.

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.

7 "Guillotine (Swordz)"

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

incarcerated scarfaces

-- 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

Can it all be so simple? Yes, it can.

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.

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')

i would agree with that.

i like 36 CHAMBERS but not LIQUID SWORDS will i like this?

yes.

cant believe i have the same choice as fuckin jordan sargent but guillotine is dope dope dope

props for the purple tape pic btw

PEACE CONNECTICUT

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

"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.

"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?

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.

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.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

no votes for Knowledge God = :(

9 "Shark Niggas (Biters)" 1

o_O

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.

but... crack preparation is in the sleeve, not on the cover

i think my mom would assume raekwon was just making breakfast

"mmm, this pot of boiling water needs another handful of sugar"

Well, he said 'take it away' so presumably it was already home and out of the shrinkwrap.

I would be kinda alarmed if my parents' knew what crack preparation looked like

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.

CHEFll SHINE LIKE MARBLE, RHYME REMARKABLE

totally stand by my vote

UNOFFICIAL WET TISSUE!!!

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

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?

criminology is the one w/ the big repeating horn section that samples black ivory right?? i'm mixing up the beats in my mind.

we can trade places
get lifted under staircases
word up PEACE
incarcerated scarfaces

-- deej, Monday, 8 October 2007 16:33

on the real

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

otm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0CmIRODuI4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yUk683Sl3U

criminology is the one w/ the big repeating horn section that samples black ivory right??

yeah

Julio Iglesias
Makin cream like that nigga

you lookin good fly colored asian

6 "Rainy Dayz" 0

this, prob :/

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

claimin New York was ancient Babylon
where the sky stayed the color of grey like heron

robbed imo

extra live, he claimed he couldn't die, top rank
sixteen shots in his fishtank

how the fuck do "Rainy Dayz" or, yeah, "Knowledge God" have no votes

ditto

rap world needs more mythoses

YOU ROLLIN LIKE TRUMP, YOU GET YA MEAT LUMPED

― deej, Monday, October 22, 2007 3:44 PM (7 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I've always thought it was weird that RZA considers this a "summer" album, it's strictly winter listening for me

WANNA BATTLE FOR CASH AND SEE WHO SONS WHO (Sun Tzu)

man this album. the best start-to-finish Wu album probably, so rich.

"Criminology" just hits like a sledgehammer, of razor sharp rapping. and lord those samples/that beat

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