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Everyone who does not live under a rock knows that “Wu Tang Clan ain’t nuthin”….well you know how the rest goes. Aust in Wu Tang Clan fans) come out in large numbers at The RZA concert. Method Man is coming with Redman this fall. Last night was another Austin Wu Tang installment with the Genius himself, The GZA.
While the Wu Tang membership or affiliation was an automatic draw, the real draw for me was that GZA was performing his classic hip hop album Liquid Swords . When I read that, I said to myself “here is an artist that gets it”. Give the fans, the Wu fans, what they want to hear. Sure he has had other albums and even has a new record, Pro Tools. As good as those other albums are or might be, they do not equal the genius (no pun intended) of Liquid Swords . I don’t think that GZA knew what he created at the time of the Liquid Swords release. I didn’t know as a teenager that I owned and listened to a classic album until the years went by. Hip hop got stale to me in terms of creativity, original sounds and even in terms of great lyricists.
Liquid Swords Liquid Swords tracks. It was like paying homage to the fans, to The Wu Tang Clan and to hip hop itself.
On the tour GZA brought with him Killah Priest , which GZA fans first met him on Liquid Swords track “B.I.B.L.E.”. Truthfully I forgot about Killah Priest, but not intentionally. He has always been a solid lyricist and a vivid story teller. It is just I hadn’t heard anything from him in a while so it was a nice surprise for me that he went on before GZA and served as his hype man.
Soon after Killa Priests finished his set, the packed house at Emo’s had their W’s up in the air and were more than ready for the GZA to grace Austin with his presence. It was on the instant he came out. Chants of “Wu-Tang” could be heard all the way to I-35. I couldn’t even really hear GZA at first because half the time the crowd was rapping along to the songs.
I was wondering before the show how GZA would perform the different guest verses on the album, which included other Wu members. Killah Priest, his DJ, and the crowd took care of that. A large majority of crowd last night seemed to know all the words to the songs off Liquid Swords , not just the hooks. I didn’t think I was the only one, but hearing the large number of people rapping along with GZA even took me by surprise. Props to the real hip hop fans in Austin
As far as the show itself, the sound could have been better. I kept hearing feedback in the mics. Even GZA was getting on the soundman. The other technical snafu was with a CD GZA’s DJ was using on one song where it kept skipping. GZA stopped him and said something to regards of that can’t keep happening and asked him if that was the CD. Moments like that make the live experience better to me believe it or not. It shows fans that despite their talents and celebrity, rappers are just like anyone else. Plus, everyone forgave and forgot quickly once he performed an Old Dirty Bastard montage of songs.
Despite those technical difficulties and the heat, which the performers were all bothered by it seems, it was still a very memorable experience for me. It is not everyday I get to see a performance from a Wu Tang MC or a performance of all the songs from one of my all time favorite records. As I sit and write, it has still not hit me yet that I just saw GZA perform “Cold World” or “Shadowboxin”.
Finally, I was wondering something about last night. GZA told the audience that he was going to be signing t-shirts after the show. Nothing crazy, whatever right? Here’s what got me…he offered $500 dollars to whomever could tell him the name of his first manager. Of course you had to buy the shirt and be the first with that answer, but I just want to know if anyone knew the answer and got the promised cash. Let me know folks. I’m just curious.
