Another blatant, surprising statement? Nah, I don't think so. Keep in mind when I say most underrated, I'm talking about among emcee's that are fairly to pretty well known by intelligent hip-hop fans. I'm sure every head on here is just waiting to shout out their favorite underground artist, but save it, and let's talk Genius/GZA.
For being a CLASSIC album, I feel "Liquid Swords" is also one of the most slept on LP's of all-time and many people will mistake it for being his solo debut, but honestly I feel that the lyrical complexity, sophisticated battle raps, vivid storytelling and absolute raw production with classic-after-classic makes this album completely and utterless matchless when it comes to pure lyricism. The only remaining factor here is the subject matter, to which many people will prefer Illmatic and depending on what day it is and how I feel, so will I. Enter the Wu-Tang: 36 Chambers is one of the most original and innovative pieces of artwork in hip-hop history, but from a lyrical standpoint, I think GZA's LS blows it out existence. In fact, when I really, really getting down to it, I can honestly and objectively say Illmatic is the only match, and vice versa. No disrespect to Rakim (Follow the Leader, Lyrics of Fury, Microphone Fiend, et al.) but he is not GZA's master as plays for Nas.
So, besides being one of the original creators of Wu-Tang Clan, dropping probably the most lyrical album of all-time, and always acting as second fiddle to other far inferior (but great) emcee's like Method Man, Ghostface and Raekwon, GZA also gets massive amounts of credibility for never going commercial or being an attention whore for the limelight.
His other more recent solo efforts Beneath The Surface (1999) and The Legend of the Liquid Sword (2002) weren't pure classic efforts, though they did feature the same scientific, throught-provoking lyricism over less darker production than featured on Liquid Swords. GZA has always been one of the most creative songwriters in hip-hop ranging from "Labels" to "Publicity" to "Animal Planet" to "Fame", it's all very incredible artwork. As for his battle raps, this ***** doesn't just sit there and tell you why he's the greatest and about all the jewelry and cars he has (JAY-Z) nor does he ever have to implement a rapid fire delivery nor SHOUT his lyrics for more effect; Oh no, he'll just lyrically decapitate you without flinching and that's what I've always felt was so sick about him. He has one of the ORIGINAL styles and it's just classic.
I'm running a little low on the thoughtful-post fuel with this one, but you get the picture. He's basically one of the most original emcees in hip-hop history, helped create the greatest rap group in hip-hop history, dropped arguably the most lyrical album in hip-hop history followed by two definite 4 to 4.5 mic albums if not for some weaker production and one or two filler tracks and y'all still sleep on him despite the fact that he can storytell just as great, if not better than Nas, Biggie or Mega and would most definitely MURK THE **** outta your favorite rapper we're they to battle. I'd just love for Jay-Z to say "Ask Gza, he don't want it with Hov, NOOOOOO" I'm not talking about some freestyle (although he can) or phony, pre-written "freestyle" (Supa Ugly Jay-Z ****), I'm talking about the thoughtful, lyrical-decapitations without blinking. Ether would look pre-school in comparison to the bomb he would've dropped. It's not easy to put GZA's lyrics and flow into words and I'm coming up extremely short on my description but there are those who know what I'm talking about...
40 years old...New Album in '06... The Genius.
Linear Mode
