Liquid Swords is released

Why it matters

Liquid Swords came out November 7, 1995, on Geffen. It is GZA's solo debut as a Wu-Tang member (he had had a pre-Wu solo album in 1991 called Words from the Genius, on Cold Chillin', that almost nobody had heard). RZA produced everything. The album is one of the high-water marks of the Wu solo era. GZA is the Genius, which is a stage name that almost any other rapper would not be able to live up to. He earns it across this record. The bars are dense with chess-and-chemistry metaphors. The cadence is precise and unhurried. Every song opens with a sampled dialogue clip from the 1980 Shogun Assassin film, which is one of the most coherent organizing devices on any Wu solo album. "Liquid Swords," "Cold World," "Investigative Reports," "4th Chamber," "Shadowboxin'." The RZA production on this album is the dustiest, sparest, most kung-fu-soundtrack version of his style; it is the inverse of what Dre was doing in California the same year. You can listen to it on headphones and pull out new pieces every time. The album rewards careful listening because GZA writes carefully.