GZA/Genius

Thu 20th Aug, 2009 in Features

16 years after the notorious Enter the Wu-Tang album and 13 years on from his masterpiece Liquid Swords, the GZA aka The Genius is set to hit the Australia for the Coaster Festival and his solo Liquid Swords tour. FasterLouder caught up with him over the phone from Las Vegas.

What’s been on the GZA/Genius schedule recently?
Just been doing shows and writing. I’ve been writing some stuff, you know a bit of everything. Most of the time been doing Liquid Swords shows. I’m doing shows all the time man, I have done about 100 last year or more, same as this year. I have done three tours with the Clan last year, three tours by myself this year… I have been pretty busy I haven’t been able to sit down and really write, like lock myself in for two or three months and just write some songs and maybe a script or two and possibly even a graphic novel.

What comics are you interested in?
That’s another thing, I have never really been into graphic novels but I ran into these people and they were interested in trying to put some type of book together and then it turned into being a graphic novel. I’ve never really been into comic books, that’s Method Man’s thing, but I am starting to have a lot more respect for it as I always have respect for art, period.

Are there any comic book characters you’re into?
You know what really funny about it is sometimes when we are on the road we started talking about superhero powers like – œHow much can Spiderman lift?’ – œHow much can the Hulk lift?’ and Method Man knew the answer to all of these and RZA was giving him a back and fourth and that amazed me it was like ‘Wow – they actually know how strong these guys are’ and it was just funny to me.

If you could create a character what power do you envision them having?
I’ve had a few ideas you know but everyday I jump from a new idea to another one and its weird because like everybody nowadays is doing a character of their own you know, Method Man has done one, [R&B singer] Tyrese has done one and a lot of them are built around what their superhero does. So I would have to be very careful about what I’d want mine to do because I don’t want mine to be typical like – œHe has a lot of strengths, he can read your mind’. I would probably go the total opposite to someone who has powers like someone who has a certain power but it’s not about physical strength.

With your solo tour, you’re taking it back to Liquid Swords ; what do you think made that such a big record?
I don’t know, wasn’t really my idea, wasn’t mine from the start nah mean? It all started with the Pitchfork music festival three years ago and the agency asked if I could do a Liquid Swords tour and after that I’ve been asked to do them over and over and I after that I was booked to do Liquid Swords. The thing is a lot of people really like and appreciates that album the see it as a good piece of art…

How do you feel about the current stage of hip hop at the moment?
It’s… it’s… it’s gone everywhere… I mean I can’t explain it, I don’t even think it knows what direction it’s going in but its defiantly flying all over the place, its crazy… just seems messy…

What influences you to write?
It can be anything, I mean it can be me looking out the window at the mountains right now… like talking to you, doing an interview, being inspired by certain things you may ask. You may ask me a question that I never ask myself or no one ever asks me and it may get me on a mission to start analyzing that question then I’ll get to it and might end up writing a whole song based on the question you ask. There is no limited to what I can speak about. I can speak about anything and make it interesting… anything, I can rhyme about a brick.

That’s cool; can you rhyme about a brick right now?
No, cause then like I would be forced to be rhyming off the head and freestyle, and I wouldn’t do that … If I did that right now it would sound like 90% of what’s out there.

So then you put a lot of thought into what you’re writing then?
I can actually take something, write about it without it being boring, like I can write about a brick and not many artists can do that. You know how you can test a lot of MC’s? You can school their limited amount of subject matter. I usually tell a lot of kids that like to rhyme and all that to show me their verses and I have even schooled some people that were older… you know what I tell them to do? I tell them to write a rhyme that’s set in the 16th century. If you told the average rapper that they’ll be stuck… they’ll be like damn ‘I can’t write about hotels, I can’t write about flat screen TVs because none of that existed in the 16th century, I can’t write about cars, I can’t write about Crystal, hoochies, I cant write about fuck’ and they’ll be stuck… and that’s where you really challenge yourself to do something like that.

You’ve done some film work, you guested on the Chappelle Show, you directed and produced Wu Tang Revealed, you were in Jim Jarmusch’s Coffee and Cigarettes; are you planning to go into film like a lot of rappers these days?
No, I mean at some point I probably will, like do some acting but that’s not what I am planning on doing, I mean I just like to write. I would like to be in film as far as that aspect with just writing.

How was working in film? With Bill Murray and Jim Jarmsuch?
I had a lot of fun, a lot of fun. Jim Jarmusch is a good guy, Bill and Dave too, it was really fun, no pressure, he didn’t make me feel inexperienced because I was working with a veteran, he didn’t give that vibe.

How’s stuff with the Wu Tang? Are you guys still active? Planning to drop a new album or go on a reunion tour?
I have no idea, I mean we have to schedule a meeting sometime in the very near future and sit down at the table and check out if we going to do a new album, a new tour, which we should before that window of opportunity actually closes… not saying that that will close but you know. I mean we are so fortunate to have careers writing songs, doing tours and getting deals. We aren’t on majors but independent is just as good; even better at sometimes. Hopefully we can get together and figure out what we are going to do.

What’s been the best place to tour worldwide?
I don’t really know where’s been the best place to tour because I love touring, I love to do shows… sometimes I haven’t really been in the city long enough to really enjoy it and know what its like BUT I must say when I went to Australia in 2006 for the for GrandMasters album, I was there for almost two weeks and I had a ball I loved it, I loved it.

GZA/GENIUS will be playing at the Coaster Festival in Gosford on the 12th of September with sideshows at the Prince in Melbourne on the 11th, The Metro in Sydney on the 15th, and Brisbane Hi-Fi on the 16th

He’ll also be part of the Wu Tang lineup when they play Melbourne’s Megarampage festival