Both coming from the streets of New York, Wu-Tang MC GZA The Genius and DJ Muggs of Cypress Hill were bound to come together on a bigger scale. With a love for the grittiest Hip Hop music you can find, Muggs started his first round of solo work collaboration with artists such as Mobb Deep, KRS-One and of course GZA. “Third World” was the first joint they did together in 1997, here we heard GZA spit “Microphone cycle, who flips the mic so well? Hell without bail, in jams packed like jail-cells” and with a beat so fitted for the Wu-Tang sound, I couldn’t imagine a more perfect collaboration which left us with a hunger for more Muggs vs. GZA. Seven years later the two finally came together on one of the rawest Hip Hop discs ever put out, period.

When push comes to shove, GZA is by far the most incredible lyricist that has spawned from the Hip Hop community. Since 36 Chambers, there was no doubt who was the head of the Voltron known as Wu-Tang Clan. Always being the sharpest in the booth and always the one with the cleanest flow, GZA never lost his focus and on his debut album Liquid Swords, he proved that this MC was miles ahead of his time. One thing that he needs to release his words, are beats which are tailored for him. RZA did an incredible job on Liquid Swords, creating a canvas not only for GZA to venture on, but also to evolve on. With an ice cold sound that was grittier than ever heard before, Liquid Swords tore up the competition and to this day stands as one of the greatest. Looking back on that, could Muggs even come close to that sound? Would he be able to create the same landscape for GZA to take advantage of? The answer is yes.

A common interest and love for chess has been the foundation of this release. Entitled Grandmasters (the highest rank a chess player can reach), this is a concept album. Built around the tactical nature of the chess game it’s very strict in its sound, and in the best Wu-Tang style, you feel like you’re being pulled into a dark underground world where only the toughest survive. Mainly focusing on criminal stories, GZA gives you visuals through his lyrics worthy of the movie screen. On the dark and haunting “Exploitation of Mistakes” you get a walkthrough of a crime case from the finding of two bodies pulled from a lake, to the arrest of the suspect. With small snippets of chess moves in between the tracks, we move on to “General Principles” which captures the albums feel so well with a spare drum loop, spare bass line and only a few strings to give that gritty sound that fits so great to the albums MC. Being one of my favorite songs off the album, “Advance Pawns” starts out with some middle eastern chanting and then evolves into a full blown Wu banger; it features one my favorite Raekwon lines as he steals the show with the opener “When you see it, you better acknowledge, your all swords/Blaze the green hundred fours, pull out on you/blew you for the cause”. If anyone would ask me what Wu-Tang should sound like, I’d lead them to this one.

“Queen’s Gambit” Is the added addition to concept songs GZA has brought us; the first one was filled with Label references, next one with magazines, then animals and celebrities. Now he throws down a story build on top of football references, topping all of its previous – “Queen’s Gambit” takes use of all the names of the football teams in the NFL and with wordplay like; “You’re a Ten-I-See, you just need to TITAN you’re game” we are in for a treat. The grittiness of the sound is what welds this album together. It is clear to see that before this was done, Muggs has been searching through the record crates, to create exactly that Wu-sound that fits GZA the best. Everything from the drum patterns to the lyrical metaphors on the disc hit damn near perfect and makes Grandmasters one of my favorites in the Wu-Tang catalogue.

by Oskar