My Gut Reaction: Gza/Genius - Pro Tools (August 19, 2008)

Sorry this post took so goddamn long, but it's due to circumstances beyond my control: this disc was supposed to hit shelves on Tuesday, August 19, and yet, due to some unknown shipping error or something, Best Buy didn't have it the day it dropped: I wasn't able to finally pick it up until last night. (I did find it at a Target on Tuesday, not unlike how I found the last Rza album, but it was for full retail, and there is no way in hell I'm paying eighteen dollars for a fucking CD unless it came with four discs, an autographed poster, three ringtones, earth-friendly packaging, and multiple blowjobs from Victoria's Secret models.)

Anyway, one of my favorite memories of the old Ultimate Wu site (while it lasted) was when one of the moderators tried to rip me a new one when I dismissed Gza/Genius's Beneath The Surface: he actually stated that Beneath The Surface was a better album than Liquid Swords. No, seriously, he did. You can stop laughing now. While everyone is entitled to their opinion (even if it's completely fucking erroneous), it's a fact that the Gza has been attempting to recreate his seminal classic disc with each subsequent visit to the recording studio. He even went so far as to title one of his solo albums Legend Of The Liquid Sword. So it's no secret that even the Genius realizes that his Wu-Tang solo debut (note that I'm not counting Words From The Genius) is one of the best albums ever made, regardless of musical genre.

Pro Tools, Gza's sixth solo album (okay, now I'm counting Words From The Genius) and his first since 2005, goes so far as to have artwork on the back of the CD case that will hopefully recall the album cover from Liquid Swords. According to the (incredibly cheap-looking) liner notes (seriously, it looks like all of Gza's budget was spent on the cover, as the credits within look like a copy of a copy of a copy, and speaking of the credits, they're so fucking cheap that it appears that none of the artists were cleared by their labels, and none of the sample sources are named - you'll understand what I mean in a bit), Pro Tools is almost exclusively an in-house Wu-Tang production, with all of the Wu-Elements contributing in some form, and with a couple of exceptions, the guests are all Wu-Tang related.

My understanding is that Pro Tools has gotten some surprisingly rave reviews on the Interweb. Let's see if the critics are right.

1. INTROMENTAL
Very dull, but at least it's short.

2. PENCIL (FEAT MASTA KILLA & THE RZA)
Masta Killa sounds completely out of place, but his appearance is the equivalent of someone interrupting your train of thought to ask you where the restroom is and then leaving you to your own devices, anyway. This is really the Gza and the Rza show, and how: The Rza, with his long-ass "Winter Warz"-esque verse, impresses in a way that just didn't happen on Digi Snacks.

3. ALPHABETS
Sounds like a Beneath The Surface leftover, but not necessarily in a bad way. I was halfway expecting Gza to rhyme about his adventures in Alphabet Land, a la "Labels" or "Fame", but thankfully the Genius decided to just spit.
4. GROUNDBREAKING (FEAT JUSTICE KAREEM)
Gza and his son pass the mic back and forth, sometimes in the middle of fucking sentences, which is a bit frustrating. Bronze Nazareth's beat is pretty nice, though.

5. 7 POUNDS
Surprisingly for a Wu-Tang album (but not surprisingly for hip hop in general), Black Milk produced this track. The hook is too wordy, but otherwise, this isn't bad at all.

6. 0% FINANCE
Maybe I skipped the day when all of the bloggers noted that "0% Finance" uses the exact same beat as "Stay In Line" from Legend Of The Liquid Sword, but I don't remember reading that anywhere. Oh well, I suppose as long as "Stay In Line"'s original producer, Arabian Knight, gets a publishing credit, it's all good. (Still not sure why a different producer needed to be credited for "0% Finance", though, since I can't imagine Choco did even half of the work that Arabian Knight did.) I ended up liking this song more that "Stay In Line", since it features the Gza in storyteller mode, but the true reason for my positive reaction may be due to the fact that, unlike the original track, Santogold doesn't appear on this.

7. SHORT RACE (FEAT ROCK MARCY)
There isn't much to this song, but it's decent. Rock Marcy is definitely a much better rapper than his first crew, Busta Rhymes's Flipmode Squad, ever deserved. Is his other crew, the U.N., even still recording?

8. INTERLUDE
Only exists to lead straight into...

9. PAPER PLATE
Gza throws some darts at the Curtis Jackson camp, ostensibly because Curtis was stupid enough to take shots at him after some concertgoers at a Gza live show decided to chant "Fuck 50" and Gza essentially agreed with them without saying as much. Gza's certainly not the first Wu-Tang member to diss that jackass (Raekwon also did so on that "Clyde Smith" interlude on Ghostface Killah's Supreme Clientele), but he is the first to do so on an officially released song. (Hell, it was the first fucking single.) Rza's rather elementary production serves its purpose well, staying out of the way of Gza's bars, for the most part, which are delivered in such a clean (literally, there's no cursing) and fluid manner that you wouldn't mind hearing the Genius disrespect your grandmother as long as it was to a Rza beat. It's pretty funny that, while Gza took the time to record this song, he apparently has no intention of even acknowledging Soulja Boy's existence.

10. COLUMBIAN TIES (FEAT TRUE MASTER)
Sounds like Gza rhyming with his twin on the hook, because I've always felt that True Master, who actually didn't produce this song, sounds like an older Genius when he rhymes. That said, this shit is really good.
11. FIREHOUSE (FEAT KA)
Gza only appears on the hook? The fuck? I'm hoping that Ka is only included on Pro Tools as a favor to Rock Marcy (who produced), and not because he's under the wing of the Gza, because he's not so good a rapper that he deserves his own song. His delivery sounds like a more polished Nine, and part of that guy's appeal was that his vocals weren't that polished to begin with. It was pretty funny when Ka illustrates that he had to grow up fast by mentioning that he "never used a potty", though.

12. PATH OF DESTRUCTION
That title begs for some hardcore Wu-Tang production, perhaps something with a confrontational vibe, with kung-fu flick samples and swinging swords incorporated into the background. However, what we actually get is pretty boring.

13. CINEMA (FEAT JUSTICE KAREEM)
It's hard to decipher what Gza's son is saying on the hook, but the Genius himself adopts a creepy whisper-like flow that ends up sounding pretty effective over Arabian Knight's beat.

14. INTERMISSION (DRIVE IN MOVIE)
Nice throwback to early Wu-Tang! Much appreciated, guys.

15. LIFE IS A MOVIE (FEAT THE RZA & IRFANE KHAN-ACITO OF OUTLINES)
Rza and Gza spit over the barely altered track to Gary Numan's "Films". The Rza and the Gza over some New Wave shit: bet you didn't see that coming. And longtime readers of the blog may expect me to be in heaven with that combination: they would be right. Rza's direct theft of the Numan track comes off as a bit lazy for production work, but the mere fact that he went with New Wave to begin with (and that he didn't go with the more obvious Gary Numan song, "Cars"), makes this one of the most interesting beats he's done in fucking years. (Too bad Gary Numan doesn't receive a writing credit in the liner notes.) It's almost like if DJ Premier were to chop up some Joy Division into his beats (or even mix it into his coffee). In regard to Irfane Khan-Acito's hook, though, it's lifted straight from "Films": if you were going to take the song wholesale, why didn't you also just take Numan's vocals?

The following is listed as a bonus track:

16. ELASTIC AUDIO (FEAT DREDDY KRUEGER & FYRE DEPARTMENT)
Gza performs live in Austin, Texas, with his hypeman (and Think Differently A&R) Dreddy Krueger. The Genius spits his verses from his "1112" and "General Principles" (acapella), and, to his credit, sounds almost exactly the same as he does on his albums. Although the censoring is very frustrating, this still makes for a good way to end your album.

THE LAST WORD: While the only person that will probably bump Pro Tools in the whip is Gza's own mother, this album is actually enjoyable. It's nowhere near the level of Liquid Swords, but at this point, I'll take what I can get, and Gza's lyricism hasn't faded with age. (You should be forewarned that the album is, for the most part, clean, and the few bad words that do pop up are censored: there is no dirty version of Pro Tools available.) Not every song clicks (and Ka's guest spot is still a mystery to me), but this is certainly the most entertaining Wu-Tang project that I've heard since 8 Diagrams. To my two readers, thanks for your patience.

-Max

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