Legend of the Liquid Sword

How quickly the hip-hop world turns. In the mid-’90s everyone was all about the Wu-Tang Clan and their dark, grimy soundscapes. Nowadays, they seem like yesterday’s news. Their skills haven’t eroded though. The fourth album from Wu-Tang frontliner GZA is as bold and energetic as anything the Wu camp’s produced in years. GZA has always been a compelling rhymer, but the production here, courtesy of a parade of big names (RZA, DJ Muggs) and no-names (BOOLA, Tyquan Walker), is livelier and more diverse than the usual Wu gloom-and-doom. A piano bounces amongst vigorous drumming, vibrant Hammond organ lines and funky bass groove on “Did You Say That,” introducing the record’s playful tone. “Animal Planet” salutes the cable channel of the same name, with GZA dropping his knowledge of the natural world over a lush Isaac Hayes sample; “Fame” is a cool rhyme experiment which weaves a ghetto tale from the names of the famous and infamous (“George Burns a blunt William’s Holden”). It’s all in service of a strange, little concept that’s been hard to find in hip-hop recently: fun.