Post by Dark 7 Invader on Dec 1, 2005 5:14:41 GMT -5
Artist: Gza
Interviewer: Alexander Fruchter
“A liquid sword,” Gza explains, “is basically a sharp tongue that’s swift and changeable. You see because the tongue, we say, is symbolic to the sword. When it moves, it produces wind. Your tongue is a double-edged sword.” It’s no wonder than why Gza would link himself forever with this concept. He has been known throughout his career for being sharp with his lyrics, and clever with his concepts. Such ability also brought along with it a new identity. While just starting out as an emcee he was tagged with the nickname ‘Genius,’ a label that he didn’t always want. “They saw me as being a genius as far as lyrically. They gave me that but I didn’t want it because I thought people would look at that name and expect too much, just too much.”
And perhaps he’s right. Fans have come to expect a lot from the Gza and his Wu-Tang brethren. Legions of hardcore Wu-Tang fans have grown accustomed to Wu’s style and energy, and have come to expect classic material each time out from the Shaolin squad. Well, it’s been a while since fans have heard collectively from the group, and since the death of Ol’ Dirty Bastard, it’s certain that they won’t ever again hear from the Wu-Tang Clan in its entirety. Rather than sitting idly by, Gza has been hard at work. His new project with DJ Mugss, Grandmasters, was just released to strong reviews, and he is still working on a new solo album, Gza Presents. SoundSlam.com had the chance to talk with Gza about the music making process, Hip Hop today, as well as the value of intelligence. Check out the words from the Genius.
SoundSlam: How did the project with DJ Muggs come about? Who’s idea was that?
Gza: I think Muggs. He might have brought it to my attention a little while ago about doing a record together. We worked on previous projects before. I think it was his idea to do an album together. I linked up with him about a year ago. He gave me some beats, about 12-13 beats. I took them home. He was in New York, I hooked up with him, I got the beats. Then we linked up four months after that and did an album.
SoundSlam: How long does it take you to make a song?
Gza: It all depends. Sometimes I spend a lot of time. I don’t write everyday. I’m always writing down thoughts and ideas. If I sit down and work on a song, I can do it in a complete day, with all the notes and stuff that I have already. Sometimes it’ll take a while. Sometimes I might not finish a song, writing it, till three weeks later. It all depends. I’m always going back and forth. I might have an idea and not get to it until four months later. I recorded the album in eight days. I only had three maybe four songs written when I got out to LA to link up with him.
SoundSlam: What made that chemistry like that, and allowed to complete that album so quickly?
Gza: I had a lot ideas and thoughts in my head already about what I wanted to write about, and what direction I wanted to go with it from having the beats already. Even though I didn’t have songs to many of them, I had sort of insight or direction. I knew what road to travel. I might not have known which exit to get off, but I knew the road to travel. The beats kind of set the tone for the vibe that I have on the majority of songs. When I heard “Exploitation of Mistakes,” that beat, I knew automatically it was a story…And it was dark. I knew it was something that would be dark just from the beat alone. I kinda had an idea where I wanted to go.
SoundSlam: It’s been getting a good response from fans and critics alike. I read a review on one site. They had a lot of praise for the album but they called it a resurrection for both your career and DJ Muggs’ career. Do you feel that you were in a place where your career needed to be “resurrected?”
Gza: Somewhat in a sense….I mean, resurrected in the sense that I haven’t been heard from. There hasn’t been any good quality stuff out from Wu-Tang in a while. I only increase lyrically. As far as my previous works, I think it’s always been good. I don’t think I ever decreased lyrically. I could look at that different ways as far as resurrection. I never died out. I never really went anywhere as far as lyrically. You may have not heard from me. We’re not in the spotlight like we used to be. We still have a hardcore fan base that’s still here ten years later. They’re underground just like we are. For those that’s been wanting to hear something, I guess it is somewhat a resurrection in a sense. As far as myself lyrically, I’ve only increased. My writing is getting better everyday.
SoundSlam: Speaking about your writing…I had a chance to speak with Raekwon a little bit ago and I asked him if he approaches music, or making music, differently when writing for himself or making a Wu-Tang album. He said he approached both in the same way. I’m wondering if you have similar or different answer?
Gza: I approach every song the same way. Sometimes I have thoughts already, and if I hear something I can match them to I’ll try to work with it. I may have a rhyme, not often do I have a rhyme already. I often usually write for the occasion. It can go many different ways. I could have a beat and put a rhyme to it. I could have a rhyme already and put a beat to it. I could have a thought and wait for a beat and work something around it. But I always approach it in those ways, all the time. I just write from the head. It’s basically from scratch. I usually do a lot of writing without music, and then every now and then I’ll try to match to a song or beat. Or I’ll just try to create something new. The way I write, it’s always the same.
SoundSlam: When did you first come up with the name Gza?
Gza: Gza, as opposed to Genius?
SoundSlam: Yeah.
Gza: I would probably say it was more or less accidental, I would say. I didn’t sit down and think, ‘how could I change Genius to Gza.’ I’ve answered this question a few times because many people don’t know. Genius was given to me from Rza and Dirty. I never gave myself that title. Didn’t want it, didn’t want anything to do with that name back in the day, or anything. That name was given to me by them. It just stuck with me. By the time I got to Cold Chillin’ I was signed as Genius. On a Cold Chillin’ song, it was called, I think it was called “Feel the Pain…” There’s a song on there where I say, ‘the Gigga-Gigga-Gigga-Genius.’ Because we used to scratch our names when we rhymed. We had a habit of scratching our names, so if you scratch Genius, you would get Gza-Gza-Gza-Genius. When you scratch Dirty you get Dza-Dza-Dza-Dirty. Genius became Gza. On that song it was Gigga because it was a hard scratch, it was like,, ‘Gigga-Gigga-Gigg.’ Then it became Gza-Gza, you know, it was more subtle and soft that way. That’s how Gza came about.
SoundSlam: Why did you not want any part of the name Genius?
Gza: Back then in the 80s, and still as of now for myself, it’s about intellect, intelligence, and being witty and sharp with lyrics. Back then it was more so where we all had names that was sort of along intelligence lines. It was about being smart and intelligent. Rza was the scientist. Dirty was the professor. I was the genius. You had artists like the Educated Rapper, Wise Intelligent, Knowledge Reigns Supreme Over Nearly Everyone.” So, that’s how it was back then. G Rap told me he was Genius one time when I met him. He said he was the Kool Genius of rap. They saw me as being a genius as far as lyrically. They gave me that but I didn’t want it because I thought people would look at that name and expect too much, just too much. And this whole nerdy thing, even when I did my first album cover, Words From A Genius, it was sort of like a stretch to go along with the name. I’m sitting there with a feathered pen, I got all these books beside me. It was my idea, but it was changed. The books were supposed to be giant, incredibly giant sized books that I would be sitting on, books almost half the size of cars, something real animated. They couldn’t get books that big so they got those books that I had on the cover. Then I got the feathered pen and all that to go along with the name. I just didn’t like the sound of it and all that.
SoundSlam: I understand what you’re saying. I teach 5th grade right now, and I want to throw out a phrase that I say to my students and want to know what you’re thoughts are: I’m harder than y’all cause I’m smarter than y’all. What do you think of that phrase?
Gza: I think that makes sense. It’s somewhat braggadocious. Emceeing is a braggadocious thing, there’s a lot of ego involved. I can see the truth in that. I think that someone that’s more smarter is more harder, more concrete, more solid. More hard in a sense, not in a sense of being big and bad, but in a sense of being solid, firm, assertive and all of that, all the good things. It’s a good thing to tell children. Because nowadays as far as Hip Hop, it’s cool to be dumb. Back then in the days it was cool to be smart. It was cool. I stressed things like that to my son sometimes. I let him know it’s all about being intelligent, being able to add on to different conversations, and speak about different things. Not know everything, but be able to relate to some things, and just being smart. Kids, nowadays, they’re not trying to build they’re mentality up. They’re just into a lot of bullcrap, a lot of stuff that’s just weak. I would tell my son, ‘you never talk about a kid,’ and he dresses well, because he’s able to have it like that. He may be one of the children in there, or one of the very few with all types of sneakers, all types of clothes and sweat-suits, and everything new that comes out, but he never walks around with the attitude that, ‘oh, my shoes cost this. Look at what you have.’ Because it’s not about that. It’s not cool to down another child because he doesn’t have as much as you. But, most children even when they don’t have, when you grow up in the hood you have that mentality. Rap music can be a main influence on that mentality. Most artists are bragging about their clothes, their jewelry, their gear, their car and it rubs off on the kids. There’s nothing in there about being smart, or being witty, or being intelligent. No artist is rapping about their IQ.
SoundSlam: At least the ones that are popular.
Gza: That’s what I mean, as far as the ones that’s out there, that we see on TV or hear on the radio. The whole thing has changed. I think it’s cool for them to have that mentality. I’m harder than you because I’m smarter than you.
SoundSlam: That’s my main focus. It’s cool to be smart and knowledge is power. When you have intelligence, it’s the ability to get through life, not just being able to recall facts.
Gza: Exactly. And knowledge is so powerful. With knowledge you can get everything else. It’s more powerful than having money and not having knowledge at all. Being rich as far as a material and being poor in knowledge, it doesn’t add up. It doesn’t add up. Say if you want to take it back to back in the days. People like King Solomon who was filthy rich, as far as according to history. He had a lot of money. He had a lot of wives, a lot of children. He had the things a lot of these material rappers brag about. As far as women, he had many wives and many children. A lot of money, gold and all that, but he’s mainly known for his wisdom. The wisdom of Solomon, his words were so powerful though. His words were like whoo….He would say little things like, ‘though the fly belittle among the bee yet her fruit is the chief of all sweet things.’ Whoa…Hmmmm.
SoundSlam: Switching gears a little bit. What’s the status of Gza Presents?
Gza: It’s still in the makings. I kind of fell back on it for a minute during the time I was working on the Muggs project. I wanted to release the Muggs project first and then come with that. That’s due to drop next year. There’s no rush or anything like that.
SoundSlam: I guess that kind of goes into what the purpose of music is. Some people might feel, ‘I need to rush out album after album after album to keep my name up there. It seems to me that you’re making music for a different purpose…What do you feel the purpose of music is?
Gza: My purpose for music is to be heard. First of all, to have a voice that’s heard. When we first wanted to go into the studio, when that was our goal, to get in the studio and record something, that was one step. When we decided we wanted to make records we wanted to be heard first. We wasn’t doing it because there was a lot of money involved, cause it wasn’t that many artists out at the time. We wanted to get a deal because we wanted to be heard and we wanted to be known. We wanted to be heard. The main thing about music is to just have fun with it. Do something you like. Being able to reach to the people, being able to create something they can relate to. Being able to share your experiences, or just share your mind and your imagination. A lot of writers should just try to imagine and create worlds instead of writing about their experiences. Even though I think a lot of it is stretched at some point, a lot of artists will tell you, ‘I write what I live. This is what I live.’ Their stories are boring. Music, even if I didn’t make records, or even if I wasn’t on wax, I would probably still record just for my own purposes, just to hear it myself. Because I just love the art form. I love the art form. It was a childhood passion for me, but Hip Hop is not the main music I listen to nowadays. I listen to songs from the 60s and the 70s all the time. That’s what I listen to all the time. I’m driven by that music more than I’m driven by Hip Hop. Because there’s no drive in it for me. It’s no drive. Then those that’s coming with something that’s thought provoked, you’re not really hearing them or you don’t know about them. I don’t know too much about the underground circuit, but I’m pretty sure it’s a lot of emcees out there that’s coming with some positive stuff that’s strong. And it’s not about being preachy. I would never make a song, you would never hear me on a song saying ‘go to school. Get an education. Learn to read.’ Cause I don’t approach it that way. But I would still give that same message, and still in a brutal fashion that’s Hip Hop. And it’s all about making soul-made music, not man-made music. It’s not about trying to create the next hit. Cause I don’t know what’s going to be a hit. I can’t say I’m going in the studio to make ta hit, I’m going in to make the next club banger. I don’t do songs for the clubs, I never had. If it’s an up-tempo beat and I like it, I’ll do something with it. If it happens to hit the club and be big, more power. But I don’t approach it in that sense. I do everything for me from the heart. Like I said I always listen to old music. I don’t really want to call it old, because to our parents it wouldn’t be old to them, but music from that era. I had a long drive yesterday, so I went out and bought some CDs because we didn’t really have music. So I bought a couple of soul CDs from the 70s, a couple old tunes, disco, R&B, whatever. I was listening to all these artists, and a lot of these songs came out in the same time frame, same period but they were all different. And they were all hits. But they had different…Al Green had a different style than Teddy Pendergast, Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes. Marvin Gaye had a different style. The Isleys…Even the disco tracks, the disco tunes that we were listening to, you take it to the Tramps, Disco Inferno to Gloria Gaynor…These artists was doing they thing at the same time and they were all different. Listen to rap nowadays, a lot of stuff that’s out charting now. It’s basically all the same.
SoundSlam: I was talking to someone the other day about the difference between making a hit record and making a record that you love and that’s your sound, and making it a hit because what you’re doing speaks to people on its own.
Gza: Exactly. You have to do it for yourself. You have to love it yourself. You can’t do it for the money, even though we get paid to do it. That’s not the main drive. Of course this is how we pay bills and we eat. We were fortunate enough to earn a living from something we love to do. It’s nothing better than having a job that you love. Some people work nine to fives and they hate their jobs, but they know that’s the only way they could make a living. This is something that we love to do from day one and it’s totally different than how it used to be. We were doing things because we loved to do it, not because we trying to follow or we trying to make a hit because this person made a hit going along the same lines. There’s not enough originality. I don’t knock the material stuff. I speak about it, and it may come off that I speak against it all the time, but I’m not knocking it. I’m not knocking it because all emcees are not that lyrical. And I don’t expect you to be, because you could still have love for it. You may not be the most lyrical person but you cold still have love. It’s about having a song that’s different, that’s unique, that’s like, ‘that’s pretty clever. He’s not that lyrical, but that’s clever.’ It’s about doing music like that. You take a song like “Milk is Chillin’.” It’s real simple, it’s nothing lyrical about that song. It’s like a little kid, ‘Milk is chillin…’ There’s nothing really to it lyrically. But it was different. The beat was banging and it was different. And it’s a song every now and then they still might play or hear because it was different in its own way.
Interviewer: Alexander Fruchter
“A liquid sword,” Gza explains, “is basically a sharp tongue that’s swift and changeable. You see because the tongue, we say, is symbolic to the sword. When it moves, it produces wind. Your tongue is a double-edged sword.” It’s no wonder than why Gza would link himself forever with this concept. He has been known throughout his career for being sharp with his lyrics, and clever with his concepts. Such ability also brought along with it a new identity. While just starting out as an emcee he was tagged with the nickname ‘Genius,’ a label that he didn’t always want. “They saw me as being a genius as far as lyrically. They gave me that but I didn’t want it because I thought people would look at that name and expect too much, just too much.”
And perhaps he’s right. Fans have come to expect a lot from the Gza and his Wu-Tang brethren. Legions of hardcore Wu-Tang fans have grown accustomed to Wu’s style and energy, and have come to expect classic material each time out from the Shaolin squad. Well, it’s been a while since fans have heard collectively from the group, and since the death of Ol’ Dirty Bastard, it’s certain that they won’t ever again hear from the Wu-Tang Clan in its entirety. Rather than sitting idly by, Gza has been hard at work. His new project with DJ Mugss, Grandmasters, was just released to strong reviews, and he is still working on a new solo album, Gza Presents. SoundSlam.com had the chance to talk with Gza about the music making process, Hip Hop today, as well as the value of intelligence. Check out the words from the Genius.
SoundSlam: How did the project with DJ Muggs come about? Who’s idea was that?
Gza: I think Muggs. He might have brought it to my attention a little while ago about doing a record together. We worked on previous projects before. I think it was his idea to do an album together. I linked up with him about a year ago. He gave me some beats, about 12-13 beats. I took them home. He was in New York, I hooked up with him, I got the beats. Then we linked up four months after that and did an album.
SoundSlam: How long does it take you to make a song?
Gza: It all depends. Sometimes I spend a lot of time. I don’t write everyday. I’m always writing down thoughts and ideas. If I sit down and work on a song, I can do it in a complete day, with all the notes and stuff that I have already. Sometimes it’ll take a while. Sometimes I might not finish a song, writing it, till three weeks later. It all depends. I’m always going back and forth. I might have an idea and not get to it until four months later. I recorded the album in eight days. I only had three maybe four songs written when I got out to LA to link up with him.
SoundSlam: What made that chemistry like that, and allowed to complete that album so quickly?
Gza: I had a lot ideas and thoughts in my head already about what I wanted to write about, and what direction I wanted to go with it from having the beats already. Even though I didn’t have songs to many of them, I had sort of insight or direction. I knew what road to travel. I might not have known which exit to get off, but I knew the road to travel. The beats kind of set the tone for the vibe that I have on the majority of songs. When I heard “Exploitation of Mistakes,” that beat, I knew automatically it was a story…And it was dark. I knew it was something that would be dark just from the beat alone. I kinda had an idea where I wanted to go.
SoundSlam: It’s been getting a good response from fans and critics alike. I read a review on one site. They had a lot of praise for the album but they called it a resurrection for both your career and DJ Muggs’ career. Do you feel that you were in a place where your career needed to be “resurrected?”
Gza: Somewhat in a sense….I mean, resurrected in the sense that I haven’t been heard from. There hasn’t been any good quality stuff out from Wu-Tang in a while. I only increase lyrically. As far as my previous works, I think it’s always been good. I don’t think I ever decreased lyrically. I could look at that different ways as far as resurrection. I never died out. I never really went anywhere as far as lyrically. You may have not heard from me. We’re not in the spotlight like we used to be. We still have a hardcore fan base that’s still here ten years later. They’re underground just like we are. For those that’s been wanting to hear something, I guess it is somewhat a resurrection in a sense. As far as myself lyrically, I’ve only increased. My writing is getting better everyday.
SoundSlam: Speaking about your writing…I had a chance to speak with Raekwon a little bit ago and I asked him if he approaches music, or making music, differently when writing for himself or making a Wu-Tang album. He said he approached both in the same way. I’m wondering if you have similar or different answer?
Gza: I approach every song the same way. Sometimes I have thoughts already, and if I hear something I can match them to I’ll try to work with it. I may have a rhyme, not often do I have a rhyme already. I often usually write for the occasion. It can go many different ways. I could have a beat and put a rhyme to it. I could have a rhyme already and put a beat to it. I could have a thought and wait for a beat and work something around it. But I always approach it in those ways, all the time. I just write from the head. It’s basically from scratch. I usually do a lot of writing without music, and then every now and then I’ll try to match to a song or beat. Or I’ll just try to create something new. The way I write, it’s always the same.
SoundSlam: When did you first come up with the name Gza?
Gza: Gza, as opposed to Genius?
SoundSlam: Yeah.
Gza: I would probably say it was more or less accidental, I would say. I didn’t sit down and think, ‘how could I change Genius to Gza.’ I’ve answered this question a few times because many people don’t know. Genius was given to me from Rza and Dirty. I never gave myself that title. Didn’t want it, didn’t want anything to do with that name back in the day, or anything. That name was given to me by them. It just stuck with me. By the time I got to Cold Chillin’ I was signed as Genius. On a Cold Chillin’ song, it was called, I think it was called “Feel the Pain…” There’s a song on there where I say, ‘the Gigga-Gigga-Gigga-Genius.’ Because we used to scratch our names when we rhymed. We had a habit of scratching our names, so if you scratch Genius, you would get Gza-Gza-Gza-Genius. When you scratch Dirty you get Dza-Dza-Dza-Dirty. Genius became Gza. On that song it was Gigga because it was a hard scratch, it was like,, ‘Gigga-Gigga-Gigg.’ Then it became Gza-Gza, you know, it was more subtle and soft that way. That’s how Gza came about.
SoundSlam: Why did you not want any part of the name Genius?
Gza: Back then in the 80s, and still as of now for myself, it’s about intellect, intelligence, and being witty and sharp with lyrics. Back then it was more so where we all had names that was sort of along intelligence lines. It was about being smart and intelligent. Rza was the scientist. Dirty was the professor. I was the genius. You had artists like the Educated Rapper, Wise Intelligent, Knowledge Reigns Supreme Over Nearly Everyone.” So, that’s how it was back then. G Rap told me he was Genius one time when I met him. He said he was the Kool Genius of rap. They saw me as being a genius as far as lyrically. They gave me that but I didn’t want it because I thought people would look at that name and expect too much, just too much. And this whole nerdy thing, even when I did my first album cover, Words From A Genius, it was sort of like a stretch to go along with the name. I’m sitting there with a feathered pen, I got all these books beside me. It was my idea, but it was changed. The books were supposed to be giant, incredibly giant sized books that I would be sitting on, books almost half the size of cars, something real animated. They couldn’t get books that big so they got those books that I had on the cover. Then I got the feathered pen and all that to go along with the name. I just didn’t like the sound of it and all that.
SoundSlam: I understand what you’re saying. I teach 5th grade right now, and I want to throw out a phrase that I say to my students and want to know what you’re thoughts are: I’m harder than y’all cause I’m smarter than y’all. What do you think of that phrase?
Gza: I think that makes sense. It’s somewhat braggadocious. Emceeing is a braggadocious thing, there’s a lot of ego involved. I can see the truth in that. I think that someone that’s more smarter is more harder, more concrete, more solid. More hard in a sense, not in a sense of being big and bad, but in a sense of being solid, firm, assertive and all of that, all the good things. It’s a good thing to tell children. Because nowadays as far as Hip Hop, it’s cool to be dumb. Back then in the days it was cool to be smart. It was cool. I stressed things like that to my son sometimes. I let him know it’s all about being intelligent, being able to add on to different conversations, and speak about different things. Not know everything, but be able to relate to some things, and just being smart. Kids, nowadays, they’re not trying to build they’re mentality up. They’re just into a lot of bullcrap, a lot of stuff that’s just weak. I would tell my son, ‘you never talk about a kid,’ and he dresses well, because he’s able to have it like that. He may be one of the children in there, or one of the very few with all types of sneakers, all types of clothes and sweat-suits, and everything new that comes out, but he never walks around with the attitude that, ‘oh, my shoes cost this. Look at what you have.’ Because it’s not about that. It’s not cool to down another child because he doesn’t have as much as you. But, most children even when they don’t have, when you grow up in the hood you have that mentality. Rap music can be a main influence on that mentality. Most artists are bragging about their clothes, their jewelry, their gear, their car and it rubs off on the kids. There’s nothing in there about being smart, or being witty, or being intelligent. No artist is rapping about their IQ.
SoundSlam: At least the ones that are popular.
Gza: That’s what I mean, as far as the ones that’s out there, that we see on TV or hear on the radio. The whole thing has changed. I think it’s cool for them to have that mentality. I’m harder than you because I’m smarter than you.
SoundSlam: That’s my main focus. It’s cool to be smart and knowledge is power. When you have intelligence, it’s the ability to get through life, not just being able to recall facts.
Gza: Exactly. And knowledge is so powerful. With knowledge you can get everything else. It’s more powerful than having money and not having knowledge at all. Being rich as far as a material and being poor in knowledge, it doesn’t add up. It doesn’t add up. Say if you want to take it back to back in the days. People like King Solomon who was filthy rich, as far as according to history. He had a lot of money. He had a lot of wives, a lot of children. He had the things a lot of these material rappers brag about. As far as women, he had many wives and many children. A lot of money, gold and all that, but he’s mainly known for his wisdom. The wisdom of Solomon, his words were so powerful though. His words were like whoo….He would say little things like, ‘though the fly belittle among the bee yet her fruit is the chief of all sweet things.’ Whoa…Hmmmm.
SoundSlam: Switching gears a little bit. What’s the status of Gza Presents?
Gza: It’s still in the makings. I kind of fell back on it for a minute during the time I was working on the Muggs project. I wanted to release the Muggs project first and then come with that. That’s due to drop next year. There’s no rush or anything like that.
SoundSlam: I guess that kind of goes into what the purpose of music is. Some people might feel, ‘I need to rush out album after album after album to keep my name up there. It seems to me that you’re making music for a different purpose…What do you feel the purpose of music is?
Gza: My purpose for music is to be heard. First of all, to have a voice that’s heard. When we first wanted to go into the studio, when that was our goal, to get in the studio and record something, that was one step. When we decided we wanted to make records we wanted to be heard first. We wasn’t doing it because there was a lot of money involved, cause it wasn’t that many artists out at the time. We wanted to get a deal because we wanted to be heard and we wanted to be known. We wanted to be heard. The main thing about music is to just have fun with it. Do something you like. Being able to reach to the people, being able to create something they can relate to. Being able to share your experiences, or just share your mind and your imagination. A lot of writers should just try to imagine and create worlds instead of writing about their experiences. Even though I think a lot of it is stretched at some point, a lot of artists will tell you, ‘I write what I live. This is what I live.’ Their stories are boring. Music, even if I didn’t make records, or even if I wasn’t on wax, I would probably still record just for my own purposes, just to hear it myself. Because I just love the art form. I love the art form. It was a childhood passion for me, but Hip Hop is not the main music I listen to nowadays. I listen to songs from the 60s and the 70s all the time. That’s what I listen to all the time. I’m driven by that music more than I’m driven by Hip Hop. Because there’s no drive in it for me. It’s no drive. Then those that’s coming with something that’s thought provoked, you’re not really hearing them or you don’t know about them. I don’t know too much about the underground circuit, but I’m pretty sure it’s a lot of emcees out there that’s coming with some positive stuff that’s strong. And it’s not about being preachy. I would never make a song, you would never hear me on a song saying ‘go to school. Get an education. Learn to read.’ Cause I don’t approach it that way. But I would still give that same message, and still in a brutal fashion that’s Hip Hop. And it’s all about making soul-made music, not man-made music. It’s not about trying to create the next hit. Cause I don’t know what’s going to be a hit. I can’t say I’m going in the studio to make ta hit, I’m going in to make the next club banger. I don’t do songs for the clubs, I never had. If it’s an up-tempo beat and I like it, I’ll do something with it. If it happens to hit the club and be big, more power. But I don’t approach it in that sense. I do everything for me from the heart. Like I said I always listen to old music. I don’t really want to call it old, because to our parents it wouldn’t be old to them, but music from that era. I had a long drive yesterday, so I went out and bought some CDs because we didn’t really have music. So I bought a couple of soul CDs from the 70s, a couple old tunes, disco, R&B, whatever. I was listening to all these artists, and a lot of these songs came out in the same time frame, same period but they were all different. And they were all hits. But they had different…Al Green had a different style than Teddy Pendergast, Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes. Marvin Gaye had a different style. The Isleys…Even the disco tracks, the disco tunes that we were listening to, you take it to the Tramps, Disco Inferno to Gloria Gaynor…These artists was doing they thing at the same time and they were all different. Listen to rap nowadays, a lot of stuff that’s out charting now. It’s basically all the same.
SoundSlam: I was talking to someone the other day about the difference between making a hit record and making a record that you love and that’s your sound, and making it a hit because what you’re doing speaks to people on its own.
Gza: Exactly. You have to do it for yourself. You have to love it yourself. You can’t do it for the money, even though we get paid to do it. That’s not the main drive. Of course this is how we pay bills and we eat. We were fortunate enough to earn a living from something we love to do. It’s nothing better than having a job that you love. Some people work nine to fives and they hate their jobs, but they know that’s the only way they could make a living. This is something that we love to do from day one and it’s totally different than how it used to be. We were doing things because we loved to do it, not because we trying to follow or we trying to make a hit because this person made a hit going along the same lines. There’s not enough originality. I don’t knock the material stuff. I speak about it, and it may come off that I speak against it all the time, but I’m not knocking it. I’m not knocking it because all emcees are not that lyrical. And I don’t expect you to be, because you could still have love for it. You may not be the most lyrical person but you cold still have love. It’s about having a song that’s different, that’s unique, that’s like, ‘that’s pretty clever. He’s not that lyrical, but that’s clever.’ It’s about doing music like that. You take a song like “Milk is Chillin’.” It’s real simple, it’s nothing lyrical about that song. It’s like a little kid, ‘Milk is chillin…’ There’s nothing really to it lyrically. But it was different. The beat was banging and it was different. And it’s a song every now and then they still might play or hear because it was different in its own way.