VIDEO: GZA Speaks On Pro-Tools

LISTEN: GZA - 0% Finance

DOWNLOAD GZA - 0% Finance (MP3)

SDSU has it first. This one didn't make it onto Pro Tools due to sampling clearance issues.

LISTEN: GZA - Alphabets

DOWNLOAD GZA - Alphabets (MP3)

GZA drops the first single off of Pro-Tools (Aug 19th/Babygrand) and it's dope 'Amplified Sample' style. Remember where you heard this.

VIDEO: Dreddy Kruger Speaks On New GZA Album

NEWS: GZA Tour Dates

Wu-Tang Clan's GZA is taking his Liquid Swords record on the road again. He'll be previewing some new material off of his yet-to-be-titled upcoming record as well. Dates below.



GZA 'Liquid Swords Tour' Dates
08-21 Los Angeles, CA - El Rey (performing Liquid Swords)
08-22 Santa Cruz, CA - Moe's Alley (performing Liquid Swords)
08-23 Petaluma, CA - Phoenix (performing Liquid Swords)
08-25 Portland, OR - Berbati's Pan (performing Liquid Swords)
08-26 Seattle, WA - Neumos (performing Liquid Swords)
08-27 Vancouver, British Columbia - Richard's on Richards (performing Liquid Swords)
08-29 Salt Lake City, UT - Palladium (performing Liquid Swords)
08-30 Denver, CO - Cervantes (performing Liquid Swords)
09-01 Dallas, TX - Palladium (performing Liquid Swords)
09-02 Houston, TX - Warehouse (performing Liquid Swords)
09-03 Austin, TX - Emo's (performing Liquid Swords)
09-04 Minneapolis, MN - Cabooze (performing Liquid Swords)
09-05 Grinnell, IA - Grinnell College (performing Liquid Swords)
09-06 Madison, WI - SoCo Music Series (performing Liquid Swords)
09-07 Chicago, IL - House of Blues (performing Liquid Swords)
09-10 Baltimore, MD - Ram's Head (performing Liquid Swords)
09-11 Atlantic City, NJ - House of Blues (performing Liquid Swords)
09-12 New York, NY - Irving Plaza (performing Liquid Swords)
09-13 Boston, MA - Harper's Ferry (performing Liquid Swords)

CONTEST: Paid Dues Tickets

The Paid Dues Tour is coming through NYC featuring the stellar line up of Rakim, GZA, Blackalicious, Murs, 9th Wonder, Buckshot, Super Natural, Scratch, Kidz In The Hall and others. This is going down Wednesday, June 4 at the Nokia Theatre and it will be dope. 16+ or with an adult and tickets are on sale right now (here for $39.50). Can you also go for free? Well, if you win a pair of tickets in this exclusive SDSU contest, then yes.

WHAT TO DO TO WIN Write me at wes[AT]liberatedmatter[DOT]com (subject line: PAID DUES) with your name, address and one entry will be randomly selected and notified in about a week.

NEWS: Tonight GZA @ 205 Club (NYC)

GZA is performing tonight around midnight at the 205 Club in NYC (Chrystie & Stanton). This will be very small space for GZA and you can only attend by RSVP-ing right now at RSVP@TASTECREW.com

NEWS: GZA Surprise NYC Performance Tonight

Now for those late night dwellers out there that aren't scared of going into Brooklyn, there's some exciting news. Tonight's bill at Studio B already included Busy P, JD Samson and Spankrock (blegh), but I just got word that the Wu-Tang Clan's very own GZA was added to the bill as well and he goes on around midnight. Tickets and info here.

Photo by the wonderful Kathryn

VIDEO: GZA Live @ Knitting Factory (Full Concert,

A SDSU first! The good folks over at AOL/Spinner bring us a fully captured experience of the December 14th 2007 GZA concert at NYC's Knitting Factory. 23 homies on stage, 30 songs deep and a tribute to ODB, it's all there. Watch the full concert below, and for a track-by-track experience where you can skip between songs go over to AOL Music/Spinner.

VIDEO: Wu-Tang Clan Live @ Hammerstein

I scoured YouTube for a few videos of this weekend's Wu-Tang Clan Hammerstein Ballroom concert. See below. Shaky, far away and fuzzy but the energy is palatable. Below photos take by DutchDaMasta. Erykah Badu came out to sing Happy Birthday to Raekwon.



VIDEOS:
- Raekwon - Criminology (Live @ Hammerstein) [Watch]
- Wu-Tang Clan Ain't Nothing To F*ck With (Live @ Hammerstein) [Watch]
- Erykah Badu sings Happy Birthday to Raekwon [Watch]

VIDEO: GZA - Guillotine [Swordz] ft Dreddy Kruger (Live)

GZA performed at the Knitting Factory (NYC, 12/14). Ming-Tzu was there and took some video footage. Below is a performance of 'Guillotine [Swordz]' with Dreddy Kruger dropping a great verse as well. Audio quality of the video could be better, but it's worth watching.


This is (probably) the last post for a few day. Happy holidays to all! Greetings from a snowy hill in Europe. It's pretty here, but Brooklyn, the truth is...I miss you.

VIDEO: GZA Has Words For 50 Cent And Soulja Boy

The Wu-Tang Clan's GZA Has Words For 50 Cent and Soulja Boy in this video.

NEWS: GZA To Perform Liquid Swords In NYC

Photo by Kathryn
After having to cancel his Brooklyn version of the 'Liquid Swords' concert, GZA has just announced two nights at the Manhattan venue The Knitting Factory, which holds only 250 people. Nice and intimate like the 4th chamber. Tickets for both night, December 13th and 14th, are on sale right now. More info over at BrooklynVegan.

NEWS: Previewing 8 Songs Off Wu-Tang Clan's 8 Diagrams

I sat down with Masta Killa and listened to 8 tracks off of the Wu-Tang Clan's upcoming new album 8 Diagrams. Some quick thoughts. I heard sword sounds, dark cinematic sounds and driven MCs.


Rae and RZA @ Rock The Bells, NYC Full Set here.
Weak Spot - A track that has Raekwon burn right through the minimalist yet big sounding beat produced by RZA. Not as gritty as we're used to from Mr. Diggs, almost somewhat cinematic.

Take It Back - Produced by Easy Mo Bee with co-production by RZA. A great mid-90's beat that sounds like it would've been great for an early Jay-Z or Biggie to rhyme over. Again a cleaner sounding track that what we're used to. Great bass scratches accent the beat as Ghostface rides it with his trademark flow.

Thug World - Produced by RZA and LA's radio DJ King Tech with starring roles for Inspektah Deck and RZA on the lyrics. Great dark beat with lots of atmosphere. Semi-sensical and conscious lyrics from RZA.

Watch Your Mouth - My least favorite, you can hear it here for yourselves. Produced by DJ Scratch and co-produced by RZA.

They Want To Stick Me For My Riches - Clearly Morrissey and/or Sufjan Stevens inspired in its titling. Produced by Mathematics and co-produced by RZA. Features a lot of singing, in an almost R. Kelly gospel-soul kind of way, which was offputting at first, but grew on me. Method Man shines. Mathematics wrote the lyrics for the parts sung and the singer is Gerald Alston of the legendary Manhattans.

Wolves - Produced by RZA, dirty beat. Very Wu Tang Forever with U-God going hard and taking the spotlight.

Life Changes - Produced by RZA, dedicated to ODB with emotional verses and great lyrics. Takes a sample from the Freda Payne song 'The Road We didn't Take'.

My People Gently Weep - Produced by RZA and George Drakoulis. Samples George Harrison's 'While My Guitar Gently Weeps' and features Harrison's son Dhani and John Frusciante of the Red Hot Chili Peppers on guitar. Ghostface sounds insane and amazing and the whole thing is a cluster fuck of sounds and ideas that ends up working very well.

My high hopes for the album were tested and got higher after hearing these tracks.

NEWS: GZA's Liquid Swords Show In Brooklyn Canceled

GZA/Genius was set to perform Liquid Swords in its entirety in Brooklyn's McCarren Pool music venue. The show was however canceled yesterday. Ticketmaster seems to be behind the curve on this one, steadily stealing money in non-refundable fees for an already canceled show.

Wu Tang Clan Documentary

DOWNLOAD Raekwon - Wu-Gambino's (Hidden Chamber Remix) ft Method Man (MP3) via MissingThumbs

With their Rock The Bells performance still fresh on my mind I watched this fantastic 21 minute behind-the-scenes video of the Wu Tang Clan in the studio speaking on the new album 8 Diagrams, Ol' Dirty Bastard, working together, and much more.


Via Nahright

Rock The Bells (Day 1) Pt Deux

The People
Where to start? The Wu Tang Clan were amazing, even with a missing GZA for the first part. RZA had to cover for him on 'Shadowboxing', but GZA made it to stage halfway through his set and showed the crowd where he may be the premier lyricist of the group.

Mos Def was somehow a little uninspiring and self-involved it seemed. Such a great talent, but I think we, the people, will always be rooting for him to come back to his Black Star/Black On Both Sides days. His focus was so much stronger. His partner in crime Talib Kweli has actually only been getting better. He used to awkwardly not be able to ride a beat during a live performance but he's really stepped his game up and outshone Mos for most of the set.

Seeing Cypress Hill was a childhood dream come through, ever since listening to my Cypress cassette tapes and learning all the words. And wow, they were amazing. My personal favorite performance of the day. The music still resonates so strongly and the DJ Muggs beats are still so good. Vintage yet relevant.

Rage Against The Machine was obviously amazing. I hadn't seen them since 1994 when during their performance at Pinkpop the crowd jumping up and down actually officially registered a small earthquake (1.1 Richter Scale).

The Roots were solid as always and put on an amazing JBs-like jam that grooved so hard. Who knew Black Thought could sing that well?

The New York Times wrote up Rock The Bells, and pointed out one of the more interesting moments.

...Public Enemy, which endures despite some evident personal friction. “I was in the middle of something, Chuck,” said Flavor Flav, when Chuck D tried to start a song too soon. Did Chuck D wince in response?

It definitely was a bit of a toe cringing moment as Flavor Flav refused to cut his standard self-congratulatory bit of the show short, which in all reasonableness really shouldn't have been a problem with the time constraints of a 45 minute set. I've seen him do the same exact bit before, and it's a little sad, a little touching, and a little bit long as he thanks the audience for watching his VH 1 Shows, introduces his kids (always different ones it seems), and gives us a 2 minute version of his trademark phrase "Yea Boyyyyyyyy". But Chuck took it in grace and saved the show.


Redman and Flavor Flav Embrace

For more go to BrooklynVegan.

Rock The Bells (Day 1)

Wow. More writing later. Still recovering.

Tons of pictures of Cypress Hill, The Roots, Wu Tang Clan, Redman, and more HERE.
A few quick samples below.