Killer Mike has heaped lofty praise one of the Wu-Tang Clan‘s many solo albums, giving it a perfect score.
Over the weekend, the Grammy-winning rap veteran responded to a post circulating X (formerly Twitter) asking users for their opinions on GZA‘s Liquid Swords.
Making no bones about his love of the album, Mike simply replied: “10/10.”
The Run The Jewels rapper was far from alone in his praise, with one person replying: “To me it’s the best Wu solo project. I love OB4CL but this is just a touch better.”
Another said: “From intro till the last song. Classic.”
10/10 https://t.co/O20GY0kIfh
— Killer Mike (@KillerMike) April 7, 2024
Released in 1995, Liquid Swords was GZA’s second solo album following his oft-forgotten Words from the Genius (which was released in 1991 under his previous stage name The Genius).
It was also the fourth solo effort from the Wu-Tang Clan, forming the group’s initial wave of critically acclaimed albums alongside Method Man’s Tical, Raekwon’s Only Built 4 Cuban Linx…, Ol’ Dirty Bastard’s Return to the 36 Chambers: The Dirty Version and Ghostface Killah’s Ironman.
Home to fan-favorite tracks like “Liquid Swords,” “4th Chamber” and “Shadowboxin,’” Liquid Swords cracked the top 10 of the Billboard 200 upon its release and has since been certified platinum by the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America).
Reflecting on the album’s legacy in 2018 following Kendrick Lamar’s Pulitzer Prize win for DAMN., Wu-Tang leader RZA argued that GZA also deserved the coveted award for his writing on Liquid Swords.
“I’m glad that in today’s society Kendrick Lamar, who has got to be considered one of the best and most poignant lyricists out there, can win that prize,” he told TimeOut Miami.
“When I go back and see some of the lyrics that GZA wrote on Liquid Swords, and Beneath the Surface, some of the writing he did was well-deserving. Take a song like ‘Fame,’ where every verse and every line is somebody’s name. Everything he did to me was at a genius level of writing.”
The album’s chess-themed artwork also remains one of Hip Hop’s most iconic covers, which GZA himself broke down during a 2012 appearance on the Bishop Chronicles podcast.
“That [cover art] was something that I came up with in 1992 — three years before the album,” he explained. “I was actually playing Masta Killa in a game of chess, and around that time, he used to beat up on me a lot ‘cause I had just started playing again.
“We were playing a game, and we may have played like 30 games that night, and the game was still in a checkmate position. I was smoking weed, and you know how you smoke weed, you start really get[ting] all these thoughts and you start analyzing shit?
“I started drawing the pieces how they were on the board like in that position…then I just started imagining, ‘What if this knight had a guillotine in his hand? What if this person had this sword swinging?’ And I just thought of this whole war scene on the chessboard.”
