GZA`s ''Beneath The Surface''...

HeRBaN LyRiX · Post by **HeRBaN LyRiX** » Mon Mar 12, 2012 4:59 pm

Just gettin` around to listening to this album now.....LOL, I know, mad late but whatever......LoL, it`s not too shabby. Far from being as DoPe as "Liquid Swords", but it`s a good listen nonetheless. Just wish it would`ve had more RZA production on it...

GZA - Beneath The Surface
Label: MCA Records
Released: 1999

1. Intro
2. Amplified Sample
3. Beneath The Surface
4. Skit #1
5. Skit #2
6. Crash Your Crew {ft. Ol` Dirty Bastard}
7. Breaker, Breaker
8. High Price, Small Reward {ft. Masta Killa}
9. Hip Hop Fury {ft. RZA, Timbo King, Hell Razah & Dreddy Kruger}
10. Skit #3
11. 1112 {ft. Killah Preist, Masta Killa & Njeri}
12. Skit #4
13. Victim {ft. Njeri & Joan Davis}
14. Publicity
15. Feel Like An Army {ft. Hell Razah, Killa Preist, Prodigal Sunn & Trigga}
16. Stringplay (Like This, Like That) {ft. Method Man}
17. Mic Trippin`
18. Outro {ft. LA The Darkman & Timbo King}

N`JoY...

shadowmaster · Post by **shadowmaster** » Mon Mar 12, 2012 7:19 pm

I think Deck produced the title track? Yeah after Liquid Swords it's very underwhelming, kind of very similar to Immobilarity. I never thought it was that bad, and enjoyed some of the tracks. When Publicity first leaked I couldn't wait for the lp, but it didn't really deliver.

Jaz · Post by **Jaz** » Mon Mar 12, 2012 8:23 pm

It was a decent album but definitely a big disappointment after Liquid Swords, I was still a huge Wu head when this came out but ended up selling the CD.

shadowmaster · Post by **shadowmaster** » Mon Mar 12, 2012 9:39 pm

Jaz wrote:ended up selling the CD.

Same here, funnily enough.

drizzle · Post by **drizzle** » Mon Mar 12, 2012 10:22 pm

timing and perception do funny things to music

as a follow up to liquid swords it was a big disappointment

but if it came out now or in the last 5 years or so, exactly as it was released in 99, it might be hailed as gza's triumphant return and the greatest thing from teh wu in ages

both takes are hyperbolic, but it's funny that both are generally right in their own contexts

shadowmaster · Post by **shadowmaster** » Mon Mar 12, 2012 10:46 pm

You're right, it's like a lot of people were very critical of It Was Written when it came out but now it's rated pretty highly by most. If Nas had dropped IWW in the last few years people would probably be raving over it but in 1996 they wanted Tip, Large Pro etc on the beats.

Versive · Post by **Versive** » Mon Mar 12, 2012 11:55 pm

The beats might not be RZA bangers but they definitely knock. Plus, GZA never misses a step and all the guest spots are on point. I'd say it's aged extremely well. Crash Your Crew gets me amped.

Personally, I think Legend of the Liquid Sword is pretty good too. I mean overall it's probably one of his weaker efforts, but there are a few standout tracks like Luminal and Sparring Minds that are underrated as fuck.

shadowmaster · Post by **shadowmaster** » Tue Mar 13, 2012 12:06 am

Did Wu Tang Uncovered ever come out? Gza directed that, right?

Debonair_P · Post by **Debonair_P** » Tue Mar 13, 2012 2:52 am

Beneath the Surface and Hip Hop Fury are dope joints. I don't mind this album at all.

shadowmaster · Post by **shadowmaster** » Tue Mar 13, 2012 8:23 am

Wu Tang Revealed, even. Too bad Gza wasn't on Feel Like the Enemy.

Verge · Post by **Verge** » Tue Mar 13, 2012 4:29 pm

I like this album. My only beef with it was this video:
<object width="420" height="315"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/cUdEzN6UWrQ?ve ... ram><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/cUdEzN6UWrQ?version=3&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="420" height="315" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object>
but watching it now, i guess it's kind of awesome for being so bad. i dunno. maybe i'm wrong and its dope to most but at the least, its lolz.

Skeptic · Post by **Skeptic** » Sat Mar 17, 2012 1:52 pm

What was the 12 for this with the beat that had an ill strings sample that didn't clear and didn't make the actual record?

Verge · Post by **Verge** » Sat Mar 17, 2012 4:34 pm

^I dunno man, was the version of Publicity the same on the album?

This is a dope album, though.

"breakbeat fanatic, crates deep in attics..."

shadowmaster · Post by **shadowmaster** » Sun Mar 18, 2012 5:37 am

Publicity was being played a long time before the lp dropped and the version I heard was the same on the lp. Maybe there was another version?

harbourmc · Post by **harbourmc** » Thu Mar 22, 2012 11:16 pm

This would be pretty high on my most disappointing albums of all time. Did rza executive produce this? Usually when he's involved in that way, an album is wonderfully sequenced. What kind of an album has 2 fucking skits in a goddamn row.

Probably the worst part was when i finally heard Stringplay,,the follow up gza method man track to shadowboxin..

man,,,talk about a letdown. Goddamn Arabian Knight. A carpenter working on the studio who fed some beats to gza. ah well.

arabian knights breaker breaker beat is terrible,,,but the remix over the kane warm it up beat is incredible,, deck has one of those classic verses where he owns the beat and masta killa completely goes off.

i've always liked 1112 as well,,

harbourmc · Post by **harbourmc** » Thu Mar 22, 2012 11:21 pm

i have to add,,on that breaker breaker remix,,i think masta killa's sew up of that song is one of the best of all time,,

his

i blow and break and quake your whole state,
throw this shit on DAT and make me a fucking tape,

all time classic

Verge · Post by **Verge** » Fri Mar 23, 2012 1:18 am

got any Masta Killa demos harbourmc or anyone else? I had one back in the day that was over a sample flip of House Of The Rising Sun, shit was ill.

citizen · Post by **citizen** » Tue Mar 27, 2012 6:31 pm

always liked the outro track, very grimey

claaa7 · Post by **claaa7** » Thu Mar 29, 2012 5:00 pm

i remember picking this up on the day of its release, but at that time there had been so many Wu-Tang releases post-"Forever" that i didn't have any super hopes for a "Liquid Swords II" but just a great album considering it was GZA. right from start, there were plenty of songs i fell in love with like "Hip-Hop Fury", "Amplified Sample", "High Price...", "Publicity", "1112", "Beneath the Surface" (this and "Kiss of the Black Widow" are Inspectah Deck's best beats imo, competable with RZA's shit but after that i don't know what happened, he's still aight tho).

of course you had that feeling a little that it wasn't "Liquid Swords", but no matter what that was a product of the time and i think whatever he dropped at that time would be met with dissapointment. i think "B.T.S." was actually very close to an album as good as possible when throwing away any expectations. over time, when the expectations had left, this album really started growing on me. this and "In Stereo" are the only two albums between "Forever" and "S.C." that I feel are unbelivably ill.

GZA's flow and lyrics was not weak, in fact it was pretty much as good as "Liquid Swords". like i said above Deck gave maybe his best beat of all time, i used to be addicted to that joint. Allah Mathematics provides five beats and still to this day they are 5 of my favorite Math joints of all time (i mean "Mic Trippin'"?!? come on, that's out of this world). Arabian Knight also did 5, two of them or so might have been just aight but the other 3 also's up there with his best work and RZA's lone contribution "1112" is epic in my opinion.

my only problem here is the Skits, totally pointless and just annoying. but they are easy to skip... the "Outro" with LA The Darkman and Timbo King is a mindblowing closer (and intro since it's the same beat), wish GZA would have dropped at least 8 bars to summarize the LP or something at the very end.

i'd give "BTS" as a whole probably 4.3 / 5 - it's on the same level as "Grandmasters" or possibly slightly better and it's my second favorite GZA album.

claaa7 · Post by **claaa7** » Fri Mar 30, 2012 2:03 am

btw, here's a gem that i guess most of y'all have heard but if not make sure to check it out. it's the "Breaker Breaker" remix that was released on a very limited 12" single, possibly even a white label but at least a promo only.

the remix has a new beat and instead of GZA doing all the vocals, he is joined by Masta Killa and Inspectah Deck plus GZA's verse is also new so it's more like "Breaker Breaker Part 2". this was the first song that had GZA/Deck/MK who at one point were gonna record an album together cuz they felt they had a crazy chemistry together. later we heard them on both of Masta Killa albums and both were some of the albums finest material... enough talk, here's the song (right click + save as to download)

http://www.wutang-corp.com/shared/mp3/g ... ngcorp.mp3

Verge · Post by **Verge** » Fri Mar 30, 2012 2:11 am

we really need to get wu/wu-filliate unreleased/demos thread going on here if anyone has anything. I know there was a bunch of dope Masta Killah demos I heard years ago and I believe some other KP ones and so on.

claaa7 · Post by **claaa7** » Fri Mar 30, 2012 5:14 am

btw Verge, i got that "House of Rising Sun" Masta Killa thing you're looking for.. it's the original "Secret Rivals" (but totally different in both production and lyrics) that Masta Killa was gonna release on 12" in 1999 via a website he had where you could order. there you could hear the 1:30 snippet of the song which was banging. people payed money and everything but no one got the record, i don't know if it was even pressed up and the snippet (which was originally a Real Audio file but has been converted to Mp3) is all that exists... check it out:

http://www.sharebeast.com/c492z53kfu2h

Verge · Post by **Verge** » Fri Mar 30, 2012 3:54 pm

that shits illlll, thanks Claaa7!
An old friend of mine had the full song and bunch of other MK demos. That friend had a "friend"(who is a real asshole, i'll leave it at that) who was getting all these Wu/Wu-filliate demos from some kid in Wisconsin somehow. Lol. Maybe this kid was buying these demos as mp3s from MK and other Wu people directly or something. I dunno, but there was a LOT of them and the quality was around the same as that one you just posted. Thanks again.