Music > Live Reviews

GZA

The Adrian Flux Waterfront

19/04/19

I felt a slight sense of trepidation as I headed down to the Waterfront, it was, after all, less than a year ago that Ghostface Killah made his infamous 35 second appearance at the same venue. The place was filling up nicely when I arrived, the No Half Steppin’ boys were on the decks blasting out the old skool hip-hop goodness, Easter weekend was just around the corner and really, all was well with the world. I hadn’t anticipated a support, but we got a short set from (I think) Nyy Brim n Chuck Lite. Two young guys with lots of energy whose style of rap was far more in keeping with 2019 than 1989, no problem with that at all, but I have to say they were fairly forgettable and didn’t make much of an impression.

GZA’s DJ took over the decks and seemed unimpressed by the response he was getting, but by this point I think everyone just wanted GZA to come on, almost two and a half hours after doors opening. This tour had been billed as the Liquid Swords tour, where the album was to be played in full, although I had my doubts. The record came out back in 1995, during that first wave of solo albums that had been released in the wake of the debut Wu-Tang Clan lp. Thinking back to those days it was an incredibly exciting time to be a hip-hop fan, not only was that first Wu record a game changer, but it seemed like each of the members were on fire, releasing a string of classics. This context is to demonstrate why GZA appearing in Norwich, playing an album which means so much to so many people, was such a major deal. Finally, it was show-time and GZA made a rather low-key entrance onto the stage, but as soon as the familiar strains of the album could be heard the crowd immediately went for it.
After the first couple of songs, the energy levels dipped a bit and it started to become obvious that GZA’s performance was merely ok. The joy came from hearing songs that we are all so familiar with, whereas his performance felt a bit slow and lacking energy. His raps were mostly fine, if a bit indistinct, but he certainly wasn’t inhabiting the tracks and leaping around the stage. The DJ told us off for not being more hyped, but honestly if the show had been better, we’d have been better. After 30 minutes or so, GZA dispensed with the Liquid Swords tracks (I knew he wouldn’t play it all) and hit us with a succession of Wu classics – Shimmy Shimmy Ya, Protect Ya Neck & C.R.E.A.M all building the party vibe that had now fully taken over the crowd. Oddly it seemed that GZA was more relaxed playing these songs and there’s no doubt in my mind that the second half of the show was far better than the first. By the time he left the stage we’d had a good hour of entertainment, and in hip-hop terms you can’t really expect much more than that.

I had a lot of fun attending the GZA show. I hung out with some friends, I listened to some loud classic tunes and I got to see an actual member of the Wu-Tang Clan in Norwich. He wasn’t great, but neither did he take the piss, he gave us a full hour of great music and it seemed like everyone had enjoyed the night, but I’m not sure anyone left having felt they’d seen a classic example of live rap skills.