GZA - Liquid Swords

Liquid Swords is the coldest record the Wu-Tang Clan ever produced. Released in November 1995, it is GZA's second album and the one where RZA's production reached its bleakest and most refined point: dusty piano loops, thin snares, dialogue lifted from the 1980 martial arts film Shogun Assassin threaded between every track like narration from a dream.

GZA raps like a chess player, which is the comparison he invited and earned. "Labels" is three minutes of extended wordplay built entirely out of record company names. "Cold World" pairs him with Inspectah Deck over a warped Stevie Wonder interpolation. "Duel Of The Iron Mic" hands verses to Masta Killa and Ol' Dirty Bastard and still feels controlled. "4th Chamber" is the posse cut, with Ghostface Killah, Killah Priest and RZA all at full tilt, and "Shadowboxin'" gives Method Man one of his best guest appearances.

RZA produced every track, and the album is widely regarded as the high-water mark of the Wu solo run. Tom Coyne mastered it. Nothing about it has softened in thirty years.