GENIUS
WITH THE RELEASE of Liquid
Swords, Genius isn't just making
moves, he's making movies. "I
always say that I don't write songs,
I write movies," he explains. "I put
a lot of time and energy into the
words and the sentences. I try to
lift the pictures off the pages and
bring them to life. We're all artists.
We all paint pictures, but mine are
more colorful. My album is com-
plex and dark, but on the visual
tip it's very colorful. Sometimes
it's hard for people to understand
that, it sounds like I'm contradict-
ing myself."
The lyrics heard in the song
"Gold" are a strong example of
how visual Genius can get: "The
plan was to expand and catch
seven figures/release triggers and
live large and bigger than my
nigga/who promised his moms a
mansion with mad rooms/she died
and he still left a hundred grand in
her tomb/open wounds he hid
behind closed doors/and still orga
nized crime and drug wars." With
BB THAPPEN
the pictures he paints in his songs,
it should come as no surprise that
Genius formed his own video pro-
duction company. "The whole plan
is to take everything I'm saying
now on paper to the camera," he
says. "As visual as my lyrics are,
imagine when I start putting that
shit on film-it's going to be awe-
some. Sometimes you can read
books and get all types of feelings
inside. You might read some hor-
ror shit and you start getting the
chills in your body. That happens
to me when I listen to Stevie
Wonder because he's such a good
storyteller, it also happens when I
listen to Killah Priest or RZA. That's
how I try to come off. I put that
much effort into every line."
While many critics insist that
rappers encourage violence if they
write about something they see
outside their window, the critics
should understand that ignoring
the problem isn't going to make it
go away. "On my album there's a
point where I say, 'Narrow is the
gate, Genius explains. "You see,
narrow is the gate to righteous-
ness, wide is the path to destruc-
tion. This is what my song 'Liquid
Swords' is all about. When I watch
talk shows and I see people from
gangs, their mentality is so fucked-
up. They sound like they have sec-
ond grade reading levels, and we
need to rise above that. There are
intelligent people who come out in
gangs but all they be doing is
killing each other. Fuck all that
East Coast/West Coast shit. Every-
one is on the earth and everyone
needs to come together and build
and focus on the positive things
and stop killing each other. All that
is separation, and when you have
separation you have stupid shit
like people in the same projects
saying, 'Oh they from Building
One, fuck them. But you're all
from the same neighborhood,
Yeah, but Building Three is the
live shit. Don't nobody own the
block. Don't nobody own the
ground or the street. It should be
that we're all rolling for one com-
mon cause. Let's be wise. Let's
recognize each other."
When it comes to lyrics, Genius
can get his point across without
resorting to overused clichés. "I
don't have to show guns, violence
or blunts in my shit because my
mentality is way above that," he
says. "Every Wu-Tang song will
sound hard or street-oriented
anyway. But just because it does
doesn't mean we're glamorizing
it. Even if we don't curse it'll still
sound like we are 'cause our shit is
so hard. It's just that the street-its
aura and its energy and the poten
tial of everything in it that's gonna
make it sound rough any damn
way. Wu-Tang's got so much slang
that we can curse on the air and
you don't even know what we're
saying 'cause you don't know the
slang. People are used to hearing
CREAM, they know it now as
meaning money, but they didn't
really know what it meant, it could
have been an acronym for some-
thing else. On "You're All That I
Need" by Method Man and Mary
J Blige, Method Man says, 'On
top of that you got the good
power you. If radio would've
known what he was saying they
would've been censoring it, but
they didn't know that 'power' was
pussy. What he was really saying
was, "On top of that you got the
good pussy. He was giving a
shout out to his girl. Radio is
notorious for being slow to pick
up on slang. Many radio stations
will still play songs that contain the
word 'punnany. But Genius and
Wu-Tang have one up on them,
while they are constantly evolving
and creating, ignorance is slow in
staying current with what it's sup-
posed to disapprove of.
The success of Genius and the
Wu-Tang Clan is well thought-out
and deliberately created by those
who matter the most, the artists
themselves. They have built their
own empire and the entire industry
has come to them because the
Wu-Tang Clan is not an industry
creation, but a creation of their
own devices, their own experi-
ences and their own desires. And
now Genius is taking action on his
desire to give back to the commu-
nity that embraced him. "Right"
now we feed about 50 people
from the Wu-Tang thing alone and
through all of our ventures, be it
clothing merchandising, opening
stores or whatever. We did all that
in two years. That's what it's all
about: food, clothing and shelter.
Those are the jewels. As long as
we have that, the bills are paid and
your family's eating, then every-
thing's alright." -Jennifer Lehrer
COWS
Whor
COWS
Whorn
hermerhead
HAMMERHEAD
Duh, The Big City
today is the day
TODAY IS THE DAY
Today Is The Day
The undisputed heavy
weight champions, true
kings of punk rock
Outliving their peers and
upping the one at the
some time, don't run the
risk of being left behind.
Their
8th is the swingin
gest record you'll hear
this year, no foolin
AmRep 050
CDCS PP
The beast from the
plains is back on Earth
and loose in the urban
wasteland. Immensely
huge and dangerous,
Hammerhead will take
your snobby big city at
tude down a couple
notches. Really scary
AmRep 042
@GF
Enemy to God, Satan,
and everything in
between. The meanest,
most vicious sound any
where. When the cliens
come, we'll on this
band at them
AmRep 046
OGU
Distributed by ADA & AMPHETAMINE REPTILE RECORDS
Or Write for our free AmRep Mailorder Catalog
2645 First Avenue South., Mpls, MN 55408
CD $12 ppd CS/LP S8 ppd
e-mail us: amrep@designstein.com
NOISE
Down By Law
All
scratched
up!
The new record.
Hard fast rules.
Dbl. gatefold vinyl
with extra trax
for the punks.
AMPHETAMINE
中
E
cd/dbl. lp/cs
Epitaph