Bristol Academy, 14.11.08.So the scene was set for one of the biggest hip hop events in my calendar this year. Not only was it the chance to see the GZA/Genius, one of my favourite emcees from back in the day, but he was also going to be doing a Liquid Swords retrospective, which is one of, if not the best, solo Wu-Tang efforts. I first heard about this gig back in July, so that’s four months I’ve had to get myself hyped up and ready for the onslaught of a founding Wu member hitting my hometown.
Having said that, I wasn’t in too much of a hurry to catch the start of the show and the support acts because I’ve seen Skinnyman more times than I can remember and there hasn’t been too much deviation from show to show (As it turns out, I wish I had got down a bit earlier as apparently the other support acts were dope, according to our guys who caught the London show) We bowled up to the venue at about 9pm and caught the last few bars of “I’ll Be Surprised”. The crowd seemed to be lapping it up but then Skinny has always been a people’s favourite and they also knew what was going to follow.
Gza and the Black Lips.. really? Yeah really. The Wu Tang legend and Atlanta garage-rock collaboration first took place off the beaten path at The Compound for Dickies Battle of the Bands at this years SXSW festival, inspiring the unlikely pair to enter into a whole new chamber together. Soon thereafter, rumblings shot down 6th Street that the unlikely collabo might occur again at The Vice Records Showcase later that night at Emo’s. Sure enough, immediately after the band took the stage, GZA emerged to a roomful of cheers and slack jaws. The following week, the web was atwitter with reports from both events and a grainy MTV video documented a piece of the experience.
