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DJ Muggs vs. GZA/The Genius “Grandmasters” Angeles Records The Wu-Tang Clan has never really been considered an inclusive group. From its ruthless hip-hop oligarchy to its unmitigated disdain for other MCs, the Clan has long isolated itself. Group member the RZA has even held down the production for most Clan members’ solo albums, which are punctuated by so many “guest” appearances from fellow Wu-Tangers that they flow like one of the group’s collective efforts. On “Grandmasters,” the most recent solo release by a member of the Clan, GZA/The Genius has opened the doors of Shaolin to Cyprus Hill’s DJ Muggs in a collaboration that reminds us why we listen to them individually and asks why they didn’t team up earlier. The RZA’s stark, menacing and experimental beats have long been a staple of GZA’s musical vocabulary. Delving through new layers of sonic grime until he finds something just nasty enough to put over a beat, the RZA has invented a sound as rough as GZA’s threats. Though powerful, this stripped-down style of dirty, simplistic loops and darkly muffled drums can strike the listener as thin, and this is where DJ Muggs departs from the Wu-tang Clan sound to expose another side of GZA. What Muggs lacks in experimentation and ferocity, he makes up in subtlety and harmonic fullness. Although none of the tracks on this album catch the listener in the paroxysms of a rap battle, heads will certainly nod in tacit approval. On “Queen’s Gambit,” Muggs’ sedated piano loop is spurred into life by a tumbling bassline, while a muted trumpet and female voice whimsically dance above the texture. “Those That’s Bout it” holds interest with a sustained dominant chord and bass playing that swats this tonality in and out of a state of tension, and “Smothered Mate” contains a smoldering interplay between a distorted guitar’s lower-register twang and an organ texture that wiggles like a heat mirage. As influential as an album’s production is for an MC, GZA will always be GZA – whether or not he is required to navigate a groovier, more conservative sound. Even on the most subdued tracks of “Grandmasters,” the MC sounds like he’s leaning forward, spitting his praises and tangentially connected stories from the front end of the beat. His asymmetrical delivery benefits from music more rhythmically complex than that of the RZA, leaving pauses that are filled by an active bass line or some off-kilter drumming. The self-described “hyperactive rhyme-slinger” gives the sense of overflowing in slow motion as he flies through subject matter in some sort of lyrical double-time, never repeating himself. Each track gives momentary access to GZA’s seemingly inexhaustible bank of rhymed ideas – in fact, the lyrical content of this album is served up with the effortless spontaneity of a mind that just does not stop. The members of the Wu-Tang clan have long been interested in strategic struggle, something that earlier manifested itself in an obsession with martial arts and Kung Fu movies. Here, GZA turns to chess, preserving his fire but symbolically shifting from swordplay to carefully plotted captures. It’s a move that should be noted, and an album that, with the help of DJ Muggs, showcases The Genius from another, more thoughtful angle.

– Alex LaRue