RZA has shared that he thinks GZA is a better MC than anyone else in the game — including Nas and Rakim.
On a recent episode of Drink Champs, the Wu-Tang Clan Abbot was asked who he rated higher as a rapper between Nas and his cousin GZA. “In which way?” he asked. “They’re both very powerful brothers.”
Then, RZA explained his belief. “For MC-ing, my favorite, best MC is the GZA,” he said. “I don’t think no MC could beat the GZA. I think what GZA has written for hip-hop, no other MC can compare.”
“Even if you go look at Rakim, who is one of the greatest, to most people, one of the greatest. Nas is one of the greatest. If you go look at what GZA offered to hip hop, look at what he spawned,” he continued. “He spawned me, Meth (Method Man), Rae (Raekwon), Ghost (Ghostface Killah) — these are all from GZA, the enlightener.”
RZA ended his explanation by bigging up Wu-Tang Clan’s legendary lyrical liabilities. “What the Wu offered lyrically is what no one has mastered yet,” he claimed.
RZA is set to appear in the upcoming docu-series about the creation of Raekwon’s Only Built 4 Cuban Linx LP. In the trailer for Purple Tape Files, RZA joins fellow Wu-Tang members like Method Man, plus artists like Kendrick Lamar and Nas to tell the story of one of hip-hop’s most highly received projects in the genre’s history.
“It ushered in the alter egos, the aliases,” RZA says in the clip. Lamar also gives his thoughts, saying: “Still, to this day, it’s flows that you haven’t heard before, saying the most wild shit.”
Raekwon also speaks on the album and the process of making it in the trailer for the upcoming series. “I put myself into a serious mindframe,” he says. “A serious storytelling album. I had to make this product stand out.
“I knew that purple represents royalty, and that’s exactly what I was looking for.”
