gza - wu banga 101

[Literate Type Asshole]

this is pretty much one of my favorite verses ever, by any MC. yall know its dope already...but im going to break it down and tell you why you find it so dope. and also open it up to get some interpretation on some lines i havent got a hold on

here's the whole verse:
Yo, too advanced, Digi' stance, made the CD enhanced
I move with the speed and strength of ants
Identical in form with the Beez they swarm
Hold up the cold current appear warm
My first verbal brawl, started on some yes yes y'all
to the beat y'all, break your windshield, your jeep stall
Mr. Traffic, dumbin shit, from ecclesiastic
Cashier, holdin out, fine, cut off the plastic
See the logo? A monument in hip-hop
Carved out, in the giant landscape, of broken rocks
Whether heard in herb spots, jukebox or malt shops
Uncut live, drop eighty-five, in one shot
Spotlight hits the metal mic, majority stare
Heard the Wu snare, while my iris cut down the glare
Walk a road the great length you find too long to measure
My Clan a make me rhyme like D. Banner under pressure
No surprise, double disc touched five
Those elements, kept environments colonized
with the high flyin death-defyin flow like the Rebel
Right there, but you're one light year, from my level

and my comments:

Yo, too advanced, Digi' stance, made the CD enhanced

self-explanatory. "made the cd enhanced" is such a great simple line. unlike ghostface who rhymes about off the wall things like pissing in apple juice and shit, gza always keeps his metaphors concerned with the simple fundamentals of hip hop, of wu and of life. mics, nature ("...with deadly rain & wind", "pyroclastic flow"), chess, the industry and mechanics of music ("...split and separate drums like asteroids") etc. it keeps his rhymes grounded and in the same philosophy as the pioneers back in the day, keeps them tied to the essence of hip hop. even though he's saying some wordy, clever metaphorical shit, it's still raw, undiluted hip hop.

"too advanced" also neatly ties in to the final line of the rhyme. the difference is, at the start he says it straight up and at the end he says it cleverly, after he's just demonstrated how damn advanced he is. thats devastating technique right there

I move with the speed and strength of ants
Identical in form with the Beez they swarm

the "speed and strength of ants" line seems like an odd line at first until you consider what the speed and strength of ants actually is. ants operate in huge colonies....together one ant is not much, but together ants can transform landscapes. think about that in relation to the clan; that's what makes the line so clever.

Hold up the cold current appear warm

i dont actually get this line. whatever....it sounds cool

My first verbal brawl, started on some yes yes y'all
to the beat y'all, break your windshield, your jeep stall

see what i said earlier about keeping it tied to the essence of hip hop...

See the logo? A monument in hip-hop
Carved out, in the giant landscape, of broken rocks

beautiful line. it's got defiance and triumph through creativity in a landscape of desolation and destruction. that's the wu right there

Whether heard in herb spots, jukebox or malt shops
Uncut live, drop eighty-five, in one shot

i suspect "drop eighty-five" is a reference to the deaf dumb and blind. and i suspect drop is a metaphor, considering the five percenters are supposed to teach the 85 and not waste em

Spotlight hits the metal mic, majority stare

again, such a simple hip hop image but phrased in such a eloquent, graceful way. every MC can come up with the image of a cat standing on stage holding the mic about to rhyme. only gza can make it so powerful as he does here

Heard the Wu snare, while my iris cut down the glare

"iris cut down the glare" is such a fitting line for gza. cool, understated, never flustered, totally natural. sums up his whole rhyme style

Walk a road the great length you find too long to measure
My Clan a make me rhyme like D. Banner under pressure

for some reason, this couplet fuckin floors me every time. for a start, it flows beautifully. right on beat. but more importantly, the combination of the two rhyming lines is incredible. first, he hits you with the poetic line. it's poetic, but it's not awkward or stretching to sound more clever than it is. it's just there, beautiful. and then, after he hits you with the poetry, he hits you with a straight up badass hip hop simile. thats what you call a one-two punch, and thats what gza's all about- he blows your mind with a mysterious metaphor than puts you flat on the pavement with some raw but ice cool braggadocio. and the way he phrases the second line is awesome. your average mc is just going to say "i rhyme crazy like David Banner when he's mad". not gza. "D Banner under pressure" is a really witty way of putting it. and when you think about the line some more it's even more dope; when David Banner's angry, he becomes a superhero, he's transformed into something much more powerful than before. for gza, it's the existence of the clan, the existence of that group strength, that gives him that power. same kind of thing as the "speed and strength of ants" line earlier in the verse.

another thing about gza, which shows up very obviously in this verse, is his devotion to the clan. he always represents.

No surprise, double disc touched five
Those elements, kept environments colonized

another 85% reference? the second line is reminiscent of his reunited verse

with the high flyin death-defyin flow like the Rebel
Right there, but you're one light year, from my level

the way he says this line is ridiculous. any other MC is just gonna spit the shit out without thinking about it. but gza raises the energy in his voice slightly in the middle of the first line, which he very rarely does. this sets up the closing line perfectly, as you're immediately prepared for a big, emphatic finish. and the following line is back in his cool, understated tone again, with the final "from my level" part being really, really understated. its kinda like the MC equivalent of the melodic principle of tension and release. often when MCs say they're the greatest it sounds kinda wack because they don't even sound if they believe it themselves. no MC has ever sounded like he believed it any more than gza does here. he says it without even batting an eyelid, he's just like "yeah, that's how it is." the two sets of internal rhymes "high-flyin/death-defyin" "right there"/"light year" also make the two lines flow into each other perfectly. and "right there, but you're one light year, from my level" is such a neat, eloquent way of saying "i'm way iller than you, sucka". that's gza all over.

[Orion Nebulus]

One of the dopest verses I ever heard!!!

[Bedlam]

yo, dope breakdown. I just have 2 questions, what is a Digi' Stance? and when he says flow like the Rebel, he's talkin bout Deck right?

[Dante]

Very nice breakdown.

This one of GZA's many, many, many classic verses

[num2son]

^^^I Agree.

[Protection]

Yea this is just one of many dope GZA verser.

[My First Timbs]

no no i disagree..

i think "too advanced.. digi stance.. made the cd enhanced"

is a mere reference to the rza's vision as a pioneer to be the first one to want to make an enhanced cd... wutang forever was an enhanced cd that also gave u special bonus content on your personal computer !

so basically this stanza was just biggin up the rza and him being too advanced for the rest of the analog cats in the game

[Ronin]

people look into it too much, its an ill verse that suits the track

one of gzas best, i prefere he reunited verse though

[Chequita]

Gza's my favorite in the wu second to Inspecta Deck.

[the silencer]

My clan'll make me rhyme like D Banner under pressure

i fuckin love that line...

i can imagine a rap cypher goin on with all the Wu members and then Gzas turn comes and he fuckin explodes into the Hulk and starts spittin crazy lines...

[mic-cord-strangler]

" No surprise, double disc touched five "

^^ is he saying here that Forever touched 5 albums released before it? sounds like it

[EyeHyeAm]

"no surprise, double disk touched 5, those elements kept environments colonized" <- look at it as one sentence instead of 2.

The Five Elements: Water, Wind, Fire, Earth, and Metal.

[Create]

Originally Posted by Literate Type Asshole

this is pretty much one of my favorite verses ever, by any MC. yall know its dope already...but im going to break it down and tell you why you find it so dope. and also open it up to get some interpretation on some lines i havent got a hold on

here's the whole verse:
Yo, too advanced, Digi' stance, made the CD enhanced
I move with the speed and strength of ants
Identical in form with the Beez they swarm
Hold up the cold current appear warm
My first verbal brawl, started on some yes yes y'all
to the beat y'all, break your windshield, your jeep stall
Mr. Traffic, dumbin shit, from ecclesiastic
Cashier, holdin out, fine, cut off the plastic
See the logo? A monument in hip-hop
Carved out, in the giant landscape, of broken rocks
Whether heard in herb spots, jukebox or malt shops
Uncut live, drop eighty-five, in one shot
Spotlight hits the metal mic, majority stare
Heard the Wu snare, while my iris cut down the glare
Walk a road the great length you find too long to measure
My Clan a make me rhyme like D. Banner under pressure
No surprise, double disc touched five
Those elements, kept environments colonized
with the high flyin death-defyin flow like the Rebel
Right there, but you're one light year, from my level

and my comments:

Yo, too advanced, Digi' stance, made the CD enhanced

self-explanatory. "made the cd enhanced" is such a great simple line. unlike ghostface who rhymes about off the wall things like pissing in apple juice and shit, gza always keeps his metaphors concerned with the simple fundamentals of hip hop, of wu and of life. mics, nature ("...with deadly rain & wind", "pyroclastic flow"), chess, the industry and mechanics of music ("...split and separate drums like asteroids") etc. it keeps his rhymes grounded and in the same philosophy as the pioneers back in the day, keeps them tied to the essence of hip hop. even though he's saying some wordy, clever metaphorical shit, it's still raw, undiluted hip hop.

"too advanced" also neatly ties in to the final line of the rhyme. the difference is, at the start he says it straight up and at the end he says it cleverly, after he's just demonstrated how damn advanced he is. thats devastating technique right there

I move with the speed and strength of ants
Identical in form with the Beez they swarm

the "speed and strength of ants" line seems like an odd line at first until you consider what the speed and strength of ants actually is. ants operate in huge colonies....together one ant is not much, but together ants can transform landscapes. think about that in relation to the clan; that's what makes the line so clever.

Hold up the cold current appear warm

i dont actually get this line. whatever....it sounds cool

My first verbal brawl, started on some yes yes y'all
to the beat y'all, break your windshield, your jeep stall

see what i said earlier about keeping it tied to the essence of hip hop...

See the logo? A monument in hip-hop
Carved out, in the giant landscape, of broken rocks

beautiful line. it's got defiance and triumph through creativity in a landscape of desolation and destruction. that's the wu right there

Whether heard in herb spots, jukebox or malt shops
Uncut live, drop eighty-five, in one shot

i suspect "drop eighty-five" is a reference to the deaf dumb and blind. and i suspect drop is a metaphor, considering the five percenters are supposed to teach the 85 and not waste em

Spotlight hits the metal mic, majority stare

again, such a simple hip hop image but phrased in such a eloquent, graceful way. every MC can come up with the image of a cat standing on stage holding the mic about to rhyme. only gza can make it so powerful as he does here

Heard the Wu snare, while my iris cut down the glare

"iris cut down the glare" is such a fitting line for gza. cool, understated, never flustered, totally natural. sums up his whole rhyme style

Walk a road the great length you find too long to measure
My Clan a make me rhyme like D. Banner under pressure

for some reason, this couplet fuckin floors me every time. for a start, it flows beautifully. right on beat. but more importantly, the combination of the two rhyming lines is incredible. first, he hits you with the poetic line. it's poetic, but it's not awkward or stretching to sound more clever than it is. it's just there, beautiful. and then, after he hits you with the poetry, he hits you with a straight up badass hip hop simile. thats what you call a one-two punch, and thats what gza's all about- he blows your mind with a mysterious metaphor than puts you flat on the pavement with some raw but ice cool braggadocio. and the way he phrases the second line is awesome. your average mc is just going to say "i rhyme crazy like David Banner when he's mad". not gza. "D Banner under pressure" is a really witty way of putting it. and when you think about the line some more it's even more dope; when David Banner's angry, he becomes a superhero, he's transformed into something much more powerful than before. for gza, it's the existence of the clan, the existence of that group strength, that gives him that power. same kind of thing as the "speed and strength of ants" line earlier in the verse.

another thing about gza, which shows up very obviously in this verse, is his devotion to the clan. he always represents.

No surprise, double disc touched five
Those elements, kept environments colonized

another 85% reference? the second line is reminiscent of his reunited verse

with the high flyin death-defyin flow like the Rebel
Right there, but you're one light year, from my level

the way he says this line is ridiculous. any other MC is just gonna spit the shit out without thinking about it. but gza raises the energy in his voice slightly in the middle of the first line, which he very rarely does. this sets up the closing line perfectly, as you're immediately prepared for a big, emphatic finish. and the following line is back in his cool, understated tone again, with the final "from my level" part being really, really understated. its kinda like the MC equivalent of the melodic principle of tension and release. often when MCs say they're the greatest it sounds kinda wack because they don't even sound if they believe it themselves. no MC has ever sounded like he believed it any more than gza does here. he says it without even batting an eyelid, he's just like "yeah, that's how it is." the two sets of internal rhymes "high-flyin/death-defyin" "right there"/"light year" also make the two lines flow into each other perfectly. and "right there, but you're one light year, from my level" is such a neat, eloquent way of saying "i'm way iller than you, sucka". that's gza all over.

WHY DA FUCK DID U BREAK THIS DOWN


I DONT THINK ANY 1 ASKED FOR IT TO BE BROKEN DOWN


SHIT IS MAD SELF EXPLANTORY

AND ALOT OF UR SHIT IS WAY TOO OVER ANALYZED

[Protection]

Originally Posted by mic-coard-strangler

" No surprise, double disc touched five "

^^ is he saying here that Forever touched 5 albums released before it? sounds like it

Nah, I think he means that it went 5 times platinum. Although the RIAA says it only went 4 times plat, but the GZA may be talking about worldwide sales (RIAA only counts sales within the US.)

[Sifu Dragon]

Originally Posted by Create

WHY DA FUCK DID U BREAK THIS DOWN


I DONT THINK ANY 1 ASKED FOR IT TO BE BROKEN DOWN


SHIT IS MAD SELF EXPLANTORY

AND ALOT OF UR SHIT IS WAY TOO OVER ANALYZED

lol

i didn't even read it, i just came in to post it's a dope song