As for the current state of hip-hop, GZA said he rarely listens to the radio, and isn’t moved by most of the records he hears out in clubs. As an art form, hip-hop has become stale and saturated, and it lacks the focus with which he approaches his music.
“With me, Dirty and RZA, it was always about having the flyest rhymes, critiquing word play, just vibing,” he said. “Hip-hop now, there’s no finesse, there’s no originality. I don’t go into the studio trying to make a club song. That’s never on my mind, I don’t write like that. I hear rappers do interviews and they’re like, yeah, we needed a club banger, or we needed this on the album.
“Rappers are so one-dimensional now. They get a club beat, and they figure the rhyme has to be about being in the club, too – a club rhyme. It’s crazy. So now in the track you’re in the club, you’re buying the bar and you’re VIP. You know what I’m saying? That’s why my future plans are to write books and scripts and really, really take it there. That’s the time and effort I put into writing a rhyme. I write them like novels or like they’re screenplays.”
see also:
GZA’s Next Album
