Of course that’s not all Gza comments on. In between the MC schooling he talks about an upcoming collabo album with Shavo from System of a Down, writing movie scripts and how chess relates to hip-hop. But the most interesting part of the interview is his explanation in detail of the rhyme writing process. Check it out. Interview
HHG: “Queen’s Gambit” is another one of your dope conceptual songs, where do you get your inspiration to write songs like that?
Gza: The inspiration can come from anywhere, anything, at any given time. It’s just a thought. It can be something I hear, something I see, something I think about. Usually with songs like that, they’re not pre-planned…there’s a way to lay it down. I love the way I rhyme and I always have to give examples. I don’t want it to seem like I big-up myself because I don’t want to talk about myself all the time, but I just give examples so I can show the difference between the styles and levels of MC’s. A lot of songs like this, like if I use magazines and publicity, the magazines aren’t just nouns. I use them as verbs. I didn’t say “remember that time when we took a photo in the Vibe?” I used the word “vibe” as an action word, “vibe” is an action word, he caught “vibes.”Artists need to create worlds that the listener can really walk into and experience, like a three-dimensional setting. People buy houses nowadays and can create their house on their computer. It’s like walking through it. That’s how the songs come about. A lot of time is put into the song so I can create these worlds and environments so people with a tuned ear can appreciate it on that level.
How many cars you’re driving, what’s in your driveway…I’m not knocking those who got all of that, it’s not important. To them, it may be important and they want to rhyme about it. But it’s not visually creating a great story. How can you rhyme about being in a Bentley without saying you’re in a Bentley, where you describe it and it’s so fly, but you may not even be in a Bentley. You may be in a fly apartment or someone’s office. But they don’t know. It’s when you roll the window down and pay the toll. It’s when you create worlds where you let the imagination flow. That’s what writing is about for me, and that’s what it’s always been about. It’s about describing things.
