Movie quotes add to rap album’s grit
By Jake Ayres
May 4, 2009 9:44 p.m.
As I’ve hopefully made abundantly clear throughout my tenure as a music columnist, I am a huge Wu-Tang Clan fan.
Currently, the only poster in my room is one of the Clan. (Soon it will be accompanied by a life-size poster of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson in a “Got Milk” ad.)
Of course, if you’re a fan of the Wu, its five albums are only a fraction of the entire story.
All of the individual members’ solo albums have absolutely contributed to the legend and mythos of the Wu-Tang Clan.
Not only that, but some of those solo albums have been so accepted ““ beatified, if you will ““ into the hip-hop canon that the classic individual albums outnumber the classic group albums.
Out of all the Wu solo efforts, “Liquid Swords” by the GZA ““ also known as the Genius ““ might easily be my favorite.
Combined with the fact that more and more material keeps getting leaked from “Only Built 4 Cuban Linx II” ““ the upcoming album from Wu member Raekwon ““ this means I’ve been listening to “Liquid Swords” and the rest of the Wu catalog a lot lately.
Since being in my Wu-frenzy, I’ve had a lot of time to really analyze “Liquid Swords.” And I think I’ve finally figured out why it’s one of my favorites: consistent atmosphere.
As rap albums go, “Liquid Swords” is darker than a cell at Rikers Island. The darkness is not presented in a crazy, psychopathic way a la DMX, but more in a moody, brooding way.
The sonic feel of the album is remarkable: synths buzzing left and right, haunting vocal samples and lyrical tales of gritty criminal operations and the grim harshness of New York ghetto life.
However, dialogue snippets from samurai movies are the one element that really ties the album together.
The very first thing you hear on the first and title track of “Liquid Swords” is an extended monologue from the film “Shogun Assassin,” a low-budget samurai film that is also featured toward the end of “Kill Bill Vol. 2.”
This monologue, read by a small child, is creepy and haunting enough to set the tone perfectly for the rest of the album.
One might even say that the album is framed around the atmosphere of that quote and movie.
Regardless of what inspired what, the inclusion of killer quotes from samurai and kung-fu movies is a staple of Wu-Tang releases, and can and has elevated the cohesion of its work.
These quotes figure so largely into the songs that I have even gone out of my way to rent the movies that quotes are from. (Thanks, Cinefile.)
But the Wu-Tang Clan isn’t the only group to use film or television to bolster their music. The use of dialogue is a rarely used art form that I would like to pay tribute here in my column inches.
The No. 1 spot has to go to the end of “I Gotcha Back” from “Liquid Swords.” There are quotes all over the album, but this one takes the cake. It’s a death soliloquy from one of the assassins sent to kill the protagonist of “Shogun Assassin.”
He recounts how he’s always wanted to hear what it sounds like to cut someone’s throat, and says the thought of hearing it come from his own neck “is ridiculous.” This is followed by his last gasp and death.
I really don’t think you can get any more hardcore than that.
I have to admit that I don’t know much of its catalogue, but I have to give a special shout-out to the kinda-sorta one-hit-wonders, the Fun Lovin’ Criminals, which had an unexpected hit with its 1996 hit song, “Scooby Snacks.” The song features dialogue from both “Reservoir Dogs” and “Pulp Fiction.”
When I first heard the song as an impressionable 10- or 11-year-old, I was dazzled by the weirdness and profanity of the quotes, which only helped get across the message of “robbin’ banks all whacked on the Scooby snacks.”
In the tradition of the Wu-Tang Clan, MF Doom and his associated acts are masters of the usage of dialogue.
The reclusive and verbose MF Doom has created a character for himself modeled after Fantastic Four supervillain Dr. Doom.
And just to reinforce this, Doom includes awesome dialogue snippets from the old “Fantastic Four” cartoon mixed into the intros and outros of songs.
Hearing other characters discuss Doom and his formidable powers just reinforces the perception of MF Doom as a rap supervillain.
Finally, there are some musicians who are just on another level in terms of using dialogue.
I’m referring to that elite cadre of producers and DJs, such as DJ Shadow and the Avalanches, who make beat-driven borderline sound collages.
Way back in 2001, I remember hearing the Avalanches’ “Frontier Psychiatrist” (everyone, watch the music video on YouTube ““ trust me) on the radio.
My 13-year-old jaw hit the floor. They had constructed an entire song around a beat, horns, a horse whinny, a choir, and most of all, quotes from B movies and instructional tapes.
The whole effect is completely disorienting and dazzling.
In their idiom, these producers are creating fully formed songs without instruments or vocalists ““ a talent I think is completely incredible.
While music is featured heavily in movies, movies themselves don’t usually get their fair share in music unless forward-thinking musicians and producers are avant-garde enough to do it. If done well, the merge can elevate your art to the point where it influences fanboys like me to go out and rent the movies that helped inspire the art in the first place.
And if watching kung-fu flicks doesn’t bring me closer to the Wu-Tang Clan, I don’t know what does.
If you also want to use the audio track from “Jurassic Park” in your music, e-mail Ayres at [email protected].
