10A - Wednesday, September17, 2008
The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom
Ultimate lyricist
Even at 42, Wu-Tang
Clan member still
brings strong lines
to latest album
By HARUN BULJINA
For the Daily
Thanks to his escapades with
the Wu-Tang Clan, GZA has estab-
lished brand name. Fans know the
product he provides: A richly pat-
terned flow that
has served him *
well for nearly
two decades. It's GZ
why the moni-
ker "Genius" is Pro Tools
still welded to Babygrande
his name, why a
legion of Wu fan-
boys continue to follow his every
move and why heads still turn when
he drops an album at age 42.
Pro Tools is not a comeback or
return to form and it has no sweep-
ing statement to make. Instead,
GZA simply does what he does
best: flexes his verbal muscle and
showcases once again why he's one
of the premier names in the busi-
ness. On the chorus of "Alphabets"
he raps from A to Z, beginning
each line with a successive letter,
while on "0% Finance," he spins
an extended metaphor about girls
and cars ("Took her off the show-
room floor, no money down / Near
the Chrysler building in the heart
of Midtown"). These are GZA's old
tricks, and he offers little new to
the formula. But it's all executed so
well that it lives up to his impres-
sive lyrical standards; with his
rhymes on point, the only question
is whether his assembled squad
of producers could forge a fitting
musical foundation.
To their credit, the production has
its finer moments, even if it doesn't
match GZA's legendary flow. "7
Pounds" is built on the best beat on
the album. It begins with the sounds
of a packed concert hall, with excited
chatter giving way to wild clapping
when the orchestra kicks in. After
a mere eight seconds of swooning
strings, the track jarringly breaks
into a mad carnival dash to the finish.
Detroit-based producer Black Milk is
the man behind the chaos here, and
a Dilla influence is on full display.
Standing above the fray, ringmaster
GZA drives the show forward in the
closest that Pro Tools comes to a
banger.
But compared to the strength
and consistency of GZA's lyrics,
the beats vary. Sure, "7 Pounds"
is fire, and "Firehouse" - a text-
book Mafioso joint produced by
the appropriately named Roc Mar-
ciano - is solid as well. The creepy
whispers on the chorus of "Cinema"
provide another great sonic back-
drop. But at other times, the DJs fall
flat. Building "Life is a Movie" out
of a liberal Gary Numan sample is
certainly interesting, but its effec-
tiveness is debatable; when the 80s
pop pioneer's vocals break through
over the chorus, they sound entirely
alien. The beat for "0% Finance,"
meanwhile, is so pedestrian it
almost drags the whole track down.
But these are the outliers. For
the most part, the production rolls
along, content to play second fiddle
to GZA's intricate wordplay. And
why not? Together with names
such as Nas and Raekwon, GZA
has written the book on MCing. It's
what makes his feud with 50 Cent
- who he tears apart in the lead
single "Paper Plate" - so amusingly
lopsided. Though 50 is certainly the
more stylish of the two, GZA's tech-
nical skills reach another level. For
those who prefer lyrical acrobatics
to flashy hooks, Pro Tools lives up cOURTESY OF BABYGRANDE
to all expectations. "Let me see you pull off this color, 50 Cent."
yer Oflwireless
"I'm never going to the Arb again."
SPORE
From Page 5A
representedby herbivores and the
dark side by carnivores. Like in
any game with a morality theme,
there are different abilities and
bonuses for each side. If you cre-
ate a herbivore, expect to be win-
ning creatures over by singing,
dancing and posing. Carnivores,
on the other hand, spend most
of their time biting and spitting
poison. As creatures progress,
in-game decisions sway their
alignment. Players that begin as a
herbivorous cell but proceeded to
kill everything in sight will be on
the path to becoming a carnivore
by the tribal stage. The path fol-
lowed in one stage affects abili-
ties in the next stage, so choose
wisely.
The evolutionary grind:
The only major problem with
"Spore" is that each game stage
outlasts its fun. Hunting and
singing without major variations
is only fun for so long. The same
goes for tribal and civilization
interactions, where players are
always faced with at most two
ways to treat their cohabitants.
The game tries to vary the experi-
ence by increasing the difficulty of
the tasks throughout each stage,
but this just draws the stages out
longer without making them any
more exciting. The space stage
succeeds more than the others
because it allows full exploration,
which is more limited until that
point. There are still missions to
complete in the space stage, but
after doing so you get to explore
the entire galaxy.
Fun for the whole fam-
ily: "Spore" is a groundbreaking
game that could be fun for every-
one from the first-time player to
the hardcore gamer. It's a science
lesson, a simulator and a strat-
egy challenge all rolled into one
package. With "Spore" available
for both PCs and Macs, comput-
ers have no excuse for not evolv-
ing.
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BRING THEM
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Write for the Daily music section.
E-mail emery@michigandaily.com.
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