GZA

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

That's the GZA’s motto with his latest release, Pro Tools. Sticking with the formula that has served him well since he first launched his solo career in the late '90s, The Genius delivers a solid follow-up to 2002's Legend of the Liquid Sword.

He retains his disdain for a hook, and still possesses the uncanny ability to harness RZA and other producers' talents, extracting a musicality from all of them that matches his cadence perfectly. He also pulls RZA out of the dark cave he dwells in as a producer lately.

Pro Tools begins with the requisite GZA intro, and 52 seconds later, you’re bobbing to "Alphabets," a vintage Genius track that comes off like a cross between "Shadowboxing" and "Knock, Knock." "Groundbreaking" is next and has that epic, 13th Century China Wu-Tang atmosphere to it.

"7 Pounds" sounds like he's been spending some long time with Ghostface, adopting a signature Tony sound for the next track. "0% Finance" immediately conjures up "Fame" and yet another traditional GZA hallmark within six tracks.

"Paper Plate" and "Columbian Ties” are throwaways, but “Firehouse” brings it back around, and the album coasts on familiar territory from there.

There are no real surprises and no songs that don't in some way resemble another Genius track, or one of his Wu brethren's songs. But when you're over 40 and still cutting clean, well-written, well-executed and gritty tracks after almost two decades in the game, that's not necessarily a bad thing.

—Chris Nelson
09.12.08

Even fans who didn't care for the laid-back, murky feel of GrandMasters -- GZA's 2005 effort with DJ Muggs -- had to give the album respect, well aware that the Wu-Tang member was adjusting his style for the DJ and just grooving it slower with the same high-quality rhymes. The bar remains just as high on the man's follow-up, but anyone alienated by GrandMasters' attitude will be pleased that the uptempo and sometimes oddball rhymes are back in full force here and sit on a set of melancholy soul productions that have that classic Wu atmosphere. On the opening "Pencil," GZA's Wu brother Masta Killa drops a jaw-dropping Ivan Koloff reference, RZA holds his own, and crew producer Mathematics provides the hypnotics, but it's GZA who owns the track by linking livestock, damaged livers, and cell phone chirps into a classically Clan bravado story. The way the rapper goes from the letter A to the letter Z during the chorus of "Alphabets" is so well crafted it's stunning, while "0% Finance" drops an auto reference about every fourth word and brings new life to car-loving hip-hop after years of rim-worshipping disappointments. A wonderfully worn copy of Gary Numan's "Films" gives the great "Life Is a Movie" its beat, and the production on "Paper Plate" is RZA in prime noir mode, making this diss track wasted on 50 Cent more interesting than it should be. Crooked funk production from Black Milk sets "7 Pounds" on fire as GZA compares the good vs. the bad side of hip-hop as "Pearls next to pebbles/Spoons against shovels" and the live version of "Elastic Audio" tacked onto the album's end isn't the usual throwaway bonus track but a mostly a cappella, entirely compelling closer. Even if they're slow to arrive, GZA's full-lengths rarely disappoint. Pro Tools is no different, but with so many divergent projects and experiments from the Clan filling the five previous years, this throwback also proves the crew's original formula still works splendidly. ~ David Jeffries, All Music Guide