GZA the Genius @ Rosemount Hotel
w/ Koi Child DJs, DT
Sunday, November 19, 2017
A full house came out to see Wu-Tang Clan legend, The GZA. The ubiquitous W logo seemed to adorn most everybody in the Rosey beer garden before the show.
Those who arrived early enough would have had the fortune of copping Merch, before it quickly sold out and of seeing local, by way of Seattle rapper, DT. DT seemed a perfect fit for the show. Spitting conscious raps over mostly popular hip hop beats (eg Simon Says), DT quickly won over the not too small crowd. His joyous energy permeating through the venue, I’d say he won himself a few new fans.
Koi Child DJs took over as the sell out crowd began to make themselves known, keeping the fans pepped with hip hop jams as we waited for GZA to grace the stage. His DJ, Symphony was the first to show, continuing the vibes with some Beasties and EPMD amongst other classics.
DJ Symphony acted as hype man, before GZA came out to an enthusiastic audience. Wasting no time GZA got the raps flowing, it set the standard for what was to be throughout the night, a barrage of lyrical genius. GZA and the crowd trading lines from every track.
Whilst there was good energy from the start, it wasn’t until 4th Chamber dropped that things really heated up, the crowd igniting from the opening bars. The energy kept building as GZA’s onslaught of bars continued through to Swordsman, which lifted the punters even further.
Then shit quickly got hectic. The GZA followed Swordsman with his verse from Conditioner. It got the W’s thrown up and the chants of Wu-Tang began. GZA noticed the big shift in energy, telling us it was “Pertholating up in here”. He could do no wrong from there.
An a capella version of Clan In Da Front got everyone rapping with GZA. This moved into Shimmy Shimmy Ya which got everyone singing. Shit was lit. Indeed it was the Wu-Tang Clan tracks that got the biggest responses, especially those from 36 Chambers.
GZA broke it down a couple of times to rap some conscious shit a capella. The majority of the crowd stayed silent, trying to catch his every word. They were treated to great wordplay and storytelling for their efforts. After taking a break to sign people’s shit, GZA launched into one of these conscious a capellas, before erupting with the crowd into Liquid Swords and Triumph.
GZA said his goodbyes and the crowd filed out, Wu-Tang logos now sweaty. It was a pretty good performance by the Genius, and great to see another Wu member coming through Perth.
NEIL SOLACE
