GZA

At 57 years old, GZA has this physical status:

Gary E. Grice (born August 22, 1966), better known by his stage names GZA ( JIZ-?) and The Genius, is an American rapper and songwriter.

A founding member of the hip hop group the Wu-Tang Clan, GZA is the group's "spiritual head", being both the oldest and the first in the group to receive a record deal.

He has appeared on his fellow Clan members' solo projects, and has maintained a successful solo career starting with Liquid Swords (1995). His lyrical style often dismisses typical rap story lines in favor of science and wide-ranging philosophies and has been characterized as "armed with sharp metaphors and a smooth flow".

An analysis of GZA's lyrics found that he has the fourth largest vocabulary in popular hip hop music.

He teamed up with an education group to promote science education in New York City through hip hop.

Early life

After he was born in Brooklyn, New York City, on August 22, 1966, Gary Grice developed an interest in hip-hop by attending block parties as a child in the early 1970s. He was involved in breakdance, graffiti, and DJing. Early on he developed an interest in writing, studying Mother Goose and nursery rhyme. In 1974–1976, before moving from Staten Island to Brooklyn, he listened to The Last Poets; however, he was attracted by profanity rather than content, and didn't understand the underlying messages until many years later. The Last Poets, as well as songs by The Isley Brothers, the Commodores, and the O'Jays had a big part in his early life, especially regarding the tone and cadence of speech. Later on, he began to listen to hip hop and R&B, for example by Secret Weapon and Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. In 1982, Grice dropped out of high school in the tenth grade.

He formed a three-man group with his cousins, Robert Diggs and Russell Jones, who would later be known as RZA and Ol' Dirty Bastard. At the time he didn't like the sound of his voice. The group, FOI: Force of the Imperial Master, and later All in Together, saw the three rapping and DJing, switching names and performing local shows; since they lived in different boroughs, GZA and Ol' Dirty would travel from Brooklyn out to Staten Island to meet up with their cousin RZA, after which the three would travel across New York City and challenge other MCs to battles. He left school in the 10th grade, but nurtured his affection for science as he developed his skills as a lyricist.

After some years of this, GZA was signed to Cold Chillin' Records as a solo artist under the name The Genius. He released his debut album, Words from the Genius (1991), produced mostly by Easy Mo Bee, but after it failed to sell, as the label didn't promote it, and his rocky experience on tour, Grice became fed up and asked to be released from the label. The album's beat selection is similar to the classic boom-bap sound of the early 1990s, while the lyricism subject is the everyday situations of an individual living in the parts of New York. At the time he worked as a bicycle messenger.

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Solo career

These guest appearances were accompanied by GZA's second studio album, Liquid Swords, which was entirely recorded in the basement studio by RZA, with the participation of all original Clan members. Geffen Records first announced it on November 7th. The album's intricate design featured dialogue from the film Shogun Assassin. Positive feedback surrounded the album's success and it was well-received. It is regarded as one of the Wu-Tang camp's best albums. On the Top R&B/Hip Hop Albums chart, it ranked at #9 on the Billboard 200 chart and #1 on the Top R&B/Hip Hop Albums chart. The Recording Industry Association of America (RCA) announced on October 8, 2015 that the album had been given a Platinum award for having sold more than 1 million copies. When Method Man and Ghostface Killah received plaques, it became the first Wu-Tang-related album to be certified since 2004. In addition, he produced music videos for four album singles.

Beneath the Surface, Wu-Tang Clan's third album, was released by MCA Records in 1999. "Crash Your Crew" and "Breaker, Breaker" were among the album's critical praises. The album received a Gold award from the Royal Institute of British Architects, debuted at number nine on the Billboard 200 chart, and debuted ranked tenth on the Top R&B/Hip Hop Albums chart.

With DJ Tomekk, the single Ich lebe for Hip Hop was introduced in 2000 and ranked 11th in the German charts.

Legend of the Liquid Sword, a sequel to his second solo album, was released in 2002. Critics were keen on it, but it didn't sell well and failed to go Gold. GZA appeared in Jim Jarmusch's film Coffee and Cigarettes, opposite Bill Murray, and went on tour in 2004 both solo and with the Clan. Both of the two characters appeared on the Chappelle Show's skits "Wu Tang Financial" and "Racial Draft."

In 2005, GZA and DJ Muggs (the producer of hip-hop group Cypress Hill) unveiled a joint album Grandmasters. Muggs handled all of the album's development, which included GZA using chess as a metaphor for the rap game, with the majority of the songs having a chess-themed name.

Babygrande Records' fifth solo studio album Pro Tools was released in the summer of 2008. It featured Black Milk and Jay "Waxxx" Garfield, RZA, Mathematics, and True Master. "Paper Plates," a tumultuous response aimed at rival rapper 50 Cent was titled on the album. GZA toured various parts of Europe after the initial release, including Liquid Swords as well as Pro Tools. He then toured portions of the United States.

He spoke at Harvard University in 2010 and since then has visited MIT, Oxford, Washington, D.C., Cornell, where he visited scientists such as David Kaiser and Sallie W. Chisholm to seek inspiration. With Neil deGrasse Tyson, he addressed "hip-hop and science" in 2012.

In late 2012, with the help of Columbia University's professor Christopher Emdin and website Rap Genius, he started working on a science Genius B.A.T.L.E.S. to improve science education in New York City and beyond. (Bringing Attention to Transforming, Teaching, and Learning Science) This initiative encourages young high school students, particularly African-American and Latino students, who make up 75% of New York City's student population, to pursue science by hip hop, designing scientific raps, and participating in a rap competition.

In the meantime, he continued to work on Dark Matter, a related, new studio album based on a journey through spacetime, space, and physics. GZA cancelled European tour dates in late 2015 in order to work on composer Vangelis' album. It is expected to be one of a series of Earth-related albums, with the following conceived around oceans. The albums will be without parental guidance, profanity, and nudity, according to GZA.

GZA released a single "The Mexican" (a cover of Babe Ruth's album) in February 2015, starring guitarist Tom Morello and singer Kara Lane. On The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, they performed the song live alongside The Roots. In honor of NASA's ongoing Juno Mission, he unveiled "The Spark," produced by Paul Ryder for NASA's project "Destination: Jupiter" on June 30, 2016.

GZA performed as Bad Billions in Netflix's Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts in 2020, as Bad Billions and a musician.

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