Allow me to reintroduce myself: GZA/Genius

Gain more insight into significant hip-hop figures by checking out their revealing answers to our questionnaire.

The legendary GZA/Genius from Wu-Tang Clan returns to Toronto's Sound Academy this Saturday, Sept. 15, and, because he is wise and knowledgeable about many, many things, he seemed like a great candidate for our patented questionnaire. The Wu is coming through! The outcome is critical! Sorry, got excited there. Here's GZA.

What was the first hip-hop record you ever bought and where’d you get it?

That’s a good question. I gotta think on that. I remember one of the first records I purchased; it was a breakbeat song. It was called “Was Dog a Doughnut?” We used to break off, back in the day. It was a 45 record, I paid a dollar for it. The one after that was “Dance to the Drummer’s Beat,” a beat we used to rhyme and break off. But it’s hard to remember the first rap record I purchased. Probably a Spoonie Gee record, “Spoonin’ Rap.” I think I bought it in Queens, on Jamaica Avenue.

Where did the name that you perform under come from exactly?

Well, the Genius came from the RZA and Dirty. We had a group called All in Together Now crew and RZA was the scientist, Dirty was the professor and the specialist and then they named me the Genius. I never wanted to take on that title though.

GZA was just short for Genius. While rhymin’ we used to scratch words, back in the day. So, if the word was "politic," it would be "pza pza pza pza politic." Y’know, it’s like scratchin’. So, we used to scratch our names. Even on the Words from the Genius album, there’s a song called “Feel the Pain,” where I say, "The jucka, the jucka jucka Genius" or "the gza gza gza Genius." Rakeem became "rza rza rza Rakeem." Dirty was “dza dza dza."

What was the last book you read and how was it?

Hmm, it’s been a while since I actually completed a whole book because I usually have several books on me and go back and forth. Y’know, I check this and then I read some of this or that. I was just given several books by an author and I’ve been looking at those. His name is Marcus Chown, he’s an author and he writes a lot of books. He’s an astrophysicist and he writes about, y’know, planets, time warps and black holes.

Where is your favourite place to eat on planet Earth and what are we having?

Earth Café. That’s an organic spot in California. I don’t think they have any in New York but that’s a good place to go too. Fresh squeezed juice, fresh organic salads and soups and several other things. So, that’s a good spot to go to.

Which artist, living or dead, would you most like to collaborate with and why?

Hmmm. That’s a tough call right there. There are many. I don’t think I have just one. I mean, Stevie Wonder, Otis Redding, even Michael. I had a song called “Cold World” and the hook on that is from a Stevie Wonder melody. The song is called “Rocket Love” and, I mean Stevie’s just one of those artists that makes the hair stand up on your skin when you hear him sing. His voice, his delivery, his tone and his lyrics alone are really, really touching. I grew up listening to him, since I was very, very young and he’s a favourite of mine. But I have many.