TRU’s Lyrics of Fury series gets resurrected, but with a different twist this time. Rather than analyze the top verse of the month (you can just hit Rap Genius for whatever you think deserves that title), we want to focus on the most classic verses in rap, those verses that you can drop a single line of and heads will finish it verbatim. The lyrics embedded in our collective conscious, the ones that have become touchstones of the culture and have reached iconic status. We sit down to discuss these verses with the key players themselves and try to reconstruct the circumstances behind what has become rap history. In this very first episode we talk to Cappadonna about his epic murking of Ghostface’s ‘Winter Warz’ from the ‘Ironman’ album.
The year is 1995 (“born-power,” as Cappa says), the Wu had dropped their debut album Enter The Wu-Tang: 36 Chambers a little over a year ago at the end of ’93 and has caused a seismic shift in the rap landscape. They’ve released the premier solo album of the soon to became legendary “first wave” with Meth’s Tical, folllowed by ODB’s Return to the 36 Chambers: The Dirty Version and Raekwon’s Only Built 4 Cuban Linx…, the last one with its ‘Gambino’ concept impacting New York in a way that would chance its style of rap for years to come, possibly forever. With Gza’s Liquid Swords set up to be released by the end of the year (it seems hard to believe now all these records dropped so shortly after one another), production has started on what will eventually be the last album of the initial wave of Wu-Tang releases, before the second group album hits. That album would mark the end of Rza’s self-described dictatorial reign, as he recently told The New York Times: “They agreed, to me, to be a dictator for five years. And in those five years, it’s considered some of our best work. The work continued on, with Wu-Tang Forever, but that was the first democratic album.”
Everything, from to what label they signed with, to the sequencing of the songs and verses, was decided by the Rza. The Wu were the undeniable top dogs in the game, having reshaped both the creative and business aspect of hip-hop. Raekwon’s Only Built 4 Cuban Linx… didn’t just introduce the world to the Wu-Gambinos though, it was also the debut of Cappadonna, an up until then unknown Wu-affiliate who performed spectacularly on its tracks ‘Ice Water’ as well as on hit single ‘Ice Cream.’ His role would even be bigger on Ironman though, co-starring besides Raekwon on Ghostace’s solo debut. That record also contained a contribution of his that would solidify his position in history; his 60 bar rampage of a verse on the song ‘Winter Warz.’
What’s immediately striking about the verse is the hunger in it, the insatiable appetite to prove one’s prowess and the sheer joy in doing so. “The way it was flowing I just didn’t want it to stop. I didn’t even want it to stop there, it could’ve been a longer for all I know but there was no more track left!” Cappa says. The way the verse keeps on plowing through without as much as a single pause in its pace surprised even its author. “Everybody though it was ill. I was even blown away” he states about the performance. It was less of a surprise where the hunger was coming from though. “Ain’t no trick, I was hungry for that long.” Cappa says. “I just got my freedom back, I was back ‘n forth at that time.”
Rza employs a sample from Z.Z. Hill’s ‘I think I’d Do It‘ for the drums, a song that has been effectively mined for many beats. Amazingly though, Cappadonna hadn’t even written his part to the beat originally. “There wasn’t a beat, I freestyled it in my appartment in Park Hill.” Seeing how much he was on a roll, he proceeded to write down the verse he had just freestyled. His spontaneous creativity would soon come in handy, when he dropped by Mystic Studios on Staten Island. “I probably recorded it after that, maybe two weeks later. I stumbled along the studio one day and Rza was like ‘Yo Papi, you wanna pop one off?’ and I popped it off at that moment. Delivered it to the Rza for him to cook it up, to add his special recipe.” Despite its improvisational origin, the verse does contain some strong stylistic flourishes, like the archaic English in “put your bi-focal on, watch me a-cometh,” which Cappa considers a signature of his style: “I always try to give ‘em a little extra word that’s not used so often, to throw into my art. To give it that official hip-hop, slang-therapeutic vibe.”
“In order for something to come out good you gotta make sure you cook it well. It probably took all that time to really structure the song. It took him a while for everybody to get a verse that fitted.” Cappadonna says about the time it took before the song was finally released in 1996, first on the soundtrack to the Wayans brothers’ hood movie spoof Don’t Be A Menace, and eventually on the Ironman album. One thing was clear about its structure right away though. “I’m known to change the order of the verses around at a late stage” Rza says in his book The Wu-Tang Manual, and with Rza still firmly in the seat of creative director, he could’ve done so without much opposition on ‘Winter Warz’ too. But Cappadonna’s verse could be nothing but the finale of the song. “There was nothing to change about it, once I hit ‘em in the head with that big loaf of bread, it just had to be part of the system after that” he says laughing. “Rza had the opportunity to send the song into any direction he wanted to, any different combination of emcees that came through. Then with my final touch he probably thought, “yeah, we gon’ drop this one, this is Winter Warz.”"
When asked wether he’ll ever tire of preforming the song after all these years Cappachino stresses he never will: “I love it every time, every time it’s a different moment, different feeling, different crowd. Pop it off, hit the beat, scrip it, flip it, let the crowd hear it. That’s beautiful.”
Cappadonna’s brand new double disc Eyrth, Wynd & Fyre is out today, both in stores and digitally. The classic Ironman album has recently been reissued by Get On Down as a golden disc in a cherrywood trophy box, including a 48-page hardcover book with extended artwork and liner notes.
You heard other raps before but kept waiting
For the Son of Song, I keep dancehalls strong
Beats never worthy of my cause, I prolong
Extravangza, time sits still
No propoganda, be wary of the skill
As I bring forth the music, make love to your eardrum
Dedicated to rap nigga beware of the fearsome
Lebanon Don, Malcolm X beat threat
CD massacre, murder to cassette
I blow the shop up, you ain’t seen nothing yet
One man ran, trying to get away from it
Put your bifocal on, watch me a-cometh
Into your chamber like Freddy enter dream
Discombumberate your technique and your scheme
Four course applause, like a black dat to dat
You’re stuck on stupid like I’m stuck on the map
Nowhere to go except next show bro
Entertaining motherfuckers can’t stop O
In battling, you don’t want me to start tattling
All up on the stage cause y’all snakes keep rattling
Bitch, you ain’t got nothing on the rich
Every other day my whole dress code switch
So just in case you want to clock me like Sherry
All y’all crab bitches ain’t got to worry
Can’t get a nigga like Don dime a dozen
Even if I’m smoked out I can’t be scoped out
I’m too ill, I represent Park Hill
See my face on the twenty dollar bill
Cash it in, and get ten dollars back
The fat LP with Cappachino on the wax
Pass it in your thing, put valve up to twelve
Put all the other LP’s back on the shelf
And smoke a blunt, and dial 9-1-7
1-6-0-4-9-3-11
And you could get long dick hip-hop perfection
I damage any MC who step in my direction
I’m Staten Island’s best son fuck what you heard
Niggas still talking that shit is absurd
My repertoire, is U.S.S.R
P.L.O. style got thrown out the car
And ran over, by the Method Man jeep
Divine can’t define my style is so deep
Like pussy, my low cut fade stay bushy
Like a porcupine, I part backs like a spine
Gut you like a blunt and reconstruct your design
I know you want to diss me, but I can read your mind
‘Cause you weak in the knees, like SWV
Trying to get a title like Wu Killa Bee
Kid change your habit, you know I’m friends with the Abbott
Me and RZA Rob name printed in the tablet
Under vets, we paid our debts for mad years
Hibernate the sound, and now we out like bears
In Born Power, born physically, power speaking
The truth in the song be the pro-black teaching
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