The three iconic hip-hop groups who inspired GZA
The GZA is a uniquely talented rapper, bearing an incredible vocabulary and dealing with complex themes in his work. But how did he come to be this way?
GZA was a kid when hip-hop culture began to coalesce in the 1970s, and he took an interest in it from an early age. Along with his little cousin RZA, the young man used to go to block parties in New York, and it was here that he first came into contact with rap, DJing, breakdancing and graffiti. He soon developed an interest in poetry, and, before long, he was becoming a hip-hop artist in his own right.
GZA used to travel to the Bronx a lot as a young person, where the burgeoning hip-hop scene was thriving. As he mentioned during a 2002 interview with Kevin Beacham, the Bronx in those days had a far more developed hip-hop culture than his own borough of Staten Island, or Shaolin as the Wu-Tang Clan would come to call it.
“I used to travel from Shaolin to the South Bronx,” GZA recalled, “and at that time Shaolin was kind of behind compared to the Bronx. It was fascinating to see how many live MCs existed out there.”
A lot of people were experimenting with the new hip-hop sound on the streets of the Bronx while GZA was a kid, but a handful of groups were already making actual records. Of those, GZA was especially enamoured by three bands. “You had the Treacherous Three,” he said, “Cold Crush Brothers, Fearless Four.”
The Treacherous Three were a highly influential group formed in 1978, made up, at various points, of DJ Easy Lee, Kool Moe Dee, LA Sunshine, Special K and Spoonie Gee, with DJ Dano B, DJ Reggie Reg and DJ Crazy Eddie jumping in and out. In addition to sparking GZA’s imagination, the Treacherous Three also inspired the likes of LL Cool J and Rakim with their fast raps.
“I used to like Spoonie G,” GZA said of his love of the Treacherous Three. “I grew up listening to a lot of those tapes that were made in Harlem World and those places where they would battle and they inspired me a lot.”
The Cold Crush Brothers, meanwhile, were a Bronx group that also came together in ’78. They were notable for, among other things, their harmonies and stomping presence on stage, so it’s clear why a future member of the Wu-Tang Clan would be so into them.
GZA’s third highlight, the Fearless Four, were a Harlem group, known best for their 1982 song ‘Rockin’ It,’ which sampled Kraftwerk’s ‘The Man Machine.’ They only ever put out a small number of records through the years, but among their achievements was inspiring the GZA, one of hip-hop’s great MCs. That’s a decent legacy.