We here at Hantu Collective were very excited to be involved with this gig. Geo, who is a very avid Wu-tang fan, designed a special tee for The GZA/ Genius as a special present.
The Hantu Team arrived in Liverpool after a much anticipated return from the our last visit (which was our stellar appearance at The Liverpool Medical Charity Fashion Show). We were armed with our new Hantu Camera, and we were ready for the world...only problem was we didn't know how to put the strap on.
We arrived and were greeted by Doug , one of the founders of Fuel for Fire who put on the gig at the Kazamier . Speaking of Kazamier - it is such an amazing and eclectic venue! The other week they had Chali 2na from Jurrasic 5, and with a long list of hip-hop greats on their roster- we are definitely going back to visit the next time we're in Liverpool.
Around 6pm, the GZA arrived with DJ Choco and Kinetic 9 (Killa Army) and under recommendations from Rayroq and Ray (from the Wu-tang Corp), we spoke to Kinetic 9. He is such a down-to-earth person, and it wasn't long before he gave us the go ahead to chat with the GZA ourselves. Gathering up our courage, we gave GZA our creation. He opened the package and said "nice, who is it suppose to be?"
Rather star struck, we blurted out "… it's you…"
The GZA went " ok… why are his hands white? "
We didn't think and just blurted out - "ah… it's a printing error!" Oh well, our bad GZA :)
We spoke to Geo again (it was he who designed the tee) and he was absolutely gutted he couldn't make it to the gig as he had to be in London. He says that the inspiration for the tee came from listening to Liquid Swords(link) and from the same vein that inspires GZA - samurais and ninjas!
THE EVENING
The gig started with a few local Liverpool MCs, hosted by the amazing MC TL rocking our custom Wu Logo Tee which was printed with reflective material.
What was supposed to be a few Liverpool Mcs ended up being the whole of Liverpool's local MC community who took turns spitting on stage - and what a sight it was!
Around 12:30, the crowd got warmed up by DJ Choco and the result is below:
Intro Video
Liquid swords
The crowd went hype to the classics numbers - Clan in Da front, Closer Cream, Protect Your Neck , and the ODB tribute Shimmy Shimmy Ya. With the intimate venue, the hyped crowd and the amazing performance by The GZA/ Genius (not to mention the excellent support from Kinetic 9 (Killa Army) and DJ Choco) - it was a night to remember. Our personal favourite was the very clever lyrical stylings of Animal Planet.
We at Hantu Collective were very honoured to have this opportunity and we're looking forward to have the opportunities to work with Wu-tang again in the future.
