New GZA interview.

Halftime: I want to talk about back in the days when you used to go around town just battling cats. There was a rumor that you and Jay-Z battled one time. Is there any truth to that and if so what was the outcome of that one?

GZA: Yea, that’s true. It wasn’t like a battle but we came across each other’s paths. Actually it was me and Dirty. We ran into Jay-Z in Bushwick. We used to go to Ansar Ru Allah community, it was this whole community of Muslims, to go buy the wheat pizza and they used to have this talent show every week. We weren’t performing against each other but we happened to run into him one time out there. We were like yea we emcee and he was like he emcee and we went back and forth with a couple of darts and that was that. He was very arrogant at the time….

Halftime: At the time? haha

GZA: Aiight, he still is. He was very cocky. We weren’t as cocky but we were just as confident. So we both had the vibe like yea you ain’t do nothing to me. We had the same type of attitude but it was all cool. He was rhyming much much faster, you remember how he used to rhyme. He was super fast back then. He’s a clever emcee, he’s always got it and he’s still nice. I’ll give it to him. He put his work in. But that was that it wasn’t no Kool Moe Dee vs. Busy Bee situation. We just went back and forth with a few verses and that was that. He was asked about it on MTV. Sway asked him like, ‘You battled GZA, you beat Genius?’ and Jay-Z was like c’mon man.

Halftime: Yea, that’s why I had to ask

GZA: It was that same cockiness. He didn’t answer the question but he made it seem like ‘c’mon man.’ Real hardcore lyrical cats know. I don’t play when it comes to writing.

Halftime: We did an interview with Inspectah Deck and he told us one thing you taught him was how to keep his freestyles in sentences. How you write your verses is almost like writing an essay. Have you always written in that complete structure or did you grow into that?

GZA: Yea, I always write like that. I’m even stronger now. As far as writing and lyrically I’m even up a notch or two. But yea I told Deck that a while ago. He’s flashing back on me saying I learned from GZA to just write strong sentences. What I grew up to know as freestyle didn’t mean off the head. So freestyle was never about that for myself, it was just rhyming about no particular subject. I’m not a great off the head rhymer. I really don’t do that. I don’t have skills. I’m spontaneous but I don’t really get down like that. I like to write and craft my work. I think a lot of freestyle stuff or off the head stuff is corny nowadays. It just be killing me sometimes like usually I’m doing a show and someone is screaming out ‘freestyle!’ cuz they want to hear me say something off the head. Not saying I don’t respect that because I heard one or two cats in the whole history of emceeing that was really nice off the head. Everything else was just bull**** to me. I watch BET freestyle Fridays and I’m like this is ridiculous man. They’d rather have two dudes come on and go off the head and not curse. Go off the head and not curse which is hard for a lot of emcees period. I don’t really respect that. I’d rather hear something well written unless you are really spitting something off the head that’s sounding alright. Especially the movie 8 Mile, it was a good flick but it brought more of that freestyle stuff out which really just messed it up. Now the majority of kids who battle are like ‘Look at your shoes kid’ and that **** is annoying. All these corny similes and fake metaphors are kinda weak. If you take the dart Jadakiss threw at 50, he wasn’t talking about his physical appearance, clothes or looks but he was spittin though. In my opinion he was really spittin some stuff, he kept his flow and didn’t get into anything personal. He kept it on some lyrical stuff and for battling that’s what it always was for us through the years. For me it’s just about writing strong lines and catchy stuff that’s witty-unpredictable. Stuff that just stands out, not just a whole bunch of similes like I’m tall like this, your bad like that, you’re a Volkswagen and I’m a Bentley. That’s corny. It’s about being brief with something but haven’t it just as powerful. I always say what the average emcee can say in ten lines I can say in four lines and still be more visual than the majority of emcees out there. That’s what emceeing is for me.