Gary Grice made his rap game debut in 1991 under the name "The Genius", releasing his debut album for Marley Marl's Cold Chillin' Records, now in ruins and with which he signed the year before.
The production is almost entirely entrusted to EZ-Mo-Bee, and it's quite generic and flat, while the rapping of The Genius is simple, he spits tight and raw bars and lyrically brings some valid street-positive argument, however he hasn't yet found and defined his own style here: technically he's solid, he's at the level of the other rappers of the early nineties and there are many flashes of immense talent, but most of the tracks have the same structure and sound boring. Among the worst cuts, in addition to the pseudo-soft-porn of "Superfreak", there's the introductory one, "Come Do Me", a generic commercial and sexual attempt signed by Jesse West, which will then be removed from the 1994 edition of Cold Chillin' and replaced with Robert Diggs' "Pass the Bone", Grice's cousin at the time still known as Prince Rakeem, who made an EP in 1991 for Tommy Boy Records, "Ooh I Love You Rakeem". The disc is irregular and boring, marks a flop and risks ending the career of The Genius, failing to enter the rankings due to the inadequate promotion by Cold Chillin': the Marl label tries to re-release the disc in the 1994, after fans had flocked to discover the origins of Wu-Tang following the release of the debut, but also in this case the label decides not to promote it adequately, for the second time. Incredible, but it went just like that: technically, this is officially the first solo album of the Wu-Tang Clan, but I don't dare to say that for this reason it's an essential listening for a Wu-head or for a fan of GZA. The guy did better (starting from the next work) and Wu-Tang gave many gem albums, this is not essential. If you really care, come and see.
Highlights: "Words from a Genius", "Who's Your Rhymin' Hero", "Life of a Drug Dealer".
Rating: 6/10.
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