GZA – Sala Apolo, Barcelona

The fast-moving world of hip hop might seem like an unlikely candidate for the back catalogue mummification process of the play-your-classic-album-in-full gig.

Rap today is dominated by a disposable mixtape culture, where the listener’s bandwidth might hold out longer than their attention span, while the albums that do get released often stretch the CD’s 74-minute running time to its limits in a desperate bid to cover all bases.

Then again, hip hop is now well into its fourth decade, with an established pantheon of classic albums that even Mojo magazine readers can appreciate, and you could take most modern rap stars home to meet your Mum, so long as they promise not to drink all her cough medicine.

And if rap is going to have an elder statesman, then it might as well be GZA aka The Genius. Even back in the Wu-Tang’s scabrous heyday, GZA was something of a leader to the group, the head to their Voltron according to Method Man and one of the most erudite, brilliant lyricists out there.

Liquid Swords, the album he’s been periodically playing in its entirety since 2007, was the GZA’s second album, released in 1995 at the height of Clan mania. It’s a classic of the horrorcore-ish New York rap that Wu-Tang pioneered, packed with gothic beats, wicked allegory and smart choruses that — unlike many rap albums — sounds brilliant from start to finish.

Not that he plays it that way: instead, GZA uses the gig format as a launch pad for a thrilling hour-long expedition into his Wu and solo hits, with Liquid Swords classics chopped and changed in a punishing 20-minute mix that kicks off the show.

You could mourn the absence of classics like ‘B.I.B.L.E.’. Or you could marvel in what turns out to be a masterclass in hip hop fundamentals, the live set reduced to the rudiments of MC, DJ and a wealth of brutal energy. Besides, the addition of classics like ‘Clan In Da Front’, ‘Reunited’ and even Ol’ Dirty’s ‘Shimmy Shimmy Ya’ seems like more than a fair exchange.

That the show works so well is testament to the brilliance of the RZA’s diamond-sharp beats, which still sound box fresh almost 20 years on, GZA’s pin-point lyrical skills and a reasonable PA system, which means you can actually enjoy both.

GZA’s a charismatic performer, too, getting off stage and wandering almost to the back of the crowd during ‘Crash Your Crew’ without so much as a slip in his masterful flow.

If there’s one complaint it’s that some of these songs miss the frenetic interplay of MCs, something the Wu mastered and which no amount of shouting form GZA’s DJ is going to replace.

But it’s a small matter: what GZA manages to do tonight is play tribute to his illustrious past without reducing it to a museum piece. With Liquid Swords 2 apparently on the cards for 2012, you couldn’t ask for much more.

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