Wu-Tang Clan's GZA shows his genius in Liquid Science on Netflix
Science rules everything around me.
- Patrick's play The Cowboy is included in the Best American Short Plays 2011-12 anthology. He co-wrote and starred in the short film Baden Krunk that won the Best Wisconsin Short Film award at the Milwaukee Short Film Festival.
GZA, aka The Genius, stars in the series Liquid Science which is now available on Netflix.
GZA, the lyric master and MC from the legendary Wu-Tang Clan group, teamed up with Red Bull TV on the new series Liquid Science. It's kind of like hip hop Nova or Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations, but instead of food, GZA explores science, technology and innovation.
Also known as The Genius, GZA describes the show, now available on Netflix , as "the curiosity of an MC about the works, studies of engineers and scientists."
In case you're unfamiliar with his science cred, it runs deep. Over the past decade, he's lectured at Harvard, MIT and Oxford, among other schools. Initially, his talks revolved around music and his life, but over time his focus evolved to how science and music intersect.
The GZA wears an astronaut suit to explore a simulated environment on Mars.
In 2012, he partnered with Christopher Emdin, an associate professor from Columbia University, for a program called Science Genius B.A.T.T.L.E.S. (Bring Attention to Transforming Teaching, Learning and Engagement in Science), which encouraged New York high school students to learn about science through hip hop.
In 2013, Neil deGrasse Tyson had GZA and Emdin on his StarTalk radio show to discuss the science of hip hop.
"I'm a scientist by nature and not by trade," GZA said over the phone in a thoughtful quiet tone. "I've been working on an album for quite some time now, called Dark Matter and most of it involves physics."
In honor of NASA's 2016 Juno Mission, he released the single The Spark from Dark Matter. The song is about the beginning of the universe.
"Step into a world of black holes, quasars
Galaxies, supernovas, bright stars
A spectrum of light beams
Images beyond your wildest dreams"
The title of the show, Liquid Science, is a nod to GZA's album Liquid Swords, widely considered by critics and fans to be one of the best hip-hop albums of all time. Each episode explores a single topic, like climate change, virtual reality, music or immortality. One moment GZA's in an astronaut's suit in a simulated Martian environment, another he rides an actual hoverboard floating inches above the ground.
GZA said one of the cooler segments involved meeting marine biologist Sylvia Earle, who for decades has fought to protect the world's oceans. She's also the subject of the Netflix documentary Mission Blue. Earle took GZA out on a boat in San Francisco Bay to show him how mud and its creatures reflect the health of a marine environment.
"She had so much passion," GZA said, "and explained things so well about marine life and the state of the ecosystem."
All 11 episodes are currently available on Netflix -- each is around 20 minutes long. If you're not a Netflix subscriber, you can watch the series on Red Bull TV.
As Wu-Tang Clan prepares to celebrate the 25th anniversary of its first album, Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers), its members are as busy as ever. Now, with a TV series under his belt, GZA shared one thing that he's never done but hopes to: perform in Africa.
"I've been everywhere but Africa as far as performing. I would like to do that. Perform over in the Motherland."
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