GZA Heats Up Day Four of Sled Island

You had to wonder what the elderly woman bussing tables at Calgary's Royal Legion #1 thought of all the commotion when Wu-Tang Clan co-founder GZA sauntered on stage during Day Four of Sled Island.

Greeting his cheering fans with, "It's hot in this motherf---er!," the hip-hop legend had the sold-out room bouncing halfway through his first rhyme. As the rapper whipped out freestyle jams and grimy gems like 'Living in the World Today,' 'Gold' and, in a nod to late Wu-Tang member Ol' Dirty Bastard, 'Shimmy Shimmy Ya,' sweaty audience members cheered and flashed the iconic Wu-Tang Clan hand sign.

The hip hop innovator tore up the stage, challenging his DJ to "turn it up" on more than one occasion, as fans crowd-surfed and pumped their fists along to the beats. Although the set was originally billed as a collaboration between GZA and King Khan, no one seemed to notice that the Montreal-raised garage rocker was missing (he chose to bow out of Sled Island activities for personal reasons). While the pairing of the heavyweights would have been a show-stopper (it certainly was last year in Toronto when the guys got together for NXNE), it's not as though GZA needed the extra hand to keep things rolling. The rapper did just fine on his own for the last night of Sled Island 2010.