GZA originally went by the moniker The Genius.
Before Gary Earl Grice was famously known as GZA, he originally went by the moniker The Genius.
On February 19, 1991, GZA released his 15-track debut studio album Words from the Genius under his first moniker The Genius. The album was released on Cold Chillin’ Records and the following year GZA would go on on to be a founding member of the Wu-Tang Clan with his cousins RZA and Ol’ Dirty Bastard.
With the forming of the Wu-Tang Clan, GZA would change his name from The Genius to GZA (pronounced “Jizza”), and his cousin Prince Rakeem would change his name to RZA.
Read: RZA’s first rap name was Prince Rakeem
Read: RZA, GZA, and ODB were in a group called All in Together Now before Wu-Tang Clan
