Ghostface Killah Recalls Shoot-Out in Traffic with The Delfonics in the Van
Staff Writer
Ghostface Killah is universally acclaimed for the descriptive storytelling in his rhymes, but the rap veteran passed on rapping to tell one of his most memorable stories to date. During his recent Drink Champs episode with Raekwon, the Wu-Tang member revealed that he was involved in a shoot-out while riding with legendary soul group, The Delfonics.
The Ironman rapper recalled going through a dark time around the release of his debut album. While the album is a fan-favorite, Ghostface talked about enjoying that album less due to the rough time in his life. While describing that period in his life, he explained how a road rage incident turned into a shoot-out despite having The Delfonics around him.
"It was dark for me...this some funny s*** -- I got The Delfonics in a shoot-out on Staten Island," Ghostface said. "They in a shoot-out with me...The Delfonics. The n***** in a shoot-out with me. Got them n***** in a 15-passenger. I'm blowing at this kid, this kid playing games -- I start shooting at this n****, these n***** in the back of me in the f****** van."
Ghostface remembered feeling bad for getting the group into a potentially deadly situation. Once he arrived at the studio with the group, he apologized to The Delfonics before the group lightheartedly joked about remembering to bring their knife. The Delfonics would later end up collaborating on Ghostface's Ironman track, "After the Smoke Is Clear."
To hear Ghostface Killah describe his shoot-out with The Delfonics, check out the above clip.
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[WATCH] Ghostface Killah Reveals The Time He Had Shoot-Out In Traffic While Riding With The Delfonics
In an exclusive interview with Drink Champs, the legendary Ghostface Killah of the Wu-Tang Clan talks about his slangin’ and bangin’ days, but none of the stories about his horrid past are quite as entertaining as his story about the shoot out he was in while riding in the car with 60s singing group The Delfonics.
Even without the microphone and beats, Ghost still has a knack for storytelling, unlike anyone you may encounter. The story of him having a shootout on Staten Island in a 15-passenger van with The Delfonics in the back is one of legend. Listen to Starks describe the situation in a way that only he can explain as N.O.R.E. and DJ EFN laugh their asses off.
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Ghostface Killah's Delfonics Shootout Highlighted in the Latest 'Wu-Tang An American Saga' Episode
By Jay Quan
Published Mon, April 3, 2023 at 11:40 AM EDT
The latest Wu-Tang An American Saga episode titled "After The Smoke Clears" features Ghostface Killah's shoot out while headed to the studio with the Delfonics.
The episode focuses on RZA and his search for a new sound for the clan. In the episode Ghost and his love for 70's soul music, specifically, The Delfonics is highlighted. Ghostface gets the opportunity to record with the Delfonics for his upcoming Ironman album for the single " After The Smoke Is Clear." While driving to the studio with the Delfonics, Ghostface begins shooting at a car that he thinks has been following him for some time.
After the awkward situation, the legendary soul group understandably has some reservations about going through with the recording. The scene also features the group in the studio recording their vocals layer by layer.
On a 2022 episode of Drink Champs , Ghostface detailed the story.
"This some funny shit, I got the Delfonics in a shootout on Staten Island," he said. "I had them in a 15-passenger van, and these dudes [his rivals] is playin' games. He saw me through the rearview and he was smilin' movin' real slow. I'm blowin' at him, it was crazy. By the time I got a chance to say I'm sorry, they were 'like don't worry about it man, somethin' told me to bring my knife.' Remember these are old men, but they Philly n---as! After a while they turned off, I didn't see them when we got to the studio."
RZA finds that the key to the new Wu-Tang sound is live instruments instead of samples, as he prepares for the monumental Wu-Tang Forever album.
Season 3 concludes Wu-Tang: An American Saga . Previous episodes are available for streaming on Hulu.
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Ghostface Killah & The Delfonics Were Once in A Shootout – Lavon Lewis Puts A Ring on Evelyn Lozada & More | PicsVideos
* Social Heat is sliding in smoove with the latest news. Ghostface Killah had a time with The Delfonics when they were all involved in a shootout, as he told the podcast “Drink Champs.” He went on to say that after the milieu had dissipated, they all went into the studio and recorded a track. Some people were cackling at the image of The Delfonics with knives in their hands, and others in the comment section weren’t buying the story GK was selling. Do you think this happened, or is the “Protect Ya’ Neck” lyricist a wild storyteller?
Scarlett Johansson and the “Today Show” weatherman Al Roker had a humorous segment in which ScarJo delivered the weather forecast in a non-traditional journalistic methodâthe banter between the two made for some entertaining television. The real question is whether their interaction will be ongoing because learning about the daily weather just became a bit more bearable.
Evelyn Lozada got a man! She is engaged to Lavon Lewis , one of the contestants on Peacock’s “Queens Court.” According to Peopl e magazine, Lavon got on one knee to ask Evelyn for her hand in marriage at her birthday party attended by her family and friends. “The thing about Evelyn is, it is very hard to surprise her,” Lavon told People. “I told her to pack her bags, we’re going somewhere. She was blindfolded until she got to the front door. She walked in to about 20 close friends and family and the big ‘marry me’ letters, roses on the ground, things like that.” Congrats!
Timothy Bliefnick , who once appeared on “ Family Feud” hosted by Steve Harvey , is now charged with murking his wife with two counts of first-degree murder and one of home invasion. While on the show, Timothy joked about regretting saying, “I do,” and Steve drew silent and stared blankly at him, smh. According to the Daily Mail , a family member found Rebecca Bliefnick , 41, dead, allegedly from gunshot wounds. Webbies, make sure you peep how folks be joking around you. No one wins when the family feuds.
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In 'Wu-Tang: An American Saga,' Ghostface Killah Gets Shot in the Neck â Did It Happen?
Sep. 9 2021, Published 9:39 a.m. ET
Set in New York in the 1990s, Wu-Tang: An American Saga sheds light on how the Wu-Tang Clan, one of the most influential hip-hop groups out there, was formed.
The group's early days gave rise to many controversies. Season 2 of Wu-Tang: An American Saga touches on some of these, showing how the Wu-Tang members' experiences influenced the music. How realistic is Wu-Tang: An American Saga ? Did Ghostface Killah get shot in the neck?
Did Ghostface Killah really get shot? How realistic is Season 2 of 'Wu-Tang: An American Saga'?
Season 2 of Wu-Tang: An American Saga boasts a handful of tension-charged scenes. Ghostface Killah gets shot in the neck by a competing gang, which nearly costs him his life. Meanwhile, RZA finds himself in a great deal of legal trouble after shooting a person to defend himself.
RZA was charged with felonious assault in 1991 after shooting a man named Willie Walters in the leg. RZA managed to clear his name. Further details about the incident aren't that easy to come by. RZA talked about the tension-fraught period during a panel discussion held at the A3C Festival & Conference in October 2018 in Atlanta, Ga.
"I kept seeing a cycle of non-success," RZA said, per Ambrosia for Heads . "'Yo, so-and-so got shot,' 'Yo, they stabbed [Wisegod],' 'Yo, they shot [Ghostface Killah].' It was never right. Then, all of a sudden, myself is in violence; I'm facing eight years in prison. All of this knowledge that I accumulated is worth toilet paper right now because Iâm not [properly] utilizing it."
View this post on Instagram A post shared by Tony Starks - Wu Tang - (@realghostfacekillah)
If the numerous anecdotes are anything to go by, Ghostface Killah did get shot in the neck in real life. The incident is also mentioned in books like Alvin Blanco's The Wu-Tang Clan and RZA, per Complex .
"We're targets, man," Method Man reportedly told 'Vibe' in 1999.
The early days of Wu-Tang are often told through stories about turf wars and violent displays. Many of these revolve around gang rivalries and their unending battle against a racist system.
The hip-hop group even became the target of an FBI investigation concerning drug crimes, money laundering, and other crimes. The investigation reportedly began in 1999 and concluded in 2004. At one point, they were even given the label "281F," which denotes a "major crime organization."
Per Vice , the FBI ran investigations on a disproportionate number of rap and hip-hop groups. They also had files on Radiohead, Blink-182, Army of the Pharaohs, and others.
"We're targets, man," Method Man told Vibe in 1999, per The Village Voice . "I mean, our lives are in danger. If I got a gun, it's for protection. You have motherf--kers who love your music and would still rob your ass."
In the interview, the "The Meth Lab" singer described the suffocating climate the members of the group found themselves in after reaching a certain level of commercial success â which didn't exactly come without complications. (Cue: FBI.)
Season 2 of 'Wu-Tang: An American Saga' references lived events, but it is billed as a fictionalized drama.
Over the years, Wu-Tang's meteoric rise to success became the subject of several movies and books.
RZA's autobiography, The Wu-Tang Manual, came out in 2004. It was followed by The Tao of Wu in 2009. U-God published Raw: My Journey Into the Wu-Tang in 2018, while Raekwon's From Staircase to Stage is slated to be released on Nov. 9, 2021. There are also documentaries, such as the 2019 Wu-Tang Clan: Of Mics and Men .
The first three episodes of Season 2 of Wu-Tang: An American Saga are available on Hulu now.
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The Ghostface Killah Rises Again
Frannie Kelley
Adrian Younge (left) and Ghostface onstage at the Seattle stop of their tour last week. Erich Donaldson hide caption
Adrian Younge (left) and Ghostface onstage at the Seattle stop of their tour last week.
Ghostface Killah is a compulsive storyteller. His fiction is painterly, and he delivers it in a headlong rush. On " Impossible ," from the 1997 album Wu-Tang Forever, he rhymed, "He pointed to the charm on his neck / With his last bit of energy left, told me rock it with respect / I opened it, seen the God holdin' his kids / Photogenic, tears just burst out my wig." He's a romantic, in his own way , and never stoic.
The images in all his songs are this vivid, sometimes to the point of distraction. He describes scenes with such detail he might have a back story for each verse. He prefers to work with members and affiliates of the groundbreaking and influential Wu-Tang Clan, which he co-founded. "Not everybody can tell a really good story," he says. "They veterans." As is he. For 20 years he's been playing unreliable narrators and characters who second-guess themselves. Yelling, going for broke whenever he's in front of a microphone. Ol' Dirty Bastard may have had no father to his style, but it's Ghostface who's still the same guy we met back in 1993.
His latest project contains all the preoccupations we already know him for â ziti, women, soul music, Wallys, campfire horror, injustice â but in some ways there's even more going on than usual. Twelve Reasons To Die is also a collaboration with a film composer on a concept album that's inspired a comic book and a theatrical stage show.
First Listen
First listen: ghostface killah and adrian younge, 'twelve reasons to die'.
Born Dennis Coles on Staten Island, New York City, he can now, at the age of 42, look back on a career that's seen him play an integral part in one of the most respected groups in hip-hop history and release equally successful solo work. He's toured the world several times over, but he's not done yet.
"I'm just, right now, glad to be a part of anything," says Ghostface. "Yo, I been here for so long. You know what I mean? But I don't feel old; I'm not going nowhere. I'm still talented. This is what I do. And I do it well."
What he's doing now is a concept album about an Italian gangster betrayed, murdered and resurrected as a black superhero bent on revenge.
This was not his idea. That came from Bob Perry. He's worked in the music industry for decades, distributing records and doing A&R for hip-hop artists like Mobb Deep and the Alchemist, which is basically matchmaking rappers and producers. He'd always wanted to make a concept album, and he wanted to hear more live instrumentation in rap.
He scoured the Internet until he heard Adrian Younge, who had a studio full of antique instruments. "This is the guy I can make that â you know, my rock opera with."
Music Interviews
Adrian younge: looking back to move hip-hop forward.
Perry called Younge and told him he wanted him to make an album with Ghostface. Younge says they were both thinking big. "We created this whole crime thriller thing that takes place in the late '60s," he says. "I don't want to give away the story because it's like a movie â we look at this like a real movie."
And they figured â if the story they dreamed up is so visual, why not tell it that way, too? Perry took their idea to comic book writer Matt Rosenberg, who began work on a version of their saga in his medium . Younge and Perry sent him plot points, and Ghostface began fleshing out the role they'd cast him in.
"We just kind of gave him broad instructions," says Perry. "Song 1 is about his rise to power. Song 2 is about being the man. Song 3 is about getting crossed, going to war, falling in love. And he took it from there."
Ghostface says he had no problem working like that. "Just whatever you give me â it's like a hit man. You know, it's what I get paid for."
He's just being modest. Younge describes what Ghostface brought to the table: "He's a kind of rapper that's theatrical and cinematic. He's very savvy in the type of production he chooses, and how he approaches the production."
Ghostface has his methods. "Basically, whatever really sounds good to me. Beats to me is like women. You see a chick that's like, 'Oooh, man.' I don't know how everybody else does it, but that's how I do it," he says. "I got a good ear for music. If it feel good to me, then, a lot of times, it's gonna feel good to you."
When Younge sent Ghostface the music he wrote for their project, the rapper realized they had something in common. "We love old records. We got old souls," he says. "And we love those kind of records."
Ghostface has been incorporating the raw '60s soul sound into his songs since before he had a record deal. "I had a lot of soul," he says. "I rhymed over the words. I been rhyming over â in the '80s, I rhymed over The Temptations. You know what I mean? Over it."
The Wu-Tang Clan's 20-Year Plan
When the Wu-Tang Clan was in its infancy, when Ghost and his compatriots were rhyming in staircases, banging on the walls to make a beat â even on the group's debut album â Ghostface hadn't yet found his voice. "They was more nicer than I was," he says. "I picked up from each, from Dirty, from Deck, to Rae, Tical â incorporated that into myself."
His affinity for soul music became his signature. "I grew to be more nice," he says. He asked the lead singer of The Delfonics, a group from the '60s he listened to growing up, to perform on his solo debut , 1996's Ironman .
And on his fourth album, he went even further. He took an old Delfonics hit, " La La (Means I Love You) ," and gave it the Temptations treatment.
"Ghostface literally rapped over the entire track. Not the instrumental, the entire track," says Younge, talking about a song named " Holla ." "It's different, but it works. I don't know how he does it, but it always works."
Ghostface, Younge and their band are touring Twelve Reasons to Die, in a production that acts out Ghostface's detailed storytelling and the cinematic style of Younge, who has composed for films. It involves masks, long red robes and a giant book from which Ghostface reads one song. They deftly transition between the new high-concept tracks, Wu-Tang party rockers and Ghost's best-loved work from a two-decade run â " Mighty Healthy ," " Daytona 500 ," " 4th Chamber ," " Run " â rearranging, reintroducing and knitting together soul music and hip-hop, in real time.
This is the part that Ghostface sounds most excited about. "I would always want to do a Ghostface show, like, to make it look like plays," he says. "Each track is you just sliding in. Just make it theatrical â like a cinema."
The stage show, like the album, tries to create something new. They're pairing old lyrics with original music, throwing fresh verses on top of sounds made on 50-year old instruments. The point is to do something Ghostface has done in the past â push hip-hop forward.
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The 50 Best Ghostface Killah Songs
See which of The Wally Champ's most notorious bars make it on the list of the best Ghostface Killah songs.
Image via Getty/Scott Gries
Ghostface Killah turned 47 in 2017, but he is still one of hip-hop music's most vibrant talents. The Almighty GFK has been the most consistent wordsmith out of the Wu-Tang stable from the time he introduced himself to the rap world on âDa Mystery of Chessboxin.ââ Tony Starks has been hitting us over the head with amazing verses and songs for nearly 25 years now; this decade alone has seen him drop collaboration albums with his Wu compatriots Method Man and Raekwon, his fellow New Yorker Sheek Louch, the Canadian jazz trio BADBADNOTGOOD, and Adrian Younge, twice.
Ghost followed up his verses on Wu-Tangâs Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)  by co-hosting Raekwonâs Only Built 4 Cuban Linx  before releasing his classic solo debut, Ironman,  in 1996. He topped those classics with his critically-acclaimed masterpiece, Supreme Clientele,  in 2000. Since then, he's released more solo albums all brimming with creativity.
The Shaolin native has been firmly placed in the pantheon of rapâs all time greats, especially when it comes to storytelling. Ghost has brought to life for us his childhood days on the track âAll That I Got Is You,â failed attempts on his life on âThe Hilton,â and wars waged with the DeLuca crime family on Twelve Reasons to Die .
The Wally Champ has one of the most charismatic personalities in rap history: He rocks robes with jeans and Timbs, has a Wonder Woman bracelet, dons gaudy necklaces and rings, and can give you advice on life (just listen to his MTV advice audiobook, âThe World According to Pretty Toney,â and his âWizdom of the Weekâ video series for proof).
On top of all that, his pen is masterful and his style is untouchable. When heâs not in storyteller mode, Tony spits with no rhyme or reason, often leaving the listener beguiled and confusedââbut thatâs what makes him a one of a kind rapper. His raps is like ziti, and they can take you into another world. Come take this walk with us as we represent Wu and rank the 50 best Ghostface Killah songs.
50. Pusha T f/ Ghostface Killah & Kanye West "New God Flow" (2012)
Album : Cruel Summer
Producer : Kanye West, Boogz & Tapez, Anthony Kilhoffer
Label : G.O.O.D., Def Jam
With its "Mighty Healthy" sample, "New God Flow" was a natural landing place for a Ghost remix. As the curtain rises and the dim lights turn fiery red for the final act, Ghostface strolls onto the track with poise igniting a lyrical performance that matches the menacing production. "I'm not bow-legged but old school like Redd Foxx/My favorite color in my hustle days was red tops." Ghost may have been nearly a decade older than his counterparts here, yet he still brought an exceptional element of grandeur that upped the records' significance. â Edwin Ortiz
49. Wu-Tang Clan "Hollow Bones" (2000)
Album : The W
Producer : RZA
Label : Loud, Columbia
The tortured wailing of Syl Johnson's "Is It Because I'm Black?" all over "Hollow Bones" signifies literal pain on these three verses that deal with getting shot. Rae is on the corner getting lifted when "something told me duck/Folding me up, my shoulder's struck/Out of luck;" he tries to jump in a cab to get to the hospital. Elsewhere, Deck is heard "Fleeing the crime scene speeding/Beefing, leaving behind C.R.E.A.M./Not even peeping that I was leaking."
Ghostface hits the check cashing spot at the wrong timeâfive dudes try to rob him. "I thought for a second then chose/Rather than froze/Had the Gem Star in my hand/'Yo, what the fuck, yo?'/That's when I ripped Timothy." Shots ring, bullets fly...Tony doesn't finish talking. It's the hook ("That splash against my hollow bones") that lets us know exactly where the bullets end up. â Gabriel Alvarez
48. Ghostface Killah f/ Killa Sin, RZA & GZA "Strawberry" (2001)
Album : Bulletproof Wallets
Producer : Mathematics
Label : Epic
Ghost has the gift of telling stories (especially those involving sex) and he proves it on Bulletproof Wallet's eighth track. Over a luscious David Porter sample, Ghost sits us by the campfire and speaks of the time he fucked a high school chick (or a girl that he knew from high school, something like that). Anyway, she has small feet and an off-the-hook ass. The imagery he provides makes us feel like we're looking in with Killa Sin and RZA. And after he busts a nut, the song ends appropriately with a H. Rap Brown poem which, if you listen closely, makes the song that much more dope. â Angel Diaz
47. Ghostface Killah "Rise of the Ghostface Killah" (2013)
Album : Twelve Reasons to Die
Producer : Adrian Younge
After a short time out of the spotlight, Ghost in 2013 wrestled it back onto himself with Twelve Reasons to Die. This particular track is about Ghost's search for the DeLucas. After they pressed his remains into 12 vinyl records, Ghost rose from the ashes to seek revenge, sort of like the character from which his name derives. As he searches for the crime family that murdered him, he wages war on them and their associates. "Rise" is a grizzly tale of murder and blood, full of beheadings and Colombian neck-ties. Adrian Younge and co-producers Bob Perry and Andrew Kelly really outdid themselves with the live instrumentation. â Angel Diaz
46. Ghostface Killah f/ The Force M.D.'s "The Soul Controller" (1996)
Album : Ironman
Label : Razor Sharp, Epic Street
"The Soul Controller" is a series of juxtapositions. Sam Cooke's famous "A Change Is Gonna Come" was a hopeful outlook on the civil rights movement and the human race in general. The Force M.D.'s interpolation contorts this view into a hollow, almost pessimistic one. It fits well into the song's context; Ghostface opens his first verse "Yo, yo these streets got me backed down how can I escape?/How can I survive without bubblin weight?" Ghostface's biggest enemy is an unbeatable one: time. It's what makes old corners unfamiliar, old faces fade into strangers, and cripples minds. Iron Man tries to advise that despite this, man is ultimately in control of his fate: "Stay sober, the soul controller."
But it's when he loses control that this song becomes memorable. The beat transforms into this darker, more aggressive, and faster machine while Ghostface's third verse takes a turn to the abstract. It's intense, but Ghostface is an intense dude and time is an intense enemy. â Brian Josephs
45. Ghostface Killah f/ U-God "Cherchez LaGhost" (2000)
Album : Supreme Clientele
Producer : Carlos Bess
Label : Epic, Sony, Razor Sharp
Prior to Supreme Clientele's release, Ghostface fans were waiting for the over-the-top personality to craft his own signature party track. Their prayers were answered as the millennium arrived. "Cherchez LaGhost" came out of nowhere, flipping the "Cherzchez La Femme" sample to perfection, but with a dark, distinctly Wu spin. Ghost's brief verse is littered with Pretty Tonyisms like "Brothers try to pass me, but none can match me/No girl can freak me, I'm just too nasty," while U-God had some of us dreaming of dimly lit, Bacardi Lime-drenched parties long before it was appropriate.
Over time, "Cherchez LaGhost" became the soundtrack to several irresponsible hotel parties, and decades later, we can still see Gloria Velez seductively winding atop a table to Carlos Bess' plodding production. While this masterpiece may have brought a questionably seductive element to middle and high school dances during the early aughts, those of us far too young to even think about stepping foot in the Tunnel can do little more than dream of the damage it did back in the day. â Julian Kimble
44. Ghostface Killah f/ Raekwon, RZA & Slick Rick "The Sun" (2001)
Album : N/A
Three of the greatest storytellers on one track? Sign us up! Ghost, Chef, and MC Ricky D hop on a track dedicated to the source of life. But once again, Ironman shines on this one (duh). Ghost waxes poetic on how great the sun is with radiant lines like: "Yo, the sun could never be pussy, he always come out/He'll sit right there, even if you pull your gun out" and "You can't stare at him long, 'cause your face'll do like this." He doesn't even have to explain that last line, you just can't help to scrunch your face when he says it. The entire song is double entendre playing on the three legends propensity to shine on rap cats. "I call my brother sun because he shines like one." â Angel Diaz
43. Charli Baltimore f/ Ghostface Killah "Stand Up" (1999)
Album : Cold as Ice
Charli Baltimore had sex appeal, and for a hot minute she had a buzz with "Stand Up," which was produced by the RZA and featured Mr. Charisma himself, Tony Starks. Charli, best known for her association with the late Notorious B.I.G., and Ghost sparked some flirtatious chemistry themselves on this raucous standout punched up by sampled Lyn Collins' vocals and demands of "blow your whistle." "Ayo, Tony, you phony/We both signed to Sony/But for half your pub, I'll ride that dick like a pony," teases the sexy Philly chick also known as Chuck. "Yeah, put your money on my dick/Girls, all eyes on my dick," responds Starks, hilariously. Temperature is rising on this one. â Gabriel Alvarez
42. Ghostface Killah f/ Raekwon, U-God & Popa Wu "Black Jesus" (1996)
First off, a word to the wise: "Back up off me while I grab my dick and hold the Heini." Ghostface needs you to understand that he's not to be disturbed at certain times. Now that that's settled let's get back to the lyrics. This song belongs on the list if only because it contains one of Ghost's most memorable non-sequiturs, "Starks-ologist, fried fish halibut." Being an expert in Tony Starks science is one thing, appreciating tasty seafood is quite anotherâstill Ghost makes room for both concepts in a single line.
A couple of bars later he's recounting the Wu's rise to power in the rap game: "We elbowed our way inside Loud and got on." Loud Records, of course, was the label that agreed to release the first Wu Tang Clan album, and also crucially allowed the individual members to cut their own solo deals, including Ghost's pact with Epic/Sony, which made possible the release of Iron Man .
As a resultâas Ghost points out in this densely packed verseâthe Wu was soon "G-in' Pepridge farms from out of millions." But pay close attention because he's about to veer back to the halibut theme. "Who wanna rhyme, who wanna challenge the swordmans/That rock that fisherman hat like Gorton's." Who else rhymes like this? Nobody. â Rob Kenner
41. Raekwon f/ Ghostface Killah "Gihad" (2009)
Album : Only Built 4 Cuban Linx... Pt. II
Producer : Necro
Label : Ice H2O, EMI
Hearing The Chef and Tony Stark back together on Only Built 4 Cuban Linx... Pt. II was a remarkably nostalgic moment, with the cryptic tone of "Gihad" catching both rappers in rare form. While Raekwon's verse fittingly goes down the path of gun-wielding and Pyrex pots, Ghost twists a vivid tale of sexual treachery that will have even the most hard-nosed individual snickering. After getting caught in the act with his son's pregnant girlfriend, Ghostface justifies the brazen exchange as a wake-up call for junior: "She's a whore, you knew it from the time we ran trains on her/And you still went and fucked her raw." These are life lessons you can't learn in school, kids. â Edwin Ortiz
40. Wu-Tang Clan "I Can't Go to Sleep" (2000)
Ghost and RZA cannot catch any ZZZ's. Probably because they are on the verge of tears contemplating all the ills of the world. Ghost worries about Feds jumpin' out of Jeeps, the babies in Africa with flies on their faces, his friend who crapped out gambling. RZA is distraught that major Black leaders like Malcolm X and Martin Luther King were murdered. During all this, the liberal dose of Isaac Hayes' immortal "Walk on By" plays on, with Black Moses basically saying to man up. What does it all mean? Is it a call to move on from the past? Is this a reminder of why problems still exist in the 'hood? Whatever the reasoning behind this display of hurt from the Wu's two biggest risk-takers, all we know is that now we can't go to sleep either without a proper explanation. â Gabriel Alvarez
39. Ghostface Killah "Child's Play" (2000)
Considering Ghostface's usual bravado, hearing him crush on a girl wouldn't seem like an instinctively compelling record to appreciate. However, thanks to a perfectly placed George Jackson sample and a wistful tone, "Child's Play" angelically captures young love as Ghost trades in his lyrical darts for elated rhymes chronicling his chaste relationship. "Puppy love, gorgeous face, amazed by her lip gloss/Cherry scent, when the princess spoke, yo it bounced off/Mole like Marilyn Monroe, threw a rose in her mouth/Wherever God go will be Mrs. Cole." Years later, GFK would be "Handcuffin' Them Hoes." â Edwin Ortiz
38. Ghostface Killah f/ Raekwon "The Hilton" (2001)
Producer : Carlos "Six July" Broady
On a Sunday in Bermuda, Chef and Ghost made some Wesley Snipes' movements over a Michael Jackson sample. But while they were enjoying their stay at the Hilton, somebody had different plans for these "laptop niggas, thugs on the computer." While Rae was taking a shower, room service came in the form of two .38s. Being the savvy gangsta that Ghost is, he ran into the sunlight so the ice could blind the gunman as "Rae ran out of the back/Towel on, soap on his arms, spinned duke around." The hitman landed on Tony's lap and got blood on his white leather. 10 Gs down the drain. Damn. â Angel Diaz
37. Ghostface Killah "Holla" (2004)
Album : The Pretty Toney Album
Producer : Ghostface Killah
Label : Def Jam
Only Ghostface can pull off something like this. Tony treats the original track of the Delfonics' "La La Means I Love You" like an instrumental as he begs the listener to "listen to me!" There's no direction here, just fly raps over a classic R&B track. Pretty Toney would use this approach later on The Big Doe Rehab with "Supa GFK." Johnny "Guitar" Watson's "Superman Lover" and as well as prior with "The Watch" which supposed to appear on Bullet Proof Wallets but he couldn't clear the Barry White sample in time. â Angel Diaz
36. Ghostface Killah "The Champ" (2006)
Album : Fishscale
Producer : Just Blaze
Whether you agree with the beginning remarks on the track ("You ain't been hungry since Supreme Clientele !"), there's no denying the tenacious demeanor that Ghostface Killah locks into throughout "The Champ." Over triumphant production that flips Melvin Bliss' soulful '70s break beat "Synthetic Substitution," Tony Stark comes out throwing haymakers with skilled precision ("While y'all stuck on Laffy Taffy/Wondering, how did y'all niggas get past me?/I been doing this before Nas dropped the Nasty") and keeps the body shots rolling seamlessly ("Bird ass nigga resemble Keenan Ivory Wayans/Stay in your place, dirt poor rappers get shadow boxed for training"). No need for the scorecards, three rounds was all Ghostface needed to retain his belt. â Edwin Ortiz
35. Ghostface Killah f/ Trife da God "Biscuits" (2004)
Producer : True Master
True Master lives up to his name with a wicked flipping of Sam & Dave's "I Can't Stand Up For Falling Down," and Ghost does it justice from the jump. He starts "Biscuits" off with one of his best opening quotes asking, "Yo, who the fuck brought me this chocolate shit, man? I said a banana Nutriment, man....smart, dumb niggas and shit, runnin' around here and shit. Ya'll niggas need to wisen up, man."
That should get you ready for what's about to come. Deni the Great and Trife da God ride this soulful beat with ease. The hook is what makes this a classic cut, with Tony singing to these chumps that don't want any beef. Pass him the Sazon before he fucks around and takes all your shit. Or fuck around and be a sta-tistic. â Angel Diaz
34. Ghostface Killah f/ Raekwon "Kilo" (2006)
Producer : MoSS
Every industry has a meter to measure success, and for Ghostface Killah and his top chef Raekwon that meter is distinctly laid out on "Kilo." The two Staten Island brethren pace themselves over smooth production courtesy of MoSS, with Ghost reassuring listeners that his package is pure ("A hundred birds go out, looking like textbooks/When they wrapped and stuffed/Four days later straight cash, two million bucks/Strictly powder, no cut). Weight or rhymes, Ghost was supplying the streets on Fishscale with records like "Kilo," and like fiends we took a lyrical bump with delight. â Edwin Ortiz
33. Ghostface Killah "Malcolm" (2000)
Producer : Choo the Specializt
"Malcolm" begins as it should, with an excerpt of Malcolm X's Ford Auditorium speech after his house was set ablaze with Ghost shouting, "Speak, Brother Malcolm, speak" over the revolutionary's words. Tony then starts rapping about how he feels like Malcolm when he was looking out his window with an AK-47, and proceeds to goes in about some cornball that's been fronting like he's big time when, "He sport the Bob Hope classics/Ran down Asics/Kmart/The short sleeve shit be the basics/He eat hams shitted on himself twice/Big hatted Jews rushed the nigga out in Crown Heights."
By the sound of the hook, Tony's tired of what's going on in the 'hood and wants to follows Malcolm's lead. In the second verse, he makes reference to the time the Wu had a run in with Ma$eâyes, that Ma$eâand tells us a colorful story of the aftermath, even telling us how muggy it was that day with bars like, "It's raining, 85 degrees kinda muggy/One of the nights they thrown in his face it's real ugly." Ghost has a gift few storytellers possess-the ability to make you feel like you're standing next to him as this all goes down. Detroit Red would be proud, not too sure about Malik El-Shabazz though. â Angel Diaz
32. Ghostface Killah f/ Raekwon, U-God, Masta Killa, & Cappadonna "Winter Warz" (1996)
The Wu-Tang Clan was never known for club bangers, but track No. 7 off Iron Man is built around an energetic, up-tempo RZA beat plus a catchy hook courtesy of Raekwon the Chef that advises listeners to "prepare for mic fights and plus the cold war." U-God, Master Killer, and Cappadonna all shine on the track-in fact, Cappa's closing verse may be the strongest of his entire catalog.
But this is Ghost's album and he handles verse No. 2 with sharp images and undeniable power resulting in blunt-force trauma. "My technique alone blows doors straight off their hinges," he notes early on. Later he asserts that his freestyle is "sharper than the indian spear" and he's got "more games than beggars on trains."
When Ghostdini warns that "my culture glides and attacks just like a vulture," the choice of bird is significant. Since vultures are scavengers one can only assume that his competition is already dead. â Rob Kenner
31. Ghostface Killah "Cobra Clutch" (1998)
Album : RZA Presents Wu-Tang Killa Bees: The Swarm Volume 1
Label : Priority
We all know that an agitated Ghostface Killah randomly lickin' off shots is more entertaining than most rappers' entire albums. Why GFK sounds so mad might be from the lack of airwave support. "Radio, stop shittin' on me!" he yells at the tail end of the chorus for "Cobra Clutch." The Wallabee Champ verbally attacks like the wicked wrestling move the song is named after as he flexes unconnected thoughts, metaphors, analogies, and other forms of insane speech that rush your brain cells rapidly. Mentions of Eddie Bauer, Gumby, Pert Plus, Milagro Beanfield, Kangols, Houdini, Rubik's Cube, and Peppermint Patties provide more randomness. Abstract rap harder than Chinese arithmetic. â Gabriel Alvarez
30. Jodeci f/ Ghostface Killah & Raekwon "Freek'n You (Remix)" (1995)
Producer : Mr. Dalvin
Label : Uptown
The '90s were the decade of the remix, and in '95, Rae & Ghost teamed up with two sets of brothers for one of hip-hop and R&B's best repurposings ever. No matter where you are when you hear the "Freek'n You" remix, the lights immediately get dimmer and the mood for sin is set-credit that ambiance to Dalvin's production. Everyone knows Rae's famous opening line, but it's Ghost's cleanup batter performance that stands out as he eschews his usual lyrical easel for aggressive seduction tactics that allow him to pull "ladies like a hamstring." He advises all women who doth protest too much to drop the act, because all fake freaks fall in the presence of Big Ghostface. If you play this joint too early, you'll be waiting all day like Harry Belafonte to do all of the wrong things. â Julian Kimble
29. Real Live f/ Ghostface Killah, Cappadonna, Killa Sin & Lord Tariq "Real Live Shit (Remix)" (1995)
Producer : K-Def
Label : Big Beat
Some real live NYC underground shit right here. Ghostface Killah, Cappadonna, Killa Sin from Killarmy, and Lord Tariq of Money Boss Players join Larry-O and K-Def for a nobody's-smilin' lick made to be played on the streets. Cappa handles the hook, while Ghost busts lyrical unleaded bullets. The MCs sound mean just like the track, which hurls forward with animosity (the Nas "I leave 'em froze like heron in your nose" sample seals the non-commercialness of the cut). This remix later appeared as a special bonus on Real Live's 1996 debut, The Turnaround: A Long-Awaited Drama. Â â Gabriel Alvarez
28. Ghostface Killah f/ Method Man & Raekwon "Yolanda's House" (2007)
Album : The Big Doe Rehab
Producer : Ant-Live
Ant-Live provided a melodic, soulful beat using an Aretha Franklin sample for Ghost, Meth, and Rae's vivid imagery. Joi Starr came through with the additional vocals that you can hear throughout the track as the three Clansmen keep us informed on how it all went down. Ghost starts things off by telling us about a drug raid he just escaped from. After running through bushes and backyards, he barges into a room where Method Man is butt-naked having sex. You know, just another day in the life of the Wu. â Angel Diaz
27. Ghostface Killah f/ Jadakiss "Run" (2004)
Ghost and Jada take us on a mad dash through the hood as they run from the pigs. The song plays out like an intense police chase straight out of Cops, except this time the bad guys get away. If you grew up in the hood, you witness this type of stuff every other day. Only Ghost would survive an eight-story jump and live to tell about it. RZA's production was essential with the sirens and the sped up Lex Baxter loop. â Angel Diaz
26. Ghostface Killah f/ Raekwon "Maxine" (2001)
Probably the Almighty GFK's funniest story. Maxine and Pam stuck their supplier Mooney for his packages. When the dealer shows up looking for his shit, a whole bunch of drama popped off. After he kicked the door down, Mooney started talking all types of shit. But then he fucked up when he put his gun down after sniffing six lines of coke, especially when "Mooney's only a buck o' five wet and he only had two hundred dollars worth of shit." $200 worth of shit? Definitely not worth getting stomped on by bull-legged Keke and getting thrown out the window. â Angel Diaz
25. Raekwon f/ Ghostface Killah & Nas "Verbal Intercourse" (1995)
Album : Only Built 4 Cuban Linx...
Label : Loud, RCA
Nas' extraordinary guest verse is what people tend to remember about this song. How could they not? While becoming the first non-Wu rapper to enter the 36 chambers, he spit a perfectly concise explanation of recidivism ("It's like a cycle, niggas come home, some'll go in/Do a bullet, come back, do the same shit again"), never mind a description of one the most disgusting parts of your man doing jail time ("On a bus to Rikers Isle/Holding weed inside they pussy").
But it's Ghostface's verse on that really captures the daily terrors of the average inmate. The fear, the paranoia, the shivs, and how you wish you had a crew to hold you down. In other words, Ghost describes the kind of thing you only see on shows like Oz and The Wire and on hip-hop songs. It isn't concerned with being a cautionary tale, or glorifying, just capturing the feeling of anxious terror. Nas would offer a concise summary of Ghost's verse on "Nas Is Like," rhyming, "I'm like being locked down around new faces, and none of 'em fam." â Insanul Ahmed
24. Raekwon f/ Ghostface Killah & Masta Killa "Glaciers of Ice" (1995)
The cheeba-laced chamber music punctuated by escalating screaming/singing from Blue Raspberry on "Glaciers of Ice" leaves a haunting impression. An excited Raekwon, the underrated Masta Killa (who sneaks in long enough to murder the track), and the always engaging Ghostface drop more of their patented jewels, not the least of which is Ironman's philosophy on the musical empire he and his cronies are building. "My seeds run with his seeds, marry his seeds, that's how we keep Wu-Tang money all up in the family," he says, ensuring us that the Clan saga will continue for generations to come.
It's also worth mentioning how memorable the classic skit that kicked off "Glaciers" was. It featured Ghostface animatedly explaining how he was dying Clarks Wallabees different colors, and it surely was the inspiration for his solo debut album cover, on which he, Cappa, and Rae are surrounded by pairs of the stylish shoes. â Gabriel Alvarez
23. Ghostface Killah f/ Raekwon & Cappadonna "Camay" (1996)
This should be played at every Ghostface fans' wedding. Cappadonna had a nice verse, but this was a Ghostface track and Ghost went off. He kicks it to a nice young lady while they enjoy dinner in the only way he can. He compliments her physical degrees and her backyard while talking about a future with kids and marriage in it. And he ends by pulling her chair as she stands and asks for her number like a true gentlemen. â Angel Diaz
22. Ghostface Killah "Shakey Dog" (2006)
Producer : Lewis Parker
One of Ghostface's signature traits is his storytelling ability, and of course, you'd have to point to "Shakey Dog" as one of the main examples of his skill. He isn't just playing the storyteller on this track though; he is the story. With the escalating tension of the narrative, Ghostface plots, commands, relaxes, and devolves into straight panic. It's an engrossing trip ranging from the impressively detailed to the absurdly manic. By the time Ghost's character is like "Holy Shit," the listener's ear perks at the what-the-fuckness of the story's situation and the aggression of his delivery. The "To Be Continued" isn't a tease, but rather, a relief. â Brian Josephs
21. Ghostface Killah f/ Superb "Ghost Deini" (2000)
Producer : The Blaqesmiths
Brolic scholars Ghostface Killah and Superb united for one of Supreme Clientele 's best moments, a dense, oblique lyrical exercise broken up only by Ghost's call to deceased artists midway through the track to the tune of the Commodores' "Night Shift." With a minimal wheelhouse Wu beat courtesy The Blaqesmiths, Ghost's verse is full of details crammed together in perfect, unpredictable poetic form, a masterful example of concision and precise editing; there are no wasted words.
Lines run at odd angles, then suddenly cut straight to the point: "Fuck your corny debates," then back to code, "I'm like cake or maybe ten thousand dollar rabbits/The kid walked through, switched up his accent, now I'm from Paris." Interspersed are unexpected metaphors: "Formed like Christ and the disciples," "Show these niggas how the way we dance/Hot night, Jamaica/Came through in a booger green '68 Pacer."
After his first verse breaks down into a Rakim homage, he ends his second by boasting about robbing two known rappers ("I ain't saying no names, they know who, thank you for the change") adding the kind of details ("droppin' their drinks") that make you wonder how true it really was. â David Drake
20. Raekwon f/ Ghostface Killah, Inspectah Deck & GZA "Guillotine (Swordz)" (1995)
Whether it's RZA's menacing choice of violin that pulsates with the rhythm of a rattlesnake's tail, the friendly competitive rivalry amongst the crew, or the cess that's undoubtedly in the air, each MC is truly inspired to show out with sick, battle-tested styles on "Guillotine (Swordz)." The lethal skills of Shaolin are on full display, with Deck famously jump-starting this 4 a.m. murder spree with "Poisonous paragraphs smash your phonograph in half." The assault never slows down after that.
Big Ghost goes 100 percent ape-shit crazy, talking about "gorillas injected with strength for 80 midgets" and raunchily boasting, "Pens and gear like Shakespeare/When I fuck, I grab hair, collect drawers as souvenirs." Rae keeps it gully as usual, shouting out convicts ("peace to jail niggas with charges"). GZA, in full elder statesman role, is honored with rhyming last and effortlessly closes the show by "catchin' bodies with cordless shotties." The on-point martial-arts movie samples ("I've got so many styles...forgive me") kill. â Gabriel Alvarez
19. Wu-Tang Clan "Older Gods" (1997)
Album : Wu-Tang Forever
Producer : 4th Disciple
Label : Loud, RCA, BMG
What's fucking with the laundromat sound effects? And what's fucking with Ghost's opening lines? You knew he meant business from the door with classic Ironman bars like: "Ayo, I roll like a bat out of hell/Evil acapells fly spittin' out of my grill/Before I hit the sky with springtime colors/Juicy as a Sunkist, certain broads double dutch this/They carve it in they wrist," and nonsensical acrobatics like, "The old chain and ball technique/Got these vegetable lasagna niggas in they whips jumpin' out they seats/Eighteen, Bronzeman Part II/We like Dorothy Hamil on Ice/We in your hood we might circle." We have no idea what he's talking about but we'll love it and smoke an el to it. â Angel Diaz
18. Wu-Tang Clan "Da Mystery of Chessboxin'" (1993)
Album : Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)
Producer : RZA, Ol' Dirty Bastard
Label : Loud
On this classic track off the album that started it all for the Wu, Ghostface had the second-to-last verse. Taking the baton from Ol' Dirty Bastard, GFK delivers a ferocious verse, his animated flow dropping precise darts. With a flair for the dramatic, Ghost blurts out, "And yo I killed you in a past life." It is zany non sequiturs like this that have made him such a beloved emcee. â Dharmic X
17. GZA f/ Ghostface Killah, Killah Priest & RZA "4th Chamber" (1995)
Album : Liquid Swords
Label : Geffen, MCA
"Why is the sky blue? Why is water wet?" To make innocuous questions like these sound dope in a rap song takes serious skill and charisma. Ghostface clearly had both in large quantities, as he demonstrated in his opening verse on the posse cut for GZA's Liquid Swords. Ghost throws out memorable one-liner upon one-liner over the sinister RZA production, painting vivid pictures in the process. There is also an incredible transformation in Starks' verse, as he goes from sipping Apple Boone while sitting on the corner with his brothers to "sipping rum out of Stanley Cups." Impressive. â Dharmic X
16. Raekwon f/ Ghostface Killah & Cappadonna "Ice Water" (1995)
Tony Starks takes the first verse of this three-the-hard-way affair from Only Built 4 Cuban Linx... , declaring himself "The rap kingpin, the Black Jesus" over an eerie snippet of Bing Crosby's "White Christmas." His extravagant stream-of-consciousness braggadoccio evokes images of "jewelry shopping out of the country" and "sex on beaches," in other words: the lavish life. He might get there through his "bionic microphone" skills, although he's also a "smack mechanic" who is not afraid to "murder niggas for lunch." By any means necessary trust and believe he's going to get what he set out to achieve. â Rob Kenner
15. Raekwon f/ Ghostface Killah, Cappadonna & Method Man "Ice Cream" (1995)
Though it may rank high among hip-hop's most mysogynistic songs, "Ice Cream" is a brilliant display of Ghostace's charm. He comes out swinging on the opening verse, spittin' game at a dime with a shitty attitude that caught his eye. It's human nature to want what you can't have, and it's the cat and mouse game of courting that drives both men and women insane. In a good way, though. Ghost's "high-powered put Adina Howard to sleep" boast is the standout line, mostly because the "Freak Like Me" singer was on everyone's mind in '95. Ghost's lyrics allow you to peep his whole approach: he's that dude that'll say just about anything to bag a girl and not give two shits if she blows him off. The game is the game, so remember ladies, you can have anything in this worldâexcept C.R.E.A.M. True lies, courtesy of Ghostface. â Julian Kimble
14. Ghostface Killah f/ Raekwon "260" (1996)
The Education of Sonny Carson sample in the beginning of this is absolutely everything. And the story is even better. Ironman and the Chef take us on a heist mission over an Al Green sampled RZA beat as they run up in Apt. 260 because they heard they had Os for sale. Ghost starts by telling Rae about the scenery before Lex Diamonds tells the story of how it went down. After running up in the spot equipped with shotties, E&J, and a machete dressed like terrorists, Ghost & Rae end the track by going back and forth as they stick up the tenants and ask where the stash is at. When it's all said and done all they find is a piece of cheese from New Zealand. âAngel Diaz
13. Ghostface Killah "My Guitar" (2003)
Producer : N/A
Label : N/A
This song finds Ghost runnin' up in the spot of a rival dealer named Jack to get him off the block with the quickness. When Ghost starts singing to you, it's time to get worried. "Don't be stupid... don't make me use it," he croons. And the instrument he's talking about is not a guitar. "Actin' like you ain't got fear, nigga you get popped here!/Matter fact, I'm a street doctor, take the shot here!/Blaow." After pumping a slug into Jack's leg and relieving him of his jewelry, Ghost gets ready to finish the job. "So what you leg is bleedin' here, put this in your mouth and/Chew on the barrel of love." After all, he said it wasn't a threat, it was a promise. â Rob Kenner
12. Wu-Tang Clan "Can It Be All So Simple" (1993) / Raekwon f/ Ghostface Killah "Can It Be All So Simple (Remix)" (
Raekwon and Ghostface Killah's first duet takes you on a journey to the "good ol' days" when they were "ignorant and mad young" and tells of how they eventually ended up in a life of crime. They use mad slang and various dope methods to describe shit, like when Rae confesses, "Pops was a fiend since 16/Shootin' that 'that's that shit!' in his bloodstream."
The unstoppable duo take time to give shout-outs to Jeeps, Land Cruisers, MPVs, and "niggas who do drive-bys," all while a relentless, thumping bassline and choice vocals from "The Way We Were" by Gladys Knight & the Pips keep listeners enthralled. The remix featured all-new lyrics, an amped-up reworking of the original track, and another well-made cinematic skit on top, this time recounting the early '90s incident when GFK was supposedly shot in the neck and arm for real. â Gabriel Alvarez
11. Ghostface Killah f/ Raekwon "Apollo Kids" (2000)
Producer : Hassan
First of all, Tony was in the video rapping in a robe while eating a vanilla ice cream cone with chocolate sprinkles on it. That alone should make you love this song. Second of all, he's talking all kinds of sophisticated, fly nonsense on this here, most notably on the hook: "Aiyo, this rap is like ziti, facing me real TV/Crash at high speeds, strawberry kiwi." We don't know what he means and we don't care. Sometimes you have to let legends be great.
Ghost also sent darts at the competition with lines like: "Since the face been revealed, game got real/Radio been gassing niggas, my imposters screaming ill." This was Ghost at his best. "Apollo Kids" had a booming beat courtesy of Hassan (who absolutely murdered it), it featured the Chef, and Tony was rhyming in the signature style that made him a fan favorite. Uh huh, motherfucker, uh huh. â Angel Diaz
10. Raekwon f/ Ghostface Killah "Criminology" (1995)
This was Raekwon and Ghostface's mission statement and thankfully it was anything but preachy. The message came in a barrage of fierce one liners in Ghostface's one verse: "Dealing in my cypher I revolve around science," "Throwing niggas off airplanes cause cash rules," "Swallow this murder one verse like God Degree." With the backing of the Five Percenters' ideology, the duo was coming straight for the kill, and RZA's chest-pounding production certainly helps get that point across. Rae and Starks may call it "Criminology," but others call this another Wu classic. â Brian Josephs
9. Ghostface Killah f/ RZA "Nutmeg" (2000)
Producer : Black Moes-Art
This is it. This was the song that started the revival of the Wu. Up to this point, the Wu-Tang Clan's last great album, Wu-Tang Forever , started to feel ironically titled. The sophomore efforts slumped and the solo debuts were forgettable, leaving many to think that the Wu perhaps may not be forever. Then something strange happens after the Iron Man theme song intro: Ghostface says "What's up, ya'll" as if he hasn't missed a beat. He's already here, and by the end of this opening track to the classic Supreme Clientele , it's apparent that it's actually the listener who has to do the catching up.
Decades later we're still looking for answers. Was this schizophrenic lyricism we were listening to or groups of laser-focused bars? Was the ferocity of that flipped Eddie Holman sample really intentional? But "Nutmeg" was just too much fun to hang ourselves up on those unanswerable questions. This was hilarity pulled off with a believable cocksureness that only Ghostface could pull off.
Ghost literally studied under Bruce Lee, builds Lionel Richie busts (think " Hello ," and will "knock-kneeder Sheeba for hiva"...whatever the hell that means). RZA's verse, which ends with an unsavory reference to the menstrual cycle, was the perfect bookmark to Ghostface's epic, while simultaneously setting off one of the aughts' wildest rides. â Brian Josephs
8. Wu-Tang Clan "The M.G.M." (1997)
Chef and Ghost trade bars over True Master production as they sit in the stands of a Julio Cesar Chavez/Pernell Whitaker fight at the M.G.M. in Vegas. As they people watch, they name drop the celebs and hustlers in the building. Ghost was rocking some "fly Gucci mocks with no socks on" and Rae was "leathered down, blinking at Chante Moore."
Deion Sanders was also in attendance, wearing a fur and trying to get at some fly girls with Wu shirts on and Liz Clairborne had some popcorn fall on her. These two can be compared to some of the greatest authors in literature, true poets. Ghost and Rae make you feel like you're sitting in the seats behind them. Don't be afraid to ask if you could hit one of those blunts they rolled. â Angel Diaz
7. Ghostface Killah f/ Raekwon "Motherless Child" (1996)
After a brief intro verse from the Chef Raekwon, Ghostface goes in with a wild story for the second verse. Starks spins a tale of a stick-up at the Albee Square Mall that ends in a glorious gunfight. The story is engaging not just because of the action involved, but also because of how descriptive the verse is, down to the favorite song of one of the main characters ("I Miss You" by Aaron Hall). Listening to the words and the choppy flow, the listener can feel the tension from the encounter. At the end of the day, Ghost is demonstrating the crazy antics that motherless children get into, with only a vague reference to the theme near the beginning of the verse. â Dharmic X
6. Ghostface Killah f/ Raekwon "The Watch" (2001)
Blame Barry White. "The Watch" was slated to appear on Bulletproof Wallets, but clearing a sample of the overweight lover's "I'm Gonna Love You Just a Little More Baby" proved impossible. Which is a damn shame, as the "The Watch" is one of Ghost's best (and strangest) songs. What's this song about, really? Is the MC really threatening his timepiece? Is he so disappointed in the mechanism because it nearly drowned in a bowl of Corn Pops?
In all likelihood, the watch is a metaphor for Ghost's timeliness. Or lack thereof, let Raekwon tell itâhis verse teases his partner in rhyme for his lack of radioplay. Rae tries to explain that it's just meaningless ball-busting, prompting Ghost to tell him, "I will destroy you." His delivery is so straight, so earnest, it's one of the most convincing (and hilarious) declarations in all of rap.
But mostly "The Watch" is great in the way that many of Ghostface's songs are great: It charges head-on into a weird conceptâa conversation with a watchâthat might be allegorical, might just be insane, but is certainly unlike anything else. â Ross Scarano
5. Ghostface Killah f/ Raekwon, Cappadonna & The Force M.D.'s "Daytona 500" (1996)
RZA decided to use one of hip-hop's most sampled songs in Bob James' "Nautilus." The drums, baseline, the kick, the loop, all equal up to one of his finest beats. Rae, Ghost, and Cappadonna all deliver primo verses, but it was Tony's offering that shined. He compared his mercury raps to Richard Nixon while "slaying all these Earthlings and fake foreigners" with his flaming pen. Then he tells us that he "slap-boxed with Jesus" and "licked shots at Joseph," among other anecdotes and metaphors only the Ghostface Killah could come up with. If only we can do forever shit like pissing out windows on turnpikes, we would be as cool as Tony. â Angel Diaz
4. Ghostface Killah "One" (2000)
Producer : Juju
"To glorious days," says GFK early on "One," and you can feel him on that. This celebratory hymn is like picturing the heavens opening up and sunbeams escaping towards Earth. Juju from the Beatnuts blesses Supreme Clientele with this magnificent track that compels Ghost to spit one of his most entertaining and insightful choruses: "Ayo, the Devil planted fear inside the black babies/Fifty cent sodas in the 'hood, they goin' crazy/Dead meat placed on the shelves, we eat cold cuts/Fast from the hog, y'all, and grow up!" Starks' synergy continues, this time braggin' about bizarre shit like "dickin' down Oprah" and having fun with the recurring "One" sample ("How many girls you got fucked, yo?" "One!" "That's it?"). â Gabriel Alvarez
3. Wu-Tang Clan "Impossible" (1997)
Producer : 4th Disciple, RZA
Ghost's verse on this cut off of Wu-Tang's double CD is one of his most detailed. He takes you through a horrific scene that happens way too often in ghettos across America. While his childhood friend Jamie lies on the pavement fighting for his life after being shot, Ghost tries to keep him alive by talking to him about his 3-year-old daughter Keeba. He then starts to reminisce about the old days spitting, "When we was eight, we went to Bat Day to see the Yanks/In '69, his father and mines, they robbed banks."
Ghost then takes us back to the scene saying, "He pointed to the charm on his neck/With his last bit of energy left/told me rock it with respect/I opened it, seen the god holdin' his kids/Photogenic, tears just burst out my wig." And then Jamie's mother sees her son laying on the blood-soaked pavement, she kisses him just when the ambulance arrives. He was pronounced dead at 12:10 ya'll. It's hard not to get chills and feel like you're behind the yellow tape witnessing the drama. â Angel Diaz
2. Ghostface Killah f/ Mary J. Blige "All That I Got Is You" (1996)
Even though Ghost always had the innate ability to tell a story with details so vivid you could almost taste the big round onions on the T-bone steak, he often skewed away from autobiographical detail beyond his drug dealing past. Instead, he hid behind the mask of his Tony Starks persona. But on "All That I Got Is You" he lays it all bare, creating what is easily his realest song ever.
Instead of inventing elaborate details about drug kingpins, he spoke from the heart about the humiliating details of poverty: Sharing spoons to eat cereal, siblings who wet the bed, eating free lunch. Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five may have showed us the broken glass in the ghetto, but Ghost took us inside the apartment past the pissed on staircase.
It wasn't Ghost's sentiment that made the song special; many rappers have talked about living the hard knock life. But lines like, "There was days I had to go to Tex house with a note/Stating 'Gloria can I borrow some food I'm dead broke,'" that were unequivocally heartbreaking. Yet Ghost isn't filled with anger or sadness, instead by the end he refers to his childhood as, "What made me the man I am today." â Insanul Ahmed
1. Ghostface Killah "Mighty Healthy" (2000)
This had all the elements of a Ghostface song: an old kung-fu movie sample, a hard ass beat, and Ghost's slippery lyrics. The song starts out with a haunting beat behind dialogue from the 1979 Shaw Brothers classic, Shaolin Rescuers. The Almighty GFK floated on this thing, spittin' shit like: "Ringleader set it off, rap Derek Jeter/Culprit, prince of the game wish you could see us." And buttery biscuits like: "Priceless ropes, lay around the god get tangled/Woolly hair, eyes firey red, feet made of brass/Twelve men following me, it be the god's staff." Sampling everybody from James Brown to Biz Markie, Mathmatics was in rare form when he cooked this beat up. It makes you feel like you're in a Stapleton project hallway. â Angel Diaz
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Supreme Clientele
By Jeff Weiss
Epic / Sony / Razor Sharp
June 4, 2017
____In the fall of 1997, Ghostface Killah decamped to West Africa. His diabetes had become cataclysmic: dizziness, blurred vision, bloodshot eyes, and concussive headaches. He hadnât quit drinking, which didnât help; nor did the joints laced with angel dust he still smoked from time to time.
Even before the diagnosis, he convinced himself of his impending demise, fearing cancer, though more likely AIDS. When medical professionals finally tested his blood sugar it was 500 mg/dl. Anything above 550 is considered fatal.
Wary of Western medicine, Ghostface flew to Benin to be treated by a bush doctor in a remote village several hours outside of Cotonou, the nationâs most populous city. Running water was non-existent. The inhabitants lived in mud huts and slept on the floor. When the RZA showed up to meet Ghostface, he saw his bandmate materialize in a dashiki, full beard, and unkempt hair puffed out. RZA had brought Kung Fu flicksâspecifically Blade of Fury âwhich they watched alone as honored guests, the tribeâs children looking on in awe of them and the villageâs only TV.
The spiritual nucleus of Supreme Clientele  spawns from that pilgrimage. Thatâs where Tony Starks wrote âNutmegâ and several other album tracks in a purge of voodoo spirits, occidental poisons, and crazy visions. Itâs a masterpiece of comic absurdity and cosmic exorcisms, existential paradox and mathematic precision.
In an attempt to save his life, he seeks out a medicine man in his ancestral homeland and achieves esoteric and sobering realizations about existence. Sans beats, the Wallabee Champ scrawls countless transmissions snatched from the thundering din in his head. Itâs as if Muhammad returned from the cave of Hira to prophesize revelations of seasoned giraffe ribs, Scooby Snacks, dancing with the most sexually vibrant member of the *Golden Girls, *and how his dick made a magazine cover (âcount how many veins on itâ).
About two years later, a fully clothed Starks actually made the cover of The Source and explained the knowledge self-obtained in Africa.
âFuck all this Tommy Hilfiger, PoloâŠall this shitâŠthey donât give a fuck about none of that over there. Everything is the same,â Ghostface said. âBut over here, everybody wanna be better than the next oneâŠThey might be fucked up, money-wise, but trust me, them muthafuckas is happy, man. Them niggas in harmony âcause they got each other.â
Mind you, Pretty Toney delivers this soliloquy while smoking a Newport in a suite at the Waldorf Astoria in Midtown, Manhattan, wearing an ankle-length, royal blue robe with a custom-embroidered âWâ on the back. The entire time heâs enraged that âBET Rap Cityâ isnât playing the video for âApollo Kidsâ âthe one where heâs swaddled in mink coats and eating a golden ice cream cone.
This is Ghost, naturally ridiculous, the supreme smart dumb cat, the genius who embodies the innate contradictions of late American capitalism, gobbling Chinese herbs and getting acupuncture during the day and smoking dust and dodging bullets at night, capable of staggering misogyny and deep reverence towards women. He is both yin and yang, not just from song to song, but syllable to syllable.
He continues about his Africa trip:
âYou see them kids thatâs on TV? With flies on they faceâŠI donât like to see that. Thereâs no reason in this world with all this money that we got, for those babies to be over there withâŠbig stomachs and shit like that,â Ghost adds. âIâm one of them niggas thatâll bring them into their muthafuckinâ family, I donât give a fuck if itâs ten of them. Iâll get them.â
If Ghost ever adopted ten sub-Saharan kids, it was never mentioned on Couples Therapy . Other interviews followed in which he spoke of lofty plans to recruit Oprah Winfrey and Magic Johnson to help him build a school for the indigent children of Benin. And while his follow-through was shaky, his sincerity was unmatched. He also had a good excuse, considering the grave legal turmoil shadowing him during the recording of Supreme Clientele.
Parole Kids Live Rapunzel
The District Attorney threatened Dennis Coles with âfive to 15â if he didnât cop a plea to attempted robbery charges stemming from an incident outside of the Palladium back in 1995. While parked at the venue, someone slashed Ghostâs tires and a brawl ensued between Starks and his crew against the Palladium attendants. One valet claimed that Ghost tried to rob him. None of this ends well.
As his attorney negotiated for better terms, blue and red lights flashed once again. This time, a friend named Dupree Lane got pulled over as Ghost trailed in a caravan behind. Using âdisorderly conductâ as the pretext to search Ghostâs car, cops found a .357 Magnum loaded with hollow-point bullets hidden behind the glove compartment. Ironman was wearing a bulletproof vestâanother felony charge.
Throughout this entire period, the NYPD and F.B.I. attempted to launch a RICO case against the Wu, who they branded a âmajor criminal organization.â Itâs bizarre to weigh these accusations in the wake of Method Man starring in network sitcoms, the RZA bong-bonging all over Californication , and Ghostface doing full-length collaborations with Canadian jazz prodigies scarcely old enough to sip AlizĂ©. But just consider the abridged list of alleged criminology: illegal gunrunning, weapons possession, homicide, carjackings, and a bi-coastal drug ring. They attempted to pin the murders of two drug dealers on a hit ordered by RZA and Raekwon. According to the Bureau, Wu-Tang Records was little more than a front for laundering money, which ostensibly explains why RZA kept releasing Wu-Syndicate and Sunz of Man albums.
Even before Ghost copped a plea to rot on Rikers Island for four months, Supreme Clientele âs plotline already felt like Martin Scorsese directing Shaft in Africa . As for the incarceration, itâs difficult to gauge its impact beyond the obvious delays. In the press cycle leading up to Supreme Clienteleâs release in February of 2000, Starks attempted to downplay its severity.
One MTV interview describes it as a disguised blessing that allowed him to further refine the record. In* Stress Magazine*, he contextualizes it as a cruel but mundane reality that many young American black men are forced to endure. The liner notes dedicate a section to "my niggas in the Belly": Big Un, Ready Red, Mushy Mush, General, Wah aka Freedom, Born, Shaquel Dueprey Allah from the O Building, and Peace Lord.
Most revealing was a SPIN interview, where he explained its physical ramificationsâthe times the prison guards refused to give him a proper dose of insulin, causing extreme vertigo and sickness.
âI hold on to times when I had to struggle,â Ghost said. âThatâs the science of going through hell and having to come out rightâbecause everybody gots to go through hell to come out right.â
Rather than script a conventional narrative about this purgatory, Ghost focuses on the fractured chaos of the world that led him to the pen. On âBuck 50,â he pauses mid-seduction to tell a woman to âcheck the grays on the side of my waves/I grew those on Rikers Island/Stressed out, balled up in the cage.â In the next breath, he shouts out Clyde Drexlerâs hops, Biggieâs Versaceâs, Zulu Nation in the â80s, and how quickly his back got chiseled after two weeks in the gym. Then he quotes Mary Poppins and eats grouper in Cancun. Youâre dealing with Supreme Clientele .
This Rap Is Like Ziti
It was supposed to be called *Ironman. *Instead, the RZA insisted that Ghost bestow that name on his debut album because everyone already knew him as Tony Starks. It just made more sense, marketing-wise. So Ironman dominated the fall of late â96, the last of that royal flush of solo classics leading up to *Wu-Tang Forever. *It clocked over 800,000 CDs and tapes and debuted at No. 2 on the charts. RZA was probably right.
But if you re-listen to* Ironman*, itâs dark and wounded, the opposite of bulletproof steel. âWildflowerâ and âMarvelâ are scorched-earth breakup songs, all salted wounds and fresh infection. The plaintive âAll That I Got is Youâ transforms the claustrophobic nightmare of the Staten Island projects into a gorgeous hymn about how a motherâs love conquers all. Ghost was still so heavy in the streets that he accidentally led the Delfonics into a shootout on a recording session gone awry. On the cover, Raekwon and Cappadonna receive co-billing, lending it the feel of an Only Built 4 Cuban Linx sequel more than a radical break from the Wu cosmology.
By Woodstock â99, critics and fans wondered if Wu-Tang were washed. Hindsight remembers it as a classic, but most reviews indicted the bloat and filler of 1997âs Wu-Tang Forever . A biblical flood ruined RZAâs studio, waterlogging hundreds of beats and hastening his baptism into Bobby Digital. Method Man and GZAâs follow-up albums disappointed everyone without a âWâ tattooed on their clavicle, while Raekwon dropped the biggest No. 2 brick since Sam Bowie. The dollar bins of America were strangled with Shaqâs first record, Toad the Wet Sprocket, and innumerable Wu-Tang C-Listers sworn to omertĂ Â in exchange for a release date and two True Master beats.
Into the void Ghostface swaggered, inhaling breakbeats of hell, hitting mics like Ted Koppel, cham-punching Mase, and slapping crooked reverends so hard condoms, dice, and dope fell out of their pockets; sticking up rappers for their chains on New Yearâs Eve in Cali and divulging no names; sprinkling snow inside the Optimo and sipping Remy Martin on diamonds. Supreme Clientele is Ironman. Itâs invulnerable and silvery, the stream-of-consciousness hexes from a general who survived hell. A shade short of 30, Ghostface had been shot three times, survived multiple stints on Rikers Island, a debilitating battle with diabetes, and mourned the loss of two brothers with muscular dystrophy to become chromatic myth. Heâd made religious pilgrimages to the motherland, slept on mud floors and hospital gurneys, prison cots, and silk sheets in $1,000-a-night hotel rooms. Now he was being tasked to save the Wu-Tang Clan.
To understand Supreme Clientele is to be humbled by epistemological limitations. You can see, feel, and taste it, but it can only be decrypted to a point. Itâs a psychedelic record moored in reality. The â90s didnât really end on 9/11; the ashes got incinerated with the smoke of RZAâs honey-dipped spliff.
Practically nothing is known about its recording process. In NYC, Starks demolished mics at the Hit Factory, Track, Quad Studios and the Wuâs own 36 Chambers compound in midtown. A trip to Miami yielded âGhost Deini.â Out of a thousand beats, Ghost selected barely over a dozen. They mostly came from RZA, Mathematics , Inspectah Deck , Carlos â6 Julyâ Broady of The Hitman, and Juju from The Beatnuts. All were logical picks if youâre trying to construct a great New York rap album circa 2000.
Out of a sped-up Solomon Burke loop came âApollo Kids,â courtesy of Hassan of the UMCs, Staten Islandâs first major rap crew. His discogs page shows nothing after Supreme Clientele . A semi-anonymous producer named Carlos Bess furnished his biggest hit âCherchez La Ghost,â a cocaine opera about Tommy Mottola getting dumped, where U-God brags about busting through condoms and drinking mediocre lime rum. These are the things you canât account for.
Consider that the beat for âNutmegâ came from Ghostâs barber, Arthur, who cut hair on Staten Island. Somehow, the only major production credit of Black Moes-Artâs career is one of the hardest beats in history, a clean fade sliced from a forgotten 12â originally cut by Eddie Holman, the falsetto behind â(Hey There) Lonely Girl.â It sounds like he made it for a Saturday morning cartoon about the overcrowded projects of Alpha Centauri where everyoneâs hands are semi-automatics; the only currency is angel dust, and the high priest cuts hair in a plutonium suit.
The common denominator was the RZA. He assembled and mixed them, adding uniform layers of grime and radioactivity, bizarre alarms and a dense twisted paranoia. Itâs soul music transmogrified into gleaming metal, a tank covered in diamonds. The instrumentals sound like theyâre ranting right back at Ghost, who sounds like heâs dripping blood onto the mic stand. As Chris Rock said about those cadaverous scratches on âStroke of Death,â it makes you want to stab your babysitter.
Supreme Clientele established the template for what Kanye did later on * Yeezus **. *Assemble an arsenal of heat and desecrate it to your personal satisfaction. Itâs no coincidence. In Kanye West in the Studio , West claims, âI feel like I got my whole style from GhostfaceâŠmy whole mentality about hip-hop.â He later explains that many of the soul-chops that wound up on The Blueprint were originally intended for Ghostface until Jay Z heard them.
A few years ago, Mathematics laid out how it all happened. The RZA protĂ©gĂ© never really topped âMighty Healthy,â the original first single that Kanye lifted for âNew God Flow.â It evokes a rare twinkling evil, like some velvet afterlife where you are condemned to sip Ginger Ale and watch Kung Fu movies for eternity. âThat whole time period, [Ghostface] had a glow about him,â Mathematics said to HipHopDX. âThat was how that whole Supreme Clientele came about. It was because of that glow.â
Maybe thatâs the most appropriate metaphor for this album. Ghost had the sort of nuclear phosphorescence that people use to explain what they canât explain. He rapped like he was a sacred vessel for ancient spirits with a preternatural ardor for Teddy Pendergrass. Ghost says it himself, these are âgraveyard spells.â Fog your goggles.
Crushed Out Heavenly
On Supreme Clientele, Ghostface does nothing short of revolutionize the English language. Words like tidal waves drown you as you gulp for air, just trying to tread water and interpret what was said four bars ago. Ears twitch, you catch the aroma of Kansas fried chicken as it whips past, the grievous ululations of mothers mourning their dead sons. Itâs like a Weegee photograph of the late Giuliani era, but simultaneously a proto-Adult Swim hallucination where Apollo Kids lounge on gilded thrones, sipping wine coolers in King Tut hats.
âThe knowledge is how it sounds,â he said to The Source . âSee we funny niggas. Iâm a give you a little jewel. A lot of funny niggas know how to rap. The slang that we be saying G, it could mean whatever at that time. We say everything. âLobsterhead.â Come on man. If a nigga fit that type of category, then he a lobsterhead. Itâs just thatâslang. Itâs real, but itâs what it means at that time.â
If hip-hopâs original rule was the Wild Style, Supreme Clientele shatters every precept while still respecting the foundation. There are scratches, breakbeats, and the (mostly) good-natured insanity to be the greatest. Itâs the wildest style, rap stretched to silly putty lengths, as far as you can go without falling off the edge of the needle. Thereâs the DNA of Rakim , Big Daddy Kane , Biz Markie , Rammellzee , Slick Rick , Ultramagnetic MCs and Kool Keith , but this marked a seismic rupture with tradition. It was art-rap made for the asphaltâthe closest that hip-hop ever came to Ulysses , and not only because Joyce described the âsnotgreen seaâ and Ghost conjured a âbooger-green Pacer.â Both Joyce and Ghost understand that basic idea that a âman of genius makes no mistakes. His errors are volitional and are the portals of discovery.â
At times, Supreme Clientele accidentally channels Raymond Chandler translating A Season in Hell. At others, the dirty nasal bark summons Donald Goines on DMT or Lewis Carroll in the slithy toves of Stapleton , where the ambulance donât come. Ghost intuitively realized what AndrĂ© Breton claimed was the definition of surrealism: the chance meeting on a dissecting table of a sewing machine and an umbrella. How else to categorize the man who arranged the combination of words, âDicking down Oprah, jump rope/David Dinkins/Watch the black mayor of D.C. hit the mocha.â
You could spend all day deciphering âMalcolm,â with its snippet of Malcolm X condemning the âcorrupt, vicious, and hypocritical system that has castrated the black man.â The description of an anonymous phantom as the one âthat cut his wrists, talkinâ bout the cuffs did it/He bantamweight, frontinâ majorly/Eyes like Sammy Davis Jr.â He divines the phrase, âDream merchant tucked in the cloud,â fingers Pamela Lee, and dares someone to make him âcatch a Kennedy.â One skit chronicles the travails of a crackhead named after a World War I President. Another mercilessly threatens 50 Cent . For whatever reason, he finishes âStroke of Deathâ by bellowing, âWhite man scream, SWIM STARKS SHARKS!â
Left off the album was a twisted soul death ballad alternately called âIn the Rain,â âWise,â or âIn the Rain (Wise).â Ghost claimed that he wrote it stoned on the beach in Florida during a torrential downpour upon learning that one of his best friends had been murdered. The more he wrote, the more the storm thrashed until it ceased four or five hours later; then he stood up with tears in his eyes, noticed a pyramid in the sand, walked around it three times, uttered an âAll praises due Allahâ incantation, and returned home. He apparently laid it down in Detroit with The Dramatics, the Detroit Orchestra, and Motown guitarist Dennis Coffey. I only know this from the liner notes of the album that I purchased in 2000. The actual song was not on my CD. The tracklist is completely wrong too. In this parallel universe, it makes perfect sense.
Through this warped and sinistral way, Supreme Clientele is about love. *Ironman *unmasked a scorned Lothario simultaneously trying to establish himself as an elite rapper like Raekwon, Method Man, Olâ Dirty Bastard , and GZA. Itâs a competitive record with something to prove. But here Ghost sounds like he just fucking loves rapping. And he loves children in Africa. And he loves â70s and â80s New York. And he loves 2Pac and Biggie and Malcolm and Marvin Gaye and anyone who stood for something. He loves mink coats, cognac, baked ziti, and Allah. Heâs extraordinarily pro-black, not because heâs anti-anyone else, but because he profoundly loves his people for their soul, strength, and common heritage.
He loves his crew, who roll deep alongside him: from Trife on the outro of "One" to Superb popping up everywhere, to the posse cuts "We Made It", "Buck 50" and "Wu Banga 101.â Itâs Ghostâs show, but the experience of recording it doesnât sound solitary. He loves them so deeply because heâs acutely aware of how quickly this mirage can vanish. On âWe Made It,â Starks celebrates another victory by just a thin thread of electric current. Before 2000 ends, one of its guest rappers, Chip Banks became a chalk outline memory in Harlem, murdered over a small cash dispute, barely 30 years old. Eight children left behind. Itâs one more reminder that this was his lifeâs workânot merely something great made in a crazy period, but the only way that period could have ended.
Thereâs an old Ghostface quote where he simplifies rap to the most basic prerequisite: get âsome official beats and say fly shit over them.â Even if that was all that he did on Supreme Clientele , it would still be a classic. But what makes it transformational are those minor details. The almost tossed-off aside where the vivid laser eye guy spits, âWest Brighton pool now Iâm into iron duels.â Itâs a name-check of the neighborhood spot where he used to swim, a sad glint of far-off nostalgia as he considers who might be lurking the next time he steps outside.
This is the duality that remains constant, the fluid superhero transformation as Starks shifts from retina-searing brightness to black and white grit, comic absurdity to adolescent remembrance, revelations spoken through rap. Itâs the testament of a mortal god, hoping to save the world, hoping to free himself.
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Ghostface Killah Reflects on the Making of His âIronmanâ Album
Classic Material Ghostface Killah on Ironman Editor’s Note: This story originally appeared in the Fall 2016 issue of of XXL Magazine, on stands now.
This year, Ghostface Killah celebrates the 20-year anniversary of his debut album, Ironman . The LP was a part of the legendary first generation of solo LPs by members of the Wu-Tang Clan. Ironman would begin Pretty Toney’s run as one of the most prolific MCs in hip-hop. Almost completely produced by RZA, songs like “All That I Got Is You” and “Motherless Child” help solidify the LP’s critical acclaim. The Staten Island legend chops it up with XXL about one of his greatest projects.
Ghostface Killah: That was 1996. I just left off of Raekwon’s Only Built 4 Cuban Linx ...in 1995. I was ready but there were a lot of things going on. To me, Ironman was kind of dark for me. I wasn’t looking for it to be that dark like that. That’s why I say it could have been better. Going in there I’m thinking about music, I’m thinking about the block. It’s this over here, it’s family here, like everything just hit me after Only Built 4 Cuban Linx ...
I was 26. It was just like I was still coming off the streets. I remember one time doing the album; I even had The Delfonics with me. I had got into a shootout, they was with me. I was in one car and they were in a van in back of me watching it all go down. It was a lot of other stuff too. I just found out I was a diabetic around that time. It was stressful, but I did want my turn because back then it was, who’s the next one up?
Back then we were deciding if I should name [the LP] Ironman or Supreme Clientele . RZA convinced me with Ironman because of [my] Tony Starks [nickname]. If not, Ironman would’ve been named Supreme and Supreme would have been Ironman . I would take the beat and whatever it made me feel, I would just say it. If the beat felt like a rainy night like someone had just got killed, I would describe a picture like that. That’s how I go into things. Even the “All That I Got Is You” record with Mary J. Blige, RZA played that [when] we were in Ohio. He was playing the beats for Ironman. I was like, “Keep that, I want that one right there.” So, [the beat] just took me there. I just laid it, I just wrote it. On “Assassination Day” where everybody but me was on it, I couldn’t think. A couple of songs, my brain wasn’t clicking. Like that song, “The Soul Controller” and “After The Smoke Is Clear,” my head was just fogged out. That’s why I said it could have been more than what it was.
That was me bringing to RZA [the different movie clips] so he could put it in on the album. Like I gave him [the movie clip] and said, “I want this to come in front of ‘Wildflower” ’cause I was into like The Mack , Cooley High and The Education of Sonny Carson .
We did a bunch of songs and figured out which fit where. It’s not always just making the songs; it’s about how does the next song come after the next? See, these guys nowadays, they don’t do that. The sequencing, that’s how I did mainly all my albums. We basically try to keep you here when you put on the CD.
Check out more from XXL’s Fall 2016 issue including our Gucci Mane cover story interview, Young Thug's cover story interview , Young M.A in Show & Prove , the trials and tribulations of Rich Homie Quan, Train of Thought with Beanie Sigel , vintage-inspired rap tees and must-have embroidered jackets .
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NV obtains new photos and videos of the elimination of traitorous ex-MP Ilya Kyva near Moscow
- Oops! Something went wrong. Please try again later. More content below
Photos and videos of the elimination of pro-Russian ex-MP Ilya Kyva in a Moscow suburb were obtained by NV from sources in Ukraineâs SBU Security Service on Dec. 11.
This special operation was meticulously planned and successfully executed, the SBU informant confirmed.
Read also: âSurrender for your own safetyâ advises Ukrainian intelligence to traitors
In one imgae, Kyva's lifeless body can be seen in the snow surrounded by bloodstains. The location where âdeserved punishment awaited the traitorâ is near the place that Kyva filmed many anti-Ukrainian videos, sources say.
Kyva was a high-priority target, SBU said. His daily routines, movements, and habits were extensively studied in the operation. Despite strong security, the SBU managed to eliminate him just outside Moscow.
âThis [Kyvaâs elimination] serves as a signal to all traitors and military criminals who have sided with the enemy. Remember: Russia will not protect you. Death is the only prospect awaiting enemies of Ukraine,â SBU Chief Vasyl Malyuk said.
Ukraineâs SBU eliminated Kyva in a special operation in Moscow Oblast on Dec. 6, said NV sources in the intelligence service.
Kyva's âbloodied bodyâ, discovered with a shot through the head, was found in the park of an elite club hotel in the Moscow region on Dec.6, Russian propaganda Telegram channels reported.
Read also: Former Ukrainian MP and traitor Illia Kyva found dead in Moscow Oblast â NV sources
Kyva was shot with an unidentified firearm and died from the injuries on the scene, the Russian Investigative Committee claimed.
Kyva had fled to Spain ahead of Russiaâs full-scale invasion. He then appeared in Russian propaganda broadcasts in Moscow, actively spreading lies about Ukraine. Kyva also sought âpolitical asylumâ and citizenship from the enemy aggressor.
The Ukrainian parliament stripped Kyva of his MP status in March 2022, charging him with treason. He was additionally charged with publicly calling for a violent change in the constitutional order and propaganda on behalf of the aggressor state in Aug. 2023.
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Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
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Swastika-wearing gunman kills 15, wounds 24 in school shooting in Russia
A swastika-clad gunman opened fire at a school in central Russia on Monday, killing at least 15 people, 11 of them children, before he turned the gun on himself, authorities said.
Another 24 people, 22 children and two adults, were wounded in the attack on School No. 88 in Izhevsk, the capital of Udmurtia, about 600 miles east of Moscow, Russiaâs Investigative Committee said.
The gunman was identified as Artem Kazantsev, 34. Udmurtia Gov. Alexander Brechalov said he was registered as a patient at a psychiatric facility.
The Investigative Committee released video purporting to show the gunmanâs body in a classroom. He appeared to be wearing nearly all black, including a balaclava covering his face and a T-shirt with a red swastika drawn on it.Â
The video also showed the word "hate" written in Russian on all the gun clips.
âI express my deep, sincere condolences to the relatives and friends of those who died as a result of the cynical and ruthless attack on the school in Izhevsk,â Investigative Committee Chairman Alexander Bastrykin said in a statement.
âThe monstrous crime claimed the lives of children, including very young ones, and adults. This is a terrible tragedy, a heavy loss for all of us.âÂ
The gunman was armed with two pistols and an additional large supply of ammunition, the Russian state news agency Tass reported .
Mondayâs attack was the latest in several recent school shootings in Russia.
Seven children and two adults were gunned down in May last year in an attack in Kazan.
And in April, a man killed two children and a teacher at a kindergarten in Veshkayma, a town in the central Ulyanovsk region, before he died by suicide.
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The New Voice of Ukraine. Photos and videos of the elimination of pro-Russian ex-MP Ilya Kyva in a Moscow suburb were obtained by NV from sources in Ukraine's SBU Security Service on Dec. 11. This special operation was meticulously planned and successfully executed, the SBU informant confirmed.
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Ghostface Killah - After The Smoke Is Clear feat. The Delphonics from the album Ironman [1996]
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