![]() ![]() Over a dramatic sample of The Dells’ I Can Sing a Rainbow/Love Is Blue, Ghost serves as writer, director and star in a New York tale of a botched robbery filled with three-dimensional characters, flashes of humour and wild plot developments.īringing his audience along for the ride, Ghost and an accomplice, Frank, plot to rob some local drug dealers. But even those three masters of the craft would struggle to cram this much minutiae in less than four minutes. It connects Ghost to fiction fabulists Mann, Mamet and Martin Scorsese. Shakey Dog is one of rap’s great saga-spinners at the peak of his storytelling prowess. And if the urbane swagger of the Eddie Holman-sampling production isn’t enough to turn it into an East Coast anthem – the beat is credited to the elusive Black Moes-Art, who is said to be Ghost’s barber – Ghost ends the whole thing shouting out Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, The Bronx, Long Island and New Jersey to the melody of Bill Withers’ Ain’t No Sunshine ( “Shaolin, I know, I know, I know, I know”). Crazy references are stacked on crazy references – wrap your head around “Scotty Wotty copped it to me, big microphone hippie/ Hit Poughkeepsie, crispy chicken, verbs, throw up a stone, Richie”. Nutmeg is one of the most dizzying displays of wordplay ever committed to wax. Most of the details of his journey were never recorded and will become lost in time, but we can deduce from presented evidence that sections of his already warped mind were unlocked on the excursion. Ghostface penned the lyrics to Nutmeg during an exodus to Benin as he sought relief from the desperate symptoms of diabetes. Almost two-and-a-half decades later, the song remains the most important piece in understanding where Dennis Coles came from. The damp strings add to the plaintive atmosphere, while Mary J Blige’s second most famous Wu collaboration adds a suitably wistful hook. Yet rather than aim for chart supremacy with his first solo single, from debut LP Ironman, he delivered a heart-swelling autobiographical chronicle, and dedicated it to his mother and “all the families that went through the struggle”.Īll That I Got Is You describes Ghost’s childhood in harrowing detail: 15 family members sharing a three-bedroom apartment, roaches in the cereal box, carrying notes from his mother to neighbours asking if they could spare some food. Method Man, Ol’ Dirty Bastard, Raekwon and GZA had already put albums on the board and, as next in line, Ghostface was poised to fully enter MTV consciousness. In ’96, The Wu-Tang Clan was at the peak of its power and RZA’s five-year plan to send his warriors into the world as individual ronin was in full swing. Read on for the full list and listen back to Ghost’s best moments in the playlist below.Īll That I Got Is You featuring Mary J Blige ![]() Presented chronologically, these songs underline one eternal truth: Shaolin’s finest has crafted a body of work for rap scholars, mad scientists and yet-to-be-born b-boys to treasure for the rest of time. To put it simply, there’s as much a Ghostface Killah style as there is a Wu-Tang style, and it involves stratospheric heights in lyricism, album-making and straight incredible rapping.Īs we celebrate this milestone in the life of Supreme Clientele, it feels only right that we consider Ghost’s indomitable legacy. But over the years, he’s cultivated his own solo aesthetic. To kids who considered themselves disciples in the early days because they rocked Wu Wear, Ghost was often mistaken as merely one of nine. Instead, the following tracks are simply an attempt at providing an abridged guide to the career of a rapper who first exploded out of Staten Island as the masked warlock of The Wu-Tang Clan’s heavy arsenal. Such definitives are outside the boundaries of reason. Don’t consider this a definitive list of his greatest works. In honour of that anniversary, we’ve selected 20 of the best tracks from Tony Starks’ career. The only debate surrounding it should be what colour the frame will be when placing its cover in the MoMA. An album like Supreme Clientele – which celebrates its 20th anniversary this weekend – is not to be picked apart. Picking highlights from Ghostface Killah’s career is like selecting your favourite stars in a night sky, or definitively listing the best Shaw Brothers’ movies. The best tracks from Tony Starks’ legendary discography. ![]()
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