Ghostface Killah Supreme Clientele Zip4/22/2021
In the early 90s Wu-Tang Clan was already one of the absolute top crews in the modern hip-hop landscape but when Raekwon dropped his Only Built 4 Cuban Linx Niggas in 95, its mafioso infected dreams of the big bucks, fly Shaolin slang and references to future embraced brands like Cristal truly changed the game.To me, its still the top album ever released, and besides Raekwons name the cover also bore the under title guest starring Tony Starks AKA Ghost Face Killer.
![]() In fact Ghost appeared on no less than fourteen of the album 17 or 18 cuts (depending on which version you bought) and it was his chemistry with The Chef and RZAs futuristic production that made the LP the instant masterpiece it was and still is. The following year, Ghostface once again hooked up with Rae and RZA and released his own debut, Ironman, an equally impressive project. Despite the three main characters being the same, RZAs samples were now instead steeped in the 60s and 70s soul and funk that the young Dennis Coles had grown up on (including Al Green, Bob James, Jackson 5 and Sam Cooke). If you never heard Coles before, after listening to his debut front-to-back youd be left with the feeling that you know Ghost and his persona, ideals and history. Classics like All That I Got is You was a heartfelt dedication to his mother while also dealing with the hardships of his youth, Camay told a taseful love tale while the super misogynistic Wildflower saw a furious Ghost spew hate over a cheating ex-girlfriend with no spare on the profanity. Together with Rae, both their two albums was additionally filled with fantastic storytelling raps that would make Slick Rick and KRS-One proud and helped cement the pair as one of the finest rap duos of all time. After RZA completed his five year plan for the Clan with the release of 1997s superior multi-platinum Wu-Tang Forever he took a step back from producing the 9 generals solo music to focus on what he called his c-artists; peeps like Killarmy, Cappadonna and Sunz Of Man. Instead he assigned Divine or Power as the main executive producers for Clan members various projects. This allowed the Wu members to release more music rapidly and with more personal input. This resulted in releases between 98 and 99 from RZA, Method Man, GZA, Ol Dirty Bastard, Inspectah Deck, Red N Meth, U-God and Raekwon. What was missing was clearly RZAs input, guidance and vision; on an average he produced one to three beats per project (save for RZA as Bobby Digitals In Stereo which could arguably be considered a part of the first round of RZA laced solo albums; although it was way ahead of its time when it first hit stores and caught a lot of flack). By early 2000, the only Wu member to not have dropped a solo over the last couple of years (save for Masta Killa) was Ghostface Killah, much due to a six month bid on Rikers Island. Once he was released, he hit the studio to record Supreme Clientele, an album that both Ghost, RZA, Divine and Power collaborated on and understood the extreme importance of. I remember hearing the Raekwon featured single Apollo Kids and feeling it was one of the best Wu songs in years and when I picked up my copy of Ghosts sophomore LP on the day of its release, I, like many others, knew that The Wu was back in full throttle. The album was totally cohesivem perfectly sequenced, had clever skits and followed a theme of a super hero on a mission to save the world; a metaphor for Ghosts importance in bringing back the Wu legacy with a classic worthy of the early 90s Clan solos. While RZA didnt prouce the majority of the beats, he and Ghost had a hand in the mix and final outcome of every track which gave the project its unique sound. Instead of having the beatmakers produce their record in the studio, RZA and Ghost picked out beats from the likes of Beatnuts JujJu, Carlos Broady, Allah Mathematics and Phantom Of The Beats and produced and arranged everything on the LP much the same way a rock producer wouldve done it. Another equally impressive feature of Supreme Clientele was Ghostfaces own lyrical performance, displaying a totally unique style of emceeing that hasnt been duplicated neither before or since. I even heard of an English teacher at an American university using some of the verses on the album as poetic art material for analysis. The stream-of-consciousness style Coles used here could be interpreted as jibberish by someone, as high art by another while a third party would chalk it up to twisted ghetto slang. What put the icing on the cake and truly made it one of the best rap performances of all time was the way Ghost spat his lines though, his flow on every verse delivered to perfection. Epic, Ghosts label for his three first albums were masters at screwing up tracklists and denying sample clearances.
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