Ghostface Killah, Supreme Clientele (Epic/Razor Sharp) 9+
As brilliant as RZA's post-Bomb Squad mixology is (and his hypnotic soundtrack to Jim Jarmusch's Ghost Dog: The Way Of The Samurai was perfect) the majority of The Wu-Tang Clan's body of work is unintelligible. After buying over a half dozen Wu-Tang releases, I realized that the prolific RZA was in serious need of an editor. Who has actually listened to the double album Wu-Tang Forever all the way through more than once? Rather than throw away half-baked ideas, he's simply use them as filler for Method Man and Ol' Dirty Bastard. Last year ODB put his foot down and limited RZA's involvement to three tracks for Nigga Please, instead using producers like The Neptunes. His reward was the most successful Wu-Tang-related project in three years. RZA may have learned his lesson. He seems to have saved all his best beats for the formerly masked Wu-hero, Ghostface Killah, perhaps because he has the coolest name in the clan. For whatever reason that part of the Wu-Tang's commercial fate was put upon his shoulders, Ghostface rises to the occasion with his best raps and frame-by-frame cinematic street narratives of his career. He has already proven on his first solo album Ironman that tough rappers can express their sensitive side, cry over ex-girlfriends and love their mothers. With nothing left to prove, Ghostface gets down to business with what he does best -- surreal accounts of gritty tales of regal bangers ("Ghost-dini"), political rebels ("Malcolm") and religious corruption ("Wu Banga"), laced with enough pseudo-Eastern metaphysical poetics and dada tongues to keep things hazy. "My rap is like ziti," he says on "One," "Rhymes is made of garlic/ Rumor is you might start to spit." Whatever you say, Ghostface. Musically, "One" recalls classic R&B and the blues. "We Made It" evokes Booker T. & the MGs, "Apollo Kids" gets brassed out, "Cobra Clutch" nearly sounds like a romantic jam, and "Ghost-dini" even features piano. Ghostface brings it all back home to the clan on the best rap, "Wu Banga 101," featuring five Wu-Tang MC's. Perhaps their reign will be revived for a whole new decade. And by the way, if anyone wants to sort through the Wu-Tang catalog and select the best 20 tracks for me, I would be eternally grateful.
